In his conference call Thursday, Terry McAuliffe declared that he will not take any money from a company that took Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds (e.g., taxpayer money). To date, TARP beneficiaries include Citigroup, the Bank of America, AIG, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, PNC Financial Services Group, US Bancorp, GMAC Financial Services, Chrysler, Capital One Financial, American Express, Bank of New York Mellon Corp., State Street Corp., Royal Bank of Canada, and Discover Financial.I checked VPAP to see which gubernatorial candidates have received money from these companies in 2008. Here's what I found.
Citigroup: Brian Moran ($7,500), Bob McDonnell ($7,500)
Bank of America: Bob McDonnell ($2,500)
JPMorgan Chase: Bob McDonnell ($2,000)
Capital One: Brian Moran ($2,000), Bob McDonnell ($2,000)
As far as I can tell, through 2008, Terry McAuliffe and Creigh Deeds had not taken any money from companies receiving TARP bailout funds. Brian Moran and Bob McDonnell had. The question is, will Moran and McDonnell continue to do so, will they keep the money they have but take no more, or will they return the money they've already received AND take no more (as Terry McAuliffe has pledged to do)? More broadly, the question is whether or not it's appropriate for candidates to be taking money from firms that U.S. taxpayers have bailed out with billions of their dollars. We'll be watching...
