The new RPV chair smeared Eric Cantor in the 2000 primary.

Well, this is going to be awkward.

Follow me.

  1. In 2000, Bob McDonnell set up the Faith and Family Alliance, a non-profit that was run by McDonnell’s one-time campaign manager, Robin Vanderwall. (Vanderwall is currently serving a seven-year sentence for attempted child molestation.)
  2. The Faith and Family Alliance was used to launder money for political purposes, by Vanderwall’s own confession.
  3. The Faith and Family Alliance got nailed for a dirty mailer in June 2000. Sent out four days before the election, that mailer attacked Eric Cantor, who was running for the nomination for the House, accusing him of being a “millionaire lawyer” who “didn’t pay his own [taxes]. He got caught. He got fined. And he finally was forced to pay $31,527.17 in back taxes.” That along with a nasty anti-Semitic whisper campaign made for a truly nasty campaign against Cantor. The mailer was funded by Sen. Steve Martin (R-Chesterfield), who was running against Cantor.
  4. Pat Mullins was one of the founders of the Faith and Family Alliance. The same Pat Mullins who is now the head of the Republican Party of Virginia.

That final revelation comes courtesy of Brian McNeill, writing in the Daily Progress on Sunday. Mullins claims to have known nothing about the mailer, and Cantor puts on a brave face about the thing, but it’s tough to believe that they’re being honest. Now, of course, Cantor is the House Republican Whip, the face of the RNC these days. To the extent that there’s any bad blood between Cantor and Mullins & McDonnell, that’s got to be bad for the RPV and McDonnell’s odds. If only we could get Ed Matricardi involved in this somehow.

For the gory details, see my October 2005 and November 2005 blog entries on the topic.

Published by Waldo Jaquith

Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Char­lottes­­ville, VA, USA. more »

5 replies on “The new RPV chair smeared Eric Cantor in the 2000 primary.”

  1. I think Cantor will find a way to let it slide. If he held a grudge against anyone who ever allied with a pervert under the banner of an organization that used the words “Faith” and “Family” in its name to make overt false accusations against him in concert with mutterings about how he hasn’t accepted Jesus Christ as his personal lord and savior, he would have allienated half the Republican Party by now.

  2. It’s a matter of priority.

    These people are reeling from the dissonance in their own party, to the point of not knowing what the other guy in the party is doing.

    Case in point: John Cornyn endorsing Charlie Crist a week after he said he wouldn’t be endorsing anyone in the FL Senate race. Or The Huckatollah calling Cantor out about his organization to listen, but not listen to the regular folks in suburban DC.

  3. That is interesting, but politics if funny that way. Hillary Clinton works for President Obama now, and Colin Powell trashed his former boss.

    Nevertheless, I can imagine circumstances under which HRC & BHO become enemies and C. Powell is welcomed back into the GOP fold though.

  4. Hillary Clinton works for President Obama now, and Colin Powell trashed his former boss.

    The latter isn’t uncommon, but the former certainly is extraordinary. Which is what makes it noteworthy. Obama joked the other evening that Hillary Clinton would like him to die of swine flu. Clearly there’s some tension in that relationship.

Comments are closed.