Virginia Democrats in Debt, Look to Taxpayers for Bailout

The Democratic Party of Virginia is in dire financial straits, but officials don’t appear worried, and instead seem rather relaxed. Why? Because the taxpayer is going to bail them out.

It is with mild amusement that I read that DPVA is mired in as much as $600,000 of debt. As much trouble as their Republican counterparts may have had at various points in recent memory, never have we been saddled with that kind of liability.

This says something about the parties’ respective approaches to OPM: Other People’s Money. But it’s not just the obvious comparison that Republicans cut back and operate more frugally to avoid insolvency, while Democrats continue to borrow and spend and spend. This particular debt dilemma goes even further in illustrating the Democrat belief that there is no problem that can’t be solved with even more of Other People’s Money.

In this case, Detroit Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones is the key player.  You see, Jones is not just the mayor of Richmond, he’s also Chairman of the DPVA—thus responsible for the health of his organization and how to deal with all that debt.  Coincidentally, Jones has a convenient vehicle to deliver himself and Virginia Democrats from this problem, in the form of construction of a new baseball stadium in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom, a project Jones has been pushing for quite some time.

How does that benefit DPVA, you ask?  Well, as it just so happens, the DPVA headquarters building (purchased in 2008 for $1.15 million) is located directly in the path of the wrecking ball.  In fact, their building backs right up to where the third base line will be.  So, DPVA stands to gain quite a windfall with the sale of its building to a project that has been pushed from the beginning by their own chairman.

Folks, this is what a real conflict of interest looks like.  Compare and contrast.

Making matters worse, as Norm Leahy points out, the project is completely under the management of Mayor Chairman Jones’ quasi-governmental Richmond Economic Development Authority (“EDA”), and the EDA isn’t subject to the same set of rules as the government:

In a nutshell, the EDA is not bound by the Richmond City Charter and City Code, creating an alluring legal loophole. The Richmond EDA could award millions of dollars in contracts for the stadium and other facilities without competitive bidding. EDA rules also allow secrecy to protect the identities of subcontractors, lawyers, public relations firms and lobbyists working for the winning main contractors.

Wow. Recognizing the potential public relations disaster, a group of DPVA poobahs have now apparently beseeched Mayor Chairman Jones to recuse himself from any of the DPVA’s considerations on the sale of their building. Party spokesman Ashley Bauman said, “We’ve created a firewall between the mayor and any discussions with the building.” Yep…that clears it all up. Move along, people, and pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

Debt retirement, Detroit-style.