Thursday, September 17, 2009

Should Steve Shannon Call for Himself to be Investigated?

In early September, e-mails came out that seemed to indicate Delegate Phil Hamilton funneled state money to Old Dominion University in exchange for a job. Steve Shannon immediately called on Phil Hamilton to resign, and called on Cuccinelli to do the same. He even began running radio ads in the Norfolk are going after Cuccinelli for not calling on Phil Hamilton to resign.

Cuccinelli has responded by arguing that it is wrong for an Attorney General candidate to weigh in on the issue because he might have to sit in judgment in the case. Some have argued that once again this is evidence that Cuccinelli understands the role of the Attorney General while Shannon doesn't.

Thanks to Virginia's public finance disclosure rules some interesting trends have turned up in donations to the Democrat Statewide candidates. It appears that Phil Hamilton's opponent's law firm gave over $120,000.00 to the three Democrat statewide candidates, including over $50,000 to Steve Shannon. Tom White of VA Right did an excellent job analyzing the numbers. This raises the question should there be calls for Steve Shannon to be investigated? If he was given money from Hamilton's opponent and then as a result started calling for Phil Hamilton to resign, isn't that prid pro quo?

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