With ‘Virginia Way,’ State Thought It Didn’t Need Rules
By JONATHAN MARTIN and MICHAEL D. SHEAR, NYT, JAN. 22, 2014
WASHINGTON — The gift-giving scandal that federal prosecutors described in evocative detail in their indictment on corruption charges Tuesday of former Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia and his wife, Maureen, would be ample evidence of a possible crime in some states.
But no Virginia laws bar elected officials from taking $165,000 worth of Oscar de la Renta dresses, a Rolex watch, Louis Vuitton shoes, Cape Cod weekends, golf greens fees and cash that prosecutors have accused the McDonnells of accepting from Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the head of a struggling dietary supplement company that sought aid from the state. Nor are there restrictions on what gifts family members of Virginia officeholders can accept or any limits whatsoever on the source or size of campaign contributions to politicians.
This anything-goes culture is rooted at least in part in Virginia’s idea of itself, or what is sometimes referred to there as “the Virginia Way.” The Old Dominion — a commonwealth, as people here are quick to point out, not a state — has for centuries fancied itself a haven of good government led by public-spirited citizens dating to Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.
(More here.)
WASHINGTON — The gift-giving scandal that federal prosecutors described in evocative detail in their indictment on corruption charges Tuesday of former Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia and his wife, Maureen, would be ample evidence of a possible crime in some states.
But no Virginia laws bar elected officials from taking $165,000 worth of Oscar de la Renta dresses, a Rolex watch, Louis Vuitton shoes, Cape Cod weekends, golf greens fees and cash that prosecutors have accused the McDonnells of accepting from Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the head of a struggling dietary supplement company that sought aid from the state. Nor are there restrictions on what gifts family members of Virginia officeholders can accept or any limits whatsoever on the source or size of campaign contributions to politicians.
This anything-goes culture is rooted at least in part in Virginia’s idea of itself, or what is sometimes referred to there as “the Virginia Way.” The Old Dominion — a commonwealth, as people here are quick to point out, not a state — has for centuries fancied itself a haven of good government led by public-spirited citizens dating to Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.
(More here.)
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