Ken Cuccinelli is leading an aggressive, populist, small government campaign. His latest television ad hits squarely on the theme of big companies hiring lobbyists and consultants in a bipartisan fashion and getting both sides to carve out loopholes and benefits for those big companies. The little guy is left paying for those loopholes in his taxes.
The consultants in the GOP, who’ve been profiting heavily from this sort of this, sell us “electable” candidates who cannot win against conservative candidates who will hurt their revenue stream. In that vein, we should look with interest that Boyd Marcus in Virginia is endorsing Terry McAuliffe. What is interesting is that Boyd Marcus is a consultant for Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader.
Mr. Cantor has been on a tear lately trying to sell Republicans as the party that can make government work better for you. He’s opposed to defunding Obamacare. He’s actually the guy the bigs like.
I do have to say, what is more interesting here is that Marcus is also Bill Bollings’ consultant. Bolling thought he had a lock on the nomination and failed. So his consultant jumping ship to McAuliffe shouldn’t be a surprise. But the underlying issue here is how much the establishment is invested in the establishment — regardless of the party in charge.
Boyd Marcus tells the Associated Press, “he’s endorsing McAuliffe because he sees him as the candidate willing to work with both parties to get things done.”
Where by “get things done” he no doubt means can keep the big businesses of Virginia sufficiently loopholed out of the burdens the rest of Virginia must pay for with their taxes.
Until the GOP starts purging its consultant class, it will keep having a hard time winning.