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Don't believe the mud being slung my way

By Terry McAuliffe, Democratic candidate for governor McLean
Published: March 01, 2009

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Robert Legge’s column Thursday (“Which of these men will emerge as the Dems’ candidate for governor”) asserts that my opponents will use previous business dealings to criticize me in the governor’s race, so let me address the issue.

I spent the bulk of my career as an entrepreneur and business executive. Additionally, in the 1990s, I made a lot of different investments in start-up companies — as is always the case in venture financing, most don't work. Only a few do.

One of the investments I made that really took off was in a company called Global Crossing. While I had nothing to do with the management of the company and did not serve on the board of directors, I invested in this start-up company because I thought there was a lot of potential for the Internet to be carried by undersea cable instead of satellites.

Several years after I sold most of my stock, the company had some hard times. And when I served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, in response to my continuous and pointed criticism of President Bush’s business dealings, Republicans tried to make an issue out of it. Like all of their attacks on me, it fell flat.

For the past weeks I have traveled to every corner of the commonwealth, and the message I hear from people is the same: People are worried about their jobs and economic future.

If my opponents want to focus on tired and discredited attacks, that’s fine. But I am going to focus on creating jobs and moving Virginia forward.

Terry McAuliffe
Democratic candidate for governor
McLean