J’s Notes

Back on the 15th the John Brownlee for Attorney General campaign put out a press release that his campaign out raised Ken Cuccinelli’s in the quarter. Certainly the overall numbers speak for themselves (Brownlee - Cuccinelli) but looking deeper into Brownlee’s numbers something really stands out.

The largest contribution to the John Brownlee campaign was $25,000 (nearly a QUARTER of his total income) from R. Ted Weschler. I don’t know Mr. Weschler’s roots, but I can see how he’s contributed in the past and that has me a little concerned for the Brownlee campaign:

$20,000 to Mark Warner’s One Virginia PAC

$20,000 to Tim Kaine’s Moving Virginia Forward PAC

$20,000 to Tim Kaine for Governor

$500 to Warner for Governor

And perhaps quite notable to Conservatives:

$12,500 to Virginian’s For Responsible Government

Virginians for Responsible Government was set up in 2002 by a group of business leaders to defend the Senate “Gang of Five” Republicans — Chichester, Norment, Stolle, Stosch and Wampler — from intraparty challenge from conservatives.

Brownlee has shown his concern for questions of his conservative credentials (see BD: Brownlee takes exception to Kenney comments). Given his lack of a legislative record, there are going to be many more questions and people are going to look at things like donors for answers.

This is not a very good answer to Conservatives.

UPDATE: D.J. McGuire has another find in Weschler’s contributions:

One of Weschler’s “Republican” recipients (to the tune of $19,500) was James C. Wheat, a 2007 candidate for Delegate in Henrico County who endorsed Kaine (Elephant Ears) and has since endorsed Mark Warner (Lynchubrg News and Advance).  So Weschler’s $60K to Democrats looks a lot more like $80K.