It was recently revealed that Virginia’s Democratic Lt. Governor nominee, Delegate Hala Ayala, received $100,000 from Dominion Energy despite her promises since 2017 that she wouldn’t take any money from the investor-owned monopoly utility. Ayala insisted that the money was a necessary infusion into her campaign in order to fund her voter outreach efforts ahead of Primary Day. She now says she was mistaken about the corrupting influence of Big Power. Nothing to see here, folks.
Read more below or at Virginia Mercury.
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“Her campaign ducked questions about the decision last week after finance reports revealed she had accepted a $100,000 donation from Dominion Energy, but in an interview at a polling place in Prince William on Tuesday, she suggested the decision came down to being able to fund her campaign’s voter outreach.
“It’s about talking to voters, right? And making sure we communicate and get our message out because it overwhelmingly resonates, as you’ve seen,” she said.
But she insisted that her perspective on energy and utility regulation had not changed.
“People change their minds all the time. People grow. That doesn’t change where my focus is,” she said. “I will always fight for renewable energies. I will always fight for Virginians. My record is the only thing that I have to show my accountability.”
Donations from Dominion, the state’s largest corporate donor, have split Democrats in recent years, as has Clean Virginia — an advocacy group that set out to counter the company’s influence by offering substantial donations to candidates who refuse support from utilities.
Ayala made multiple promises to refuse Dominion’s donation since she was first elected in 2017. After she pledged to refuse the money in her latest campaign for lieutenant governor, Clean Virginia donated $25,000 to her campaign.”