Terry McAuliffe decided he’d get into the business that was all the rage in those days of big-government giveaways to fashionable industries. We were paving the new road to, ahem, recovery and sustainable economics that has brought us to 1.7 percent growth, and every connected political figure and their momma was starting an electric something company. McAuliffe was no different. His quest was manifold (see what I did there?). Get a bunch of government backing for his electric car company, GreenTech, maybe create some highly subsidized jobs or the illusion thereof, and do it all in the beautiful Commonwealth of Virginia, thereby deepening his roots in the state as opposed to the District and burnishing creds as a businessman, not a politician.
It didn’t go as planned. GreenTech got government backing, all right, from the state of Mississippi, where it set up shop to create…well, not much. No one can seem to find the jobs or the cars businessman McAuliffe was supposed to create in exchange for that $5 million in Mississippi taxpayer money, and the people of two states have zip to show for it. McAuliffe was a co-founder of the company, but stepped down as its head to extricate himself from this mess run for governor of Virginia.
Meanwhile… GreenTech is being investigated by two separate government entities— the Inspector General of Department of Homeland Security and now the Securities and Exchange