Virginia Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe, asked why he chose to locate GreenTech Automotive's plant in Mississippi rather than in the commonwealth, had a nonchalant reply in an interview with WVPT's "Politics Matters."
"We tried, it didn't work out, it is what it is," he shrugged.
McAuliffe has never held elected office but has leaned on his leadership of the electric car company as proof of the executive experience needed to be governor. His opponent is Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
However, McAuliffe, whose slogan is "Putting Jobs First," has come under fire for his association with the struggling company, which promised 1,500 jobs but only employs 78 today at the plant. Documents emerged last week that included Virginia officials expressing "grave doubts" about his business model and indicating its financing was a "visa-for-sale" scheme for Chinese investors.
"The McAuliffe-Cuccinelli race might be the clearest contrast we’ve seen of a corporatist Democrat running against a free-market populist," Tim Carney, director of the Culture of Competition Project at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Free Beacon in March.
He previously chaired Hillary Clinton's failed 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.