#techpac

An endorsement from the Northern Virginia Technology Council seems to be especially sought after this week in races for Virginia’s most powerful seats.

The council’s TechPAC announced today that it is endorsing Mark Herring, state senator from Leesburg and the Democratic attorney general nominee, over his opponent Republican Mark Obenshain.

The council’s decision to back Herring comes less than two days after Republican and Democrat leaders statewide tussled over which gubernatorial candidate should get the NVTC’s backing. Late last week, the council announced that it was throwing its support behind Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee for governor. News of the endorsement was met with a public backlash from state Democratic leaders, including those with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe’s campaign.

Democrats’ response was enough to convince NVTC to announce Monday that it would not endorse a candidate in the governor’s race. The council stated, “Given the deeply divided opinions of the NVTC membership concerning this race, NVTC is making no endorsement in the gubernatorial election.”

The central premise of Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s campaign for Virginia governor is that he “gets” business and can spur job creation. But it’s becoming blindingly obvious that’s all fluff and no substance.

Last week, prominent McAuliffe backers tried to strong-arm the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s political arm, Tech PAC, into reversing its endorsement of GOP nominee Ken Cuccinelli, the state’s former attorney general. State Senator Janet Howell of Fairfax wrote Tech PAC leaders last Friday that “The ramifications of [Cuccinelli] being endorsed will be huge within the Senate Democratic caucus. . . . The response [from legislators] will be frigid and doors will be closed [when the council seeks help with its legislative agenda]. Achieving the goals of NVTC will be difficult to impossible.” Other calls to Tech PAC were made by Democratic U.S. senator Tim Kaine and Bill Bolling, the Republican lieutenant governor who has declined to endorse his party’s nominee for governor.

The Washington Post article revealing the controversy is eye-opening as it shows just how much McAuliffe, who was once hand-picked by Bill Clinton to run the Democratic National Committee, bombed in his interview with Northern Virginia’s tech gurus. “The reasoning behind the NVTC TechPAC’s nod — Cuccinelli had detailed responses to questions in candidate interviews, three board members said, while McAuliffe was uninformed and superficial — bolsters the view that the Democrat’s breezy style doesn’t sit well with some Virginians.”

The Northern Virginia Technology Council’s political arm on Monday formally announced its endorsement of Ken Cuccinelli II in the Virginia governor’s race following an aggressive behind-the-scenes attempt by supporters of his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe, to wrest the prize away.

The NVTC’s TechPAC, a 25-member bipartisan board, includes top executives from many sectors of the technology industry.

After a special meeting Sunday among the NVTC’s leadership to review the PAC’s decision, the parent organization agreed to let the decision stand. However, the parent group also issued a press release distancing itself from the PAC.

The meeting came after supporters of McAuliffe and officials who were undecided raised questions about whether endorsing Cuccinelli would send a wrong message about the state’s business climate because of his conservative stand views on social issues such as gay rights.

Several Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), urged the NVTC to reconsider. So did Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who had said previously he would remain neutral in the campaign after Cuccinelli outmaneuvered him for the nomination.

This is the third consecutive governor’s race in which TechPAC has endorsed the Republican candidate. It is by far the most contentious, however; the committee’s parent group, the NVTC, took the unusual step of issuing its own statement clarifying that it remains neutral in the race -- even though this has always been the case in past cycles too.

The TechPAC endorsement “may not in itself reflect the views of NVTC’s membership,” the statement reads. “Given the deeply divided opinions of the NVTC membership concerning this race, NVTC is making no endorsement in the gubernatorial election.”

The TechPAC Board of Trustees voted to endorse Ken Cuccinelli by a majority of its voting trustees present following in-depth, in-person interviews with each major party candidate. During the interview process, technology business leaders discussed the candidates' campaign platforms, proposals and positions relating to specific issues in the technology business agenda of the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC).

"The TechPAC Board of Trustees concluded that Ken Cuccinelli's experience in Virginia government, command of the issues, and knowledge of key technology priorities will serve him well as Governor in working to ensure the Commonwealth remains a competitive and innovative global technology center," said Dendy Young, TechPAC Chairman and CEO of McLean Capital, LLC.

TechPAC members are highly sensitive to the divisive nature of this particular gubernatorial campaign, and the attending underlying social issues. "Cuccinelli assured TechPAC Trustees during the interview process that his administration will focus on jobs and the economy, and not on a divisive social agenda, which TechPAC believes would seriously hurt the appeal of Virginia as a place to locate and grow businesses. Cuccinelli also committed to preserving and efficiently implementing the transportation funding legislation passed by the General Assembly earlier this year," Young stated.