McGraw
CHARLESTON - With less than a week before Election Day, the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce has started a $700,000 last-minute batch of attack ads aimed at Attorney General Darrell McGraw.
Steve Roberts, president of the West Virginia Chamber, said the $694,000 buy of statewide television ads against McGraw, the four-term Democrat, was financed by the state Chamber, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Tort Reform Association and West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.
Roberts said the bulk of the money came from the state Chamber and the U.S. Chamber, which owns The West Virginia Record.
The ads focus on McGraw's spending of settlement funds without proper oversight and his practice of hiring outside counsel for cases without going through a bidding process.
"The message is mostly repeating the same message we've had for several years here at the Chamber," Roberts said. "The Attorney General needs to stop taking settlement money and buying trinkets to promote his own name and political career. And the settlement money he brings into the state needs to be appropriate by the Legislature instead of being handed out by McGraw.
"It's not a new message. We've been preaching this over and over for four to six years."
