"Hello, I'm Attorney General Darrell McGraw and I'm personally
narrating a series of public service announcements in order
to promote myself at taxpayer expense prior to the next election."
Now that's what we would call truth in advertising. Unfortunately, that's not how the ad copy reads.
Darrell McGraw did narrate some PSAs that currently are being broadcast on radio stations statewide. He was not, however, quite so forthright about his motivation for doing so.
Mike Stuart, chairman of the state Republican Party, has chastised him for "shamefully wasting taxpayer dollars in what is a thinly veiled effort to build his name ID in advance of next year's election." Stuart wants McGraw to "pull the radio ads immediately [and] reimburse the taxpayers and the state treasury for his shameless and embarrassing self-promotion."
Stuart has demanded a full accounting of the costs involved in developing and producing the radio spots and asked state legislators to conduct "a thorough review and oversight of the Office of Attorney General so that we may begin the process of restoring confidence to that important office."
For Stuart, the radio campaign is emblematic of McGraw's self-serving approach to the attorney general's office and the destructive effect he has had on our state.
"There is probably no worse example of a public servant than Darrell McGraw," Stuart asserts. "The price West Virginia has paid in present and future jobs as a result of his leadership, or lack thereof, as attorney general is sickening."
Stuart laments that "West Virginia is viewed as so unfriendly to business. And with the lack of the attorney general driving issues such as important tort reform and failing to join in the Obamacare suit, I sometimes wonder for whom this attorney general is fighting -- the people of West Virginia or Darrell McGraw?"
It's a rhetorical question. We understand whose interests Old Quick Draw promotes – and now he's got us paying for it.