A pair of Republicans battling for the chance to take on Rep. Glenn Nye (D-VA) in this fall’s general election are caught up in a full-blown intra-party war over stimulus funds accepted by each of their businesses.
It started when it came to light that Republican candidate Scott Rigell, who owns a car dealership, sold 107 cars under the federal Cash for Clunkers program. His dealership then submitted requests for $444,500 in reimbursements from the federal government.
Fellow Republican candidate Ben Loyola demanded that Rigell return the money, saying in a statement:
I think it’s important that if candidates are going to contrast themselves with Obama’s economic policies that they shouldn’t make money from them. Rigell should return the money and say ‘thanks, but no thanks.’
“If you’re going to present yourself as a Conservative and campaign against Nye and Obama’s policies, you shouldn’t be financially benefiting from them,” Loyola continued.
Rigell’s campaign claimed, however, that the Republican businessman never personally supported Cash for Clunkers.
“He did not like the program,” Rigell campaign manager Jason Miyares told a local TV station. “He thought it was an administrative nightmare.”
“This was not a program that Scott Rigell ever endorsed at anytime,” Miyares said.
But that’s not all! To show that he’s not the only one who took government money, the Rigell campaign countered Loyola’s criticism by pointing out that Loyola took $850 in stimulus funds to build an ADA-compliant sidewalk.
From the local news report:
Loyola said his payment came from the U.S. Department of Interior and he says, unlike Rigell, he never knew it was stimulus money.
The Republican primary is June 8.
Watch the local news report here:
Additional reporting by Evan McMorris-Santoro.
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