McAuliffe Campaign Ad: Cuccinelli 'Cannot Be Trusted'

McAuliffe’s campaign released a new advertisement Monday accusing Cuccinelli of failing southwest Virginians in an ongoing dispute over royalties from natural gas.

Landowners are suing two Pennsylvania energy companies for royalties after they allowed the companies to extract natural methane gas from their property.

But emails from an assistant attorney general in Cuccinelli’s office — which offer assistance to the two energy companies — have turned some heads and given Democrats ammunition to go after Cuccinelli’s ethics.

The new ad spot stars Shirley Keene, a landowner who has been trying to get royalties since 1993.

“Since the energy companies has come in, they’ve been making millions from the gas that’s coming from our property,” she says in the spot. “I haven’t seen one penny.”

Keene then goes on to criticize Cuccinelli for his office’s involvement.

“Ken Cuccinelli’s office was giving information to the energy companies to fight us,” she says. “Then Cuccinelli got $100,000 for his Governor’s campaign. He has made it perfectly clear he cannot be trusted. When you help an energy company against the people that have elected you to office that is wrong, you have let your people down, you have let the community down and I do not trust him.”

Anna Nix, press secretary for Cuccinelli’s campaign, said McAuliffe and the Democrats were using the ad as a distraction.

"If Virginians want a governor who's willing to use scare tactics to get elected, Terry McAuliffe is their candidate,” Nix said in a statement. “It's notable that his campaign, with no positive economic message to run on, has decided to go up with negative, misleading TV ads. With regard to the methane case, McAuliffe is deliberately trying to distort the facts in a shameless attempt to drum up votes.”

The Attorney General’s office has denied any wrongdoing in the case and said the campaign contributions from the companies were unrelated.

“The attorney general office's only involvement was to defend the constitutionality of the Gas and Oil Act, which allows landowners and families to collect methane gas royalties they are owed,” Nix said.

“Ken Cuccinelli has spent his entire life putting Virginians first, and that includes landowners in Southwest Virginia," she said. "Unlike Terry McAuliffe, Ken has a record of service in Virginia and a record of standing up to the federal government and the Obama/McAuliffe war on coal."

The ad is the second in as many business days to be launched by the Democrats. A spot criticizing Cuccinelli for his stance on the Violence Against Women Act was unveiled July 12.