WASHINGTON — When Democratic Sen. Phil Puckett announced in June that he would resign from the Virginia Senate, giving Republicans a one-seat advantage and effectively dooming Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s plans to expand Medicaid, speculation immediately arose that the GOP had offered him or his daughter a job to entice him to leave.
It turns out that the opposite may have been true. The Washington Post reports that Paul Reagan, McAuliffe’s chief of staff, left a voicemail for Puckett intimating that his daughter might get a top state job if he stayed to support the governor’s Medicaid bid.
The Post reports that it’s based on descriptions from three people who heard the recording. They say that McAuliffe’s spokesman denied the offer, but later acknowledged it after he was read a transcript of the message.
The Post says the transcript has Reagan detailing “big agencies” that needed heads, and that “… we would be very eager to accommodate her, if, if that would be helpful in keeping you in the Senate. We, we would basically do anything. We just need you really, we need you for the rest of your term and beyond, but in the immediate future, we need you to help us get this Medicaid deal through and I think we’ve got a way to do it.”
Spokesman Brian Coy told the Post that “Mr. Reagan acted on his own to inform the senator that there were other available opportunities for which his daughter might apply. No further conversations about this topic ever occurred. No position was ever formally offered.”
He also said that the message did not constitute a similar offer to what Republicans are accused of doing.
The Post says that Reagan didn’t deny having left the message, but had no further comment.
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