Four days before Christmas, Richmond-based utilities provider Dominion Energy gave $50,000 to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s One Richmond PAC, according to the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP). With Stoney having just won re-election for another four-year term as mayor, it’s unclear what the funds are for.
Dominion Energy spokesman Rayhan Daudani provided a brief statement to The Virginia Star: “Dominion Energy’s political contributions — paid by shareholders, not customers — are fully transparent on behalf of our nearly 15,000 workers in Virginia.”
Daudani would not comment on the reason for the donation. Neither Stoney’s City of Richmond staff nor One Richmond PAC staff responded to a request for comment.
Virginia’s politicians face competing courtship from Dominion Energy and Clean Virginia, funded by former Goldman-Sachs executive Michael Bills. In 2020, Dominion gave $300,000 to Democratic recipients, while Clean Virginia, an environmentalist non-profit, gave $425,000 to Democratic recipients, according to VPAP data.
Grassroots organization Activate Virginia is also pressuring the Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA), lobbying legislators to pass a utilities campaign contribution ban, although such a ban failed in the 2020 General Assembly.
The Clean Virginia website states, “Unfortunately, legalized corruption is holding us back. For too long, energy monopolies have written their own rules in Richmond, rigging the system against Virginian consumers, small businesses, and communities. Weak campaign finance laws allow our politicians to accept unlimited campaign contributions from the very utilities they have a duty to regulate.”
The cash comes more than a year after the DPVA announced that the organization had stopped taking donations from Dominion, according to Blue Virginia. In addition to funding Stoney, in the past One Richmond has helped fund candidates for local office, non-profits, state-level candidates, and the DPVA.
Dominion’s $50,000 donation led to broad speculation about who or what might receive the cash.
Democratic candidate for Virginia’s 34th House of Delegates District Jennifer Adeli tweeted, “This is a do not pass go, absolute hard pass, strike against Levar. Let’s see who he doles that [money] out to and if any of them claim to reject Dominion money. Sure can be hard to keep track of the money path.”
– – –
Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network. Email tips to [email protected].
