Gill Attacks McNerney over Sugar

A day after a marijuana bust forced Ricky Gill to cancel a fundraiser event, the Ricky Gill campaign childishly sent out a mass email attacking Rep. Jerry McNerney over an apparent “sweet tooth” for sugar.

The campaign questions a $39,000 donation from “big sugar” and accuses McNerney of a 2008 vote that pushed sugar prices to an all-time high–really Ricky?  In taking some time to go through all his fancy links and look closely, there really is no connection at all—as clever as they were, it’s just not there.

If Gill really wants to go back to 2008, I can make the similar accusations Gill is trying to use against McNerney back on him.  I can tie Ricky Gill to Harvey Whitmore—a Nevada lobbyist who is accused of funneling illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

How is Gill and Whittmore tied together? Harvey Whittemore’s son, Scott, and Ricky Gill’s father, Dr. Jasbir Gill, and brother, Chamanjit, are partners in a Reno-based energy drink manufacturing and distribution company called King 888. The Gills bought a 50 percent interest in the business in 2008.

Now the fun part, Ricky Gill was a partner in the family’s limited liability corporation that purchased the beverage company. Fast forward to earlier this year on February 10.  When news broke from the Las Vegas Review-Journal about how FBI agents were serving more than 30 grand jury subpoenas in a criminal investigation into allegations Whittemore funneled illegal campaign contributions to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Gill campaign sent Whittmore back his four check.

Here is an updated article on what is going on with Whittmore currently with his court case. Heck, just visit the Las Vegas Sun website and type in Whittmore and there are lots of articles.

More to the point, using common sense, why is someone so tied to Harry Reid and the Democrat Party donating a nice chunk of cash to a Republican running on Tea Party values? Put two and two together and it’s all about the money—in this case, payback!

As with the marijuana bust a few days ago, if Gill did nothing wrong, why is this now the second time where Gill had to give money back? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

With four months until November, the Ricky Gill camp has now set the tone twice in two days that it wants to take this race and campaign negative against McNerney as they apparently do not have enough accomplishments for Mr. Gill to stand on or have run out of ways to enhance his resume.

Meanwhile, the voters are now stuck receiving information that is nothing more than a smear attack against McNerney who has actually been pretty mild tempered in not responding to such nonsense.

Between Whittemore, the Davies family, and the disgraced doctor employed by the Gill family, it paints a really vibrant picture just who Mr. Gill associates himself with and how hypocritical his campaign has become.

Below is a copy of the email that was sent out:

Pour Some Sugar on Me: McNerney’s $39,000 Sweet Tooth  

“For far too long,” says Jerry McNerney on his website, “our nation’s farm policies have been directed to support commodity crops grown in places like the Midwest but not in California.”

Strong words from a Pleasanton politician. If only he lived by them.

The truth is that Jerry McNerney has taken $39,000 from one of the largest Midwest commodity lobbies in the country: Big Sugar. In fact, McNerney has taken $35,000 from just one sugar group, American Crystal Sugar, which is now one of his top all-time contributors.

It seems strange, to say the least, that a Congressman who bemoans the influence of Midwest commodity growers would receive so much money from one of their biggest lobbies. (According to a recent report by Food & Water Watch, American Crystal Sugar alone spent $1.315 million lobbying members of Congress on the 2008 farm bill, second only to the American Sugar Alliance.)

McNerney’s $39,000 sweet tooth thus begs a question: what is the sugar lobby getting for its money?

Well, in 2008, McNerney took a contribution from American Crystal Sugar three weeks before voting in favor of that year’s Farm Bill. (That’s the bill that pushed sugar prices to levels that consumer advocates described as “all-time record highs.”) As USA Today described it, the 2008 Farm Bill “include[d] provisions aimed at helping sugar growers, which is of special interest to Minnesota, the nation’s largest producer of sugar beets.”

Since he began his saccharine affair, McNerney also has voted against four free-trade agreements that promised significant benefits for California specialty crop growers. Perhaps that’s because, as the Washington Post has noted, Big Sugar has the “power to hold trade hostage.”

McNerney has sugarcoated his opposition to local farmers’ interests for far too long. It’s time our farmers had a genuine voice in Congress.

Colin Hunter
Communications Director
Ricky Gill for Congress