Virginia Governors Before Bob McDonnell Accepted Lots Of Gifts

A $200 leather jacket, an $18,000 Caribbean vacation rental, $350 in hunting gear — just a few of the valuable things given to the governor of Virginia in recent years.

But the items weren’t accepted by Bob McDonnell, whose indictment on federal public corruption charges has renewed attention to the comparatively lax laws over Virginia’s culture of gift-giving. They were made to his predecessors, Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine.

The former Democratic governors accepted thousands of dollars worth of tickets to professional football, basketball, hockey and auto racing events, as well as countless bottles of wine, rounds of golf and an odd assortment of goods that includes a train set, a weed eater, a fishing rod and at least one basket of soft-shelled crabs.
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