The Secretary of Finance under Gov. Jim “Bankrupted the State” Gilmore has been indicted.

John W. Forbes II, who served as Virginia’s secretary of finance under former governor Jim Gilmore (R), has pleaded guilty to charges connected to defrauding the [Tobacco] commission of $4 million.

Forbes entered a guilty plea in August and will be sentenced Monday. According to court documents, Forbes convinced the commission to award a $5 million grant to the Literary Foundation of Virginia, a charitable group that he founded.

Authorities allege that the foundation was not a real group. Instead, Forbes diverted the tobacco commission money to salaries for himself and his then-wife and created a series of shell businesses that he used to divert the funds to his own use. – The Washington Post

Recall that the money from the Tobacco Settlement, which the commission manages, is supposed to go to help rural Virginia. It is supposed to help create jobs and improve things. This Republican criminal literally took money from the poorest, neediest Virginians, the ones most hurt by the economic transition away from tobacco farming, and used it to line his own pockets.

Meanwhile, a failed gubernatorial candidate (who happens to be a Democrat) went down to rural Virginia and worked to create jobs there. And he did it without stealing money!

Who is fighting for rural Virginia again? Who is bringing jobs to the state?

And who is stealing?