Auditor Flags Gov. Youngkin's Office for a $7,600 Limousine in Germany and a $338,000 Tab at the Races

RICHMOND — A state audit flagged the office of Gov. Youngkin — a figure widely believed to be measuring the drapes in a larger residence — for what it called 'concerning' luxury spending, including a $7,632 limousine in Germany, a $17,013 dinner at a distillery, a $360,000 two-day conference, and roughly $338,000 lavished on VIP events at the state's marquee horse race.

The travel line alone ran to some $183,000 in security costs for out-of-state trips, a category that also produced airport navigation services in Switzerland and meals charged at a private membership club in a ski town. The governor, who has spent recent months auditioning as a plainspoken champion of ordinary families, dismissed the findings as a 'political attack,' a defense The Press notes is available to any official whose spending is reviewed by an auditor of the opposite party, which is most of them.

The Press's ledger desk observes that a limousine in Germany is a scandal or a security expense depending entirely on the party of the passenger, and that the same governor who would be roasted nationwide for the distillery dinner had it a rival's name on the check is, when it is his own, merely the victim of overzealous accounting.

Aides argued the expenses were properly authorized and largely driven by security requirements, an explanation that accounts for the presence of the state police but not the presence of the champagne. The governor maintained that the audit was timed for maximum political damage, a complaint that is frequently true and never, by itself, an itemized receipt.

Reaction followed the standing choreography. Supporters saw a public servant doing the necessary work of representing the state on a large stage; opponents saw a would-be president expensing the good life to the taxpayers. The Press archives confirm both parties own the vocabulary — 'the cost of the office' and 'champagne on the public dime' — and swap it, chauffeured, whenever the other side is the one in the back seat.

The limousine, reached for comment, was idling in Germany.