The Democratic primary for attorney general has become a heavyweight fight, but not necessarily between the two candidates.

Dominion Energy and Clean Virginia have emerged as the principal combatants in a high-dollar race between former Del. Jay Jones, D-Norfolk , and Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor for the party’s nomination to face Attorney General Jason Miyares in the general election in November.

The Richmond-based electric monopoly and its Charlottesville-based political nemesis have dominated the closing weeks of the primary campaign with a flurry of big campaign contributions, public accusations of undue influence and counterpunches as voters prepare to go to the polls on Tuesday.

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“Essentially, it’s kind of a proxy fight,” veteran Richmond political analyst Bob Holsworth said of the escalating primary battle between Jones and Taylor.

Henrico Supervisor Tyrone Nelson, a friend of both candidates who has endorsed Taylor, called the showdown “a war between Dominion and Clean Virginia.”

“The candidates always become a part of it, but really it’s just two entities going at each other,” Nelson said.

The battle is more than symbolic, with the attorney general’s office playing a key role in oversight of monopoly utility rates in Virginia, as the state grapples with how to meet energy demand from the massive growth of power-hungry data centers without undoing a Democratic promise under the Clean Economy Act for protecting the environment and combating climate change.

“Obviously, the future of energy in Virginia has become increasingly important with the growth of data centers, leading people to consider how Virginia is going to meet the power demand,” Holsworth said.

Dominion has made big campaign contributions on both sides of the aisle, with $800,000 to Taylor, including an additional $150,000 first reported on Friday by Virginia Scope, and $475,000 to Miyares, who won statewide office in a Republican sweep that Gov. Glenn Youngkin led in 2021.

The contributions show “how important this election for attorney general is for Dominion,” Holsworth said.

Clean Virginia, founded by an investment management CEO in 2018 to offset political influence by Dominion and other utility monopolies, has spent $1 million through its political action fund, including $575,000 in contributions to Jones’ campaign and nearly a half-million dollars of in-kind donations for advertising and media placements, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

This month alone, Clean Virginia spent almost $300,000 on ad buys and media placements for Jones’ campaign, including a 30-second ad attacking Taylor for accepting big donations from Dominion, while seeking election to an office that plays a key role in State Corporation Commission oversight of the utility.

A group of 14 Democratic elected officials and former office holders — who all have endorsed Jones — followed up with a well-publicized letter to Taylor calling on her to pledge to recuse herself from regulatory cases involving Dominion if she were elected attorney general.

Taylor countered that other prominent Democrats, including former Gov. Ralph Northam, who has endorsed Jones, have accepted campaign money from Dominion without compromising their ability to represent Virginia families.

But her primary argument is her experience, now in her fourth term as commonwealth’s attorney since upsetting Del. Bill Janis, R-Goochland, in 2011 and breaking the long Republican hold on the office.

“I’ve seen her work up close,” said Nelson, who was elected to the Henrico Board of Supervisors the same night. “I know her concern for making sure there’s a balance in our system of law — making sure the law is followed and making sure people’s rights are respected.”

Taylor, 57, is borrowing a page from another former Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney, Jim Gilmore, who campaigned as the state’s “top cop” in winning the 1993 race for attorney general on his way to being elected governor in 1997.

“She’s really running on prosecutorial experience,” said Holsworth, who recalled asking Gilmore during the attorney general’s campaign once whether the job is considered being the state’s top law officer.

He said Gilmore replied, “It will be.”

Taylor is seeking to contrast her experience as a prosecutor in the courtroom against Jones, a trial lawyer for a large international law firm who challenged another Democrat, Attorney General Mark Herring, for the party nomination in 2021. He lost by 13 percentage points in the primary, but easily won re-election to a third term in the House of Delegates that fall. He suddenly resigned the next month, citing the birth of his first child, but promised to return, potentially for another bid to become attorney general.

In response, “what (Jones) has basically tried to say is he has the capacity not only to (do) the job legally, but he has the capacity to take the political steps that need to be taken,” Holsworth said.

Both candidates tout their endorsements. Taylor has the support of both Herring, who served two terms as attorney general before losing to Miyares, and former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, who was the first woman elected to statewide office in Virginia.

Jones, 36, has a long list of endorsements by Democratic elected officials, including two former governors: Northam and Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who lost to Youngkin four years ago. McAuliffe’s wife, Dorothy, campaigned with Jones recently in Northern Virginia, a pivotal battleground in the Democratic primary battle.

Dorothy McAuliffe called the primary battle “a tough one,” with low voter turnout expected the year after the presidential election.

Speaking after the launch of voter canvassing by campaign volunteers, she also responded to questions about Dominion’s support of Taylor, noting the efforts by President Donald Trump to reverse U.S. commitments to reduce pollution contributing to climate change, including regulation of air emissions from electric power plants.

“We need an attorney general who is going to help us on all of the stuff that is being rolled back on climate that’s going to impact the health, the safety and the future of Virginians,” McAuliffe said.

Holsworth said Jones and Clean Virginia appear to be trying to rally Virginia’s environmental community against Taylor.

“In a low-turnout election, they’re trying to mobilize people who are relatively committed,” he said.

Holsworth said the danger of the primary battle is that it could weaken the eventual Democratic nominee in the general election against Miyares, who has raised a total of $4.6 million, with $2.3 million in cash on hand on June 5. In comparison, Jones had $492,757 in the bank and Taylor $469,816.

“He’s going to begin with an extraordinary financial advantage,” he said of Miyares.

But Nelson said Democrats will field a strong candidate, no matter who wins the primary.

“Two good candidates,” he said. “Two good people.”

From the Archives: Virginia Electric and Power Company

12-18-1989 (cutline): Virginia Power's headquarters, at One James River Plaza downtown, has been transformed into a huge billboard, with lighted windows serving as lettering. This reminder was shining for motorists on the Manchester Bridge earlier this week.

12-28-1988 (cutline): Brightly colored lights and displays are highlights of the Christmas season. Among the more sobering displays this year was the "Hugs Not Drugs" message spelled out in the windows of the Virginia Power corporate headquarters at One James River Plaza.

11-24-1988 (cutline): This message, "hugs not drugs," shines from Virginia Power's corporate headquarters at One James River Plaza. It can be seen by motorists on Interstates 95 and 195 and area bridges. The letters come from adjusting lights and window shades in the offices. The words are a message from the utility and New Kent High School's Studentss Against Drink Driving chapter.

10-09-1971 (cutline): Marvin Cephas delivers VEPCO bills in West End. Cost-cutting program is described as successful.

A Virginia Power employee looks over work at home sites in 1986.

02-12-1982 (cutline): A Virginia Electric and Power Co. crewman inspects the rigging on the generator of the utility's Chesterfield power station Unit 4. The turbine portion of the generator has been detached for its regularly scheduled five-year inspection. The 166,000-kilowat, coal-burning unit was removed from service Jan.19 to have environmental control equipment installed.

08-05-1990 (cutline): A 240-megawatt cogeneration plant will begin supplying steam to the Sonoco Products plant on Commerce Road in Richmond later this year. Its electricity, which will go to Virginia Power, represents only a fraction of the almost 4,000 megawatts the utility expects by the end of the decade from similar private generation units across the state.

07-11-1991 (cutline): Gary Michael directs Virginia Power's emergency response system from the utility's Central Division Operations Center in Henrico County.

07-13-1989 (cutline): With the diagram of The Virginia Power system in the background, Temple Taylor worked the operations center switching console yesterday. The diagram shows transmission lines and equipment undergoing repairs.

01-19-1977 (cutline): Firemen douse blaze at Virginia Electric and Power Co. substation on Deepwater Terminal Road. About 4,900 customers in South Richmond were without power for about an hour following fire today.

02-28-1991 (cutline): This certainly isn't recommended for anyone afraid of heights and is definitely not something for amateurs. Perched in cherry pickers, two Virginia Power workers attended to business on a utility pole yesterday. WTVR's antenna tower is in the background.