David Wu

David Wu: With Medication and Counseling, I'm 'In A Good Place Now' (VIDEO)

Melissa Jeltsen | February 22, 2011, 10:05AM

David Wu, the democratic representative from Oregon whose erratic behavior resulted in a mass exodus of long-time staffers and pleas for him to check into a psychiatric hospital says he's "in a good place now," thanks to counseling and medication.

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David Wu

Staffers Feared For Rep. David Wu's Mental Health, Staged Interventions

Melissa Jeltsen | February 21, 2011, 12:24PM

Rep. David Wu (D-OR)

Just days before the midterms and in the throes of a tough re-election campaign, Rep. David Wu (D-OR) was behaving so strangely that staffers staged multiple interventions and requested he check into a psychiatric hospital, The Oregonian and Willamette Week reported on Friday. Staffers went so far as to make inquiries about the availability of beds in Portland and Washington.

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2010 Elections

Before Shooting, A Campaign Season Rife With Gun Rhetoric

Rachel Slajda | January 11, 2011, 8:30AM

Sarah Palin's controversial map.

The person who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), a federal judge and 18 other people Saturday may or may not have had a coherent political philosophy or a rational motive. But his actions still come after a campaign season rife with gun imagery and borderline violent rhetoric.

There is, of course, Sarah Palin's map in which targeted districts were marked by crosshairs (spun as "surveyor's symbols" by Palin aides), but there was much, much more over the 2010 campaign:

Target Practice
Robert Lowry, a Republican challenger to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz (D-FL), stopped by a local Republican event in October. The event was at a gun range, and Lowry shot at a human-shaped target that had Wasserman Schulz's initials written next to it. He later said it was a "mistake."

Wasserman Schulz, who defeated Lowry, remembered that incident on Hardball Monday evening.

"Those kinds of actions, words and statements can lead people who are unbalanced to potentially engage and carry out that violence," she said. "It's out of line and we've got to dial it back."

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Christine O'Donnell

Christine O'Donnell Wants A Mulligan On Campaign Finance Reports

Ryan J. Reilly | January 5, 2011, 10:47AM

Christine O'Donnell

Christine O'Donnell will file amendments to all the campaign finance reports her campaign filed during the 2009-2010 election cycle, a lawyer for the failed Delaware Republican Senate candidate wrote in a letter to the Federal Election Commission.

All amendments will be filed along with Friends of Christine O'Donnell's year-end report on Jan. 31, GOP power lawyer Cleta Mitchell wrote in a letter to the FEC.

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Christine O'Donnell

Christine O'Donnell's Last Minute Hires Included Anti-Gay Crusader

Ryan J. Reilly and Alex Sciuto | December 9, 2010, 3:20PM

Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell (R)

Recently disclosed financial forms from the campaign of unsuccessful GOP Senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell reveal some of the Delaware Republican's last-minute staffing changes, including the addition to her campaign of the executive director of a conservative group that crusades against same-sex marriage.

Andresen Blom, the executive director of the anti-gay marriage group American Principles Project, was paid $13,000 dollars during the period running from Oct. 14 through Nov. 22, according to a recently disclosed campaign finance report reviewed by TPM.

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Mark Krause

AR Man Accused Of Planning Pepsi Can Bomb Was A Big Liberal, Friends Say

Ryan J. Reilly | December 9, 2010, 8:52AM

Mark Krause

Friends of Mark Krause, the Arkansas man the feds say planted an IED made out of a Pepsi can at a polling place during the Democratic Senate primary in Arkansas this summer, are rallying to the 40-year-old blacksmith's defense.

"Mark's a complete liberal. He's not a Tea Party-type at all," long time friend Eugene Sergeant told TPM. "I think he almost always voted Democrat. He thought Republicans were just rich fucking assholes. But socially he was a liberal and he was definitely an odd mix - a freedom loving artist liberal who had a taste for tinkering with machines. And of course he likes to blow things up."

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Mark Krause

Attempted Pepsi Can Bomber, Worried By Gov't, Tracked Down Via Facebook (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | December 7, 2010, 11:15AM

Self-described "patriot" Mark Krause, a 40-year-old Arkansas blacksmith whose home was foreclosed upon, was arrested in Washington state on Friday and charged with placing a bomb made out of a Pepsi can in front of a polling place during the runoff election for the Arkansas Democratic Senate primary.

It allegedly started on June 8, the day of the runoff election for the Democratic Senate primary between Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.

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Fox News

Carnahan Camp To Fox News: Why Single Us Out?

Ryan J. Reilly | December 6, 2010, 1:30PM

Lawyers for former Senate Candidate Robin Carnahan are arguing that the Fox News network is singling the Missouri Democrat out in its lawsuit alleging her campaign violated the network's copyrights.

To strengthen their argument, lawyers for Carnahan are pointing to Fox News clips posted on the websites of Republican candidates during the 2010 election season that the network doesn't seem to be worried about.

"Through this lawsuit, Fox News attempts to use copyright law to silence political speech. This distortion of copyright law fails," lawyers representing Carnahan wrote in a court document filed on Friday.

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Oklahoma

Judge Blocks Okla. Sharia Ban: Case Goes To 'Very Foundation Of Our Country'

Rachel Slajda | November 29, 2010, 5:26PM

CAIR Oklahoma Director Muneer Awad

A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction against Oklahoma's so-called "Sharia ban," saying the case goes "to the very foundation of our country, our Constitution, and particularly, the Bill of Rights."

Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange, who presides over a federal court in the western district of Oklahoma, ruled that a CAIR official suing to block the law will likely succeed in his efforts.

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Oklahoma

Why American Indians Are Watching The Fate Of The Oklahoma Sharia Ban

Rachel Slajda | November 26, 2010, 9:18AM

So far, the outrage over the so-called Sharia ban Oklahoma voters approved this month has focused on the freedom of religion of the state's Muslim residents, culminating in a lawsuit by a CAIR official that has successfully stalled the law from going into effect.

But there's another minority the ban could affect: American Indians.

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voter fraud

Report Notes 'Sudden Silence' From Voter 'Fraud-Mongerers' Post-Election

Ryan J. Reilly | November 5, 2010, 11:13AM

Dick Armey, Catherine Engelbrecht, Michelle Malkin, and David Norcross

Claims of massive voter fraud efforts backed by Democrats were all the rage in conservative circles in the weeks and months leading up to the election on Tuesday. But since the polls closed, there's been barely a peep.

So says a report from the public policy center Demos issued Friday analyzing the "mixed bag" outcome of the 2010 campaign in the areas of voter access and effective administration of elections.

"Also noteworthy after Election Day had come and gone was the sudden silence from the fraud-mongerers and Tea Party poll watch groups," Tova Andrea Wang, a Senior Democracy Fellow at Demos, wrote in the report. "Not a peep of one case of substantiated fraud at the polling place."

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Benjamin Cardin

Cardin Asks DOJ To Review Election Day Robocalls In MD

Ryan J. Reilly | November 4, 2010, 3:22PM

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)

Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) asked the Justice Department to look at allegations that voters in Baltimore and elsewhere around Maryland received robocalls on election day that Cardin says were intentionally designed to suppress voter turnout.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Cardin requests that the Justice Department investigate anonymous, automated phone calls his office said were made to predominantly African-American and other voters in Baltimore and elsewhere around the state.

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2010 Elections

Four Dead Candidates Won On Tuesday (And Two Lost)

Rachel Slajda | November 4, 2010, 8:47AM

Democrat Jenny Oropeza

Four candidates who died while campaigning won their elections on Tuesday. Two deceased candidates lost.

In California, state Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D) won re-election with 59% of the vote. Oropeza, who was 53, died two weeks ago from complications of cancer. The local Democrats, however, mailed supporters encouraging them to vote for Oropeza anyway.

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Hans von Spakovsky

Hans von Spakovsky Will Help Certify A Tight Race In Virginia

Ryan J. Reilly | November 3, 2010, 2:24PM

Hans von Spakovsky

Both sides are claiming victory in the House race in Virginia's 11th district, which may be the closest contest in the country. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Democrat Gerry Connolly is leading Republican Keith Fimian by just 487 votes.

The three-member electoral board of Faixfax County is currently in the midst of canvassing the election results, a spokeswoman for the country government confirmed to TPMMuckraker. One of the individuals sitting on that board is Hans von Spakovsky, a Bush-era Justice Department official who came under fire from Democrats after allegations that he helped politicize the Civil Rights Division and placed an undue emphasis on voter fraud and identification that critics say often suppresses minority voter turnout.

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2010 Elections

Judge Approves Tea Party Items At Polls In Sheriff Joe's Territory

Ryan J. Reilly | November 2, 2010, 10:32AM

Tea Partiers -- or supporters of any political cause or candidate -- will be allowed to wear their gear to the polls in Maricopa County, the Arizona Republic reports.

After a federal judge decided on Monday that "'tea party' T-shirt or any apparel that does not express support for or opposition to" a candidate, proposition or political party on the ballot should be allowed, a Maricopa County election official said she would not be able to retrain poll workers less than a day before the election. So Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell told the Arizona Republic she'll let any apparel in.

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Minnesota

MN Anti-Voter Fraud Group: Ignore Judge's Ruling Against 'I.D. Me' Buttons

Ryan J. Reilly | November 2, 2010, 7:22AM

Minnesota Majority, one of the groups behind the anti-voter fraud initiative in the state called "Election Integrity Watch," told supporters in an e-mail last night to go ahead and wear their "Please I.D. Me" buttons and Tea Party apparel to the polls today despite a federal judge's ruling yesterday that such items would interfere with the elections process.

The e-mail said that anti-voter fraud advocates will "have a decision to make" if an election judge questions the items they are wearing. "You can simply remove or cover the challenged item and you'll be allowed to vote, or you can refuse and demand your right to vote and the election judge will allow you to vote, while also recording your name and you could be charged with a petty misdemeanor," says the e-mail.

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Barack Obama

Conservative PAC Ad Brings Together The Best-Of Anti-Obama Memes (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | November 1, 2010, 2:43PM

The National Republican Trust PAC has launched a video that features a number of anti-Obama memes

The National Republican Trust PAC has launched a 25-minute video in several key states attacking President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress and linking them to extremist groups and opinions. The video brings up ACORN and the New Black Panther Party -- and not-so-subtlety implies Obama is a Muslim, though the group behind the video says that is not the intention.

It is running heavy in North Carolina, Iowa, Kentucky, Delaware, Alaska, and Florida, Scott Wheeler, executive director of the National Republican Trust PAC, told TPMMuckraker. It began running on television stations last week but has been online for about two weeks, he said.

The ad features Muslim chanting layered over clips of Obama speaking about Islam. "Instead of standing up for America, he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia," the video says. But Wheeler said that ad isn't intended to imply Obama is a Muslim.

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voter fraud

Anti-Voter Fraud Group Sues Over 'I.D. Me' Button Ban

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 4:45PM

A button from ElectionIntegrityWatch.com

Minnesota Majority and members of the Election Integrity Watch program in Minnesota went ahead and sued over the ban on their "Please I.D. Me" buttons in polling places imposed by county elections officials.

"Clearly, these buttons are not about any specific political candidate, party or ballot question," said Jeff Davis, president of Minnesota Majority, said in a press release. "This ban is outside state law and a clear violation of our First Amendment rights under the United States Constitution."

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voter fraud

True The Vote Documents Show Hidden Donations, Republican Ties

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 2:21PM

Anita MonCrief, J. Christian Adams, David Horowitz and Rep. John Culberson (R-TX)

True the Vote, the Tea Party-backed anti-voter fraud group that has come under scrutiny because poll watchers trained by the organization have been accused of using intimidating tactics, received a large chunk of its money anonymously. It has also paid for or hosted events with several major players in the anti-voter fraud circuit.

The True the Vote organization, which is dedicated to preventing voter fraud and emerged from the King Street Patriots group, has received over $80,000 in donations, but they have not disclosed who their money is coming from. Instead, they classify their income as "general meeting donations," according to records examined by TPMMuckraker. When the Texas Democratic Party examined their records, they also turned up records of payments to EmergingCorruption, a website run by so-called ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

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voter fraud

Minn. Poll Watchers May Sue Over 'Astonishing' Ban On 'I.D. Me' Buttons

Ryan J. Reilly | October 28, 2010, 8:42AM

A button from ElectionIntegrityWatch.com

One of the conservative groups in Minnesota supporting the "Election Integrity Watch" program is considering filing suit over the ban on their "Please I.D. Me" buttons in polling places.

"It's simply a First Amendment issue, so we're going to fight them on this," Dan McGrath of Minnesota Majority told TPMMuckraker. "We're consulting our attorneys right now and preparing a possible federal lawsuit."

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RNLA

Republican Lawyers And Norm Coleman: George Soros Wants To Buy Election

Ryan J. Reilly | October 26, 2010, 2:19PM

George Soros and former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN)

Yesterday, the Republican National Lawyers Association told Newsmax about the "epidemic" voter fraud they expected to occur in the upcoming midterm elections. Last night, they hit up Newsmax readers for donations to combat that alleged surge of voter fraud.

Former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman (R), who lost a close election to Sen. Al Franken (D), wrote to Newsmax readers that George Soros, a multibillionaire investor who frequently donates to liberal causes, "has determined to focus his efforts to elect individuals who have the power to overrule the will of voters."

"Who wins elections should be determined by who got the most legal votes, period! Unfortunately, the far left is trying to politicize even the counting of votes through George Soros' Secretary of State project, which seeks to have elections run by hyper-partisan liberal election officials," Coleman writes. "Donate here to the RNLA to help ensure that all legal votes in 2010 are counted."

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voter fraud

West Virginia GOP Launches Anti-Voter Fraud Effort

Ryan J. Reilly | October 26, 2010, 8:55AM

A West Virginia Republican Party lawn sign

The Republican Party in West Virginia has launched a state-wide anti-voter fraud effort that includes poll workers, what they have termed ballot security teams and "Stop Voter Fraud" signs.

"We'll be watching courthouses, county clerks, absentee ballot filing, early voting protocols, how those things are done," Robert Cornelius of the West Virginia GOP told TPMMuckraker.

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voter fraud

'Bumping Of Bellies' Between GOP Activist, Dem Over Poll Watching Effort (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | October 25, 2010, 1:08PM

A Democratic official and a GOP activist in Indiana got in a scuffle after the Republican took pictures of voters at an early voting location.

There was a "bumping of bellies" between a Republican activist and a Democratic official in Indiana after the Republican official allegedly took pictures of voters at a polling place, the Indiana Star reported.

Marion County's Democratic Party chairman, Ed Treacy, got into a shouting and shoving match on Saturday with Ernest Shearer, a Warren Township Republican Party official, according to media reports.

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voter fraud

DOJ Probes TX Voter Intimidation Complaints During Tea Party Anti-Voter Fraud Drive

Ryan J. Reilly | October 19, 2010, 10:34PM

Catherine Engelbrecht of True The Vote

Poll watchers in Harris County, Texas -- where a Tea Party group launched an aggressive anti-voter fraud effort -- were accused of "hovering over" voters, "getting into election workers' faces" and blocking or disrupting lines of voters who were waiting to cast their ballots as early voting got underway yesterday.

Now, TPMMuckraker has learned, the Justice Department has interviewed witnesses about the alleged intimidation and is gathering information about the so-called anti-voter fraud effort.

"We are currently gathering information regarding this matter," Justice Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement confirming the Civil Rights Division's involvement.

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2010 Elections

Illinois Democrat: Mark Kirk's 'Voter Integrity' Effort Is 'Karl Rove Politics'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 13, 2010, 5:28PM

IL Senate candidates Alexi Giannoulias (D) and Mark Kirk (R)

Illinois GOP Senate candidate Mark Kirk is taking some heat from his Democratic opponent Alexi Giannoulias for bragging on a secretly-recorded phone call about his "voter integrity" project, which he said focused on two largely African-American sections of Chicago and two other urban areas in the state.

Kirk said on the tape recorded last week that he had arranged for lawyers and other people to be "deployed in key, vulnerable precincts, for example, South and West sides of Chicago, Rockford, Metro East, where the other side might be tempted to jigger the numbers somewhat."

Giannoulias said in a statement on Wednesday that he would have his lawyers look into Kirk's effort.

"That sort of Florida-style voter intimidation is disgusting, illegal, and smacks of the Karl Rove politics that Illinois voters are sick of," Giannoulias said.

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Guns

'Gun Ban Obama?' Not So Much, Say Gun Control Advocates

Ryan J. Reilly | October 12, 2010, 9:18AM

President Barack Obama and ATF agents

To hear some gun rights activists tell it, President Barack Obama wants to take away your guns and, any minute now, jack-booted federal agents could knock on your front door to collect them.

Such predictions started during the 2008 campaign. "Obama would be the most anti-gun President in American history," screamed a banner at the National Rifle Association's GunBanObama.com. It got so bad that Obama even had to reassure voters he wouldn't take away their guns. Even after the election, gun sales boomed.

You'd expect a President so opposed by many gun rights groups to get high praise from gun control advocates since he took office. But advocates like those from the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence are far from satisfied with the progress on gun control being made in this administration.

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voter fraud

Despite Dearth Of Evidence, Right Wing Voter Fraud Fear Machine Carries On

Ryan J. Reilly and Rachel Slajda | September 30, 2010, 8:30AM

Remember the dire warnings and shrill allegations of voter fraud surrounding the 2008 election? That ACORN would steal it, that the New Black Panthers were intimidating voters, that fraud across the county would be "rampant?"

They never panned out. ACORN no longer exists. (Although that hasn't stopped 20 percent of the American public from believing they'll try to steal the election.) The DOJ found that the New Black Panthers incident was isolated -- although that case found new life in allegations against the Justice Department itself (more on that below). A five-year effort by the Bush DOJ to weed out fraud, an effort the Obama team said was designed to suppress minority voter turnout, turned up "virtually no evidence."

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Christine O'Donnell

Christine O'Donnell's Schiavo Case: 'Life For Lauren'

Rachel Slajda | September 24, 2010, 8:44AM

Christine O'Donnell

You know that Christine O'Donnell is pro-life. But one episode that hasn't gotten much attention is her work on an end-of-life case, reminiscent of Terry Schiavo's, in 2008.

O'Donnell, the new Republican Senate candidate from Delaware, cites her pro bono public relations work on the case as the reason she was in dire financial straits during her Senate campaign against Joe Biden that year. Her straits were so dire, in fact, she sold her home to her boyfriend and campaign lawyer a month before it was to be auctioned off to pay her mortgage.

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DE-SEN

O'Donnell Campaign Operated Without A Treasurer, Despite FEC Rules

Rachel Slajda | September 16, 2010, 1:54PM

Christine O'Donnell

Christine O'Donnell may have broken campaign finance regulations by operating for months at a time without a treasurer, experts say.

Her campaign committee, Friends of Christine O'Donnell, has seen three treasurers quit, and went more than a year without a designated treasurer.

Campaign committees are required by law to have a designated treasurer at all times in order to collect and spend money, according to experts. But, according to records filed with the Federal Elections Commission, she's gone through several periods with no treasurer at all, including one of more than a year.

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Christine O'Donnell

Christine O'Donnell: AIDS Gets Too Much Gov't Money, Condoms Wouldn't Stop It (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | September 15, 2010, 11:22AM

Christine O'Donnell

Long before Tea Party backed candidate Christine O'Donnell won the Republican primary in Delaware and became the GOP Senate nominee, the conservative firebrand was arguing that the government was spending too much money fighting AIDS and said condoms wouldn't stop the disease from spreading.

You already know about O'Donnell's extreme views on sex and porn, and you've seen the video of her campaign against masturbation.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Christine O'Donnell: Anti-Masturbation Crusader. Witchcraft Dabbler. Republican Senate Nominee.]

Now TPM has unearthed a 1997 C-SPAN video that shows O'Donnell voicing concerns that a drag queen ball "celebrates the type of lifestyle which leads to the disease," objecting to terming those with AIDS "victims" and calling AIDS a consequence of a certain "lifestyle which brings about this disease."

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Jeff Greene

Jeff Greene And His Reef-Destroying, Vomit-Caked, No Good, Very Bad Yacht

Rachel Slajda | August 11, 2010, 12:24PM

The Summerwind, the yacht of US Sen. candidate Jeff Greene (D-FL)

In a campaign season swelling with populism, where candidates try to out-folk each other and prove their anti-elitist credentials, having a symbol of extreme wealth as potent as a 145-foot yacht is already a liability.

It's way more of a liability if your yacht has been involved in a number of untoward episodes over the past decade -- if, like Florida Senate candidate Jeff Greene, your yacht has destroyed part of a precious Belizean coral reef, showed up "caked in vomit" in travel-embargoed Cuba and, possibly, fueled some of Mike Tyson's less proud moments.

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John McCain

McCain's 'Danged Fence' Sheriff: The Government Is Our Enemy

Rachel Slajda | August 3, 2010, 9:51AM

Sheriff Paul Babeau and Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

Paul Babeu, the cue-ball-headed sheriff of Pinal County, Ariz., told CNS News yesterday that, when it comes to immigration, the federal government has become the enemy.

"Our own government has become our enemy," he said, "and is taking us to court at a time when we need help."

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Jeff Greene

Florida Senate Candidate Jeff Greene Suggests Koran Includes Some 'Crazy Stuff'

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 28, 2010, 3:25PM

Jeff Greene

Wealthy Florida investor and Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Greene suggested last week that the Koran includes "crazy stuff" -- and his opponent is having a field day with it.

On Friday, Greene and his self-funded campaign was the subject of a Washington Post profile. Since then, Rep. Kendrick Meek, Greene's opponent in Florida's Democratic Senate primary, has hit Greene over and over with candid moments from the piece, subtly calling him both a religious bigot (Greene said the Koran includes "all kinds of this crazy stuff" within earshot of the Post reporter) and a misogynist (Greene called former good friend Heidi Fleiss "a businesswoman," too).

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American Crossroads

Fundraising Group Led By GOP All-Stars Falling Short Of Goals

Eric Lach | June 22, 2010, 11:10AM

Karl Rove, former Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush

American Crossroads, formed by some of the GOP's biggest names with the aim of helping the party win the 2010 midterms, launched a few months ago with an ambitious $52 million fundraising goal. So how much did the group pull in in May? A whopping $200.

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Alvin Greene

Alvin Greene, The Laura Ingraham Interview

Justin Elliott | June 18, 2010, 3:14PM

SC-SEN candidate Alvin Greene (D)

A bemused Laura Ingraham talked to Alvin Greene today in perhaps the most gratuitously mean Greene interview to date.

The conservative radio show host opened the interview by asking if President Obama, or Harry Reid, or Nancy Pelosi had called to congratulate him. (No, Greene answered, again and again.) Ingraham then asked Greene his stance on the threat of stagflation.

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Jeff Greene

Greene's DC Ad: Investigate Meek Over Earmark Scandal (VIDEO)

Eric Lach | June 17, 2010, 1:41PM

Jeff Greene, the eccentric billionaire running for Senate in Florida, has released a new ad calling for an investigation of his opponent in the Democratic Primary, Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-FL), over the earmarks the Congressman sought for a developer now facing fraud charges. The ad isn't targeted at voters, however. It's up in the DC market, making the case for Congress to look into the matter.

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Alvin Greene

Alvin Greene: I Am The Next Time Magazine Man Of The Year

Justin Elliott | June 17, 2010, 9:23AM

SC-SEN candidate Alvin Greene (D)

Ten days of constant and often mocking media coverage has done nothing to damage the self-esteem of South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Alvin Greene -- just the opposite.

Time catches up with Greene at his Manning, South Carolina, home as he begins to show signs of megalomania:

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National Board of Ophthalmology

Rand Paul's Dissident Ophthalmology Group Still Certifying Doctors

Justin Elliott | June 15, 2010, 2:48PM

Rand Paul, Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Kentucky

It seems that Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul's rogue ophthalmology certification outfit, the National Board of Ophthalmology, is still recertifying doctors even though the group has virtually no public footprint.

Ben Smith at Politico reports on the group Dr. Paul founded to protest changes in the national American Board of Ophthalmology's certification policies:

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South Carolina

GOP Operative Hired By S.C. Democrat: There's No Plot Here!

Christina Bellantoni | June 15, 2010, 10:23AM

Preston Grisham (inset), former aide to Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC)

The Republican consultant at the heart of accusations of mischief in the South Carolina Democratic primary said in an interview he worked for a Democratic candidate because he opposed higher taxes and seemed qualified to serve in Congress.

Preston Grisham, a longtime campaign operative for Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), said his new firm Stonewall Strategies was just getting its first clients together when Gregory Brown gave him a call out of the blue to ask for some help with his primary campaign against House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC). Though the nearly $24,000 in payments (the largest expense for the Brown campaign) are listed as for "marketing," both Grisham and Brown said Stonewall did initial polling and helped Brown set up his Web site. (It was housed here last week but now is a dead link.)

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SC-GOV

Clyburn Says All Three Dem Candidates He Thinks Are 'Plants' Hired GOP Firm (VIDEO)

Christina Bellantoni | June 14, 2010, 5:02PM

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)

We've been keeping a close eye on the accusations and rumors coming out of South Carolina in recent days following a very strange Democratic primary. It's far from clear whether any of the mysterious candidates who performed better than expected for being little known were "plants" or part of any larger plot.

Today House Majority Whip James Clyburn accused all three candidates he's already suggested were "plants" of hiring Stonewall Strategies, a firm run by former aide to Rep. Joe Wilson. On MSNBC today charged that Democratic candidates Gregory Brown, Ben Frasier in SC-01 and Alvin Greene in the Senate race had employed Stonewall. Preston Grisham, who runs Stonewall, flatly denied the charge in an interview.

Clyburn (D-SC) has spent the last several days suggesting that something was amiss during Tuesday's primary, during which Frasier and Greene prevailed despite a lack of campaigning and no recognition from the state Democratic party.

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