Political Consultant Dirty Tricks, Stupid Stunts

FOREWORD

(Something here ... about all political consultants run afoul of laws, or use questionable tactics… sometimes, their given a pass when it suits one’s political agenda… other times, used by adversaries to distract from issues, etc…)

NATHAN SPROUL: Republican political consultant Nathan Sproul and his firm, Sproul & Associates, have been accused of a range of questionable activities - from deception to destroying voter registration forms of Democrats. Whether Sproul's tactics rise to the level of being illegal is in doubt… but what's clear is that, if they're true, they certainly fall in the "dirty trick" category.
Sproul allegedly misrepresented the nature of his firm so that he could hold voter registration drives in front of public libraries in key swing states prior to the 2004 elections. What's worse, his critics claim, is that his workers discarded registration forms of Democrats.
Following are excerpts from the Web site Salon.com (dated Oct. 24, 2004):
"… Eric Russell, a 26-year-old in Las Vegas, came forward last week with his explosive account. Russell, who has acknowledged a beef with the firm over pay, told his local CBS affiliate that supervisors at the company routinely discarded Democratic registration forms. The station, KLAS 8, managed to fish some from the trash, and when it contacted the affected voters they were, understandably, shocked."
Sproul denied the allegation, and notes that he turned in voter registration forms of roughly 1,000 Democrats. But the number of Republican registration forms far outweighed the number of Democratic forms. And Russell is just one of several former Sproul employees to make the charges.
"In (former employee Kelly) Bragg's account, workers were asked to congregate outside local convenience stores and pretend to be nonpartisan political pollsters interested in the nuances of local opinion," reported Salon.com. "'If anyone asks what kind of poll [this is], it is a simple field poll to see what neighborhood support is,' reads the script Sproul handed Bragg. But if the respondents to this pretend poll said that they were Bush supporters, canvassers were told to offer to help them register to vote. If they said they were Kerry supporters, the canvassers would politely walk away.
"Bragg says that fooling people was the key to the job," the Salon.com story continued. "Canvassers were told to act as if they were nonpartisan, to hide that they were working for the RNC, especially if approached by the media. Bragg's story mirrors the accounts provided to Salon by several librarians across the country who say they were contacted by Sproul in early September. In letters the firm sent to the libraries, Sproul misrepresented itself as America Votes -- a left-leaning national voter registration group not affiliated with Sproul -- but said that it was interested in registering "all those who wish to register to vote." Shortly after Sproul canvassers began working the libraries, though, patrons began complaining that the canvassers were being especially inquisitive about their political leanings, and some were pushing people to register as Republicans."

MORTON BRILLIANT: Democratic consultant Morton Brilliant became known for his altering of opponents' Wikipedia profiles. In one instance, he resigned from one of his campaigns. According to Wikipedia: "On April 26, 2006, Brilliant resigned as campaign manager for Secretary of State Cathy Cox amid allegations that he altered Wikipedia's online biography of her Democratic opponent to add a mention of his son's arrest in a fatal drunk driving accident. Those edits occurred on November 16, 2005 and further on November 22, 2005. [2] Cox said an internal investigation confirmed that the posting about her opponent, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, on Wikipedia came from within her gubernatorial campaign. The Taylor campaign had further provided documents showing that the online server that revised Taylor's profile had also added negative information to Wikipedia biographies of Republican opponents of other Brilliant clients in Washington state and South Carolina governor campaigns (Dino Rossi and Mark Sanford). [3][4] [5]"

NATE GRAY: Ohio political consultant Nate Gray, linked to wide-ranging corruption allegations, pleaded guilty in 2005 and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Following is the text of a news release issued by the Department of Justice: (http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/ohn/news/17November2005.htm)
“A Cleveland businessman convicted as part of a wide-ranging national public corruption scheme involving bribery and fraud has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Gregory A. White of the Northern District of Ohio announced today.In addition to the 15-year prison term, Nate Gray, 47, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James S. Gwin of the Northern District of Ohio to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. Gray, convicted in August 2005 following a corruption conspiracy trial, had also pleaded guilty to evading payment of previously assessed income taxes. The sentence imposed by the court today includes both the corruption and the tax charges, and Gray was immediately remanded into custody.
The sentencing for one of Gray’s co-defendants, New Orleans businessman Gilbert Jackson, 51, was continued to a later date. Jackson was also remanded into custody, and still faces trial the Eastern District of Louisiana in January 2006 on a multi-count indictment for tax evasion.
The sentence imposed today was the result of a multi-district probe of public corruption offenses in Cleveland, East Cleveland, Ohio, Houston and New Orleans. In all, eight defendants have been convicted and sentenced in the case, in which Department of Justice prosecutors were assisted by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division. The investigation revealed a wide range of public corruption, including the providing of money and luxury items to public officials in exchange for official acts such as the awarding of municipal contracts.
“As the lengthy sentence imposed today proves, there is a price to pay for public corruption,” said Assistant Attorney General Fisher. “The bribes paid by Nate Gray and others for these substantial contracts represent a hidden, illegal tax on the citizens of these cities. The Department of Justice will continue to work diligently to prosecute those who pay bribes and those state and local officials who sell their public offices.”U.S. Attorney White said, “We are pleased with the sentences obtained in this case. Our efforts, however, do not end here. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service remain committed to uncovering and prosecuting public officials and employees and private citizens who engage in public corruption offenses in the Northern District of Ohio. We will continue to follow investigative leads wherever they go and take appropriate prosecutive action.”
“Public corruption impedes the smooth operation of government, whether it is state, federal or local,” stated Nancy Jardini, IRS Chief, Criminal Investigation. “Mr. Gray’s sentencing demonstrates what can happen when an individual corruptly interferes with the operation of government and evades their taxes.”Emmanuel Onunwor, 47, the former mayor of East Cleveland, was previously sentenced to 108 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Onunwor was also ordered to pay restitution of more than $5.1 million to the city of East Cleveland. He had been convicted at trial on 22 counts, including RICO conspiracy, extortion under color of official right (Hobbs Act), mail fraud, bankruptcy fraud and filing false tax returns.
Monique McGilbra, 41, the former city of Houston Director of Building Services, was sentenced to 36 months in prison, a $5,000 fine and two years of supervised release. McGilbra had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. She was also sentenced in the Southern District of Texas to a concurrent term of 30 months in prison for participating in an honest services fraud scheme, and began serving her sentence on Sept. 6, 2005.
Oliver Spellman, 51, the former chief of staff to the mayor of Houston, was sentenced to two years probation and a $10,000 fine following his guilty pleas on a charge of conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right (Hobbs Act).
Brent Jividen, 43, a former employee of Honeywell Corporation and an associate of Nate Gray, was sentenced to 30 months in jail and two years of supervised release following his guilty plea to a RICO conspiracy involving predicate acts of conspiring to commit extortion under color of official right (Hobbs Act) and of mail and wire fraud. Jividen began serving his sentence on Oct. 31, 2005.
Ricardo Teamor, 59, a former attorney and associate of Nate Gray, was sentenced to four months in prison, four months of home detention, two years of supervised release and a $15,000 fine. Teamor had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right (Hobbs Act) was well as a substantive Hobbs Act count, and began serving his sentence on Oct. 31, 2005.
Former Cleveland City Councilman Joseph T. Jones, 37, was sentenced to two years of probation, including six months in home confinement. Jones tendered his resignation immediately following his guilty plea.These cases were prosecuted Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven M. Dettlebach and Benita Y. Pearson and by Trial Attorney Mary K. Butler of the Public Integrity of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, which is headed by Section Chief Noel L. Hillman.

JAMES TOBIN: John E. Sununu won a narrow victory over Jeanne Shahean in the 2002 race for a New Jersey U.S. Senate seat, but his victory was tainted by a phone-jamming scandal involving GOP consultant James Tobin. Tobin, then serving as Northeast field director for the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee (NRSC), was convicted in 2005, but that conviction was overturned in March. He faces a retrial. Prosecutors say Tobin was the mastermind of a plot to tie-up Democrats' phone lines, thus hurting their get-out-the-vote effort.
Following is an Associated Press story from the Bangor Daily News:

Tobin's phone jam verdict reversed
By Judy Harrison
Thursday, March 22, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

BANGOR - A federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed the conviction and sentence of a long-time Republican strategist accused of taking part in a phone-jamming plot in New Hampshire on Election Day 2002.
James Tobin, 46, of Bangor was found guilty 15 months ago of conspiring to make more than 800 repeated hang-up calls for about an hour to a phone bank set up by the state Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters' union.
He was acquitted of the more serious charge of conspiring to deprive New Hampshire residents of their right to vote after a six-day jury trial in December 2005 in Concord, N.H.
Tobin was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison the following May and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. He has been free on bail pending the outcome of his appeal.
Oral arguments were presented in January to a three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston made up of Judges Michael Boudin of Boston, Juan R. Tourruella of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Jeffrey R. Howard of Concord, N.H. Their decision was unanimous.
They ruled that the harassment statute under which Tobin was convicted "is not a close fit" for what Tobin did -it found that the trial judge's interpretation of the law was too broad - and questioned whether the government showed that Tobin had an intent or purpose to harass.
"Oh my God, wow, you know sometimes there is no justice," said New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan. "The fact of the matter is that the Republican state party and its people interfered with Election Day activities by jamming our phone lines, and it was wrong."
Bryan Sierra, a Justice Department spokesman, said prosecutors were reviewing the decision. He did not say if they planned to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. A new trial is highly unlikely given the 1st Circuit's ruling and the difficulty in proving Tobin's intent.
Efforts to reach Tobin and his attorneys were unsuccessful Wednesday.
His pastor, the Rev. James Haddix of All Souls Congregational Church in Bangor, said that Tobin had called him Wednesday afternoon to tell him of the appeals court's decision. Haddix testified at Tobin's sentencing.
"I was thrilled," Haddix said. "He was calling his pastor. We've been very close to him through this whole situation. I was relieved and I trust he was.
"Many of us have been praying for this kind of a resolution," the minister continued. "The congregation has been very supportive of the Tobins and the family and have always wished them well."
Maine Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, who has known Tobin since he was 10 years old, also attended several days of Tobin's trial. Tobin's parents and sisters are Diamond's constituents.
"I'm pleased for him and his family," Diamond said Wednesday after getting a call earlier in the day about the appeal. "It must be a huge, huge relief. Now he can move on and get over this hurdle."
At the time of the phone jamming, Tobin was a regional official with the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, overseeing Senate campaigns in several states, including New Hampshire and Maine. He went on to serve as President Bush's New England re-election campaign chairman in 2004, but resigned after the phone-jamming allegations surfaced.
The 2002 ballot in New Hampshire included a hotly contested race in which Republican John Sununu defeated then-Gov. Jeanne Shehean for the Senate.
The jamming plot led to four criminal prosecutions, a civil lawsuit and a flurry of political attacks.
Tobin was convicted of putting Charles "Chuck" McGee, 37, of Manchester, N.H., the former executive director of the state's Republican Party, in touch with Allen Raymond, 40, of Maryland, a Washington, D.C., political consultant who found an Idaho firm to place the hundreds of hang-up calls. A co-owner of that firm at the time, Shaun Hansen of Spokane, Wash., pleaded guilty in November to a conspiracy charge and to making the calls and awaits sentencing.
McGee and Raymond pleaded guilty of being part of the conspiracy in which Tobin vehemently denied taking part and have served sentences of less than a year each in federal prisons.
"That's wonderful news," McGee said.
McGee declined to say if he agreed with the decision and said the ruling had nothing to do with him.
"It's something in my past," McGee said.
Republican leaders said the party paid for Tobin's legal bills with the high-powered Washington law firm of Williams and Connolly because he assured them he had done nothing wrong. Williams and Connolly's other clients have included Bill and Hillary Clinton.
"We are pleased for Jim and his family," said Dan Ronayne, an RNC spokesman. He declined to comment further.
Also Wednesday, New Hampshire Democrats wrote to Congress asking for an inquiry into whether political interference delayed prosecution of the case until after the 2004 elections. Democrats and Manchester police contacted federal authorities about the incident in 2003.
Sullivan, the state party chairwoman, said the furor over alleged political firings of eight federal prosecutors prompted the move.
"Both the failure to name Tobin and the failure to charge him in the summer of 2004 give rise to the likelihood that he was being shielded from public scrutiny until after the president's election in November," Democrats said in the letter.
Following is a story in Opednews.com -- http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_michael__070326_federal_court_ruling.html:

Federal court ruling over ex-Bush campaign manager forces first test following firing of 8 U.S. Attorneys
by Michael Richardson
http://www.opednews.com/

The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has set the stage for the first test of courage for a U.S. Attorney since the firings of eight federal prosecutors.
The appellate court, located in Boston, ruled that James Tobin's conviction for phone-jamming in the 2002 New Hampshire general election be set aside and remanded the case back to U.S. District Court where federal prosecutors will now have to consider a retrial of Tobin.
What makes this a test case for courage is Tobin's high-level status in President Bush's re-election campaign. Until Tobin was forced to resign in October 2004, after being linked to the 2002 phone-jamming operation, he was the New England Campaign Manager for George Bush. The Republican National Committee has thus far spent over $2.5 million dollars defending Tobin with a bevy of high-priced Washington D.C. lawyers at the firm Williams and Connolly. Tobin's local defense lawyer was Thomas Rath, a member of the New Hampshire delegation to the Republican National Committee.
Tobin, convicted December 15, 2005, had asked to be set free of the charges over harassing phone calls but the appellate court instead returned the case to the trial court for disposition. The appellate judges agreed that a jury instruction was overly broad and dismissed the conviction on that account. However, the court found much wrong with Tobin's conduct and declared a jury could still convict him.
In 2002, Tobin was the New England director of the Republican National Committee and on a trip to New Hampshire was approached by the state GOP executive director Charles McGee about disrupting the Democrat get-out-the-vote drive on election day. Tobin connected McGee with GOP Marketplace headed by political telemarketer Allen Raymond and the plot to jam Democrat telephones was hatched. Included in the jamming was a voter-ride phone line operated by Manchester firefighters.
Raymond, a high-level operative, also was the director of the Republican Leadership Conference and testified he got the okay to proceed with the plot from Kenneth Goss, a former associate general counsel for the Federal Elections Commission. Federal prosecutor Andrew Levchuk took a different view of the "dirty scheme" in his opening words at Tobin's trial, "A line has been crossed here, the line that separates old-fashioned, hard-knuckled politics from crime."
Both McGee and Raymond pleaded guilty and received jail time and fines for their role in the scheme. Tobin was convicted by a federal jury after refusing to testify in his own behalf and was sentenced last May to 10 months imprisonment, two years of supervision, and a $10,000 fine. McGee was told upon sentencing to seven months imprisonment that his crime was "hideous and strikes at the very heart of American democracy." Raymond, who got three months in jail, was lectured at his sentencing about the failure of his "personal moral compass."
The appellate court determined that a jury could find Tobin guilty of conspiracy and that Tobin's role in aiding and abetting in the crime was clear. However, the court found that a jury instruction on intent was overly broad and thus remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings over Tobin's "unattractive conduct."
Unanswered questions, including the role of the White House, ratchet up the significance of the high-profile case. The Associated Press has reported that Tobin made over a hundred phone calls to the White House political affairs office, headed by Ken Mehlman, who has also served as chair of the Republican National Committee, between September 17th and November 22nd. Of most interest are the two dozen calls by Tobin in a three-day period while the plot was being hatched. Another questionable election day call to the White House was a 17 minute call by Jayne Millerick, then a GOP consultant and later New Hampshire Republican Chairwoman, who told the AP she couldn't remember what she talked about.
Meanwhile, Raymond's bill for the phone jam was $15,600, which appear to be linked to three $5,000 donations in the week before the election to the New Hampshire Republican Party. Disgraced Tom Delay's PAC, Americans for a Republican Majority, ponied up $5,000 and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff arranged for two of his Indian tribe clients to each donate $5,000 of gambling money to the GOP warchest.
It is now up the U.S. Attorney to decide whether to drop the unanswered questions and give Tobin a get-out-of-jail card or to risk political firing for seeking a retrial of the ex-Republican honcho.

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Worried about its candidate's slipping standing in the 1999 special primary for California's 16th State Assembly seat (encompassing Oakland and surrounding areas), the state Democratic Party resorted to a strategy of selective incentives: To bolster turnout in Oakland's black precincts, the Democrats offered a free chicken meal. Although paying people to vote is still legal in California, the ploy prompted a voter backlash.
In The Good Fight, a book of campaign case studies, author David Beiler writes that "5,000 food vouchers worth $5 each were purchased from two local grocery stores. Flyers were then sent to several thousand voters in the Flatlands (on the heals of a ‘get-out-the-vote’ letter signed by President Clinton) offering a ‘free whole chicken and potato salad’ to those who voted. Flier recipients were directed to take the flier and voting stub to one of eight locations (seven churches and the Democrat headquarters), where they could pick up their voucher."
The Democratic Party Chairman, political consultant Bob Mulholland initially denied so, but a story in the San Fransisco Examiner later suggested the mailing was targeted to blacks.
The free-chicken-dinner stunt initially aided Democrat Elihu Harris, the then-Oakland Mayor, who received 49 percent of the primary vote. But the subsequent news of the free-chicken ploy could only have helped Green Party candidate Audie Bock, who ultimately won the election and became the first third-party member elected to California's General Assemply since World War 1.
`'I was concerned by the low level of campaign activity (by Harris), and a lot of people were put off by the chicken-dinner issue,'' Don Perata, a Democrat who had held the 16th district seat until being elected to the state Senate, told the San Fransisco Chronicle.
In explaining his loss, Harris told the Oakland Tribute: "People could have been anti-me, pro-her, or mad about the chicken dinners."
STAN SHORE: Washington state news media in 2001 reported that GOP consultant Stan Shore was helping Green Party candidates without the candidates’ knowledge.
The plan: to siphon enough liberal votes away from Democrats. Following is the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s account: (http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/34242_green07.shtml)

Greens say Republicans crashed their party
Environmentalists accuse them of helping in order to sabotage Democrats
Tuesday, August 7, 2001
By NEIL MODIESEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Stan Shore is a veteran political campaign consultant for Washington state Republicans, but on July 7 he wasn't working for Republicans -- at least not directly.
He was in Lynnwood organizing a Green Party convention to nominate a Green candidate to run for the state House from the 21st District, in the state's most closely watched race. It could determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the House of Representatives.
In SeaTac the same day, Shore's wife, Leslie Donovan, was working to nominate a Green Party candidate for the King County Council's 13th District -- against one of her husband's Republican clients, state Sen. Pam Roach.
The delegates to that nominating convention reportedly included several Republican precinct committee officers from South King County.
Green Party leaders charged yesterday that Shore and other Republicans hijacked their party to get Greens onto the ballot to siphon votes away from Democrats in two tight, high-profile races.
"Certain Republicans seem to think they can influence these elections, and we take exception to that," said Kara Ceriello, who heads the Green Party of Washington state.
It was a revealing introduction to politics for Young Han, 18, the Greens' 21st District House candidate, an idealistic newcomer who graduated from Mountlake Terrace High School two months ago.
"I can't believe this is happening. It's just horrid that this stuff goes on in our political system," exclaimed Han, who decided several months ago to run as a Green candidate.
Dave Swart, 21, was a member of the Green Party of South King County but resigned to protest what happened at the 13th County Council district convention.
"We didn't do our homework on who was running this convention," he said.
Shore said he helped the Greens nominate a House candidate because "I like the Greens. I've always liked them," although he isn't a member of the party. He denied having done it to help Republicans.
Shore and his wife live in Olympia, far from the 21st Legislative District and County Council District 13.
Han said Shore and Donovan contacted him after learning he had intended to run. They took him to lunch and urged him to run, and Shore gave him a $250 campaign contribution -- all without revealing that Shore was a professional Republican political operative. Han now says he will give that money back.
Donovan said she is a member of the national Green Party -- although local Green leaders disputed it -- and has been an environmental activist. She emphatically denied having helped organize the South King County Green convention to benefit Republicans.
State Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance, although denying the state or local GOP organizations were involved in the effort, was blasé about what the Republicans were accused of doing.
"Working to make sure you get the right mixture of candidates on the ballot is a tactic that goes as far back as the dawn of democracy," Vance said. "This is nothing illegal or unethical, and it's a common tactic.
"Most people in politics assume that having a Libertarian on the ballot takes votes away from a Republican and having a Green on the ballot takes votes away from a Democrat."
Shore, who said he has helped run "dozens and dozens" of Republican campaigns, is Roach's consultant in her County Council race against recently appointed Republican incumbent Les Thomas and state Sen. Julia Patterson, a Des Moines Democrat.
He isn't working for Rep. Joe Marine, a Mukilteo Republican who was appointed to the 21st District House seat. But Shore said the state GOP hired him to do research on Marine and his two Democratic challengers, Brian Sullivan and D.J. Wilson.
The Republican consultant admitted that he made arrangements for the Greens' legislative district convention, rented the hotel room where it was held and bought doughnuts for the delegates.
His wife, Donovan, meanwhile, recruited Michael Jepson, 21, of Des Moines, to be the Green Party's County Council candidate even though Jepson -- unlike Han, the other Green candidate -- has had no involvement with the environmentalist party. Jepson said Donovan got his name from a mutual friend.
However, he also said, "I don't have anything to do with the Republican Party."
Ceriello and other Greens said Jepson's nomination might be invalid because he was recruited after the July 7 statutory deadline for minor-party nominations. He didn't attend the Greens' July 7 convention and was approached by Donovan several days later, he said, after at least one other Green Party member declined to be nominated.
Ceriello said Donovan placed a legal notice of the convention in a newspaper, as required by law, and didn't even contact the South King County Greens until she already arranged for the convention. Donovan said she worked with a South King County Green leader on the arrangements.
Greens obtained a list of Republican precinct committee officers from the Patterson campaign and said four of the 27 delegates to the 13th County Council District convention were Republican precinct committee officers, and three are married or related to Republican PCOs.
Jepson said Patterson, the Democratic council candidate, and a representative of Washington Conservation Voters tried to persuade him to drop out of the race, but he refused.

WARREN TOMPKINS. Warren Tompkins is considered South Carolina’s top political consultant, having guided successful state campaigns including that of George W. Bush. A protégé of the legendary Lee Atwater, Tompkins is known for his devastating effectiveness.
He has also, according to some, used many underhanded political tactics -- including the infamous smear campaign against John McCain in 2000.
Insiders have long speculated about Tompkins’ role in the anti-McCain push-polls. But one reporter -- James Shannon of Greenville’s Upstate Beat newsweekly -- says he obtained a “direct admission” of guilt from Jason Puhlasky, a lobbyist who at the time was a consultant for Tompkins firm. Shannon reportedly told the PBS news show NOW about a 2002 conversation he had with Puhlasky.
Here is an excerpt:
“I remember (the quote) quite explicitly. It was at a backyard barbecue at the home of Edwin Foulke, a local attorney (who was) then the chairman of the Greenville County GOP … a number of candidates were there that day, including Peeler and former Congressman Mark Sanford, who had been largely unknown outside his former Charleston-area House district when he filed for governor. After languishing in fourth place during the early primary campaign, Sanford was starting to move up though the consensus was that if Peeler did not escape the primary without a runoff, his likely opponent would be Atty. General Charlie Condon.”
Puhlasky (whom I had never met before that day) spoke confidently of their ability to dispatch Condon in a runoff, and in fact Condon (whose nickname was “Crazy Charlie”) had some exploitable flaws.
‘Isn’t it a little risky just focusing on Condon?’ I asked. “What if Sanford makes the runoff?”
Puhlasky grinned and said ‘No problem. We gutted McCain in three days, and we can do it again.’
The reference was to the infamous ‘push poll’ tactic, first seen in a 1978 Congressional election between Democrat Max Heller, the progressive mayor of Greenville, and Republican Carroll Campbell, a state senator looking to move up. Using the cover of a third candidate, Lee Atwater devised a scheme to call voters. Those who expressed a preference for Heller were asked, ‘Would it change your opinion if you knew he was a foreign-born Jew who doesn’t accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior?‘ As crude as it sounds, it worked. Heller’s double digit lead disappeared the weekend before the election and he lost.”

Warren Tompkins is also credited -- or blamed -- with successfully using aWeb sites to blister opponents. For instance, ADailyShot.com -- a site set up in 2006 as a news site but which turned out to be a pro-Mitt Romney site, used to spill “dirt” on opponents including Mike Huckabee. But Tompkins made national news when his firm apparently established PhoneyFred.org, an anonymous site devoted to smearing Fred Thompson. Following is an account from the Washington Post blog, http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/09/10/antithompson_site_connects_to.html
Anti-Thompson Site Connects to Romney Camp
A top adviser to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney appears to be behind today's launch of a new Web site attacking GOP presidential rival Fred Thompson.
The site, www.phoneyfred.org, paints an unflattering picture of Thompson, dubbing him: Fancy Fred, Five O'clock Fred, Flip-Flop Fred, McCain Fred, Moron Fred, Playboy Fred, Pro-Choice Fred, Son-of-a-Fred and Trial Lawyer Fred. [View an image of the Web site]
Shortly after a Washington Post reporter made inquiries about the site to the Romney campaign, the site was taken down.
Before it vanished, the front page of the website featured a picture of a regal Thompson dressed in a frilly outfit more befitting a Gilbert and Sullivan production than a presidential campaign. Under the heading, "Playboy Fred," the site asks the question: "Once a Pro-Choice Skirt Chaser, Now Standard Bearer of the Religious Right?"
Nowhere on the site does it indicate who is responsible for it. But a series of inquiries leads directly to the website of Under the Power Lines, the political consulting firm of Warren Tompkins, Romney's lead consultant in South Carolina.
The website is hosted by a company called bluehost.com, a firm based in Orem, Utah. An inquiry of that website about phoneyfred.org returns the following statement: "Domain phoneyfred.org is still attached to your politicalnetroots.com account as Addon," the site states. "For security reasons, you must remove it BEFORE you can continue. After detaching phoneyfred.org from politicalnetroots.com, you should experience some brief downtime on phoneyfred.org while its DNS propagates to your new account."
The site www.politicalnetroots.com brings up the homepage for "Under the Power Lines," which lists Tompkins as "Partner, Consultant," along with Terry Sullivan and Welsley Donehue.
South Carolina politics is known to be rough-and-tumble. In 2000, it was in South Carolina that then-candidate John McCain ran into an organized effort to tar his character, including anonymous allegations that he had fathered a black child.
At the time, then-candidate George Bush was desperate to stop a surging McCain, who had just won a stunning upset in the New Hampshire primary. Tompkins was the chief strategist for Bush in South Carolina at the time, though Bush campaign officials have always denied that the campaign was responsible for the attacks.
A spokesman for Romney's campaign said he would look into questions about the anti-Thompson site. "Our campaign is focused on the issues and ideas that are of paramount concern to voters," said spokesman Kevin Madden. "The website we are focused on is MittRomney.com."
Tompkins did not return calls or emails for comment.

MARK SANFORD. South Carolina’s popular, maverick governor, Mark Sanford, has been embroiled in public disputes with the State Legislature -- even members in his own party -- practically since taking office in 2003.
In his battle versus the status-quo, he has even gotten involved in campaigns against members of his own party with whom he is often at odds. But in at least two cases, campaign operatives associated with Sanford may have crossed the line.
In the first instance, a Web site run by a former Sanford staffer exulted that “somebody has a Strom Thurmond problem,” a reference to the revelation that the late Thurmond had an illegitimate black daughter.
“While the identities of both the State Senator and his offspring have yet to be disclosed, sources tell FITSNews that the politician hails from the Midlands area of the state, that the child was released earlier this year from a correctional institution in South Carolina, and that the full story could break in wide circulation as early as next week,” reported FITSNews.com, a popular site operated by blogger Will Folks.
It was in the “comments” section is where the Senator was identified. “Say it aint so jakie,” wrote one anonymous commenter.
“Jakie been playing after hours where he shouldn’t be,” wrote another.
The rumor turned out to be unfounded, and Folks later wrote that the “leak” came from a close Sanford advisor.

According to Folks:
“A lot of people have been wondering what S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford was going to do with that wad of nearly $2 million in leftover campaign cash he chose not to return to donors following his 2006 reelection. Well, it turns out one thing could be the political equivalent of a “sting” operation directed against some of his fiercest political opponents. Sources tell FITSNews that one of the governor’s closest advisors has been clandestinely working with at least one private investigator in an effort to collect dirt on ‘problem’ legislators.
“If true, this sort of Watergate methodology would certainly represent a radical departure from the governor’s previous pie chart and bar graph approach to getting things done.
Or not getting things done, actually.”
While it is rumored that the source of the smear was Sanford advisor Chris Drummond, the blogger never disclosed his source. And the anonymous commenters? Those would be the same Sanford advisors, as speculation has it.

Observers also speculate that Sanford aides were behind the “phoney phone calls” directed at GOP House candidate Randy Bates.
According to FITSNews.com, “sources are telling us that a black woman calling herself ‘Shaniqua’ has placed telephone calls to several Republican voters in Beaufort County urging them to vote for Shannon Erickson in today’s GOP State House runoff election. According to individuals who have received them, the calls say, ‘My name is Shaniqua, and I be voting’ for Shannon Erickson ’cause she gonna give me all the money I need sos I don’t hafta work.‘ Another phone caller, alleging to be Erickson herself, tells voters that she will ‘spend money like a drunken sailor’ if elected.”
But while these “sources” were telling the Columbia-based blogger about these calls, no one in Beaufort County -- where the election occurred -- reported getting the calls. Was it a dirty trick aimed at the Bates campaign? Some insiders say yes, and suggested the phoney-phoney phone calls came from the Sanford camp -- specifically, Beaufort native Tom Davis, who is said to be plotting a challenge to GOP Senator Catherine Ceips. (Ceips was an ardent backer of Bates, who was defeated in the primary by Erickson. Sanford openly worked against Ceips in her 2007 primary, and was said to be strongly supporting Erickson’s bid.)

Critics also accuse Sanford of attempting to funnel tax money to aid his ongoing political battle against lawmakers with him he is at odds. Specifically, he directed more than $101,000 in public money -- which was left over from the 2006 National Governors Association conference -- to Carolinians for Reform. Carolinians for Reform is essentially a campaign organization formed by Sanford campaign donors. Sanford had said the organization was created to “educate” South Carolinians about their own government, but critics call it an attack organization.
After Senator Knotts uncovered the taxpayer-funded campaign donation, Sanford requested the organization give the money back, and it did so. Still, the conservative governor’s formerly squeaky clean image had been sullied.

RYAN TOOHEY: New York political consultant Ryan Toohey and a handful of other Democratic operatives are at the center of a controversy over so-called "robo-calls," those often annoying automated telephone calls often used by candidates. In a recent episode, Toohey and a cadre of Democrat officials were accused of using robo-calls to spread untrue messages about Maureen O'Connell, a GOP state Senate candidate running in a special election in the 7th District, which includes Nassau County and surrounding areas. One round of calls falsely told voters O'Connell performed abortions during the time she worked as a nurse.
O'Connell's campaign also questions the role Toohey played in a series of four purportedly pro-Oconnell phone calls sent during the Super Bowl - phone messages which likely caused many angry football fans to vote against her and in favor of Democrat Craig Johnson - the ultimate winner.
Following is a story published in the NY Sun:

Democrats Accused of Dirty Tricks in Senate Race
By JACOB GERSHMAN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 26, 2007

It was Super Bowl Sunday. In a Nassau County hamlet, the Imbriale family was watching the game on a big-screen television when the kitchen phone rang.
On the other end of the line was a recording of a young woman's voice - fast-talking, cheerful, and dull - reminding them to vote for Maureen O'Connell, the Republican state Senate candidate running in the high-profile 7th District special election, two days away.
John Imbriale, a Republican, thought nothing of it and hung up. Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang again. The recording had changed, but the voice was the same, this time telling him that Ms. O'Connell has "worked for years to expand health coverage and believes we should have lower taxes."
By the time the Colts won, the Imbriales had received four more automatic calls, known as robo-calls. Their Hicksville home was one of perhaps thousands in the Nassau area that fended off an onslaught of robo-calls that night.
The next day, a frantic Ms. O'Connell sent an e-mail to supporters assuring them that her campaign was not responsible for something as unwise as harassing voters during the big game. She blamed the calls on her Democratic opponent, Craig Johnson, an accusation he denied. She also said she was filing a complaint with the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.Republicans in the district said they also received a flier in the mail sent by a group billing itself as "Democrats for Maureen O'Connell." The flier, which was obtained by the Sun, described how the candidate is "strongly supported by SEIU/1199, the mega union," has "pledged to fight against cutting the state budget," and has embraced Roe v. Wade. The flier was signed by Abigail Steen, whose name does not appear in a local phone directory.
"It's a new low in dirty, misleading campaigning. Quite frankly, the dirty tricks really crossed the line. I've never seen such a despicable negative campaign of untruths and lies," Mr. Skelos said.
Mr. Toohey and Mr. Johnson's campaign manager, Brian Stedge-Stroud, deny any involvement in tricks. Mr. Stedge-Stroud suggested in an interview that Republicans were suffering from a bad case of sour grapes and were looking for excuses to explain away Ms. O'Connell's loss. Mr. Johnson won the February 6 race by almost eight percentage points.
"The campaign had nothing to do with it," Mr. Stedge-Stroud said. "They're just trying to muddy up the waters because they're trying to hide the fact they're losing on issues, such as property taxes and reforming Albany."
Mr. Skelos said federal investigators had not responded to Ms. O'Connell's complaint. He said his office would go over finance records from the Johnson campaign submitted in the next mandatory filing period.
"Somebody paid for it," he said. "It's not something that just happens."

ED MATRICARDI: Former Virginia GOP director Ed Matricardi was convicted of illegally eavesdropping on Democrats' phone calls. Below is a 2002 story from The (Virginia) Cavalier Daily.
In a scandal that shocked Richmond lawmakers and party officials Friday, state police began a criminal investigation into whether Ed Matricardi, the Virginia Republican Party Executive Director, illegally listened in on two Democratic Party conference calls.
The investigation began after Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore received word that Matricardi may have violated state laws by accessing the conversation. He then gave the information to police.
Matricardi announced privately that he will be leaving his post as executive director, Politics Prof. Larry J. Sabato said. However, the decision has not been publicly confirmed.
The two calls that Matricardi allegedly tapped consisted of conversations involving state legislators and top aides to Gov. Mark R. Warner, as well as Warner himself at one point. The calls were organized to discuss delicate redistricting issues raised by a Roanoke County Circuit judge's March 11 decision that the existing district lines were unconstitutionally drawn with respect to "racial gerrymandering."
Matricardi declined to comment on the case because it is an ongoing investigation at this time.
Steven Benjamin, Matricardi's attorney, was optimistic about the case.
"Law enforcement officers now have all the information necessary to complete this investigation," Benjamin said. "Ed has done nothing wrong, and we expect the authorities will soon reach the same conclusion."
Benjamin added that, in a conference call, any party involved may consent to a third party listening to the conversation.
The allegations raise complex issues regarding the morality of Matricardi's alleged act in addition to legal issues. If the conversation falls under the auspices of a confidential attorney-client conversation, Matricardi could potentially be disbarred for his act.
University Law Prof. George Rutherglen emphasized that the morality of the act depends on many factors.
"You have to look at the Virginia statute and what the effect of consent is," Rutherglen said. "Even if it is a violation, it's a further question what the appropriate punishment would be."
Sabato was highly critical of Matricardi's actions.
"This is unethical with a capital 'U'," Sabato said. "It is this sort of thing that gives politics a bad name."
According to Sabato, phone tapping is a practice that occurs all over the country, particularly with cellular phones.
Sabato said Matricardi most likely received an access code from one of the participating members.
Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Lawrence H. Framme III said this incident raises larger questions of political ethics in Richmond.
"This is raising questions of whether this was an isolated incident," Framme said.
Kilgore received word of the scandal through a transcript of the conversation.
"As I understand it, a copy of a transcript of one conversation was given to the attorney general," Framme said.
Kilgore Spokesman Tim Murtaugh stressed that Kilgore had not reviewed possibly confidential information given to him, but referred the matter directly to the police.

JOSEPH GAYLORD. GOP consultant Joseph Gaylord, who is generally credited with engineering the Republicans’ Contract With America in 1994, is also partly to blame for then-Speaker Newt Gingrich running afoul of the House Ethics Committee. In the mid-1990s, Gaylord famously ran Gingrich's office – which was a direct violation of House rules, since he was actually employed by Gingrich’s politial action committee (GOPAC) at the time. (House members and are barred from using funds received from a political committee to defray the costs of their congressional activities.)
Gaylord’s work earned Gingrich the following December 1995 admonishment from the House Ethics Committee:
“In reference to the complaint filed by Representative George Miller on February 13, 1995, the Committee has found that your use of Mr. Joseph Gaylord was in violation of House Rule 45, which prohibits the use of unofficial resources for official purposes. Specifically the Committee found that Mr. Gaylord's activities during the transition of interviewing prospective staff violate our rules and that his regular, routine presence in congressional offices, while in and of itself not a violation of House rules, creates the appearance of the improper commingling of political and official resources. Such activities, if they are continuing, should cease immediately. The Committee will take no further action.”

BUSH'S DUI LEAK: Was an 11th-hour leak to the news media about George W. Bush's 1976 DUI arrest in Maine deliberately timed to throw Bush off-balance and erode his conservative base in the final days of the campaign? It's hard to confirm, but to many observers the answer appears to be "yes."
"If anybody doesn't believe that this came right out of Gore headquarters, you ought to sprinkle some Peter Pan twinkle dust on them," former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson told CNBC's Chris Matthews.
While few know for sure who sent the blast fax of Bush's arrest record to Fox News, it's clear someone was pushing hard to get newsrooms to report on the 24-year-old DUI. And Democrats appeared to have already been prepared to pounce on the Bush DUI report once it came out.
Many observers questioned the role Gore press secretary Chris Lehane played in the leak. The arrest was first reported by a television reporter in Portland, Maine -- home of Lehane's sister Erin whose law firm is affiliated with a political consulting business with strong ties to the Democratic National Committee.
Following is a 2000 story from WorldNetDaily.com:

Is DNC-tied Maine law firm behind DUI leak?
By Paul Sperry
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON -- The sister of Al Gore's press secretary denies helping leak information about George W. Bush's drunk-driving record but her Portland, Maine, law firm is affiliated with a political consulting business headed by a long-time Democratic National Committee operative, WorldNetDaily has learned.
The DNC has denied leaking any information about Bush's 1976 misdemeanor in Maine, although it admits investigating public records on GOP foes.
Erin M. Lehane, sister of Gore campaign spokesman Chris Lehane, is a member of the Portland-based law firm, Curtis Thaxter Stevens Broder & Micoleau. Partner Charlie Micoleau, an eight-year DNC veteran, is director of The Public Affairs Group, an Augusta, Maine-based political consultancy.
Micoleau also served as an aide, including as chief of staff, to U.S. Sen. Edmund S. Muskie in Washington from 1970 to 1978. The Portland probate judge, Bill Childs, who pulled the court files on Bush and gave them to a local Democratic lawyer to tip off the press, is tied through his father to the old Muskie political machine in Maine, according to Portland political watchers.
"I'm interested in winning," Micoleau was quoted as saying during the 1988 presidential race, while serving on a DNC steering committee.
Calls to Micoleau's residence were not returned.
What's more, Curtis Thaxter's founding partner, Kenneth M. Curtis, was a former two-term Democratic governor of Maine and the chairman of the DNC from 1977 to 1978.
Another Curtis Thaxter partner, Jamie Broder, served as a delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Aging.
Denying Republican rumors, Lehane insists she had nothing to do with leaking the 11th-hour bombshell about Bush's operating-under-the-influence, or OUI, conviction.
Is there anything to rumors you played a role in unearthing this information? WorldNetDaily asked Lehane at her Freeport, Maine, home Saturday.
"Absolutely not," she said in a phone interview.
Were you at the Maine District Court in Portland on Thursday, when Childs gave the information to Democrat lawyer Tom Connolly?
"Absolutely not," said Lehane, who works in Portland.
And you've never dealt with Judge Childs? "Not at all."
The Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory does not list probate as one of Lehane's areas of practice. They are limited to "corporate, litigation and international." Her firm, however, does handle probate cases and has come before Childs' court.
Asked if she knew Connolly, the 29-year-old Lehane replied: "I just know him because he ran for governor. I have no personal or professional relationship in court with him."
She added: "I have no idea how I got dragged into it."
After learning her brother is Gore's campaign spokesman and that they both grew up in Kennebunkport, where Bush was pulled over, Republican operatives figured she might be involved.
Can you see how they put two and two together?
"Yeah, well, they put two and two together and came up with 47," Lehane said with a laugh.
Lehane, who's married to lawyer Julius Ciembroniewicz, used to work as in-house legal counsel for Wright Express LLC in South Portland.
Some White House employees who have dealt with Chris Lehane say he has a reputation as a dirty trickster.
Former White House FBI agent Gary Aldrich, for one, said Lehane's job in the White House primarily was to smear whistleblowers.
"Chris Lehane was the deputy over at the Old Executive Office Building who was assigned by (presidential aide) Harold Ickes to discredit any witnesses like me who came forward to give testimony about Bill Clinton," Aldrich said. "He's now handling the Gore campaign. What does that tell you about Al Gore's campaign?"
Ickes is now handling Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOLOUS: When ABC news correspondent George Stephanopolous sounds off on President Bush’s and Alberto Gonzalez’s role in the firing of U.S. attorneys, keep this in mind: He knows a little something about the subject.
Stephanopolous had been one of the nation’s foremost Democratic operatives when he was tapped as a strategist for Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. In 1993, he was appointed to serve as White House Communications Director, and continued dutifully defending his boss. (In Democratic circles, he was not so fondly remembered for blurting out during an interview that his boss, Clinton, "kept the promises he meant to keep.")
That same year, 1993, is when attorney general Janet Reno cleaned house, firing 93 U.S. attorneys.
Observers speculated the move was made to take U.S. Attorney Jay Stephens off the House Post Office investigation of Dan Rostenkowski, the Ways and Means chairman who was shepherding Clinton’s economic program through Congress.(In March 1993, Stephens had said he was within 30 days of finishing the Rostenkowski investigation. With Stephens gone, the indictment on Mail Fraud charges took another 14 months.)
Stephanopolous denied the firings were political in nature.
But the following year, Stephanopolous – who then served as a senior advisor to Clinton -- reportedly placed an irate Resolution Trust Corp., an independent regulatory agency investigating claims stemming from the collapse of Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan – the S&L connected to Rose Law Firm of Hillary Clinton fame. He also allegedly contacted the Treasury Department about the matter to
Did Stephanopolous try to have Stephens fired a second time – this time to hinder the Whitewater investgation? He says no. A White House statement says Stephanopolous and White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes, who are accused of making the call, had “no recollection” of the incident.
His attempts to
On March 17, Stephanopolous was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury led by special prosecutor Robert Fiske. Stephanopolous issued a one sentence statement: "I welcome the opportunity to give Mr. Fiske the facts.”
He was never indicted of a criminal offense, but the episode hangs a cloud over Stephanopolous… as well as his coverage of the Gonzalez-U.S. attorneys affair.

JERE NASH & MARTIN DAVIS: Democratic political consultants Jere Nash and Martin Davis pleaded guilty in 1997 to illegal fundraising to help their client, Ron Carey, in his campaign for Teamsters Union president. The scandal prompted officials to invalidate Carey’s election, leading to the 1998 election of James P. Hoffa.
Following is a story from CNN.com:

Former Teamsters president Ron Carey indicted
January 25, 2001Web posted at: 9:59 p.m. EST (0259 GMT)
From CNN Producer Phil Hirschkorn

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Former Teamster President Ron Carey was indicted Thursday for allegedly committing perjury and making false statements during the investigation of a fundraising scandal that led to his downfall as head of the nation's largest private sector union.
The 39-page, seven-count indictment, announced by U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, charges Carey with lying to government-appointed officials and to the grand jury investigating fundraising improprieties in Carey's 1996 campaign for a second five-year term as president of the 1.4 million member union.
Carey, 64, who took charge of the union as a reform candidate pledging to clean up its long history of corruption, won re-election in December 1996 by narrowly defeating James P. Hoffa, the son of legendary Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa who disappeared in 1976, the apparent victim of an underworld hit.
In the wake of the fundraising scandal, government-appointed election monitors invalidated the Carey victory, ordered a new election and barred Carey from running again.
The union subsequently expelled Carey, a member for 40 years since his first job as a UPS truck driver in Queens.
Hoffa beat two other candidates in the December 1998 vote and assumed leadership of the union on May 1, 1999.
"The member of the Teamsters Union have paid a terrible price for the misdeeds of Ron Carey. Their hard-earned dues money was squandered away by his illegal activities," Hoffa said in a statement released Thursday.
In the illegal fundraising scheme, Carey's '96 campaign received several hundred thousand dollars in tainted funds. In a classic kickback scheme, several liberal groups received large donations from the Teamsters treasury totally $885,000, and those groups in turn made or arranged for reciprocal contributions to the Carey campaign.
The criminal charges stem from statements Carey made under oath denying knowledge of diverting funds to four political groups, which included one of the Teamsters' largest ever donations -- $475,000 to Citizen Action, a consumer and environmental advocacy group.
Project Vote, an organization that mobilizes minority and low income voters, received $175,000 and the National Council of Senior Citizens received an $85,000 in Teamster funds.
Carey's former campaign manager, Jere Nash, and a political consultant, Martin Davis, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the scheme in September 1997. They have yet to be sentenced and could testify against Carey.
Most of the laundered money was sought for a $700,000 direct mail campaign conceived by Nash and Davis to Teamster members in the closing weeks of the union election, prosecutors say.
The union's former political director under Carey, William Hamilton, is serving a three-year sentence for participating in the scheme. A federal appeals court upheld Hamlton's conviction earlier this week.
Carey has repeatedly said he was not aware of the scheme.
"What took place here is against everything I believe in, everything I worked for. It was a betrayal," Carey said when the scandal emerged three-years ago.
Carey was the first Teamster president in the union's history to be directly elected by the union's rank and file. The secret ballot in the U.S.-government supervised election in 1991 came after a 1989 agreement between the union and the Justice Department, a "consent decree" whereby the union promised to end its mob ties and the government agreed to drop pending racketeering charges.
Carey's lead attorney, Reid Weingarten, told CNN in a telephone interview that Carey is "a hero of the labor movement and not a criminal."
"He took over a throroughly corrupt union and cleaned it up," Weingarten said, referring to his ousting more than 400 union officials and slashing his salary and perks for union leaders.
"He threw out true mobsters at great risk to his personal safety. He worked closely with federal authorities to rid the union of a bad element, and this is his reward," Weingartn said.
Carey also led the sucessful strike against UPS, the nation's largest employer of Teamsters, in 1997.
"We will contest these charges until he is fully vindicated and he will be fully vindicated," Weingarten said.
Carey's arraignment in U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan is scheduled for next Thursday, Feb. 1, at 10 a.m.

WILLIE HORTON: The name "Willie Horton" has become synonymous with negative campaigning because critics said it played to racial fears. An independent expediture for the first George H.W. Bush campaign featured a picture of Willie Horton, who is African American and a convicted felon. Horton was enrolled in a furlough program championed by Bush's opponent, Michael Dukakis. The furlough program allowed Horton the opportunity to commit a rape and armed robbery against a woman. The ad was sponsored by the group Americans for Bush, although some observers saw the fingerprints of legendary strategist Lee Atwater.
According to Wikipedia:
"Beginning on September 21, 1988, the Americans for Bush arm of the National Security Political Action Committee, began running a campaign ad entitled "Weekend Passes," using the Horton case to attack Dukakis. The ad was produced by media consultant Larry McCarthy, who had previously worked for Roger Ailes. After clearing the ad with television stations, McCarthy went back and added a menacing mug shot of Horton, who is African-American. He called the image "every suburban mother's greatest fear." The ad was run as an independent expenditure, separate from the Bush campaign, which claimed, as is legally required, not to have had any role in its production.
On October 5, a day after the "Weekend Passes" ad was taken off the airwaves, and also the date of the infamous Bentsen-Quayle debate, the Bush campaign ran its own ad, "Revolving Door," which also attacked Dukakis over the weekend furlough program. While the advertisement did not mention Horton or feature his photograph, it depicted a variety of intimidating-looking men walking in and out of prison through a revolving door.
The commercial was filmed at an actual state prison in Draper, Utah, but the persons depicted - thirty in all, including three African-Americans and two Hispanics - were all paid actors. Attempting to counter-attack, Dukakis's campaign ran an ad about a murderer named Angel Medrano who raped and killed a pregnant mother of two after escaping from a federal correctional halfway house. Unlike Horton, Medrano (who according to Arizona Department of Corrections records, has been found guilty of 16 major and eight minor violations of prison rules and conduct between 1982 and 1999 including assault with a weapon) was not already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Dukakis's ad ignored this fact and displayed Medrano's name and showed his photograph. According to Elizabeth Drew of "The New Yorker," several Hispanic congressmen in the Southwest asked Dukakis to delete Medrano's name, which was done.The controversy escalated when Vice Presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen and former Democratic candidate and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson called the ad racist. In 1991, terminally ill with cancer, Atwater apologized to Dukakis for saying that he would "make Willie Horton his running mate...because it makes me sound racist, which I am not."In 1990, the Ohio Democratic Party and a group called "Black Elected Democrats of Ohio" filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission alleging that NSPAC had coordinated or cooperated with the Bush campaign in airing the ad, which would make it an illegal in-kind campaign contribution. Investigation by the FEC, including deposition of officials from both organizations, revealed indirect connections between McCarthy and the Bush campaign (such as his having previously worked for Ailes), but found no direct evidence of wrongdoing, and the investigation reached an impasse and was eventually closed with no finding of any violation of campaign finance laws.

KARL ROVE: George W. Bush's top advisor, Karl Rove, is credited with a string of questionable tactics dating back to 35 years.
According to the Guardian Unlimited newspaper: "In the autumn election season of 1970, a cherubic, bespectacled teenager turned up at the Chicago campaign headquarters of Alan Dixon, a Democrat running for state treasurer in Illinois. No one paid the newcomer much attention when he arrived, or when he left soon afterwards. Nor did anyone in the office make the connection between the mystery volunteer and 1,000 invitations on campaign stationery that began circulating in Chicago's red-light district and soup kitchens, promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing" for all-comers at Dixon's headquarters.
"As political dirty tricks go, it was minor league. Hundreds of the city's heavy drinkers and homeless turned up at a smart Dixon reception looking for free booze. Dixon was embarrassed but the plot failed to stop his momentum: he was elected state treasurer and went on to become a senator. But the teenager who stole his letterheads, Karl Rove, has gone even further."

DARRELL JACKSON: Darrell Jackson, a powerful Democratic political consultant, public relations executive, S.C. state Senator and Columbia pastor made the news in early 2007 when he agreed to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race for president; But the well-connected Jackson later made news for what he did not reveal – that just days earlier he had reached an agreement to “advise” Clinton’s campaign -- for $210,000.
While confirming to a reporter that he was endorsing Clinton, Jackson never mentioned that his firm, Sunrise Enterprises, was being retained for $10,000 a month through the election.
The case raised eyebrows, with some observers suggesting Jackson was simply being paid to influence his constituents – and/or his congregation – to vote for Clinton. Jackson, who is black, denied the accusations, then played that time-honored card: The race card.
From The State newspaper:

Jackson defends his endorsement of Hillary Clinton
By AARON GOULD SHEININ
asheinin@thestate.com

Days before U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton makes her first visit to South Carolina as a presidential candidate, one of her top supporters here faces accusations that his support for her is tied to a contract his firm landed with Clinton’s campaign.
State Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, said such accusations are offensive and smack of racism.
When asked Tuesday by a reporter, Jackson said he was backing Clinton, D-N.Y. A day later, a national political Web site reported Jackson’s consulting firm, Sunrise Enterprises, had agreed to work for Clinton for $10,000 a month.
That story was picked up by The New York Post and on cable television. The Post story questioned whether “Jackson’s endorsement was bought by a higher bidder.”
That, Jackson said, was a low blow.
“I’m somewhat offended in the sense that ... the national media thinks that an African-American in my position cannot support a candidate without being paid off,” Jackson said. “Second, they seem to have a hard time believing that in South Carolina there could be a legitimate African-American public relations firm that’s not a hustler.”
The timing of how the situation has evolved is unfortunate, Jackson said. He had not expected to announce his endorsement of Clinton’s campaign but answered honestly when asked Tuesday. The next day, details of the work relationship were leaked to The National Journal’s Hotline, a widely read political Web site.
Jackson said his endorsement, and his company, were courted by almost all the Democratic candidates, including U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, an S.C. native whom Jackson backed — and worked for — in 2004.
He said some candidates offered more money than Clinton, others less, for his firm’s services.
Ultimately, he said, he decided to throw his personal support behind Clinton, a decision he said was independent of Sunrise’s relationship with the candidate.
“If there was no contract, I’d still endorse Clinton,” Jackson said. “This was having thought about the process, who is best able to lead and, quite honestly, which Democrat I think will be strongest come November. It’s not about the contract.”
Sunrise Enterprises, Jackson said, has been in business since 1986 and has seven employees with offices in the Vista and in Charleston. It does advertising, public relations and other consulting. Jackson said he hasn’t drawn a salary from the company for years, although the firm does lease a car for him to drive.
Jackson also is pastor of Bible Way Church of Atlas Road, one of the state’s largest black congregations, boasting 9,000 members last year.
Jackson said he’s hardly alone when it comes to serving in the Legislature, backing a candidate and having a business that deals in politics simultaneously.
Former House Majority Leader Rick Quinn, R-Richland, operated his own political consulting firm while in the House and today is working for U.S. Sen. John McCain’s bid for the 2008 Republican nomination.
Current House Majority Leader Jim Merrill, R-Charleston, also owns a public relations and consulting firm, Geechie Communications, and backs McCain, R-Ariz.
Jackson said no one questioned Merrill nor Quinn, so it’s unfair to criticize him alone.
Merrill said McCain’s campaign paid him about $10,000 for four or five months of work in late 2006. He endorsed McCain on Jan. 31.
“Any time you have a part-time legislature where people have to make their living elsewhere, you have the potential for perceived or actual conflicts of interest,” Merrill said, “particularly so when politics or advertising is part of your job. I try to be very cognizant of this.”
Jackson said Clinton’s campaign was making “a business deal” when it hired Sunrise Enterprises. “I’ve never had my integrity questioned,” he said.
Armstrong Williams, a conservative black commentator and brother of state Sen. Kent Williams, D-Marion, had scathing remarks Thursday for Jackson.
“That is scandalous,” Williams said on his radio talk show program. “It really is. You at least should support a candidate because of what you believe in. They’re not buying his services. They’re buying his influence.”

DICK HARPOOTLIAN: “This guy is a little too light in the loafers to fill Strom Thurmond's shoes," read a press release written by S.C. Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian. The release assailed Lindsey Graham, who had just announced his intention to run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Strom Thurmond.
"Light in the loafers" is a well-known anti-gay slur, but Harpootlian and ____ say that is not how it was intended. He reportedly even told one political columnist he did not know the phrase was used to describe homosexual people.
One could be easily forgiven for being skeptical of Harpootlian’s denial. For instance, Harpootlian also reportedly used the slur in a number speeches.
And according to the March 12, 2001 edition of the Southern Political Report: “At a Democratic luncheon last year, Harpootlian said, ‘Congressman Lindsey Graham criticized President Clinton for 'having sex with a woman in the Oval office.' Now, I don't know about you but I can't tell what part he objected to -- having sex with a young woman or having sex in the Oval office?’”
Graham, who is unmarried, said Harpootlian’s remarks amounted to slander. Republicans and non-Republicans alike called it an example of the lowest form of mudslinging.

JOSEPH STEFFEN: His Democratic opponents attribute to Maryland GOP consultant Joseph Steffen, who styled himself as the "prince of darkness," a number of dirty tricks.
Following is a story in the Washington Post -- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/14/AR2005111401488.html :

Former Aide's 'Dirty Tricks' Could Blemish Ehrlich Image
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 15, 2005; Page B05

Long before Joseph Steffen surfaced at the center of political intrigue in Annapolis, Gerry Brewster suspected (Steffen) was the political operative who wiped out his fundraising list and plastered his windshield with bumper stickers for his opponent.
Connie DeJulius believed Steffen was behind a nasty leaflet pinned to every telephone pole in her neighborhood, tarring her as a "home wrecker."
So, earlier this month, when Steffen told reporters and radio listeners that he "did a lot of things I'm not proud of" during 20 years with Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., it was for Brewster and DeJulius a revelation.
The two Democrats, who in the 1990s lost to Ehrlich (R) in bids for a congressional seat, considered it confirmation that these episodes were not a trick of imagination or the brain's way of redirecting the bitterness of defeat.
"I always knew in my gut he was behind these things," said Brewster, a lawyer who lost to Ehrlich in 1994. "But somehow, hearing Joe Steffen publicly acknowledge his culpability and his involvement in dirty tricks was for me personally very satisfying."
Much has been made of the role Steffen has acknowledged playing in circulating rumors about Ehrlich's latest political rival, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D), and his possible involvement in identifying workers to be fired from state jobs.
But some say that, more than anything, Steffen's decision to speak out helps ground in reality some of the murky allegations that Ehrlich's past political opponents have made about his campaign tactics.
When Steffen was asked directly by the Baltimore Sun who was to blame for dirty tricks against Brewster, DeJulius and other Ehrlich opponents, he said plainly: "They were talking about me."
Brewster said he was stunned.
"All those years of political dirty tricks never caught up with him," Brewster said of Ehrlich. "Now, finally, he's been caught. His chief dirty trickster has turned against him."
Ehrlich, asked directly about Steffen's role in those past campaigns during a call-in radio show Saturday, laughed at the question. "Those races were won by 20, 25, 30 points," Ehrlich said on Baltimore's WBAL radio. "Those races were landslides, so God knows, let's go onto something that's relevant." Ehrlich was first confronted with such questions in February, when Steffen wrote on a conservative Web site that he was known in campaign circles as "Dr. Death" and that "Part of my unwritten job description is to hurt people."
Steffen also acknowledged on the Web site that he helped give "float" to gossip about O'Malley's personal life, rumors the mayor has denied. Ehrlich fired Steffen immediately after the Internet chats were disclosed.
When asked whether Steffen was his "dirty-tricks man," the governor said then, "That's just silly stuff."
Last week, his press secretary, Gregory Massoni, said the governor did not know that Steffen was engaging in political dirty tricks on his behalf and did not condone the use of such tactics during any prior campaign. Asked if the governor owed his past opponents an apology, given Steffen's recent comments, the answer was, "No."
One Ehrlich ally, Towson University Prof. Richard E. Vatz, said he has never believed Ehrlich would condone the kinds of activities attributed to Steffen.
"Mr. Steffen has never claimed that Ehrlich superintended any dirty tricks," Vatz said. "He also implies that Ehrlich didn't know about them."
Steffen has not responded to recent requests for an interview with The Washington Post. In other interviews over the past two weeks, he has left the question of Ehrlich's role open to interpretation.
When he was asked directly whether Ehrlich knew what he was doing, Steffen told a Baltimore Sun columnist, "I'm having my Watergate moment," before adding he could not recall Ehrlich ever asking him about his activities.
Why all this might matter today, said Thomas Schaller, a political science professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County who leans Democrat, is that Ehrlich risks tarnishing his nice-guy image.
"That's the problem here for Bob Ehrlich," Schaller said. "He's got a very nice personal style. But pretty soon, when you have people around you tracking mud on their shoes, your carpet starts to get dirty."
Another University of Maryland professor, Donald F. Norris, has a different take. He said he believes Steffen's activities aren't going to matter much come November 2006, when Ehrlich is seeking reelection.
"I don't get a sense that it has energized very much public opinion, except among the partisans and political junkies," Norris said. "I doubt seriously that very many people are even aware of it."
Don't tell that to DeJulius, who lost to Ehrlich in 1996 and still is smarting from the rough-and-tumble campaign. She said last week that she believes the governor will pay a price eventually.
"Look," DeJulius said, "I know campaigning is hardball. It is a tough, tough arena to play in. But you do a disservice to the people you represent when you allow a campaign to sink to that level. Those kinds of tactics drive good people away from public service and leave us all worse off."

BARRY COMMONER. A 1980 radio spot produced by adman and political strategist Bill Zimmerman for Citizens Party presidential candidate Barry Commoner began with one word: “Bullsh_t.”
The objective: To parlay a $5,000 media buy into valuable TV news coverage for a candidate largely ignored by the media. “Many listeners were (shocked) when they heard the ad and complained to their local radio station, but when it comes to political advertising, the candidate controls,” noted ABC reporter Susan King. NBC and CBS newsrooms ignored the ad.

GARY SOUTH. Political consultant Gary South and his 1978 Illinois U.S. candidate, Gary Seith, nearly pulled off an upset of incumbent Republican Charles Percy with what is considered one of the most racially-polarizing ad campaigns in history.
The Seith campaign aired a commercial on black radio stations that accused Percy of being an apologist for former Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz, who had resigned after news accounts of his use of a racial slur.
“Do you think Senator Percy is a friend of black people?” the ad asks. “Well, remember Earl Butz? He was the Secretary of Acriculture who made a racist and sexually obscene joke about blacks. We can’t repeat his words on the air, of course, but they were so offensive that he had to resign. Maybe you were wondering what that’s got to do with Senator Percy. Just this: Senator Percy said of Earl Butz, ‘I wish he was Secretary of Agriculture still today.’ Still today, Senator Percy? Percy wants the black vote, and with friends like this, you don’t need enemies. Because Charles Percy tolerates the Earl Butz insult to blacks, more and more people are getting behind Alex Seith for U.S. Senate.”
The Democrats’ campaign never noted that Senator Percy actually called for Butz’s resignation following the slur incident.
South’s and Seith’s guilt-by-association attack backfired, according to many observers, and the Republican handily won re-election.

STAVRINAKIS, GEDDINGS, SENATE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS, et. al. South Carolina Democrats are no strangers to race-baiting, either. The 2001 special election for state Senate District 43 illustrates the point well. “Republicans are working right now to turn back the clock on our community,” begins a radio ad funded by the Senate Democratic Caucus.
“They are sitting in their country clubs laughing at us, saying we'll stay at home and not vote on December 4th. These are the same good ol' boy Republicans who want to take us back to their good ol' days. The days of Confederate Flags, segregated communities and poor schools in black neighborhoods,” the ad continued.
“These are the same Republicans who put the Confederate Flag in our face and wanted the symbol of hate to stay atop our State House Dome. These are the same Republicans who fought against First Steps and full day kindergarten, programs that help our kids. They are the same narrow-minded people who want Republican John Kuhn in the Senate. Fortunately, we have Democrat Leon Stavrinakis. Stavrinakis is no stranger to our community and will work for us in the Senate.
“On Tuesday, December 4th, don't let the Republicans stop our progress. Grab a neighbor and cast a vote for positive change.”
Republicans supporting candidate John Kuhn obtained a copy of the ad and paid to have it broadcast on other stations, rather than just the black stations, manufacturing a voter backlash against the Democrats.
It’s an article of faith that Democratic consultant Kevin Geddings was heavily involved in Stavrinakis’ campaign, though who gets the blame for the”scare-the-black-voters” ad isn’t quite clear.
According to one news site, Geddings downplayed his involvement, saying, “I have never met Mr. Leon Stavranakis... I have never spoken to him on the phone or in person. I think you have to at least talk to someone to ‘consult’ with them.”
Six years later, Stavrinakis later waged a successful campaign for the S.C. House – sans the low-road, racially divisive tactics.

RICHARD QUINN & ASSOCIATES: A employee of Richard Quinn & Associates, the $15,000-a-month consulting firm hired to run John McCain's S.C. campaign, was the subject of a probe into whether he committed computer and election fraud when he emailed a negative story about Charleston Republican Larry Richter using a "spoofed" email address to make it appear the message came from Richter's campaign manager.
Following are three stories in The State newspaper:

GOP E-MAIL PROBED
By CLIF LeBLANC Staff Writer
July 12, 2002

A former top GOP strategist and the state's foremost Republican political consulting firm face a fraud investigation.
Trey Walker and Richard Quinn & Associates may have committed computer and election fraud in a June 10 computer message, 5th Circuit Solicitor Barney Giese said Thursday.
The State Law Enforcement Division is investigating. No charges have been filed, and Giese said others could be investigated.
Walker, 35, admits he sent the e-mail from the Quinn firm's offices on Gervais Street to about 2,300 party activists from a personal list.
He e-mailed a copy of a May 18 State newspaper article about Republican attorney general candidate Larry Richter. The article said Richter had accepted $55,000 from a man later convicted of drug trafficking.
Walker worked for Henry McMaster, who defeated Richter in a June 25 runoff.
Walker said he intended the e-mail as a "harmless practical joke" directed at Richter's political strategist, Rod Shealy. Walker said he's known Shealy for about 12 years.
"I'm embarrassed about it," Walker said. "I've embarassed my family, my friends, my employer, my clients. It was stupid and silly."
Walker, the Republican party's executive director from 1993 to 1999, has hired a lawyer to help "sort things out."
On Monday, Walker told SLED agents he sent the e-mail under the computer address "OpLeader." That address belongs to Shealy's tabloid, S.C. Opinion Leader.
Shealy considers the e-mail matter closed and he won't discuss it. Giese said Shealy filed a complaint before he knew who sent the message.
Richter, a Charleston lawyer, wants SLED to pursue the case. "This victimized me," he said. "I'm against these kinds of tactics. They're slimy."
He said Walker has not apologized to him.
Quinn, Walker's boss and president of the firm, has managed campaigns for many of the state's top Republican officeholders. He said Walker told him about the e-mail less than a week ago. "I certainly didn't authorize it, wasn't aware of it," he said.
The e-mail was "juvenile," but it's being overblown, Quinn said.
Quinn and Walker say Shealy wants to drop the matter, but Giese is going ahead with the case because he considers it a very serious matter.
McMaster said he doesn't condone the e-mail but has no plans to fire Walker, who he called "one of the finest political thinkers and consultants in the United States."
Democrats are linking the e-mail probe with other investigations of the state's Republicans
The Federal Election Commission is investigating allegations that the party mishandled financial matters, and the party's new executive director, Ed Matricardi, is under federal review for eavesdropping on Democrats in Virginia.
"It's a crime wave of Republican politics out there," said Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian.
Harpootlian called on leading Republican candidates Lindsey Graham and Mark Sanford to fire the Quinn firm and clean up the party. Sanford, who is running for governor, could not be reached for comment.
Graham - seeking Sen. Strom Thurmond's U.S. Senate seat - won't act until he knows more, said his spokesman, Kevin Bishop. "Needless to say, he believes people should follow the rules," Bishop said.
"We're back to Nixon. This is the Plumbers," Harpootlian said, referring to the Watergate term for ex-President Nixon's 1972 fund-raisers.
That's typical gut-punching politics by Harpootlian, Walker said. "I would expect him to try to take advantage of my misfortune for political gain."

GRAND JURY MIGHT PROBE POLITICAL PLOYS
By CLIF LeBLANC, Staff Writer
September 21, 2002

Richland County prosecutors said Friday they want the state grand jury to decide whether what happened in the Republican primary for attorney general was just politics or a crime.
Fifth Circuit Solicitor Barney Giese asked the attorney general to have the grand jury investigate whether a Richland County councilman and the former executive director of the state GOP committed voter fraud.
Attorney General Charlie Condon said he may widen the investigation to include attack advertisements in other races and across party lines.
Condon, who admits he has a conflict of interest in the case, said he might wait until after the November election for the larger investigation.
Before the June 11 primary, councilman Buddy Meetze mailed postcards to about 2,000 Richland County Republicans linking Charleston lawyer Larry Richter, a candidate for attorney general, to Dick Harpootlian, the Democrats' party chairman and an arch enemy of the GOP.
Meetze failed to clearly identify who sent the postcards, violating state law, Giese said.
Richter was Henry McMaster's biggest challenger. McMaster, longtime chairman of the state GOP, beat Richter in a runoff.
Harpootlian and Richter, both lawyers, have been friends for years despite being polar opposites in their political lives.
Meetze is the council's ranking Republican and is unopposed as he seeks a third term in the fall. Meetze could not be reached for comment.
SLED agents found Meetze's postcards while investigating an e-mail sent by Trey Walker, the Republican party's top staffer from 1993 to 1999.
Walker admits he e-mailed a copy of a May 18 article in The State reporting that Richter once accepted $55,000 in cash from a man later convicted of drug trafficking.
Walker, 35, said he made the e-mail appear as though it had been sent by Richter's strategist, Rod Shealy. The e-mail went to about 2,300 party activists the day before the primary.
Walker said the e-mail was a "harmless practical joke" aimed at Shealy, whom he's known for about 12 years. Walker termed his action "stupid and silly."
Giese's not laughing, even though the offenses would be misdemeanors.
"The question that we have to answer is: 'What kind of campaigning are we going to allow in South Carolina? Where do you draw the line? Is it dirty tricks or is it a violation of the law?'" Giese said.
In a letter Friday, Giese asked Condon to allow the solicitor's office to oversee the grand jury case. State law requires the attorney general and the chief of the State Law Enforcement Division to agree on which cases should go to the grand jurors.
SLED Chief Robert Stewart said Friday he will sign off on the probe and endorsed letting Giese's office run the investigation, a task usually handled by the attorney general's office.
Giese's letter to Condon addresses the attorney general's conflict of interest. "It would be unfair to you, and to all parties involved in this matter to have allegations of favoritism or political vindictiveness cloud what should certainly be a fair and impartial review of the facts."
Walker works for Richard Quinn & Associates, the foremost Republican political consulting firm in the state. The Quinn firm helped run Condon's unsuccessful race for governor in the June primary.
The Quinn firm also is working on U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham's race for U.S. Senate and helps manage McMaster's race to succeed Condon.
Walker and Quinn say the case is overblown and blamed Richter.
"The crux of this is Larry Richter trying to do damage to Henry McMaster by going after one of his political consultants," Quinn said.
Walker also blamed Richter. "We are 46 days from the election. In politics there is no such thing as coincidence."
They stopped short of accusing Giese of being political.
Richter shot back: "That's an insane comment by desperate men and impugns the integrity of (Giese's office), which made legitimate prosecutorial decisions. Let the chips fall."
Quinn said Meetze made his mailing mistake out of ignorance. "If anyone had wanted to hide, they would have used (postage) stamps."
Meetze used a mail permit registered to Mail Marketing Strategies, a company owned by Quinn's son, Rick Quinn, the S.C. House majority leader.
Richter doesn't buy it. "These guys, all of them, are well-seasoned political people. They just got caught."
He said Condon's plan to delay an investigation until after the election is "dead wrong. I'm a victim, and he's the chief prosecutor, and I expect him to act like a prosecutor."
Condon bristles at the idea he's trying to sweep the investigation under the rug. "I don't know how they could say that because the allegations are all of the same types."
He wants to go after third-party attack ads against GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Sanford.
Kevin Geddings, who used to be Gov. Jim Hodges chief of staff, said he worked on one of the ads.
Sanford also complained about a mail-out that his staff said it traced to a consultant for Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler. Peeler lost to Sanford in a runoff.
Condon said he might ask SLED to investigate those tactics and attack ads that Condon said hurt his campaign. He got 16 percent of the vote.

PROSECUTOR TO PROBE CAMPAIGN ALLEGATIONS
CLIF LeBLANC, Staff Writer
State, The (Columbia, SC)
September 24, 2002

An Orangeburg prosecutor will decide whether two Richland County Republicans and political strategists in the governor's race broke the law in June's primary.
Attorney General Charlie Condon asked Walter Bailey, 1st Circuit solicitor, to investigate a county councilman and a campaign strategist.
Condon said coupling the attorney general's campaign and the governor's race and giving them to Bailey will eliminate conflicts of interest for him and for 5th Circuit Solicitor Barney Giese, both Republicans.
In a letter Friday, Giese asked for a state grand jury investigation of County Councilman Buddy Meetze and Trey Walker, who is working on Henry McMaster's campaign for attorney general.
Meetze and Walker are under investigation for possible campaign violations against McMaster's opponent, Larry Richter.
Meetze, unopposed for a third term, said Monday he might file an ethics complaint against Giese because of the letter Giese wrote to Condon.
Condon has not accused Giese of misconduct, but questions Giese's objectivity and timing. Giese was trying "to put Mr. McMaster's campaign on trial six weeks before an election," Condon said.
"When you add all these objective facts up, you've got at the very least a concern that you ought to have another prosecutor, and I'm including myself, in this."
Giese said the timing of his letter was based on when the alleged violations occurred and on the pace of a SLED investigation. "We were deliberate. We handled it in the normal course of business as we do all sensitive matters."
Giese said he asked for a state grand jury because it can force testimony to learn "who knew what and when they knew it."
Grand jury prosecutors likely would question some employees of Richard Quinn & Associates and Mail Marketing Strategies, Giese said. Walker works for Quinn & Associates, which is running McMaster's campaign; Meetze mailed postcards using a permit from the mailing company owned by Rick Quinn, majority leader of the state House and son of Richard Quinn.
Walker admits that on the day before the June 11 primary, he e-mailed a State newspaper article critical of Richter and made it seem as though one of Richter's key people, Rod Shealy, sent it. Walker termed it a "harmless practical joke" aimed at Shealy, whom he has known for about 12 years.
Meetze is under investigation for mailing postcards to 2,000 Richland County Republicans in the primary's waning days. They pointed out Richter was a close friend of arch-Republican foe Dick Harpootlian - the Democratic Party's state chairman.
State law requires that political literature identify the person or group circulating it. The postcards had only a Mail Marketing Strategies mail permit.
Meetze could be fined $5,000 and/or sentenced to a year in prison if found guilty of the misdemeanor of failing to put identification on the postcards. The e-mail likely would be a misdemeanor computer crime punishable by a fine of up to $200 and/or 30 days in jail.
Giese's letter doesn't name Meetze, but Condon and Richard Quinn said Meetze was the person who sent the postcards.
Meetze, council's ranking Republican, accused Giese of "gross misconduct," but declined to discuss the mailing.
In a statement, Meetze said: "The very fact his letter was given to the newspaper before anyone involved was informed shows that this is nothing more than a political effort to hurt Henry McMaster's campaign."
Giese said McMaster is not targeted in the investigation.
The State obtained Giese's letter to Condon through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Condon decided on Monday that Bailey should investigate what Condon called several campaign "dirty tricks."
On Friday, Condon said he wanted to widen the investigation to include attack advertisements in the GOP governor's race - including those against him - and across party lines.
Gov. Jim Hodges' former chief of staff, Kevin Geddings, has admitted he was part of a third-party attack ad aimed at Mark Sanford, Hodges' opponent.
Sanford also has complained about critical campaign literature that Sanford's staff said it traced to Walter Whetsell, a consultant for Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler. Peeler lost to Sanford in a runoff.
Condon said Bailey has a number of options:
* Ask for a state grand jury investigation;
* Turn the cases over to a county grand jury;
* Ask the state Ethics Commission to investigate;
* Dismiss the accusations.
"I will mak a decision on the facts and not politics," said Bailey, a Republican, whose circuit includes Dorchester, Orangeburg and Calhoun counties. He declined to discuss specifics of the cases.
Condon went to Bailey although a state law allows the judge who presides over the grand jury to settle conflicts of interest. But Condon said that provision applies only when a case has been turned over to the grand jury.
State law requires the attorney general and the SLED chief to agree on which cases should go to the grand juries.
Giese had asked Condon to approve a grand jury investigations of Meetze and Walker and to step aside to allow Giese's prosecutors to oversee the investigations.
SLED Chief Robert Stewart said Friday he had approved both of Giese's requests.

KEVIN GEDDINGS. During the 2001 Republican Primary, Democratic consultant Kevin Geddings chided the Republicans for “negative” campaigning. In an article in USC’s student, newspaper, The Gamecock, he even referred to “the inevitable negative campaign of the Republicans” when explaining the need for his boss, Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges, to rake in tons of cash by the end of the Republican Primary.
But when a third party attack group took aim at eventual nominee Mark Sanford, Geddings reluctantly conceded he was not only part of the group, but that he helped craft the negative attacks. “Gov. Jim Hodges’ former chief of staff, Kevin Geddings, has admitted he was part of a third-party attack ad aimed at Mark Sanford, Hodges’ opponent,” reported The State newspaper’s Aaron Gould Sheinin.
The loss of Republican Lt. Governor Bob Peeler to Sanford was attributed by many observers to a voter backlash generated by the negative tone of the ads.

ALEX CASTELLANOS. During the 2000 Bush-Gore race, Alex Castellanos -- sometimes admiringly dubbed the “father of the modern attack ad” – produced an ad for the Republican National Committee which was, of course, critical of Gore-Lieberman and Gore’s prescription drug plan. But the ad gained notoriety because, alongside an image of Al Gore, the letters “r-a-t-s” appeared about a half-second before the rest of the letters in the word “bureauocrats”. (Most psychologists believe that such brief, almost unconscious message can be processed and retained. This is sometimes referred to as subliminal messaging.)
Castellanos chalked the “rats” message up to an oversight.
If the “rats” message was intentional, it may not have been Castellanos’ first foray into subliminal advertising.
In 1990, he helped produce a spot for then U.S. Senator Jesse Helms which has since become known as the “white hands” ad. In the spot, a white male is rejected for employment because the job was given to a minority in accordance with affirmative action laws. (Republican Helms was facing Democrat Harvey Gantt, the Charlotte mayor who many were predicting would upset Helms. Gantt, who is black, had advocated racial hiring quotas.)
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications expert who has authored a book on negative advertising, said the ad features subliminal messages intended to inflame racial fears.
“The evaluation of visual symbols is extremely tricky,” Jamieson told a PBS interviewer for a report on campaign advertisements. “But there are two things about that ad that are worthy of discussion. The first, when you look frame by frame at the ad, there are frames in the ad in which the hands are crushing the head of one of the candidates. And I reproduce those pictures in ‘Dirty Politics’.”Secondly, there is a black mark on the letter that's shown in the ad that is supposedly the rejection letter that a blue collar worker has just gotten telling him that he hasn't gotten the job and the ad's implication is that it was given to someone who was an unqualified minority. Well, when talking to people in focus groups about the ad, first most people didn't recognize that at almost an imperceptible level there was the hand appearing to crush the head of the candidate. But a number of people did see that and when you point it out to people they do see it. Now we don't know what that does to audiences. But it's interesting that it's there. Secondly, there's a black mark on the paper. And when you ask Castellanos how did it get there, he says, 'I don't know it's just a piece of paper we picked up.' But there are some people in some focus groups who see that as a black hand holding a black gun. Different people bring different meanings to different symbols. We don't all respond to the same message in the same way. ”The question becomes for an ad like that, is that ad subtly activating racial fears? Illegitimate fears that are not about the explicit content of the ad, but are about something else. Or were those just production accidents that elicited that unintended response in some members of the audience.”
For his part, Castellanos never shied away from defending the ad. “I'm very proud of it,” he told PBS. “I believe every bit of it. You know, my name is Castellanos. My son is named Castellanos. It may be, you know, one day he could get a job or he could get some deal because he is of a some ethnic minority and all of that. I hope he never does. I think that lessens you when you do that.”
Castellanos is currenty working on the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.

TAD FURTADO. GOP political operative Tad Furtado resigned from his role as a top advisor to New Hampshire Republican Charlie Bass after it was discovered he had posted comments on blogs purportedly in support of Bass’ challenger and eventual winner, Democrat Paul Hodes. Hodes’ supporters and liberal bloggers complain Furtado was pretending (or “sockpuppeting,” as it is known in blogger lingo) to be a Hodes supporter to demoralize the Democrat’s backers. Among his comments were arguments that Bass held such a large lead in the polls that New Hampshire Democrats would be better off going after lower-hanging fruit.
Following is CNN.com’s account:
Bass staffer resigns after blog posts
A top aide to Rep. Charlie Bass resigned yesterday after admitting he used a government computer to post misleading messages on liberal Web sites. Tad Furtado agreed yesterday to resign as policy director, the number-two job in the Republican congressman's office. Bass said he requested Furtado's resignation after Furtado acknowledged he was responsible for the postings. "He came right out and said to me, 'I'm sorry. I'll do whatever you say I should do,'" Bass said yesterday. "Although this is a rather severe way of resolving the problem, in my mind it's the only way to do it." Bloggers at two New Hampshire Web sites, NH-02 Progressive and Blue Granite, say they became suspicious when a writer purporting to support the congressman's Democratic challenger, Paul Hodes, posted messages commending Bass' vote on a minimum wage increase and defending his stance on stem cell research.

SAM GAMMICCHIA. Political consultant Sam Gammicchia in August 2006 was sentenced to 30 months in the federal poke for threatening to break the legs of a witness in a federal investigation to help protect Chicago City Hall officials. Gammicchia pleaded guilty to trying to block an investigation of the city clerk, who had admitted taking payoffs. Gammicchia’s $1,400-a-month job included collecting campaign cash from Laski's office staffers, according to the Chicago Sun Times.Following is the Sun-Times story:

Hired Truck consultant sentenced
August 16, 2006
BY MIKE ROBINSON ASSOCIATED PRESS

A political consultant who spoke of breaking a federal witness's leg to help Chicago's former city clerk was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months for obstructing an investigation of corruption at City Hall."This is a very clear case of the defendant doing what he could to get others to lie to the grand jury," U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle said in sentencing Sam Gammicchia. "He is not a truth teller."Gammicchia, 62, had pleaded guilty to efforts to thwart an investigation of City Clerk James Laski, who has admitted taking payoffs in return for business in the city's scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program.Gammicchia told agents he once promised Laski that he would threaten to break Laski aide Michael Jones's leg and actually did warn Jones that if he talked he would have to go into the witness protection program.Laski and Jones have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to prison.Gammicchia--besides being a $1,400-a-month consultant whose job included collecting campaign cash from Laski's office staffers--was also an employee at the Cook County Jail and a member of the ironworkers union.At the sentencing, federal prosecutor Manish Shah played a tape of Gammicchia coaching Jones's wife, Tracy, on how to lie to investigators about the money she paid to get a truck into the Hired Truck Program.Tracy Jones has been charged with no wrongdoing.The city outsources hauling work under the program. The investigation already has shown widespread payoffs to officials by trucking operators."You can't say you gave cash," Gammicchia is heard saying on tape."Even though I did?" Mrs. Jones says."Right," Gammicchia says.Gammicchia, clad in a gray business suit and black T-shirt, probably didn't help his cause much when after pleading guilty to obstruction and listening to the tape he told Norgle he counseled Mrs. Jones not to lie.Norgle stared at him, apparently dumbfounded for a moment."Under oath you're saying you told these people not to lie--that's what you're telling me?" Norgle said."Yes, Sir," Gammicchia said. "I wasn't sure what was going on. I was just trying to keep friendship together."He said that in a portion of the conversation that Mrs. Jones taped while wearing a hidden wire he urged her to lie, but he advised her to tell the truth in a portion of the conversation that she did not record."I don't believe that as far as I could throw the Dirksen Building," said the judge, referring to the 28-story, block-long federal courthouse.Defense attorney Alexander Salerno told Norgle that his client wouldn't break anyone's leg and didn't mean it when he warned Jones that talking might mean he'd have to go into the witness protection program.Salerno also scoffed at one federal witness's claim that Gammicchia once told him: "I would kill for Laski.""He wouldn't kill for Laski," Salerno said. "He wouldn't hurt anybody, Judge. He is a gruff guy." But the attorney said Gammicchia is also "a sweet, kind, generous older man" whose bark was worse than his bite.

DON FOWLER. Donald Fowler, a political consultant, PR executive and Democratic activist, found himself embroiled in the largest fundraising scandal in history in 1996. At the time, he chaired the Democratic National Committee.
Fowler denied allegations he broke the law. But whether or not his actions violated the letter of the law, it appears clear that fundraising abuses occured on his watch... and there were inconsentensies in his accounts of how DNC fundraising was conducted during the Clinton White House.
For instance, some said Fowler used government connections to get Lebanese businessman Roger Tamraz, who had donated nearly $200,000 to Clinton and the Democrats, meetings with President Clinton.
“Fowler may even have called the CIA to help Tamraz,” CNN reporter Brooks Jackson reported on Sept. 9, 1997 in her coverage of the Senate subcommittee hearings on the allged campaign finance abuses. “Last March, Fowler denied it, issuing a statement saying, ‘I am clear and certain. I did not...call or contact the CIA.’ But, under oath, Fowler backed off a bit, testifying, quote, "I have no memory of ever having talked to anybody at the CIA... memory is fallible."
Fowler also changed his story regarding the role of the White House in the alleged fundraising abuses. Fowler initially defended the White House, but later placed the blame at the feet of deputy White House chief of staff Harold Ickes, saying Ickes “was involved in the management of the DNC in a fashion that I didn't appreciate that I didn't agree with.”

JULIE DOOLITTLE. Political consultant Julie Doolittle is facing scrutinity for work she did on the campaign of her husband, Congressman John Doolittle of California. The reason: Congressman Doolittle was among several lawmakers fingered by disgraced former Rep. Duke Cunningham for helping steer federal funds towards defense contractors associated with Cunningham’s bribery case.
Congressman Doolittle headed two key committees in charge of disbursing earmarks to contractors. Those contractors donated heavily to the congressman’s campaign. Julie Doolittle charged her husband’s campaign and his PAC a 15 percent commission on contributions she brought in – which would mean direct financial gain for the Doolittles.
Following is a story from the SignOnSanDiego.com, the Web site of the Union-Tribune. (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20060319-9999-1n19dolittle.html)

Congressman Doolittle, wife profited from Cunningham-linked contractor
Commissions taken on campaign cash
By Dean Calbreath
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 19, 2006

A week before former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham was sentenced to prison, he stressed to the court that a number of other lawmakers also helped arrange federal funding for the defense contractors who bribed him.
As a member of two key committees in the House, Rep. John Doolittle, R-Granite Bay, is well-positioned to help contractors gain funding through congressional earmarks.
None of the lawmakers Cunningham mentioned by name – Reps. Katherine Harris of Florida, Virgil Goode of Virginia and John Doolittle from the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay – has been accused of criminal wrongdoing. But each has admitted assisting either Mitchell Wade or Brent Wilkes, co-conspirators in the Cunningham case, at a time when the two businessmen were giving them tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions.
And at least one of the lawmakers, Doolittle, received a direct monetary benefit from those contributions through commissions paid to his wife, Julie.
Acting as her husband's campaign consultant, Julie Doolittle charged his campaign and his Superior California Political Action Committee a 15 percent commission on any contribution she helped bring in.
As a member of two key committees in the House – Appropriations and Administration – Doolittle is well-positioned to help contractors gain funding through congressional earmarks. Between 2002 and 2005, Wilkes and his associates and lobbyists gave Doolittle's campaign and political action committee $118,000, more than they gave any other politician, including Cunningham.
Calculations based on federal and state campaign records suggest that Doolittle's wife received at least $14,400 of that money in commissions. Meanwhile, Doolittle helped Wilkes get at least $37 million in government contracts.
San Diego attorney Stanley Zubel, who heads Californians for a Cleaner Congress, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said Julie Doolittle's commissions raise troubling questions about whether the congressman personally benefited from his support of Wilkes' projects.
“For all practical purposes, when someone's wife earns money, then he earns money, especially in a community-property state like California,” Zubel said. “He can't separate this out and say, 'This is my wife's money.' If she's getting a benefit, he's getting a benefit.”
Doolittle's office defended the arrangement.
In a prepared statement, Richard Robinson, Doolittle's chief of staff, said Julie Doolittle's consulting firm, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, “provides marketing, event planning, fundraising and related services to several clients including Congressman Doolittle's Superior California Leadership PAC.”
Neither Doolittle nor his wife would comment for this story.
Critics question how much fundraising Julie Doolittle needed to do for the campaign.
Advertisement“After several years on the Appropriations Committee, John Doolittle has reached the point in his career where fundraising should be on autopilot,” said Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that monitors campaign fundraising. “He shouldn't have to rely on his wife or anyone else to keep his coffers full.”
A search by The San Diego Union-Tribune yielded only three other clients of Julie Doolittle's firm:
One was Greenberg Traurig, the lobbying firm that employed Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax-evasion charges. The second was Abramoff's Washington restaurant, Signatures. The third was the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, founded by Ed Buckham, one-time chief of staff for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
The Korean group, which lobbied for improved U.S.-Korean relations, was based at the headquarters of Buckham's Alexander Strategy Group, which dissolved in January because of negative publicity over its ties to Abramoff. Wilkes also was an Alexander Strategy client.
Robinson said Julie Doolittle had other clients. But he refused to provide their names “out of respect for the privacy of the clients.”
Prosecutors in the Abramoff investigation have subpoenaed Julie Doolittle for information regarding her work for Abramoff's firm, which included planning fundraising events for his charity, the Capital Athletics Foundation. Records released by the Senate show that Abramoff used the foundation – whose official purpose was to raise money for underprivileged children – to bankroll some of his lobbying efforts.
Julie Doolittle launched Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions in March 2001, two months after her husband was named to the Appropriations Committee.
The business, which is based at the couple's home in Oakton, Va., has no phone listing or Web site. The firm has no known employees other than Julie Doolittle. The congressman's office would not specify what previous fundraising experience she had.
Within months of its opening, the firm was receiving commissions from her husband's campaign. Within the next two years, it was planning fundraising events for Abramoff and handling bookkeeping for the Korean lobbying group in Buckham's office suite, where DeLay's wife, Christine, also was working.
Federal and state campaign records show that Julie Doolittle has received nearly $180,000 in commissions from her husband's political fundraising since late 2001.
A number of other politicians use their spouses as campaign consultants, including Rep. Bob Filner of Chula Vista. The practice is legal as long as the spouse is doing legitimate campaign work at a fair market price.
Zubel, who has publicly criticized Filner's hiring of his wife, Jane, notes that there are significant differences between Jane Filner and Julie Doolittle.
Jane Filner is paid a salary rather than a commission, meaning there is no direct connection between her earnings and the amount of contributions coming in. She also has had previous campaign experience, as executive director of the Democrats' 2000 political action committee.
“The question you have to ask is whether a person has enough fundraising experience, training and skill so that an independent person – not connected through a spousal relationship – would hire them as a fundraiser,” Zubel said. “In those terms, Jane Filner probably has a bit more legitimacy in terms of being a fundraiser.”
Julie Doolittle was working at Buckham's offices in 2002 when Buckham introduced Brent Wilkes to her husband. Federal contracts for his flagship company, ADCS Inc., were drying up, partly because the Pentagon had been telling Congress it had little need for the company's document-scanning technology. So Wilkes was trying to get funding for two new businesses.
One was tied to the 2002 anthrax scare, when tainted letters were sent to Capitol Hill. Wilkes' idea was to have all Capitol Hill mail rerouted to a site in the Midwest, where ADCS employees wearing protective suits would scan it into computers and then e-mail it back to Washington.
He called his proposed solution MailSafe – similar to the names of several anti-anthrax companies launched at that time – and began vying for federal contracts, even though the company had little to its name other than a rudimentary Web site.
The House Administration Committee, on which Doolittle sat, oversees the congressional mail system. Doolittle told his colleagues about MailSafe and introduced them to Wilkes, but the project never got off the ground.
Wilkes had more success with PerfectWave, which offered a technology that could limit the amount of background noise transmitted over electronic communications. Doolittle has publicly admitted that he helped Wilkes get the $37 million in federal contracts for PerfectWave through the “earmark” process, in which legislators pencil in funding for specific projects.
In October 2002, as Doolittle pushed for funding for PerfectWave, Wilkes and his associates donated $7,000 to his campaign and $10,000 to his political action committee. Julie Doolittle made $1,500 from Wilkes' contributions.
Wilkes continued to contribute heavily to Doolittle through 2005, as he pressed the Appropriations Committee for earmarks for three other ventures: Optimum Composite Design, Pure Aqua Technologies and Acoustical Communications Systems. He got some earmarks, but there is no evidence that Doolittle was involved.
In November 2003, Wilkes held a fundraising dinner for Doolittle at ADCS' headquarters in Poway that was catered by Wilkes' wife, Regina, who ran a catering company based in the corporate cafeteria. The 15 guests on Wilkes' invitation were all ADCS employees or partners on projects Wilkes was trying to get funded, together with their spouses.
Over the next four months, members of the group gave a total of $50,000 to Doolittle's political action committee.
Federal and state election records show that Julie Doolittle claimed commissions on most of those contributions, even though there is no evidence that she planned the fundraising dinner or encouraged the contributors to donate to her husband.
No expenses related to the dinner are reflected on John Doolittle's financial records.
Robinson, his chief of staff, refused to answer questions about that particular dinner. But in a prepared statement, he said Julie Doolittle had helped “initiate, plan and perform other administrative duties” for two dinners in the San Diego area, for which she claimed her standard fundraising commission.

JOHN SASSO. Democratic political consultant John Sasso worked various Massachusetts races (including for Gerry Studds and Ted Kennedy) before being tapped to run Governor Michael Dukakis’ campaign for governor in 1982. He rose to national prominence when Dukakis asked him to run his 1988 presidential race.
He was fired, however, in the wake of the controversy surrounding Joe Biden’s plagiarism of a speech by Britain’s then-opposition leader, Niel Kinnock. Biden had given a version of the speech many times, usually remembering to give proper attribution to Kinnock. However, when he failed to credit Kinnock during one Iowa stump address, Dukakis’ campaign was ready with a video camera. Sasso is believed to have distributed the footage, and was dismissed by Dukakis. (Immediately following the video’s release, Dukakis denied his campaign had any role in its distribution and vowed to fire any aide caught engaging in negative or dirty campaign tactics.)
Sasso’s departure left the Dukakis campaign in the hands of the untried Susan Estrich.
The notoriously reclusive Sasso worked for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, and more recently for the DNC.

TERRY NELSON. GOP consultant Terry Nelson resigned from his job working PR for Wal-Mart after he came under fire for an ad he allegedly helped produce in an unrelated U.S. Senate race. Critics including Jesse Jackson complained the spot for Republican Bob Corker, who was facing Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr., was racist.
The spot never mentioned race, but showed a white woman saying she had met Ford at a Playboy party. At the end of the commercial, the woman – her bare shoulders showing – whispers, “Harold, call me.” Jackson et. al. said the ad intended to exploit fears about black men and white women.
Jackson and the liberal advocacy group WakeUpWalMart called on Wal-Mart to fire Nelson, and say they threatened to air radio and TV ads demanding his dismissal.
Nelson resigned, but his supporters called on Jackson and other critics to detail exactly how the advertisement was racist.
Nelson has since signed on to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign.

SCOTT HOWELL. Karl Rove protégé Scott Howell is also linked to the anti-Harold Ford ad. Hard-hitting, negative spots that stir controversy have become a Howell trademark. Reported CBS News”
“Howell is no stranger to controversy. He was media consultant for Sen. Saxby Chambliss when his campaign ran an ad showing a picture of then-Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who lost his legs in the Vietnam War, alongside Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. ”He also produced an ad for Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn that accused Democrat Brad Carson of being soft on welfare while showing two black hands counting cash. ”Howell also worked for Republican Jerry Kilgore in last year's Virginia gubernatorial race when Kilgore ran an ad saying that Gov. Tim Kaine wouldn't have used the death penalty against Hitler.”

ROD SHEALY SR. Rod Shealy Sr. is widely regarded as South Carolina's most, shall we say, colorful political consultant. He has won some quite improbable races; he also has been convicted and fined $500 for misappropriation of funds for failing to file the necessary paperwork for an unemployed fisherman he recruited to run in the 1990 GOP primary for S.C.’s First Congressional District.
The circumstances surrounding Shealy's case is detailed in the following Harper's article:

Rod Shealy: South Carolina’s shrewdest political consultant?
By Ken Silverstein
Harpers

My piece in the November issue of Harper’s, already on newsstands, takes a look at the Republican presidential race in South Carolina, focusing on the role of Mitt Romney’s handlers in the state. There’s no state where political consultants are more prominent than South Carolina. The two best-known figures currently are Richard Quinn Sr., who is running John McCain’s campaign, and Warren Tompkins, who worked for George W. Bush’s famously dirty South Carolina campaign in 2000 and who is now working for Mitt Romney.
Rod Shealy is less well known but many South Carolina insiders deem him to be the smartest and shrewdest of all. Shealy–who like Tompkins once worked with Lee Atwater, a native South Carolinian — has a record of riding dark horses to victory. In 2004, he scored a huge upset when his candidate for the statehouse, Nathan Ballentine, knocked off House Majority Leader Richard Quinn Jr. In 2006, Shealy ran the Republican primary campaign of Andre Bauer for lieutenant governor. Bauer was given virtually no chance of winning– especially after a traffic stop during the campaign when he was clocked going 110 miles per hour–but prevailed in a runoff election against the son of Carroll Campbell, a revered former governor. “Shealy is diabolically clever and a master of dirty tricks, but very effective,” Will Folks, a political consultant and blogger who has worked with and against Shealy, told me.
Shealy gained a bit of national notoriety in 1990, when he was running the campaign of his sister, Sherry Martschink, a candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Shealy was looking to increase the turnout of racially conservative low-country voters, a group largely sympathetic to Martschink, in the overall Republican primary. To do so, he recruited Benjamin Hunt, Jr., an unemployed black fisherman, to run for congress in the Republican primary against incumbent Arthur Ravenel, Jr., even paying Hunt’s filing fee. When the ploy was revealed, Shealy was convicted and fined for violating campaign laws.
Yet Shealy has worked for numerous African-American political candidates, far more than the other top consultants in the state. Indeed, he told me that in 1954, his father, Ryan Shealy, then a state representative, became one of the first southern politicians to denounce the Ku Klux Klan. In the early 1970s, his sister served in the statehouse and was the only Republican to join with eleven members of the Black Caucus (and one white Democrat) to oppose capital punishment on the grounds that it was racially discriminatory.
One day last June I met Shealy for breakfast at a diner in Columbia, the state capital, called Lizard’s Thicket. A big man with a bushy beard and rugged face softened by baby blue eyes, he wore jeans and a trademark Hawaiian shirt. “This man needs a greasy breakfast,” Shealy told the waitress, a middle-aged woman quite a bit bigger than he.
“We got it,” she replied, and took down his order of bacon, eggs and cheddar cheese, toast, grits and coffee.
Funny, engaging, and frank, Shealy is impossible not to like. As we waited for our food, I asked him where he was from originally. That was an opening for him to play the southern bumpkin, a routine that isn’t entirely a put-on but clearly isn’t wholly genuine either. “I grew up in the area and have lived here all my life,” he replied in a thick drawl. “When I tell people that, they say, ‘Why that’s impossible, you’re so suave and urbane’.”
Shealy and his associates hold court at Lizard’s Thicket every morning and a steady stream of friends and political cronies dropped by our booth to exchange pleasantries. In between visits, Shealy told me about his history as a consultant, including the incident with Hunt Jr. (which he described as “a campaign violation for failing to disclose a candidate I dreamed up”). Following his conviction he dropped out of the consulting business for a few years and focused on developing a chain of small newspapers. “I came back in 1994, when a newspaper competitor ran for state treasurer,” he told me. “I didn’t want him to win so I got someone to run and elected him. The guy was a political novice so I ended up taking a job in the treasurer’s office to help out.”
Shealy had not signed up with a presidential candidate, but he’s had discussions with a few campaigns, including Rudy Giuliani’s, whose people he met with in New York, and Fred Thompson’s. Like most political consultants, Shealy has a fairly jaded and utilitarian view of politics and campaign strategy. When I asked him how Romney’s consultants would brand their candidate in South Carolina, he said, “Tompkins’ strategy will be simple. He’ll go hard to the right on every issue. Immigration is a red-meat issue right now and [Romney has] already switched positions to get to there. To get our base for the primary and mobilize it for November you don’t have to have credibility, you just have to say the right things and have the right spin. Romney is an unknown. When you have $100 million to spend, you can be who you want to be.”
Will Folks had proposed a theory to me that I ran by Shealy. The former’s view is that South Carolina isn’t nearly as conservative as it once was, partly because of a large number of people, including many Northeasterners, moving to Charleston and elsewhere along the coast. As a result, Folks believed that running hard right in the state, especially on issues like abortion and gay marriage, two South Carolina standbys, is longer a sure path to success. “What was once the bedrock of the party is gradually becoming a fringe group,” he said. “The smart strategy is to pay lip service to social issues, but to focus on pocket book issues that appeal to fiscal conservatives.”
Shealy didn’t entirely buy that argument. “It’s true, our entire coast is filled with people who sound more like you than they do like me,” he said. “But it will be a long time before it’s a bad strategy to run to the right in South Carolina. You can combine that with other strategies, but working the social issues is still important.”
I met with Shealy again during a second trip to South Carolina in July, having lunch with him at an old-fashioned soda shop called Gatsbees World Fair, his latest business venture. Shealey was still a free agent and complained that consulting on a presidential campaign was a money-losing proposition. “Having said that, I’m still likely to get engaged,” he told me. I’m a political hack — how do you skip a presidential campaign? I could even work with Tompkins [for Romney] or Quinn [for McCain]. The latter would be harder because I put his kid on the street but it’s politics, the relationship could get good real quick. And McCain is a vintage Rod Shealy candidate — he’s got no expectation of winning and no money.”

SAL RUSSO. Republican political consultant Sal Russo is infamous in California political circles for “losing campaigns while lining his pockets,” as one columnist put it. Supply-side economist Arthur Laffer even successfully sued Russo for his alleged mismanagement of a 1996 ballot initiative for which Laffer had hired Russo to campaign. (Under the breach-of-contract judgement against him, Russo was ordered to pay a fine and return about $200,000 he had allegedly bilked from contributors.
Some observers also blame Russo for Republican Bill Simon’s loss to incumbent Governor Gray Davis in 2000. The Simon campaign used photos of Davis accepting a campaign check, purportedly in the Governor’s Office. It was later proven, however, that the location was not the Governor’s Office.

DOUG GUETZLOE. Political consultant Doug Guetzloe was indicted in March for lying to the Florida Election Commission about work he did in a 2003 race for for Daytona Beach City Commission. He maintained he had paid for radio and mailouts in the campaign but prosecutors said “evidence showed that political consultant Robert Lewis paid Guetzloe for the work,” The Orlando Sentinel reported.
Following is a story from the Orlando Sentinel (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-bk-indict03282007,0,2865264.story?track=mostemailedlink):

Guetzloe, Pecora indicted in expressway scandal

Christopher Sherman Sentinel Staff Writer
Mar 28, 2007

Political consultant Doug Guetzloe and public relations consultant Ron Pecora were indicted by an Orange County grand jury in separate cases today.
Guetzloe faces two counts of perjury in connection with testimony he gave to the Florida Elections Commission last year in a case related to his campaign work in a 2003 Daytona Beach city commission race.
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar said that Guetzloe had submitted sworn testimony to the elections commission that he paid for mailers and radio advertisements, but that evidence showed that political consultant Robert Lewis paid Guetzloe for the work.
Pecora was indicted on two counts of bribery for giving $2,600 in theme park tickets to former Orlando-Orange County Expressway Chairman Allan Keen. The charges stemmed from an incident Pecora brought to light last year. Pecora said he gave Keen 12 passes to the Disney theme parks and another 12 to the Universal parks for which Keen never paid him.
Pecora was taken into custody this afternoon and was being held on $5,000 bond on each count. Lamar in an earlier news conference did not reveal the other person indicted, but said about 5 p.m. that Gueztloe was indicted and being taken into custody.
Lamar said the grand jury had targeted "the culture of winning at any cost, while keeping at arm's-length distance the people doing the dirty deeds."
He said the investigation was "like peeling an onion" and would continue when a new grand jury takes over next week.
"This needs to stop in Central Florida, and we intend to do some actions here in Central Florida that will cause that to come to a screeching halt," Lamar said of the greed and corruption.
Pecora was fired in October from his longtime position as marketing consultant at the authority for allegedly charging for work he had not completed. After an internal audit following his firing, the expressway authority claimed that Pecora's firm owed the agency as much as $400,000 for uncompleted, overbilled or undocumented work.
Pecora maintains the expressway always paid him in advance for long-term projects and he has been trying to negotiate a final settlement with the agency.
Pecora also maintains that he advised the agency against hiring consultant Doug Guetzloe for public opinion research, although he agreed to be the agency's liaison with the political consultant. Guetzloe billed Pecora's firm in amounts that totaled $107,500 over two years. Pecora then submitted the subcontractor's bills to the expressway for reimbursement.
Earlier today, former Expressway Authority marketing and communications manager Bryan Douglas appeared before the grand jury investigating the agency for about half an hour today.
Douglas resigned from the authority last fall amid the scandal over management of the contract with Pecora & Blexrud.
Emerging from the grand jury's courtroom at noon, Douglas said he could not comment.
"Time flew," he said. "I just went in and answered questions."
Douglas was the second current or former agency employee known to have appeared before the grand jury. Deputy Executive Director Joe Berenis answered grand jurors' questions in January. He also was not considered a suspect.
The revelation of payments from the expressway authority through its public relations contractor to Guetzloe triggered investigations into the agency's spending.
Political consultant Robert Lewis testified before grand jurors earlier in the morning. Emerging from the chamber at about 10:20 a.m., Lewis said, "I can't divulge what I discussed."
But Lewis earlier said he paid Guetzloe as a political consultant about $80,000 between late 2002 and early 2004 for work in Volusia County. Investigators asked Lewis for copies of those checks and Tuesday told him that is what grand jurors would want to talk to him about.
A portion of that, $10,000 to $15,000, was paid to Guetzloe for work against 2003 Daytona Beach City Commission Candidate Darlene Yordon, Lewis said. Guetzloe's work in that campaign was subject of a Florida Elections Commission case. The rest of the payments were for petition drives aimed at getting a tax rollback on the ballot, Lewis said.

BUSH LEAGUE. Anonymous blog posts and similar hijinks are hardly rare for partisans... even high-ranking consultants. Still, it can be humiliating to get caught in the act.
That’s the lesson Democratic political consultant Phil Bailey learned when he made anonymous posts on the LaurinLine, a blog popular among politicos. At the time, Bailey served as director of the Senate Democratic Caucus. (He would later run the campaign of Democratic Comptroller General candidate Drew Theodore.) Bailey not only fired anonymous brickbats against Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Frank Willis -- who was running in a primary against Bailey’s preferred candidate, Sen. Tommy Moore -- but he also made disparaging comments about the late Governor Carroll Campbell.
The blog’s administrator, USC law student Laurin Mannning, had taken notice when someone using the alias “That guy” wrote: “You mean Willis hasn’t dropped out yet? I heard Moore is finally starting to raise money like crazy. Can’t wait until campaign finance filing time. We’ll see how much money Willis blew on this video and all those consultants.”
Manning deleted the criticism of Campbell after determining the comments were in poor taste.
Manning tracked the IP address to the state Democratic Party. Democratic officials said Bailey did not work for the party but worked for the caucus, which rents office space from the party.
In a Dec. 15, 2005 story headlined “Democratic official thought he was making anonymous blog postings,” The State newspaper reported that Bailey’s phone and email privileges were revoked.
Bailey and political consultant Lachlan McIntosh, who led the campaign of Lt. Governor candidate Robert Barber, were suspected by many observers of making anonymous blog comments to spread negative information about Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and incumbent Lt. Governor Andre Bauer during the 2006 general elections. No solid evidence ever surfaced that the two were the once responsible for the anonymous aspersions, however.
Letters-to-the-editor are a part of any political campaign, and it’s no secret that the occasional ghost-written letter is sent. Some campaigns even orchestrate letter-writing campaigns consisting of letters written entirely by campaign pros. But rarely do they advertise it like the campaign of GOP Lt. Governor candidate Mike Campbell. In an email to supporters, Campbell’s campaign implored, “Whether you'd like to write a letter on Mike's behalf or even if you'd prefer us to write it for you, let us know.”As Greenville News political reporter Dan Hoover noted in his blog, the Campbell campaign said the email was merely worded poorly. Adam Piper, Campbell’s campaign manager, said the email should have said “we’d give them ideas of what to put in the letter” rather than write it for them.
But, quoth Hoover, “that doesn’t quite square with letting ‘us write it for you.’”
The spreading of negative information about opponents is a staple of political campaigns, and it's a common occurrence for candidates and their managers to try to smear anonymously.
But it can bring embarrassment to their candidates if they're not careful. Take Stephanie Cutter, who in 2004 served as communications director for Sen. John Kerry's presidential bid.
Cutter was outed by NY Times reporter Adam Nagourney after she distributed an anti-Howard Dean email to reporters and insisted it be reported "on background" rather than attributed to Kerry's campaign.
"After the capture of Saddam Hussein, Kerry campaign press secretary Stephanie Cutter listed past Dean statements in arguing that his opposition to the war in Iraq was 'politically driven,' reported the NY Times. "Nagourney, ignoring the not-for-attribution request, wrote that this reflected campaign aides' concern that they not be viewed as politically exploiting a foreign policy victory."
It’s a matter of principle, Nagourney told the Washington Post. “I will not let someone attack someone else anonymously, which is what the Kerry campaign is trying to do." Cutter denied the “background” attack was innapprporiate, adding, “This campaign has no problem going on the record about the facts in this race.
Still, the Kerry camp later sent another "background" e-mail entitled "An Illustrated Guide to Howard Dean's Foreign Policy." Nagourney didn't get one, according to the Post.
GOP operative Jill Hazelbaker had worked communications shops in various Republican races, usually keeping a fairly low profile -- until 2006. That’s when, as communications director for Republican Thomas Kean’s race for U.S. Senate, Kean’s opponent accused Hazelbaker of making anonymous blog posts regarding the race. Sen. Robert Menendez complained that she posed as a liberal Democrat who had become disenchanted with Menendez. The blog’s administrator, which strongly supported Menendez, got suspicious and traced the IP address of the anonymous commenter. The IP address was the same as one used by Hazelbaker.
Hazelbaker now works as Sen. John McCain’s New Hampshire communications director.
Political consultant Patrick Hynes was reportedly hired by John McCain’s PAC, Straight Talk America, in May of 2006. But Hynes, who moonlights as a prominent blogger, did not announce he had been retained by McCain until July 26, according to National Review Online blogger Jim Geraghty. In the period between May and July 26, Hynes reportedly posted several blog entries favorable to McCain and unfavorable to Mitt Romney without disclosing his financial ties. Ironically, Hynes’ criticisim of the Romney campaign was that bloggers posted favorable Romney entries without disclosing their financial ties to the Romney campaign!
According to Geraghty, Hynes sent him the following email: “You are right, Jim. I ought to have disclosed my relationship with Straight Talk America earlier. The reason I didn't do so is because I was not being paid 'to blog'. I have been a political consultant for fifteen years. That's what I was doing for Straight Talk America: providing political consulting.”

Political Consultant Dirty Tricks, Stupid Stunts

Thursday, July 9, 2009

New momentum for local government transparency

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

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