Is there any better way to start your day than with the SSP Daily Digest? There is not.
FL-Sen: Great catch by CQ’s Greg Giroux, who always has some of the tastiest FEC tidbits. None other than Bob Dole (Bob Dole!) has cut a $1,000 check to Charlie Crist’s senate campaign. It feels great to be writing about Bob Dole again! Bob Dole!
PA-Sen, PA-Gov, PA-08: Like some Green and teabagger candidates before them, the Libertarians have all been kicked off the statewide ballots in PA. That’s because of a punitive Pennsylvania law which requires that a party which loses a challenge to its ballot status to pay the legal fees of the winner. Unsurprisingly, many minor party candidates tend to bail rather than risk a huge debt. In the same vein, indy Tom Lingenfelter also quit the race in PA-08, under intense courtroom pressure from Mike Fitzpatrick’s campaign.
KY-Gov: This seems like a good get for Dem Gov. Steve Beshear: Former Lt. Gov. Steve Pence is hosting a fundraiser for the incumbent next month in Jefferson County. This is a big deal because Pence is not only a Republican, but he served as LG for the man that Beshear beat, disgraced ex-Gov. Ernie Fletcher. (Pence didn’t seek re-election in 2007, and in fact had a pretty serious falling-out with Fletcher.)
AZ-08: Not something you see every day: Teabagger Jesse Kelly, hanging on in an uphill fight against establishment fave Jonathan Paton, is attacking none other than Sarah Palin, saying that the ur-Mama Grizz has been endorsing lots of front-runners (like Carly Fiorina) out of pure political calculation, and that she “needs to rehab” her image to woo independents. Paton fell all over himself trying to proclaim his Rich Lowry-like love for Palin, who in point of fact hasn’t actually endorsed him. In an interesting aside, Paton’s once-hot fundraising has fallen off a cliff, and Kelly actually outraised him in the pre-primary period.
OH-13: Remember how yesterday I was saying that despite the GOP’s great recruitment efforts, they still have to deal with a serious structural problem – the stark raving insanity of their entire movement? Well, even prize recruit Tom Ganley is not immune. Here you have a multi-millionaire who is willing to self-fund, an extremely successful car dealer whose name is all over town, a guy who even helped police investigate the mob… and yet he pops off with statements like this: “I don’t have a position on whether he’s a Muslim.” You can guess who he’s talking about. A little while later, Ganley put out a statement trying to backtrack, but really, he’s still a fucking nutter.
OH-15/16/18: Another shadowy right-wing group, a 501(c)4 with the Nixonian name “The Committee for Truth in Politics,” is up to some dirty tricks, launching ads against Reps. Zack Space ($190K worth) and John Boccieri ($130K). CQ also says that a further $62K buy looks like it will be targeted against Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy. The one odd thing about this writeup is that it says the anti-Space ad buy is going up in Cleveland, but if you compare a media market map with a map of Space’s district, you’ll see that his CD mostly falls in a bunch of other markets, principally Columbus. I wonder what gives.
Meanwhile, also in OH-16, Republican Jim Renacci (and soon-to-be DavidNYC opponent in the race for NYC Zoning Board) has filed a lawsuit against AFSCME, which is spending $750K on an ad buy against him. Renacci is alleging the ad, which accuses him of “cheating on his income taxes,” is defamatory. It’s more typical to threaten the TV stations running the ad, though, as they generally are pretty pliant when it comes to removing potentially questionable third-party ads from the air. Maybe he’ll try that as well.
ND-AL: Republican Rick Berg is up with his first ad of the general election campaign, which you can view here. NWOTSOTB. Rep. Earl Pomeroy already has three different ads airing.
NY-13: Wingers disgruntled with the state Conservative Party have formed a new ballot line, the Taxpayers Party. (The name reminds me a little bit of George Pataki’s vanity line in 1994, the Tax Cut Now Party.) Anyhow, Michael Allegretti, himself spurned by the Conservatives, is probably the TP’s biggest name so far, having just filed 5,000 signatures to get on their line. This constitutes at least some bottom-shelf cat fud, since Allegretti would stay on the line even if he loses the GOP primary. Meanwhile, if rival Mike Grimm loses the Republican nod, he’ll have the Conservative line no matter what. What did I say about the Republicans never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity?
TN-03: Am I sniffing some cat fud on the horizon? Crazy Lady Robin Smith lost the GOP primary in this uber-red district by a 30-28 margin to self-funder Chuck Fleischmann, and already she’s talking about running again in 2012. Smith hasn’t endorsed Fleischmann, and for his part, Fleischmann says he hasn’t responded to Smith’s request for a reconciliation tête-à-tête. Since the only advice I like to give to Republicans is bad advice, nobody tell Fleischmann he should probably reconsider, as 30% doesn’t exactly constitute a mandate. (Remember what happened to another Tennessean who barely won his primary in 2006?) Anyhow, Smith is also hoping that the district will get redrawn with a more southerly configuration, as Fleischmann did better in the northern counties. Could be messy!
Race Ratings: CQ has a cool new feature which, I admit, I’m quite envious of. A couple of years ago, James and I dreamed of creating a system which would allow SSP users to rate races as they saw fit, and then generate an “aggregate” rating across the site. Unfortunately, as a purely volunteer outfit with extremely minimal ad revenues, we simply didn’t have the money for this project. But now, CQ has gone and created something very close to the tool we were hoping to build. The interface could use some improvement (right now, you have to drill down to a separate page for each race individually, and you can also only rate races that are already on their list), but it still looks pretty promising.
According to the AP, my homestate senator, Thad Cochran, recalls an incident in 1987 where he, Bob Dole, and John McCain were on a diplomatic mission with representatives of Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua. From what Cochran says, John McCain grabbed one of Ortega’s associates by the shirt and lifted him out of his chair in a fit of anger. Thankfully, no violence ensued. Cochran stated that he was scared for their safety since the Nicaraguan officials were carrying weapons and the Congressional delegation was not.
Considering how foreign “you’re either with us or against us” policy has been over the past 7.5 years, it frightens me that we could see another 4 years of this cowboy “diplomacy” from the United States.
I wonder how much traction the Cochran story will make around the news wires. If McCain is having his own Republican colleagues question his judgement in foreign affairs as a candidate for president, just imagine what will happen if, God forbid, McCain gets into office. I’d hate for McCain to go China and grab the Prime Minister by his suit jacket.
This post is a continuation of my prior diary exploring where Elizabeth Dole lives. In this diary we delve into the world of voter fraud, and wonder whether the Doles are separated or if they live together in Washington, DC?
Personally, I find it highly doubtful that Liddy’s marriage is on the rocks. By all accounts their marriage is happy. I haven’t ever seen any rumors to indicate that Bob’s endorsement of Viagra was meant for any woman other than Liddy (although she did just have hip replacement?)
Anyway, the question must be asked. Are they even married? Bob Dole has been registered to vote in Kansas for many years. Elizabeth Dole was too for a few decades. In 2001, her voter registration was changed to the state of North Carolina. What is wrong with their marriage that they live in different states? Are they separated? Are they contemplating divorce? If two people live in different states for over 6 years are they considered married?
This is important, because if they are still married, and they still live in the same house, then one of them is committing voter fraud. If they are not living in the same house, then what does that say about their family values?
Let me give you a little quote from North Carolina law. Recognizing, of course, that neither Bob nor Liddy would ask for this; would it be possible to end their marriage right now? Well…
Marriages may be dissolved and the parties thereto divorced from the bonds of matrimony on the application of either party, if and when the husband and wife have lived separate and apart for one year, and the plaintiff or defendant in the suit for divorce has resided in the State for a period of six months.
::snip::
Whether there has been a resumption of marital relations during the period of separation shall be determined pursuant to G.S. 52_10.2. Isolated incidents of sexual intercourse between the parties shall not toll the statutory period required for divorce predicated on separation of one year.
The statute mentioned in that quote states that a resumption of marital status must be shown by “a totality of the circumstances.”
I highly doubt that living in different houses for 6 years is considered to be a totality of circumstances.
Now lets move on to tax law. As all of you should know, a married couple has the ability to either file taxes jointly or separately. Presumably, to file a joint return, you must live at the same address. As recently as 1996 the Dole’s were still filing their taxes jointly. I wonder which address they have chosen as their permanent address for tax purposes?
To be fair, they could very well be filing separately. It might even make financial sense for them to do so. But are they using the same address? Or is Bob filing in Kansas and Liddy in North Carolina? Or are they filing jointly in Washington, DC? As mentioned in my prior post, both Liddy and Bob’s addresses on their various property deeds say Washington, DC.
I was unable to get a hold of their actual tax forms, but I would love to take a look.
Lets review the facts.
The Doles are registered to vote in two different states.
Both have the same address listed on their many deeds.
In the past they have filed taxes jointly, indicating they live in the same home.
But are they committing voter fraud? In Kansas, election law only requires that a person reside in the state for more than 15 days before the election. Dole could meet this requirement simply by using his house in Russell as a hotel for 2 weeks and would be fine. But what about Liddy?
Election law in North Carolina requires a longer stay, one of 30 days, but it is also a little more detailed in its protection. It says,
That place shall be considered the residence of a person in which that person’s habitation is fixed, and to which, whenever that person is absent, that person has the intention of returning.
::snip::
The establishment of a secondary residence by an elected official outside the district of the elected official shall not constitute prima facie evidence of a change of residence.
But, there is a very important distinction between a secondary residence and a permanent residence to which you plan on returning.
Now, I would not want to commit a felony, or even a misdemeanor, by saying that either Dole is committing voter fraud. What I will say is that there are some very serious questions that we must ask. The answers to these questions will give us proof that either the Doles are committing voter fraud, or they are in fact living in different states.
And, if none of the above has convinced you that something fishy is going on here, I submit this video put together by my friends at WNCNN.
