Archive for 2010 elections

Christine “I’m Not a Witch” O’Donnell may run for Senate again. VIDEO Flashback time!

According to the Wilmington News-Journal, which is inaccessible to non-subscribers, Christine O’Donnell– yes, that Christine O’Donnell– may run for Senate again in 2014 after losing in 2010. Taegan has the quote:

I think I owe that to my supporters, to at least consider a run. People sacrificed. Not only came out of their comfort zone – sacrificed to work hard in order to win the primary. And I think that I owe it to them to give it every consideration.”

I personally sacrificed every time I was forced to watch one of her ads or see her on old Bill Maher “Politically Incorrect” clips.

on Sep 20, 2010:

Christine O’Donnell says:

Scientists are creating human-animal hybrids and have already successfully given a mouse a human brain.

She wouldn’t lie to Hitler if he were at her door and she were hiding Jews in her attic during World War 2.

She used to dabble in witchcraft and one of her first dates was on a satanic altar.

Masturbation is adultery, even if you’re single.

Too much Government funding goes to AIDS.

She wants to get back to the homeland of her security.

Gays are trying to change our language and that makes them just like Hitler.

She won in 2 our of 3 counties when she ran against Joe Biden in 2008, and lost.

Karl Rove’s accusations of her are “unFactual”.

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No, she is definitely not, and never will be, us:

Federal grand jury probes campaign fundraising in GOP Rep. Micahel Grimm’s 2010 campaign

Above is a video of Rep. Michael Grimm calling for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. That would be the same Affordable Care Act that has already helped so many people even before it fully goes into effect in 2014.

Below is a report from the New York Daily News about a federal grand jury that is looking into allegations of campaign finance violations during Grimm’s 2010 campaign:

A federal Brooklyn grand jury is probing alleged fundraising shenanigans in freshman Congressman Michael Grimm’s 2010 campaign, the Daily News has learned.

The FBI’s public corruption unit has interviewed at least four campaign workers investigating allegations that the Staten Island Republican accepted illegal campaign contributions, law enforcement sources said.

At least two of those workers have received subpoenas to testify before a grand jury, but both volunteered to answer questions…. Grimm, himself a former FBI agent, has denied any wrongdoing.

Another day, another GOP scandal.

Revealed: Koch political machine funneled $55 million to front groups for ads smearing Dems, helping GOP win in 2010

Via democurmudgeon.blogspot.com

Koch grinned as he told me that the Tea Party is composed of ‘just normal people like us.’ A few moments later, I asked if the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision had helped him with electing the new Congress.”

You know how the Koch brothers like to call themselves small government libertarians? Actions speak a whole lot louder than words.

One of my favorites, Lee Fang, does it again. Check this out:

Charles and David Koch, the billionaire owners of of Koch Industries, are known as big spenders when it comes to lobbying and influencing public policy. Now, a new document filed with the IRS reveals how the Koch political machine funneled over $54.5 million in previously undisclosed funds to a litany of front groups designed to smear Democrats.

The disclosure suggests that a very wide variety of Republican groups active in the last major election, from pro-life organizations that ran ads on abortion to shadowy fronts that aired partisan commercials with the infamous Ground Zero Mosque conspiracy, have been highly dependent on Koch money. The document also reveals that the Koch’s political network spent much more on electing the current Congress than previously known. [...]

Sean Noble, a Republican consultant, was hired to help administer the Koch war chest. According to Politico, Noble was part of a group of GOP operatives who met regularly with Karl Rove’s Super PAC to target 120 House of Representatives races in 2010. The close coordination was pivotal in helping the Republican Party capture 63 seats in one of the biggest midterm election landslides in modern history.

The Koch machine in all it’s disgusting g(l)ory.

Please read the entire report chock full o’ details here.

How The Koch Brothers Spent At Least $3.9 Million In Unreported Partisan Attack Efforts During 2010 Election

Photo by Gus Ruelas/Greenpeace

The wonderful Lee Fang has an exclusive. I’ll tease it just to make you go over and read his whole post. The Koch brothers and their scads of money strike again:

Republic Report has obtained financial audits showing that the billionaire Koch brothers supported at least $3.9 million in unreported election-related activity in 2010. The documents, reported here for the first time, provide a window into an otherwise secret campaign infrastructure that will likely be reactivated this year.

But the petrochemical plutocrats spent way more than what has been previously disclosed. Documents obtained by Republic Report shed light on the 2010 midterm election strategies of the Koch political machine, including secret money used to harness Tea Party activists into defeating Democrats. [...]

[T]he brothers prefer nonprofit 501(c) organizations to hide their donations and their political spending. By evading the spirit of campaign disclosure laws, the attacks go on with little accountability from the public.

They influenced the elections then, and they’ll influence them now, all without disclosure, all to defeat President Obama, all right under our noses, and all hardly noticed by the press.

When I warn Obama supporters against being too complacent, this is what I mean. We’re up against this kind of thing, right along with voter suppression and the intense hatred of the president that will drive right wing voters to the polls, even to cast a ballot for someone as unpopular as Willard M. Romney.

Political aide to former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich guilty of conspiring to suppress black voter turnout

Voter suppression is a huge problem, and it’s getting worse.  That’s why the NAACP is all over it, fighting against Voter I.D. laws that potentially disenfranchise millions, and that’s why I keep writing about it.

At least now one person is being held accountable. That’s a start:

(AP)  BALTIMORE — A Baltimore jury Tuesday convicted a political aide to former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich of conspiring to suppress black voter turnout during the 2010 gubernatorial election.

Paul Schurick was found guilty of all four counts he faced, including conspiracy to violate state election laws and attempting to influence a voter’s decision whether to go to the polls through the use of fraud.

Schurick had testified that he rejected campaign consultant Julius Henson’s black voter suppression strategy but later approved an automated telephone call sent on Election Day to about 110,000 Democratic voters in heavily black jurisdictions. The call told them to relax because Gov. Martin O’Malley had already won.

Republicans love to whine and screech about Big Bad (defunct) ACORN and the non-issue of voter fraud (as opposed to election fraud). They should take a good, long look in the mirror.

Ex-Rand Paul campaign worker gets probation for head stomping of MoveOn activist

Remember that head-stomping of a MoveOn activist by a Rand Paul campaign worker back in 2010?

So what kind of consequences did the stomper have to pay? He’s serving a year’s probation and paying $600 in medical expenses.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Assistant Fayette County Attorney Jackie Alexander says 53-year-old Tim Profitt agreed to an Alford plea on Monday. It means he acknowledged that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him in the assault but didn’t admit guilt.

Chart: Conservative undisclosed donors spent 10 times more than liberal ones in 2010

We get comment after wingnut comment from under our posts that Democrats pile up just as much money in donations, if not more, as Republicans do. Apparently they’re unaware of the Citizens United ruling that magically turned corporations into people, allowing undisclosed (mostly Republican) donors to dump millions into election campaigns.

Why, sputter our right wing commenters, George Soros gives WAY more to Evil Libruls than corporations give to Republicans! Of course, we’ve cited numerous times that there is a huge imbalance that tilts heavily to the right, but they’ll have none of that.

Let’s make this easier for them to grasp. Perhaps a nice visual will help (courtesy of Think Progress):

[S]pending by undisclosed donors actually was ten times higher for conservatives than liberals, with conservatives spending $119.6 million to liberals’ $15.7 million.

Of course, the effect has been that Democrats are now forming their own groups to compete with the colossal amounts of conservative money. The result?

What this means is that federal elections in 2012 may include an unprecedented flurry of corporate and secret cash that would drown out the voices of Main Street America in a way never seen before in modern history.

As I said in a previous post: What we really need to raise is hell about campaign finance reform. Think about what all this cash could pay for, the mouths it could feed, the medical costs it could cover, the education it could provide.  Instead, it funds inane campaign ads. This is one vicious cycle that needs to end.