Tag: scandal

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GOP House Majority Whip Scalise Acknowledges Speaking At “White Nationalist” Meeting

Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner surely didn’t imagine he would begin the next Congress in this manner.

First, Republican Congressman Michael Grimm of Staten Island pleads guilty to felony tax evasion.

And now another GOP House member is in the middle of a racial controversy literally days before the Republican party is to take control of both chambers of Congress. 

The incoming House Majority Whip, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, has acknowledged that he spoke at a meeting of “white nationalist leaders” (read that “white supremacists”) while serving as a state legislator in 2002.

The 48-year-old Scalise, who ascended to the House GOP’s third-ranking post earlier this year, confirmed through an adviser that he once appeared at a convention of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization.

That organization, founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, has been called a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

As JoeMyGod points out, it should surprise no one that Scalise was the lead author of Louisiana’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

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Donors Feel “Duped” By Clay Aiken After Announcement of Docuseries Covering Congressional Campaign

Although former American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken came up second on election night for his now-failed Congressional campaign, he quickly announced that he would be the focus of a “docu-series” (read that “reality show”) filmed throughout his campaign.

Apparently, this news has angered some of his supporters who now say they feel “duped” in regard to the filming that went on at events during the campaign.

Actor/producer Steve Tyler organized a fundraiser at the home of EXTRA correspondent Michael Corbett during the election cycle, and has written a letter to Aiken expressing his disappointment over Aiken’s “back-up plan.”

Hi Clay

Again, I am sorry for the loss on your bid for Congress, but apparently you had yourself covered with a reality TV show deal the entire time, just in case you didn’t win. I cannot speak for the NC Voters or contributors, but I can speak for myself and many of your Los Angeles supporters when I say we feel duped, taken advantage of and lied to. When we were asked to sign waivers by your film crew, we were told it was for a BBC documentary that would not air here in the United States.

I have received calls from many supporters at the LA fundraiser all demanding that the LA event not be included in your TV show, as the crew misrepresented use of the filming. It is obvious you had this TV deal prior to the votes being tabulated as GOOD MORNING AMERICA announced the deal just hours after votes were barely in.

On a personal level, I worked very hard convincing people of your integrity, viability and the need for them to donate. It all reflects badly on my credibility amongst donors because of your actions. Now it looks like I deceived donors.

I do hope you realize this prevents you from ever running again for an elected office. You will no longer be credible as someone that wants to help the public more than your need for fame. Had the LA donors known you would personally benefit from their donations and appearance at the event – they would not have donated to your campaign. Your TV deal was announced all over TV yesterday and in the Los Angeles Times today.

It pains me to write this because I so believed your Congressional Campaign was for the right reasons and the greater good. Obviously I misjudged you.

Respectfully

Steve Tyler

Read more about the whole kerfuffle at FrontiersLA.

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Carl DeMaio, San Diego Congressional Candidate, Accused Of Another Sexual Harassment Scandal

With only two days before this year’s elections, San Diego’s Carl DeMaio has yet another scandal facing him as a second staffer has come forward accusing him of sexual harassment:

Twenty-five year old Justin Harper, a Navy veteran,  began interning with DeMaio’s campaign in February. A month later he was hired as a regional political director whose job was to make phone calls and knock on doors to ask voters for their support.

From KPBS:

On Thursday, July 10, Harper said, he returned to DeMaio’s Miramar campaign office in the afternoon following a day of walking neighborhoods and knocking on doors for the campaign. He said there had been a news conference at the headquarters, so DeMaio and other staffers were still in the office.

According to a campaign press release, DeMaio had a news conference at noon that day to “blast sweeping Medicare cuts.”

Harper said he went to the restroom and didn’t know anyone was in there.

“I was at the urinal, and (DeMaio) came from the stall that was closest to the urinal and was kind of just standing there hovering,” Harper said. “I turned around and realized that it was Carl. He had his pants up, but his fly was undone, and he had his hand grasping his genitals.”

Harper said DeMaio didn’t say anything to him, and he didn’t say anything to DeMaio.

“I just walked out. I didn’t say anything to him, I just left,” Harper said.

As was the case in the other scandals, DeMaio’s campaign has denied the allegation.

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Gay GOP Congressional Candidate Carl DeMaio Has ANOTHER Scandal On His Hands

Yet another scandal is rocking the campaign of Republican US House candidate Carl DeMaio as accusations of secretly authoring a UT San Diego editorial that slammed his opponent, Democratic Rep. Scott Peters have surfaced today.

From NBC 7 in San Diego:

Former DeMaio staffer Todd Bosnich said he and campaign spokesman Dave McCulloch were the authors of an editorial entitled “Scott Peters and the Mount Soledad Shuffle.”

Bosnich accused DeMaio of improper sexual conduct in an interview with CNN on October 10. The DeMaio campaign says Bosnich was fired for plagiarism.

“I worked with Dave on it,” Bosnich said. “So it was, basically, the two of us who wrote it.”

The December 2013 editorial says that “The newly renewed debate over the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial — and how Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, actually feels about it — isn’t just a tiff over trivia. Instead, it’s a revealing reminder that Peters has a history of being both slippery and in substantive.”

The emails provided to NBC 7 indicate that after the editorial ran, McCulloch reached out to a consultant, other campaign staff and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) boasting that “UT San Diego scorched Peters over the Soledad Cross today, saying ‘Peters has a history of being both slippery and insubstantive’ and that ‘rewriting his own history and ducking responsibility for his actions have always come easy to Scott Peters.’”

In response, Alleigh Marree of the NRCC said: “This is great. Will be able to use these lines A LOT.”

In the email thread provided to NBC 7 Investigates, DeMaio wrote back, “Well, we did wrote (sic) it ourselves.”

William Osborne, editorial/opinion director of UT San Diego, told NBC 7 Investigates that UT San Diego editorial writer Chris Reed wrote the editorial. According to Osborne, the DeMaio campaign claimed the email thread had been fabricated.

“If that email is authentic, I cannot explain it and won’t speculate,” Osborne said. “I can only tell you that Carl DeMaio personally denied to me that he wrote it and said it (the email) was a ‘fabrication.’”

Bosnich said the email thread was not altered in any way, adding that the editorial appeared almost “exactly word for word” as he and McCulloch wrote it.

It’s worth noting that UT Sand Diego has endorsed Carl DeMaio for Congress.

San Diego City Beat reporter Kelly Davis took her thoughts public when she felt she was being stonewalled by the DeMaio campaign:

(via JMG)