« It's getting drafty in here (updated) | Main | Ward Crutchfield gets probation, house arrest, small fine »
January 17, 2008
Repeat: the calls are coming from _inside the county_
You've heard about those unauthorized push-polls for Mike Huckabee that attack fellow candidate Fred Thompson, I'm sure. Today the Tennessean reveals a large source of funding for the group responsible: a Mark West of Ooltewah, Tenn.
Local gang: do we know who this is? The name is vaguely familiar, but I can't place the context. I'm actually surprised it wasn't someone from Cleveland.
The "Common Sense Issues" group, though, is based in Colorado Springs. That ought to tell you something.
Political News | By joe lance | 06:25 PM
Comments
I don't know him, but it would appear that he's the CFO/COO of the Wellington Group, LLC (their "philosophy is grounded in the strong Christian values espoused by Jerry Stout and Mark West"). Maybe that will help? There's a photo at the link...
Posted by: alice at January 17, 2008 07:26 PM
More
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080117/NEWS0206/80117105
Posted by: Connie at January 17, 2008 08:23 PM
Sorry. I didn't make it clickable.
More on this at The Tennessean
Huckabee donor gives to company behind attack calls
Hope that works.
Posted by: Connie at January 17, 2008 08:27 PM
Ahhh ... the name is familiar at least to me because he's the organizer of the Chattanooga for Huckabee Meetup Group. It would appear that the photo on the Wellington Group web site matches the one of the organizer on the Huckabee Meetup site pretty well.
There's also some information about his past campaign contributions here (which include the Corker for Senate campaign).
I found some more info about the calls: here. I didn't realize they'd been going on for so long ... I first heard about them a few days ago.
According to the above article (dated Dec. 7, 2007), Huckabee asked that the calls stop (obviously, they haven't):
"Our campaign has nothing to do with the push-polling and I wish they would stop," Huckabee said while campaigning in Iowa. "We don't want this kind of campaigning because it violates the spirit of our campaign. I don't want to become president because I disabled the other candidates, I want to become president because I am the best candidate."
But ... I haven't been around town long enough for his name to be familiar for any other reason.
Honestly, I'm disappointed to see this kind of campaigning. I don't think it's possible to run a campaign that doesn't address both why a person should vote for you as well as why they shouldn't vote for your opponent (or in the case of organizations like this, why you should vote for the candidate they support and not vote for their opponents) ... but employing a technique that resorts to deception to try to trick people into listening to a message supporting your candidate or attacking another candidate crosses the line in my opinion.
Full Disclosure: Since I'm criticizing techniques used to support another candidate ... I'm a Ron Paul supporter, and I financially support the Chattanooga Ron Paul Meetup Group by paying its Meetup.com account, and as such I'm listed as an assistant organizer, though my role in the direction of the group is very limited. I have also supported the official Ron Paul campaign, and donated money to other grassroots efforts engaged in promoting the Ron Paul campaign.
Posted by: Jeremy Clifton at January 17, 2008 11:27 PM
If my memory serves, this guy had something to do with candidate online databases. It was in the Times Free Press over the summer.
Let's just say that he's not going to have a lot of friends left in the county GOP.
Posted by: Tommy Oliver at January 18, 2008 08:47 PM