Paquin Gets Down And Dirty With Gift To Rival Chenoweth

The campaign office of Rep. Helen Chenoweth received a nice red Christmas tin on Tuesday. But inside wasn’t cookies or candy. It was potting soil.

The “gift” of dirt was from the man running against Chenoweth for the GOP nomination for Idaho’s 1st Congressional District, Tony Paquin of Coeur d’Alene.

In a news release, Paquin said he has discovered that Chenoweth’s political operatives are investigating his personal background, indicating they plan to run a negative campaign.

“Chenoweth’s political operatives have said they are looking for dirt in my background,” Paquin said. “Since they aren’t going to find any, we wanted to give them the only dirt they can use.”

He said he was delivering similar packages to Chenoweth’s other district offices.

Graham Paterson, Chenoweth director of strategic information, said he found it “a rather bizarre publicity stunt.”

“I can’t think when we have been negative to him,” Paterson said. “I’d suggest that he focus on the issues and apply his own concerns to his own campaign.”

Paterson said without specific times, dates and places, he can’t respond to Paquin’s claims that Chenoweth workers have been meeting to discuss a negative campaign against the challenger.

Paquin said as early as August of this year, officials of the Chenoweth campaign discussed negative campaign tactics with political operatives in Washington, D.C., and in Idaho.