Spokane7
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May 15, 2010 in Idaho
Ward shakes up staff day after website report
Tea Party Boise endorses Labrador
Vaughn Ward, Republican candidate for Idaho’s 1st Congressional District seat, speaks at a Republican candidates forum April 29 in Nampa, Idaho.
(Full-size photo)
BOISE – Idaho congressional candidate Vaughn Ward’s campaign stopped taking calls Friday and part of his campaign website remained shut down as his campaign manager, Ryan O’Barto, resigned and Ward announced he was bringing in a new team.
The shake-up came after a series of campaign flubs over the past month, culminating in a Spokesman-Review report that half of Ward’s online position statements on issues were identical to those on other candidates’ and congressmen’s websites. The campaign took down the position statements shortly after being contacted by the newspaper on Thursday; they hadn’t been replaced as of the end of the day Friday.
Ward’s new campaign spokesman and media consultant, longtime Idaho GOP activist Mike Tracy, told the Associated Press on Friday that he’s taking over O’Barto’s spokesman duties and that the campaign’s senior finance director, Al Henderson, will be the new campaign manager. Henderson joined Ward’s campaign on April 29; until Friday, O’Barto served as both campaign manager and spokesman.
“He tendered his resignation,” Ward said late Friday on a Boise talk radio show. “It was very hard for me to accept his resignation. He felt it was more of a distraction on the campaign.”
Asked by a caller if he’s blaming missteps on his campaign staff, Ward, a veteran and Marine reservist, said, “Anything that goes wrong on my campaign is my responsibility, just like in the Marine Corps.”
Meanwhile, the Tea Party Boise organization, which previously hadn’t chosen a favorite in the GOP primary race for the 1st District congressional seat, on Friday endorsed Ward’s rival, state Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle. The two are vying for a chance to challenge freshman Democratic congressman Walt Minnick.
Ward said on KBOI radio, “To deal with some of our communication issues that I wanted to make stronger, I brought in Mike Tracy, who has a 20-plus-year history of dealing with tough races.” Ward added that Tracy has been volunteering on his campaign, but now will step into the press secretary role.
Tracy is a former press secretary for U.S. Sen. Larry Craig and former executive director of the Idaho Republican Party; he now operates a communications firm in Boise.
Henderson is a longtime Idaho GOP fundraiser; among campaigns he’s worked on are those of Butch Otter, Steve Symms and Larry Craig; he also was a longtime Craig staffer.
Dennis Mansfield, spokesman for rival candidate Labrador, said he was surprised at the big names from the Idaho GOP stepping in to take over Ward’s campaign. “Now that the campaign has imploded at this point, I think they’ve realized they’ve all got an investment of their own reputations in this man who no one knows,” Mansfield said. “So I think it is more of a salvaging opportunity for the GOP leaders’ reputations than it is passionate support for this candidate.”
Ward, who’s been campaigning full time for more than a year, in recent months has received the endorsements of two former governors and other big names in Idaho Republican politics.
Prior to the revelation of the cribbed position statements, Ward was in the spotlight for a series of embarrassing revelations, from being late paying his property taxes on a lot he and his wife own in Valley County to running afoul of Marine Corps regulations in an online campaign ad on the Drudge Report.
A month ago, Labrador, who entered the race in December and has lagged far behind Ward in fundraising, shifted his own full-time campaign manager to part-time consulting and brought on a team of volunteers to run his low-budget campaign. Labrador said then he made the move to concentrate his limited finances on getting his message out; he began airing radio ads on Friday.
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tinybobidaho on May 15 at 7:28 a.m.
Raul Labrador should never hold a seat in the U.S. Congress. In fact, he shouldn’t even hold one here in Idaho. As an immigration attorney, he admits he represents people who are in this country illegally. He works to get our government to let them stay here and in some cases fights their deportation regardless of the crimes they have committed. Here’s a good example. A few years back, after an admitted human smuggler served his time in an Idaho prison, Labrador fought for this criminal’s deportation in Appeals court, even though he knew the man was wanted for murder in his own country. He was willing see an alleged killer walk free on our streets, putting Idahoans at risk.
Labrador talks a big game when it comes to immigration saying we need our borders secured, but when he’s asked what he’d do with the millions of illegal aliens in this country, he never answers the question. That tells me he would give them all amnesty , which is against the will of the majority of the people. People shouldn’t be fooled. Whenever a politician talks about “immigration reform” they are talking about amnesty. If you notice, he never says our current immigration laws should be enforced which would hold accountable those who violated federal law by crossing the border without permission and using false documents to get jobs and benefits. Just punishing the employer will not stop illegal aliens from draining our social programs or lighten the burdens on our schools and hospitals.
Labrador is just another slick politicain who talks out of both sides of his mouth. Illegal immigration is a serious issue in this country and we need people in Congress who will represent the American people, not foreign nationals who don’t have the respect to come in the legal way.
spokanada on May 15 at 9:21 a.m.
Tinybob, I don’t think this story is about Labrador. Furthermore, I didn’t see any mention of immigration either. Why is you post completely off topic?
I don’t follow any candidates in Idaho so I wont comment as too who I think should win but you are supporting a guy that steals other people’s work and tries to pass it off as his own. You hold him in high regard because he served in the military yet you turn a blind eye to his plagiarism and you blame it on someone else.
This guy has a credibility issue and should not be taken seriously.
MackBL on May 15 at 9:33 a.m.
My concern is my family and my country that the Elitist Politicians, no doubt a good number are Immigration Lawyers, and their Elitist Political Contributors desire to turn our nation into just another Third World Country for all of our Citizens except of course for the Immigration lawyers and the Special Interest Groups they they represent. The problem is the Elitist Politicians are willing to turn the United States into a welfare state to insure most of our Citizens obtain Third World status by importing ILLEGALS and various visa holders to take United States Citizen’s jobs or outsourcing United States Citizen’s jobs to Third World Countries. There is no surprise in the fact that the Immigration Lawyers will continue to defend the ILLEGALS serving their Special Interest Groups by insuring their “bottom line” will improve along with their own profit while United States Citizens provide the benefits to their ILLEGALS.
Idahoans will wakeup one day to discover that at LEAST 30% of their state Educational Budget will be wasted in an attempt to educate the ILLEGALS and their anchors and their Hospital ER’s will be at a stand still if not closed down; then who will benefit from the CHEAP LABOR, only the Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Political Contributors.
Be carefull the PRO-ILLEGAL, PRO-BLANKET AMNESTY(or just maybe a path to Citizenship), and PRO-OPEN BORDERS Politicians exist in both major Political Parties but of course they will lie to get elected(see John McCain).
Scoutster on May 15 at 11:44 a.m.
MackBL….
Can you explain for me the logic behind your statement:
“turn our nation into just another Third World Country for all of our Citizens except of course for the Immigration lawyers and the Special Interest Groups they they represent. The problem is the Elitist Politicians are willing to turn the United States into a welfare state to insure most of our Citizens obtain Third World status by importing ILLEGALS and various visa holders to take United States Citizen’s jobs or outsourcing United States Citizen’s jobs to Third World Countries. ”
What, exactly, is the motivation for these Elitist Whatevers to have a poorer country? What do they have to gain that would make them do something so seemingly illogical? Wouldn’t they just have to work harder to support that welfare state, since they would be the only ones making money?
MackBL on May 15 at 12:52 p.m.
Scoutster; Sorry, I had go clean my gutters.
Illogical and shortsighted to the individual citizens who work every day to raise and support their families. But the quick answer is the Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Political Contributors consider United States Citizens only as units of labor and the faster we become a Third World Country the better for their bottom line! Our Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Political Contributors will not be happy until they transform the United States into a Third World Country for most of our citizens while furnishing the Chamber of Commerce and all their Elitist Special Interest Groups with their supply of cheap labor. The Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Contributors are socializing benefits to their ILLEGALS, camouflaged as welfare for United States Citizens, on the backs of United States citizens through our assets such as the Education System, Social Security, and Health Care not to mention our National Security while privatizing the profits for themselves!
Interesting that you ignored the part about the amount of state budget that will or is wasted on educating the ILLEGALS and their anchors and the stress on the hospitals and their ER’s not to mention the other social services that will have to be paid for by Citizen taxpayers, benefits that the ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS will not have to furnish further increasing their “Illogical” profit. The Elitist consider Citizen Taxpayer Funds a never ending source to furnish their endeavors no matter how trivial and costly but may be a profit for the Elitist if not the Taxpayer can furnish more .
Scoutster on May 15 at 1:37 p.m.
So, MackBL, the ultimate goal by these Elitists is to have a large number of workers earning poor wages while they, the Elitists (presumably as capitalists, the ones controlling the money) reap the benefits of their hard labor. Not unlike a plantation system. Would that be right?
So, what about the current working class/middle class who ARE hard working, tax paying citizens, like me? What will happen to me when all the illegals are doing all the work?
I’m not arguing, I’m trying to understand.
readit on May 15 at 1:41 p.m.
Ward campaign is made up of plagiarism, lies, and nonsense. Seriously, who could vote for this guy at this point? And what else is going to come out about him if he makes it to the general election? He can’t even manage a $500 property tax bill or a simple campaign website, how does that give anyone faith in his ability to lead anything? And when was the last time he supported his family in ANY way? I’d love to know…
eagleproducer on May 15 at 2:17 p.m.
Awww, the death throes of modern conservatism… who knew they’d go out with such class?
At least they are still worth a chuckle or two!
Dimwits like Labrador and Ward running on GOP tickets across the nation will essentially guarantee the ascendancy of progressive policies.
Sounds win/win to me.
Pat O'Leary on May 15 at 8:51 p.m.
Another circular firing squad.
MackBL on May 15 at 10:14 p.m.
Scoutster:
I didn’t intend to be argumentative, although I am uncertain if you are attempting to funnel me into identifying a particular economical, social, or political system of your preference. However, I don’t assume that capitalism is the driving force and I do dislike dealing with any “ism” as an absolute. Having said that I will identify today’s version of corporatism; I once read that it was defined as a combination of the worst aspects of fascism and socialism if you can even imagine a best aspect of either. In other words the organizing of a society in the image of the corporation in order to reverse the independence of U.S. Citizens resulting in their subjugation to corporatism. Minimizing the self-sufficiency of the United States and for that matter any nation thus creating a corporate feudalism, I know, another ism. We have not only seen jobs leave the United States for Third World Countries we continue to see ILLEGALS from Third World Countries imported to take Citizens jobs and drive down wages. Both of these occurrences along with the required Open or no borders strengthen the international corporation while at the same time weaken the Citizens. U.S. Citizens can see that that ILLEGAL immigration is wrong, most surveys in the mid to high 70%, if not for the pressure by 75% of U.S. Citizens the politicians would have done the bidding of their Elitist Political Contributors and given Amnesty to the ILLEGALS further eroding our sovereignty. Too many U.S. Citizens are wrapped up into winning one for their political party and our nation’s survival becomes secondary to PARTY Loyalty again assisted by the political parties and financed by the Elitist Political Contributors.
Scoutster on May 16 at 9:06 a.m.
OK…
I”m still not sure what these Elitists are after? And what happens to people like me in this theory?
When ALL the jobs are being done by ILLEGALS, and all the wealth is controlled by the ELITISTS, what happens to the 4/5th of the population that is neither?
Do we have jobs? Are we on welfare?