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After a month of silence on the issue, Guinta on Monday disputed the news report and said the complaint is based on false information.
"I never directly or indirectly solicited the RGA," Guinta said.
The Union Leader on Monday stood by the report, published Aug. 27.
There are two new developments here:
1) Frank Guinta has broken his month-long silence with a denial.
2) The Union Leader makes a point of explicitly standing by the accuracy of their source.
A key paragraph from an NHDP release (email) on the heels of this offers more detail:
WMUR also reported that according to "several sources with direct knowledge of the events" Guinta said "the Republican Governor's Association would give $100,000 to the state party, but not as long as Kimball was there." [WMUR, 8/27/2011] Both WMUR and the Union Leader reported that Senator Kelly Ayotte, Congressman Bass, Senate President Bragdon, and Speaker Bill O'Brien all had knowledge of Guinta's solicitation to the RGA from a conference call.
So: who's not telling the truth? The Union Leader, or Frank Guinta?
My criticism of the New Hampshire Union Leader has been long and loud. But I'm not sure it's ever once been about the accuracy of facts in their non-editorial reportage.
In other news, Rep. Guinta has recently been named one of the most corrupt members of Congress.
The New Hampshire Democratic Party plans to file a complaint on Friday against Mitt Romney's Political Action Committees, asking the FEC to investigate whether they violate campaign finance laws.
Romney raised eyebrows last year with an extensive PAC operation that some ethics watchdogs said exploited loopholes to skirt campaign finance laws. By setting up PACs in multiple states, Romney's top donors were able to contribute many times the maximum amount allowed to a single campaign -- $1.5 million from only 38 individuals in 2009 and 2010, according to the Boston Globe. In addition, the PACs were used to finance consultants and staff who now form the groundwork for a possible presidential campaign.
Self-proclaimed front-runner Jennifer Horn's AM Talk Radio Fantasy Campaign is very quickly crashing down to earth in a blaze of FEC violations. The only question remaining: was the tipping point Jackie Mason or Luke and David?
What prompted Harper's Magazine to publish a somewhat detailed analysis of the origins of Jeb Bradley's supposed wealth is just a tad puzzling. But, perhaps the political fortunes of the scions of wealthy families were of particular interest in 2006. Or, perhaps it was in connection with the provisions in the Campaign Finance law which sought to "compensate" candidates whose competition was self-financed by letting them collect more from individual donors than the $2300 cap allows (a provision which the Supreme Court found to be un-constitutional last month).
AJS recently began airing nearly $90,000 in radio ads attacking Gov. Shaheen's record. The same group spent over $1 million attacking Shaheen in the 2002 Senate race. AJS has a long history of illegal campaign tactics. Public Citizen filed a complaint with the IRS in 2007 requesting that they revoke AJS's tax status because they were breaking election laws. And AJS had to pay a fine in 2006 for breaking Oklahoma's Telephone Consumer Protection Act in connection with a congressional race.
AJS has not filed with the FEC as a political campaign committee, which means they cannot run advertisements to influence the outcome of a federal campaign. Instead, AJS has hidden behind another section of the tax code in order to hide the identities of their campaign contributors. This means AJS can hide their contributors from public scrutiny, and may be illegally funneling corporate money into the election.
Does Fred Thompson remember that, outside of Hollywood, there is such a thing as a Federal Election Commission, with you know, rules and laws and stuff about running for office? A vigilant reader sent me this cell phone pic, taken today "from the south side of Hollis near the Nashua border":
That sign is as "grassroots" looking as "I'm With Fred", the officially authorized non-campaign website from Nashville, TN. For more on Frederick of Hollywood's casual interpretation of campaign finance laws, see Adam B's excellent summary, and elwood's take on the announcement date.
Update: Well, lookie here! That sign is from the "Official Thompson Store", which looks exactly like in style and functionality, but is not found on, his non-campaign campaign website.
This seems really fishy to me. He's not disclosing, he has yet to declare, and his "store" is not on his website, though they are clearly done by the same outfit. What's going on here?
