Justin's Political Corner

This past weekend, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R), best known for resigning his seat after lying about an affair with an Argentinian woman, ran a full-page ad in the Charleston Post & Courier to support his congressional campaign after it was revealed that he had been charged with trespassing at his ex-wife’s house. In the ad, Sanford included his personal cell phone number and told readers to call him “if you have further questions.”

After Sanford published his own cell phone number, House Majority PAC, a Democratic-aligned super PAC, included his number in a fundraising email sent Wednesday.

Sanford responded Thursday by publishing a list of unredacted phone numbers from anybody who had called his cell phone in an attempt to publicly shame them. See a redacted version of the list below:

ThinkProgress spoke with three of the people whose numbers appeared on the list – all were surprised and upset to learn their private phone numbers had been published. 

Sanford’s campaign has grown increasingly erratic as polls show him trailing Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, even in the strongly-Republican district. On Wednesday, in an homage to Clint Eastwood’s infamous RNC chair speech, Sanford used a campaign stop in Charleston to debate a cardboard cutout of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

h/t: Think Progress

National Republicans are pulling the plug on Mark Sanford’s suddenly besieged congressional campaign, POLITICO has learned — a potentially fatal blow to the former South Carolina governor’s dramatic comeback bid.

Blindsided by news that Sanford’s ex-wife has accused him of trespassing and concluding he has no plausible path to victory, the National Republican Congressional Committee has decided not to spend more money on Sanford’s behalf ahead of the May 7 special election.

“Mark Sanford has proven he knows what it takes to win elections. At this time, the NRCC will not be engaged in this special election,” said Andrea Bozek, an NRCC spokeswoman
.

Sanford is facing Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a Clemson University administrator and sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, in a race that has grabbed the national spotlight.

The NRCC’s move comes hours after Tuesday night’s report by the Associated Press that Sanford’s ex-wife, Jenny Sanford, filed a court complaint accusing him of trespassing at her home in early February – which would be a violation of the terms of their divorce agreement.

Republicans said they were caught off guard by news of Jenny Sanford’s complaint. They worry other damaging revelations about Mark Sanford’s personal life that they aren’t aware of could come out in the coming weeks.

The NRCC has spent a nominal amount on the race on polling and other activities. But officials determined that devoting potentially millions more — which was under discussion — isn’t worth it.

“This is an unfortunate situation but this is what happens when candidates aren’t honest and withhold information,” said one GOP operative.

The district heavily favors Republicans, so a win by Colbert Busch would be a major upset.

h/t: Politico

Former South Carolina Governor and current Republican nominee for Congress Mark Sanford has his work cut out for him if he wants to win the special election on May 7th, his first attempt at staging a political comeback after being forced to resign his governorship following a very public affair. But that didn’t stop one local county party chairman from adding another: the looks of the female Democratic nominee.

Sanford is running against Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a successful South Carolinian businesswoman who easily won her Democratic Party primary last month. But rather than challenging Colbert Busch on policy or credentials, Republicans seem focused on her physical appearance:

“Everybody is really concerned because she’s not a bad-looking lady, she is a good speaker and she’s got some money,” said Jerry Hallman, chairman of the Beaufort County Republican Party. “In politics, those things are important.”

This is not the first time a female candidate for office has been dismissed as little more than a pretty face with a nice speaking voice, but in the case of Colbert-Busch, who is the older sister of Comedy Central personality Stephen Colbert, she has been subjected to an unusual amount of sexist coverage by all corners of the media.

Whether intentional or not, every one of these headlines poses a problem: they continue to define Colbert-Busch not based on her own successes but by the successes of her famous brother. In doing so, it allows readers — and, more importantly, voters — to do the same. Which of course isn’t fair to Colbert-Busch, who has the right to be judged on her own merits.

h/t: Adam Peck at Think Progress

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford on Tuesday cleared another hurdle in his bid for political redemption, defeating a former Charleston County council member to win the GOP nomination for the U.S. House seat he held for three terms.

“It’s been a very long journey. And in that journey I am humbled to find ourselves where we find ourselves tonight,” said Sanford, whose political career was derailed four years ago when, as sitting governor, he disappeared from the state only to return to acknowledge an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman.

That woman, María Belén Chapur,  and Sanford are now engaged. She appeared at Sanford’s side during his victory speech, smiling and applauding the former governor, who thanked her for being long-suffering while he was campaigning. She did not address the crowd.

With all of the precincts reporting Sanford had about 57 percent of the vote in the 1st District to 43 percent for Curtis Bostic, the former county council member. The candidates were vying in the GOP runoff after they finished as the top two vote-getters in a 16-way GOP primary last month.

Sanford will face Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, and Green Party candidate Eugene Platt in a May special election.

Colbert Busch released a statement late Tuesday saying “I look forward to a vigorous campaign that focuses on creating jobs, balancing our country’s budget and choosing an independent-minded leader who shares the values of the great people of South Carolina.”

Sanford, a former three-term congressman and two-term governor, said earlier Tuesday that the runoff would give a good indication whether voters have moved past his personal indiscretions.

“I’m both humbled and grateful for the response of the voters here tonight,” he said later.

Sanford was a rising Republican political star before he vanished from South Carolina for five days in 2009. Reporters were told he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, but the then-married governor later tearfully acknowledged he was visiting María Belén Chapur, which he told everyone at a news conference announcing his affair. He later called her his soul mate and the two were engaged earlier last year.

The opening for Sanford came after U.S. Rep. Tim Scott was appointed to fill the remaining two years of U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint’s seat. DeMint resigned to head The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Mark Sanford knows the 1st District well. Elected to the seat in 1994 — Jenny Sanford managed his first campaign and was a close adviser for most of his career — he served three terms before voters elected him governor in 2002.

h/t: Washington Post

Records show Curtis Bostic who was the attorney for the Christian World Adoption Agency (CWA) was paid 466,000.00 in 2011 and 189,000.00 in 2010 for services rendered to CWA. CWA has been accused by critics of being

– a multi-million dollar Charleston, S.C.-based company which critics contend is nothing but a sophisticated human trafficking outfit.

Christian World Adoption Agency’s motto was:

God is in control of our agency and your adoption.

Well it seems that God filed for bankruptcy and those who paid CWA for children were left holding the bag when they filed for Chapter 7 liquidation in February 2013.

As a result of a CBS News investigation and the banning of adoption agencies worldwide, CWA went bankrupt in February 2013. A few months prior to the bankruptcy filing Mr. Bostic’s law firm was still being paid for services connected to the CWA — even though they were soon to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. Records obtained by BU show that The Bostic Law firm was paid 26,641.07 dollars on November 7th 2012, and another 5,000.00 dollars on November 20th 2012. On December 5th 2012 Bostic’s firm was paid 5,906.86 along with another 243.25 paid December 12th 2012. The last payments to them were 5,000.00 on December 19th 2012, and 1,942.73 which was paid on January 16th 2013; less than one month prior to the filing. The total over the three month period was 44,733.91 dollars.

The video above highlights the issues involved with CWA’s practices and how they went about coercing Ethiopian families to sell their children to CWA, who then told the children that they would be going off to America to get an education where once obtained they would be allowed to come back home. Prospective parents were told a different and more compelling false narrative to tug at their heart strings and get them to pony up money for the adoption. The children were not told that they could no longer come home, nor were they under the impression that they were being adopted on a permanent basis. In the video above Curtis Bostic is seen at the end trying to explain the CWA’s position after it was revealed to be a potential scam. Bostic goes on to claim that of course people might complain about the process, but that CWA had been responsible for thousands of adoptions worldwide, and that prospective parents would probably complain later but they were not a measure of the whole of CWA’s practices. Bostic told CBS News:

“Sometimes, people are upset when they just simply misunderstand things,” Bostic told CBS.

Of course people can misunderstand things, especially when the truth comes out. It is also easy to claim that a misunderstanding happened when people are finally told the truth by the very children they adopted. Bostic also said in another interview:

It is not the job of an attorney to ascertain what the truth is. It is the job of an attorney to represent people.

Quite a statement coming from a man running for a congressional seat in South Carolina. Of course his boosters like Ali Akbar who is a convicted felon probably won’t care that Bostic was involved in the selling of Ethiopian children, or that the CWA, whom Bostic’s firm represented, was paid very well for several years to give them the best legal services money could buy. But we here at BU question whether or not Bostic is worthy of the congressional seat he is working hard to obtain. If his job is not ascertaining the truth on anything he does, then what does that say about him as a politician? It says to us at BU that the truth be damned, its really all about the dollars and the client who pays you. So if people are supporting Bostic to represent them in Congress, then it stands to reason they would want someone honest and who cares about the truth, and not some paid shill who will do or say anything to get elected. What is clear here is that Bostic doesn’t care about the truth, even when damning video shows the reality behind the Christian World Adoption Agency he represented.

H/T: Breitbart Unmasked

A look at the 1996 United States Senate campaign between then Democratic U.S. Rep. Dick Durbin and Republican Illinois State Rep. Al Salvi sheds an all-too-familiar light on how the effort to prevent gun violence has become a make-or-break issue for Illinois voters in next Tuesday’s special election to fill former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr’s seat.

After edging out the moderate Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra in the 1996 GOP primary, Al Salvi represented the most appealing, convincing candidate the Republican Party had presented in Illinois and was believed to have a legitimate chance at winning the Senate seat. The young NRA poster boy for Illinois spent his time on the campaign trail asserting the ’94 federal assault weapons ban was “silly,” calling the ’93 Brady Handgun Bill “cosmetic,” and offering to legalize concealed weapons in order to cut crime.

Meanwhile, Salvi’s opponent, then Representative Durbin was actively campaigning for sensible gun violence prevention measures. After co-sponsoring the ’93 Brady Handgun bill and supporting the ’94 assault weapons ban, he told Illinois voters, “We will not be a safer nation, a safer state, if people are carrying guns around shopping malls and restaurants.” Durbin joined forces with President Reagan’s former press secretary and gun-control activist Jim Brady to film a campaign ad that portrayed Salvi as an extremist on gun issues. In a Sunday radio interview just days before the election, Salvi responded by falsely charging that Jim Brady “used to sell” machine guns. Salvi later apologized and conceded, “Turns out that was a different Jim Brady.”

Salvi’s last-minute gaffe and extreme stance on guns proved to fracture the Illinois Republican party and rally Illinois voters around candidates who supported gun violence prevention. In one example, the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police opted to support Democratic House candidate Rod Blagojevich over the Republican incumbent, U.S. Rep Michael Flanagan, who earlier that year had supported an attempt to repeal the federal assault weapons ban. In his endorsement, the union’s president, Bill Nolan, said, “(It’s) almost a one-issue thing, and that is the guns.”

Salvi’s extreme stance on guns cost him the election. Durbin won the race by a landslide, leading Salvi 57 percent to 40 percent. Durbin acknowledged in his victory speech how important gun violence prevention was to Illinois voters: “I hope this victory tonight is a message that no political official in this state should ever, ever be cowered by the gun extremists.”

Seventeen years later, the gun debate, yet again, takes center stage in the Chicago-area congressional race to fill former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s vacated seat.

New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg, a vocal advocate for commonsense gun violence prevention measures, has shown a considerable interest in the first election since the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. His super PAC, Independence USA, has already spent $2.1 million in TV ad buys attacking former Congresswoman Halvorson and other candidates who refuse to take a stand on gun violence prevention measures. The Independence USA ad endorses former state Rep. Robin Kelly who released her own video highlighting her support for sensible gun measures, including bans on assault weapons and high capacity gun magazines.

In a race to represent a district severely shaken by gun violence, the movement to prevent gun violence again proves to be a critical issue. If history is any indication of which candidate Illinois voters will elect, Debbie Halvorson’s extremism may cost her.

h/t: Robert Avruch at Think Progress

Rich Miller at Capitol Fax has the scoop:

This just in…
Saturday, Feb 16, 2013

* 8:52 pm - A top source close to Sen. Toi Hutchinson’s congressional campaign confirmed widespread rumors tonight that Hutchinson will likely drop out of the 2nd District special primary race on Sunday.

The reasons are many, including Mayor Bloomberg’s decision to point his massive super PAC right at Hutchinson while backing rival Robin Kelly.

To date, over 5,000 members of this community donated to Robin Kelly’s campaign, helping to raise some $100,000. Daily Kos members make up 85% of her total donors.

There’s less than two weeks until the special election. Debbie Halvorson, rated “A” by the NRA, is spending her time complaining to right-wing media and taking concealed carry lessons.

h/t: Georgia Logothetis at Daily Kos

Democratic leaders in Missouri’s Eighth Congressional District today chose state Rep. Steve Hodges of East Prairie to run in a special election June 4 to replace U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau.

Hodges will face Republican state Rep. Jason Smith in the special election. Smith was chosen by GOP leaders last week for the ballot spot.

H/T: STLtoday.com

SALEM, Mo. • Like job applicants clutching résumés, more than a dozen Republican candidates for Missouri’s 8th Congressional District seat paraded before an auditorium full of Ozarks-area voters, touting fiscal conservatism, gun rights and pro-life credentials.

There was little disagreement on those or other topics among the 12 men and one woman who participated in a forum Thursday night as they seek to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau.

But both the questions and answers in the event, organized by the GOP congressional committee that will choose the Republican candidate for the post, were telling.

If some national Republicans are suggesting moving the party toward the middle on guns and other hot-button issues, no one here got the memo.

“Here in the Ozarks, most of us have and use guns. This level of freedom is something to be thankful for,” moderator Joyce Karnes told each candidate as part of the pre-set list of six questions. “… We want to know without a shadow of a doubt that (the eventual candidate) would vote to keep that freedom if it comes to that.”

All the candidates said they oppose new gun restrictions.

“Our gun rights are under attack as they’ve never been under attack,” responded candidate Bob Parker of Raymondville, before shouting to the audience, “I need more than 10 rounds to protect my freedom!”

National gun control debate since the recent massacre of children in Connecticut has focused in part on calls to limit semiautomatic ammunition magazines to 10 rounds.