Huckabee’s supporters violating campaign finance law?
posted at 11:54 am on January 29, 2008 by Allahpundit
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Maybe, maybe not. Among the many charms of campaign finance legislation is its notorious vagueness. The issue in this case is whether Huck’s Army, a supposedly independent group, is “coordinating” its phone-bank activities with Huckabee’s campaign within the meaning of the statute, but that’s just the nuts and bolts. What makes this sexy is (a) that it’s Maverick’s stalking horse whose hoof might be caught in the trap and (b) the scummy plausible-deniability game Huckabee’s been playing with groups like this for months. Pastor Huck won’t dirty his hands with negative phone calls against Romney — but Trust Huckabee, an “independent” org, happily will. They’re also suspected of coordinating with the campaign, and unlike the Huck’s Army kids, they’ve got enough political savvy among their top people to know (or guess) that the FEC might frown upon it. And so we get the best of both worlds: Innocent actors potentially stumbling into legal pitfalls and malefactors gaming the system.
For instance, a Jan. 15 account in Wired shows a Huck’s Army volunteer describing how he interacts with the Huckabee campaign.
“[Jeffrey] Quesnelle, a Catholic 20-year-old software engineer in Sterling Heights, Michigan, says that the group coordinates with the Huckabee campaign to target messages to specific voters, like white, under-30 evangelical Christian women,” the magazine’s Sarah Lai Stirland reported.
Additionally, news reports have also described Huck’s Army engaging in aggressive phone banking on behalf of Huckabee before the South Carolina primary. It appears that there was some communication between campaign staff and volunteers regarding this effort.
“Yes, we have a list that will not be overlapped with the official campaign list,” said a volunteer who posted a message at the Huck’s Army online forums. Other participants had worried about overlapping with the campaign’s efforts…
“A lot of people may be enthusiastic,” said Lawrence Noble, Counsel at Skadden Arps in Washington, DC. “They don’t know what the law is, they assume certain things, and then they go ask the campaign what they can do.”
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It’s OK, Jesus will forgive him.
JayHaw Phrenzie on January 29, 2008 at 11:55 AM
Where are Harald, popularpolitics and apacalyps? Huckabee needs their help to defend against such blatant lies!!one111!
What a campaign.
HebrewToYou on January 29, 2008 at 11:57 AM
The anti-Mitt, pro-Huck robocall I got here in Fl claimed it was not from the Huck campaign.
Yea, right. And they have swampland to sell me, too.
CrimsonFisted on January 29, 2008 at 11:59 AM
Read this to see how Huckabee and his staff tried to take control of the Georgia state governors office on his recent visit here.
Just A Grunt on January 29, 2008 at 12:01 PM
No zeal offsets in campaign finance law? Darn.
captivated_dem on January 29, 2008 at 12:05 PM
Just A Grunt, thanks for the link!
Very interesting story.
HebrewToYou on January 29, 2008 at 12:05 PM
You know what Huck brings? Hope! Hope that he can talk his way out of any and all errors of ethics and judgment by playing up the rhetoric and ignoring his record or positions.
Can’t we just put a fork in this turkey and call it a day?
SimplyKimberly on January 29, 2008 at 12:12 PM
Huck’s problem is not that he stretches or breaks the rules more than any other candidate, it’s that since he is GOD’s candidate his hypocrisy is a greater flaw that the broken rule.
Putz.
peski on January 29, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Huck’s jokes are getting a little old. You can’t joke your way to secure borders or a strong national defense. I am glad he will soon be huckabust.
bopbottle on January 29, 2008 at 12:22 PM
Unavoidable it seems.
Without crippling more freedoms, it’s next to impossible to regulate something away. Prohibition didn’t get rid of alcohol and CFR couldn’t take $ out of politics while giving rise to gangsters and trampling the 1st amendment respectively. In the movie, John McCain will play the part of John McCain, and Mike Huckabee will play the part of Carrie Nation.
Spirit of 1776 on January 29, 2008 at 12:25 PM
zzz
Wake me up when you stop publishing boring posts about your favorite Evangelical punching bag.
corona on January 29, 2008 at 12:25 PM
The point here is not that Huckabee is an evangelical, it’s that his supporters may be playing fast and loose with existing campaign law.
Touchy, touchy.
Slublog on January 29, 2008 at 12:26 PM
The Lord said: “Thou shalt violate all manner of campaign finance laws to see to it my Chosen Candidate is elected.” And so it was, the followers of Mike Huckabee began to do their Lord’s bidding.
doubleplusundead on January 29, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Blah blah blah. Boring to you, perhaps, but very insightful to me. The double standards of the What Would Jesus Do candidate are worth reporting on.
HebrewToYou on January 29, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Kevin Spacey will portray him in the Cable scandal movie once things implode for the Huckmeister.
No rose petals, one hopes.
profitsbeard on January 29, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Norris doesn’t seem to have any problem with getting his hands dirty either. I’ve been trying to find links again tis townhall column from earlier and must have lost it. Also watching him on H & C last night just aggravated me too. Was funny when Hannity compared Walker to Sherrif Joe though about the amnesty count.
He’s surrounded by people who don’t mind getting a little down and dirty, which is fine, if that’s what you choose. Just don’t play who me?
PowWow on January 29, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Violate at will, as far as I’m concerned. Perhaps an ungodly shitstorm of defiance will remind people of the ghastly legacy of McCain et al.
LimeyGeek on January 29, 2008 at 12:39 PM
Serious inquiry: How are average, private citizens supposed to know what is acceptable under campaign finance laws? For example, SCOTUS’ decision in McConnel v. FEC was all of 298 pages.
medguy on January 29, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Personally, I don’t think the responsibility is with the volunteers. It’s with the campaigns and the independent groups. What happened here seems more a result of Huckabee’s seat-of-the-pants campaign organization than any sort of intent to violate the law, but if the laws were broken, I would hope Huckabee takes responsibility for it and takes steps to keep the error from happening again.
Slublog on January 29, 2008 at 12:56 PM
Heheh. He’ll get right on that after he manages to somehow stop the push polling.
Spirit of 1776 on January 29, 2008 at 12:58 PM
Even Huck’s supporters are drowning in Identity Politics. He’s not our favorite Evangelical punching bag. He’s our favorite slimier-than-weasel-shit punching bag. The fact that he’s Evangelical is completely incidental, but breathtakingly ironic. And irony makes for great headlines.
ErikTheRed on January 29, 2008 at 1:02 PM
And here’s how Huckaschmuck plays footsy with a televangelist who helps him out financially…
Frozen Tex on January 29, 2008 at 1:02 PM
He’s far too busy holding press conferences on the subject of not running negative campaign ads, then deciding to show them to the press and eventually run them anyways. Far too busy.
HebrewToYou on January 29, 2008 at 1:04 PM
I still can’t get over the fact that Huckabee, of all weasels, attacked Fred for being a stalking horse for McCain when all along he was the stalking horse.
God, what a weasel. Ugh, just picturing that bucktooth grin….. barf.
amkun on January 29, 2008 at 1:42 PM
I no longer care what Huck’a Army is doing because he cannot win. What interests me is what they believe. If you read comments on their dicussion forum you will note their collective understanding of conservatism is striking for its paucity of depth. After he proposed using our tax money (or cash borrowed from the Chinese) to pave the eastern seaboard, they lauded his “stimulus” idea as conservative. They actually see FDR socialism as conservative. I don’t know why they want to be in the Republican Party.
flyfisher on January 29, 2008 at 1:46 PM
Because the Democrats laugh at people with a sincere belief in G-d.
HebrewToYou on January 29, 2008 at 1:55 PM
Some believe we should not change campaign finance laws. But I believe it would be easier to change campaign finance laws than it would to change the living word of God, bla…bla…bla…
Joshua P. Allem on January 29, 2008 at 1:57 PM
I doubt Harald would condone this activity. He supports Huckabee, but I doubt he’s lining up to defend coordination between supposedly independent groups and the official Huckabee campaign.
gabriel sutherland on January 29, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I thought Huckabee’s start was good, but the close was not.
He was right. A tax rebate is essentially $600 in your hands to continue consuming. Break it down. US banks need funds from China, Japan, Singapore, and Dubai. They receive about 150 billion in various influx capital. The US Government turns around and decides it is time, RIGHT NOW, for a $600 individual tax rebate that comes out to, hey, 150 billion dollars.
This is a prime example of how finance is conducted today. China, Japan, Singapore, and Dubai aren’t giving away money. They must get equal consumption in return.
gabriel sutherland on January 29, 2008 at 3:20 PM
I agree with you, he was right on the rebates, but then…
flyfisher on January 29, 2008 at 4:01 PM