Apr.12

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

Republican Senate Candidates: Liars, Cheaters and Carpetbaggers

As the Democrats try desperately to hold on to the Senate, they keep getting gifts from their Republican opposition. Earlier this week, we noted the remarks from Eric Hovde (R), who is running in Wisconsin, and who said that nursing home residents really shouldn't be allowed to vote, since they'll be dead soon anyhow. To that, we add three more potential anchors around Republican candidates' necks:

1. Montana: Tim Sheehy, if he makes it through the primaries, hopes to knock off Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). The candidate is a former Navy SEAL who has talked in the past about the bullet wound in his arm that he received in combat. However, according to The Washington Post, he never mentioned it to anyone while he was in Afghanistan, while he DID tell a park ranger at Montana's Glacier National Park that he got the wound when he dropped his gun during a visit to the park, and it went off accidentally. Sheehy says he was lying to the ranger, which is a very strange lie to tell, especially since it earned him a $525 fine for illegally discharging his weapon in the national park.
   
   
2. Texas: There's no question Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is nervous about the challenge posed by Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX); there have now been three polls that have the race as a dead heat. The Senator claims that the Democrats are targeting him because they hate him more than any other senator. That is not true; they are targeting him because he appears to be more vulnerable than any Republican in the Senate besides Rick Scott (R-FL). The fact that they hate him more than any other senator is just incidental.
   
   In any case, Cruz is looking for money for his campaign anywhere he can find it (have you talked to the Saudis, Ted?). He does a podcast three days a week, for which he says he is not compensated. However, the company that produces and distributes the podcast, iHeartMedia, has "donated" more than $600,000 to his affiliated PAC this year. That may well be illegal, since a candidate is not allowed to solicit contributions over $5,000 to PACs. When Cruz was asked if he might have broken any laws, he spat: "It really is sad what's happening to the media. The media exists right now seemingly to parrot left-wing Democrat attacks." The careful reader will notice that the phrase, "No, I did not break any laws" does not appear anywhere in there.
   
   
3. Michigan: We made a passing reference to Mike Rogers' situation earlier in the week. Rogers represented Michigan in the House for over a decade, and now he'd like to represent the state in the Senate. One small problem: He's now registered to vote in Florida, where he also owns a million-dollar home. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who is also running for that seat, and who knows a thing or two about trolling, took to eX-Twitter to suggest these things might just indicate that Rogers is now a resident of Florida, not Michigan. We suspect she might just bring that up once or twice during the general election campaign, if he's her opponent. But the question is: Does Rogers like the crudités they sell at Wegner's?

Who knows what will come of these stories, if anything. But if you're the Democrats, the more Republican skeletons that pop up, the better, since at least some of the dirt will stick. (Z)