New: A top aide to Tom Steyer in Iowa has privately offered local politicians campaign contributions in exchange for endorsing his White House bid. Multiple current & former lawmakers told me Pat Murphy, Steyer’s IA sr adviser, made the offer. https://t.co/kfZHogqets
— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) November 7, 2019
Maybe Steyer had no idea what his top advisor was doing behind his back! Quite possibly he didn’t know his deputy SC state director was going to steal the Kamala Harris campaign’s volunteer data, either. Which means that Steyer isn’t sufficiently in charge of his own campaign to keep his paid employees honest… and that some of those employees are desperate enough to ‘cut corners’ even this early. TAKE THE HINT, Tom… Get out while you can still save your reputation, and spend your millions on something that might actually accomplish something more useful than getting your emu-oid face on TV.
… The overtures from Pat Murphy, a former state House speaker who is serving as a top adviser on Steyer’s Iowa campaign, aren’t illegal — though payments for endorsements would violate campaign finance laws if not disclosed. There’s no evidence that any Iowans accepted the offer or received contributions from Steyer’s campaign as compensation for their backing.
But the proposals could revive criticism that the billionaire Steyer is trying to buy his way into the White House. Several state lawmakers and political candidates said they were surprised Steyer’s campaign would think he could purchase their support…
As Steyer met with voters in Bluffton, South Carolina, on Thursday, the first question posed to him was about the AP report. He said that he learned about the allegations while driving to the event and that no payments had gone to officials in Iowa.
“We haven’t given any money to anyone in Iowa, nor are we planning to,” he said. “There’s no way we would ever do that.”…
Steyer has largely self-funded his presidential campaign, spending $47.6 million of his own money in the first three months since launching his bid, much of that on online fundraising and advertising. Steyer has qualified for the November debate, but he remains at the back of the pack in early-state and national polls…
Mary G
Support Democrats for Senate, or GTFO, Tom
Now that’s a perfect word and should go into the rotating tag lines.
debbie
It’s come to where we have to ban all business types from politics. Their greed and their amorality have no place there.
rikyrah
Muthaphuckin’ thief and cheat ??
cain
Yeah, well hold on to your hats, because Michael Bloomberg is jumping in. So enter the billionaire candidates. Fantastic.
JPL
Leave the guy alone because he did apologize. The trump experiment showed that maybe a business person with a huge ego is not in the right person to run a government. I’d love to put trump, Bloomberg and Steyer in a room to duke it out.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
With the money this guy has, he could make 108 and a half differences all over the country. This dumbass presidential run is the one way that he can be absolutely sure that none of the money he spends does any good for anybody, anywhere in any way. Well done, dumbfuck.
anarchoRex
this made me lol
Anne Laurie
@cain: Well, I’ll believe it when it happens, and no sooner. Bloomberg has a long history of exciting the horse-race touts by indicating that he might, no probably, just watch this guys!, go beyond spending couch change on ‘surveys’ and ‘outreach’… and yet, once the Very Serious Media Guys are all lathered up, the bid never quite materializes.
My personal opinion is that it’s become a perverse hobby for Mike — lots of attention, at no real cost to him. It’s possible that the relative success of Steyer (not to mention the current Oval Office Occupant) have finally convinced him, wottahell, ya only live once. But I’d be disappointed as well as surprised, should it ever actually happen.
MattF
Well, money is what Steyer’s got a lot of— so it’s not a huge surprise.
Marcopolo
As I hope most everyone here knows, there is a long long long history of D presidential candidates raising money for & giving money to the campaigns of down ticket D candidates. HRC was perhaps the most effective person ever at this. However, I cannot ever remember such a clumsy, blatant ask for support as what appears to have happened here. This sounds a lot like that quid pro quo stuff I’ve been hearing so much about.
He is not going to be the nominee. Really wish he’d drop out and drop some serious cash on Fair Fight 2020, VoteRiders, Gillum’s group, etc…
The egos of these guys…
Shana
@JPL: I might actually pay money to see Trump engage in a fist fight with Bloomberg and/or Steyer.
But only if none of the money goes to any of them. But particularly Trump.
Shana
@anarchoRex: My memory is fuzzy but didn’t someone in 2012 pay for endorsements in Iowa? I know it was a Republican, but can’t remember which one.
feebog
The rub for me is that I was kind of warming up to the guy. Not as my choice for a candidate, I’m firmly in the Harris camp, but just liking what he had to say. He should have dropped out after the SC disclosure. Now he really needs to exit stage left.
anarchoRex
@Shana: is this what you’re referring to?
desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2017/03/15/iowa-senator-ron-paul-caucus-president-…
hells littlest angel
Finally, a real alternative to Donald Trump!
JAFD
This being an open thread, once again a doddering old man asks advice about newfangled bits of the modern world.
A couple of years ago, I bought a full-featured smartphone. Happy with it, but recently needed new battery. So got one of the cheapest smartphones in store to keep in communication while older one was in shop, switched the SIM card.
Old one now back in service. Want to use new phone as backup, so intending to get a cheap SIM card for it. Suggestions for companies to use or avoid, guides to this in print or online, etc, etc
Thanks very much for your help with this.
Just Chuck
@JAFD: Usually you’d just ask your carrier for another SIM (it’s free) and add the phone as another line. Cheaper than putting it on another carrier. Phones are usually locked to the carrier until you ask them to unlock it (which they’ll do once the phone is paid for).
Gravenstone
@JPL: Only if we then get to kneecap whichever one emerges ‘victorious ‘.
Gvg
@JAFD: I have never done this, but if it’s just a backup, would a prepaid plan work…do they have where you can just buy a certain amount of minutes or data and then not use it except once in awhile?
Jinchi
@cain:
It’s not too late for Howard Schultz to change his mind and get back into the race.
Ruckus
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
I wonder if he’d understand that comment?
guest4579
@hells littlest angel: steyer supports illegals stealing from our disabled