That ever so subtle whiff of possible felonious activity you may or not be aware of at President Obama‘s cabinet level is also something addressed at the local level in Longmont. The current Longmont Fair Campaign Practices Act has a provision for “encouraging withdrawal from a campaign“. The federal version is an impeachable offense and could land one in prison, the local version carries the highest penalty ($499) of any any offense in the ordinance.
If you’re totally unaware of what I’m talking about, you should get up to speed, this could get interesting – and it has local implications. It’s understandable if you haven’t heard this yet as some of it has been fairly buried since a September 27, 2009 Denver Post article, but has gone from a little noticed story to a question in President Obama’s recent press conference, which he said he’d get back to them about.
For those that don’t know, or don’t think it’s such a big deal, it’s against the law to offer someone money or some other benefit to get out of a campaign. Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman and Senate candidate Joe Sestak said he was offered a job in the Obama administration if he pulled out of the race against the Obama supported candidate Arlen Specter. As usual, every Obama endorsement pretty much turns to crap, as did the one he granted Specter, and Sestak won. Sestak repeated the charge when asked recently, but now won’t talk about it anymore.
The 9/27/09 Denver Post article talks about a similar situation involving Colorado Democratic Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff, where he was offered a job at USAID by Jim Messina, Obama’s Deputy Chief of Staff. That would be Rahm Emanuel‘s #2 guy. An interesting line from the DP story was this: “Yet several top Colorado Democrats described Messina’s outreach to Romanoff to The Post, including the discussion of specific jobs in the administration. They asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.” It then quoted Colorado Democratic State Senator Chris Romer as saying the White House has “every right” to get involved in the race. Does that right include breaking the law?
What will be entertaining to watch are all of these people hauled into court and put under oath. That includes the Denver Post’s temporarily “anonymous” sources. That includes Sestak, Romanoff, Messina, Emanuel, and yes, Obama himself. What about Colorado Democratic Senator Michael Bennet, the person Obama endorsed and theoretically tried to help by getting rid of his competition? What about other state and federal Democratic operatives? This is going to get good, and right in the middle of an election season.
