Parties' alleged rampant use of phony candidates in 2010 races

Yahoo News ^ | 6/24/10 | Rachel Rose Hartman

[NormsRevenge]

As both major parties gear up for the big push toward November's midterm balloting, accusations are flying in many states and districts that one party or the other is recruiting phony candidates so as to distort voter turnout. The idea, most of the accusers allege, is to pick off favored opposition candidates by filling their primary slates with candidates who either poach from their voter base or sow confusion on the ballot, thereby producing a weaker nominee to run against in the general election.

Last month, for example, Democrats cried foul over the outcome of the South Carolina primary vote, which awarded the U.S. Senate nomination to Alvin Greene, who had no campaign website and held no campaign events. In Florida, Republicans are accusing Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of engineering a fake tea party slate to siphon votes away from Republicans in several elections. The latest accusation has popped up in Louisiana, where a state lawmaker says the GOP is propping up independent candidates in Republican Rep. Joseph Cao's district.

"That's the Republican game plan," Democratic state Rep. Cedric Richmond told The Hill. "To get as many black independents to run as they can so that in the general election they can siphon off Democratic votes."

The best-known recent case of this sort of dirty campaign trick involved South Carolina GOP politico Rod Shealy. He'd attempted to play on South Carolinans' racial fears in 1990 by recruiting and propping up a black candidate to run against Shealy's sister in the race for lieutenant governor. The hope was that by having the black man on the ticket, white turnout would increase and benefit Shealy's white sister. Shealy was convicted in 1992 and fined for violating campaign finance laws.

Greene is also black and .. accused of being a GOP plant. ..

[NormsRevenge]

.. like what is sitting in Congre$$ today is ‘genuine’ when it comes to the issue of how ‘phony’ are they?

[livius]

Good grief. Greene - a GOP plant? I wondered where he got the $10,000 from, but apparently he’s one of those people who never spent a dime and saved every bit of his salary, even in the military. Even his relatives say that he did have enough money socked away.

He’s weird but he did win it, and the GOP didn’t put him up to it. If anything, he probably got an edge from the Dems’ racial voting policy, not to mention the fact that for alphabetical reasons, he was apparently the first line on the ballot.

[Gay State Conservative]

We've got one in Massachusetts.A RAT who,at the time when Governor Coupe Deval(RAT-Friend Of Hussein) had approval numbers that were *Biblically* abysmal,announced the he was leaving the RAT Party and running against Coupe Deval.

Result? Coupe Deval's polling in the low 40's and the RAT plant is polling in the teens.

[RightOnTheBorder]

So this A-hole at Yahoo news want to compare Alan Grayson giving cash to a fake Tea Party candidate to a black guy winning a democrat primary over the party favored whitey with no evidence of tampering.
I guess in the writer’s mind 1) blacks can only get ahead with handouts from rich white liberals and 2) it is important to make sure his readership doesn’t realize that 99% of the corruption is on his side of the isle.