Posted on 09/19/2014 2:53:00 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Throughout her political career, including during her current race against former GOP Sen. Scott Brown, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D., N.H.) has touted her experience as a small business owner. Shaheen’s small business “experience” was co-running a store that once sold thousands of dollars-worth of stolen jewelry.
“As the former owner and manager of a small retail business, Senator Shaheen knows what it’s like to worry about meeting payroll and inventory costs to keep a business going,” the Issues section of her Senate website declares. Her Senate biography also describes her as a “former small business owner.”
This week, the Shaheen campaign asked voters to compare Scott Brown’s small business record against her own.
“New Hampshire voters know they can trust Jeanne Shaheen because she votes to put New Hampshire first, and the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act is the perfect example of that,” Shaheen Campaign Manager Mike Vlacich said. “Scott Brown had the opportunity to vote on the exact same bill to help small businesses across the state, but he sided with Wall Street and big corporate interests and voted no. That’s as clear of a contrast as you can get. Jeanne Shaheen votes to put New Hampshire first, and Scott Brown doesn’t.”
In 1969, Shaheen and her husband, Bill, cofounded and had a stake in “Bill & Bob’s—A Sterling Example,” a shop with locations in both New Hampshire and Maine that sold used jewelry, silver, and leather items. The business was co-owned by Bill Shaheen’s brother-in-law, future state senator Bob Fennelly.
In 1980, police executed a search warrant at the Maine Bill and Bob’s location in connection to an investigation of a burglary ring that authorities said had stolen up to $200,000 of property from 27 residences.
Fennelly was indicted for allegedly buying $11,000 of stolen jewelry from the burglars. Fennelly retained a lawyer, Robert Stein, who would later become a partner at Bill Shaheen’s law firm.
“It was a known fact that Bill and Bob’s would buy any silver and gold without asking many questions,” one burglar told police, according to a Sep. 6, 1980 report by the Foster’s Daily Democrat newspaper, which extensively covered the trial.
In an affidavit, one of the burglars said he was paid $6,000 for stolen jewelry by Fennelly over a two-day period. The burglars said that on another occasion he told Fennelly that he’d found several pieces of stolen jewelry on the beach by using a metal detector.
During the trial, the prosecution played a tape of an interview with Fennelly. He said “many persons worked in the shops,” including “his wife, Margaret, at the York store and his mother-in-law, Josephine Shaheen, and his brother-in-law, Bill Shaheen, on weekends, at the Dover store.”
Bill Shaheen testified in court that he sold his stake in the business to his sister Josephine in 1977, after President Jimmy Carter named him U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire. He said he still occasionally worked at the store on weekends, according to the Foster’s Daily Democrat.
The Shaheens were never charged or connected to the crimes.
Fennelly was convicted in New Hampshire on two felony counts of receiving stolen property and three identical counts in Maine.
The scandal destroyed Fennelly’s political career. The Shaheens were never charged or connected to the crimes. The Maine Bill and Bob’s location remains open.
On the campaign trail, in speeches, and in print, Shaheen cited her experience with Bill and Bob’s as proof of her small business bona fides.
“I also understand the importance of small business on a very personal level because for the first eight years that my husband and I were married, we were involved in a partnership and a family business,” said in 2004. “We had a very small business, a seasonal business in York Beach, Maine. But it was enough to teach me at a very personal gut level the issues that you deal with as business people. I had to deal with the personnel issues, with meeting the payroll, with paying the bills, paying the taxes, and all of the bureaucratic regulations that go along.”
The Shaheen campaign did not return a call seeking comment.
/sarc....not that I needed to add that.
Well, the only thing positive I could say is that she has more experience in small business than Odumbo.
“If you like your jewelry, you can keep your jewelry”
Unless I get it first
At least she wasn’t a shylock.
The people not shocked are those of Red Hampshire, who apparently never met a liberal they would reject for long.
1. Domestic counselors - forcing women to divorce their husbands and marry other men.
2. Oil field workers.
3. Political and religious counselors - convert or die!
4. Media consultants spearheading cutting edge videos.
5. Women's rights issues. Women don't have rights so that's not an issue.
6. Custodial consultants. Find out how you too can run a prison full of women and girls.
7. City planning and urban renewal. If they come to your city, you better plan to get the hell out. If you are able to return, plan on rebuilding.
It will be interesting to see if scott brown and susie collins can win without any votes or support from the Militias.
But but....the jewelry was found before it was lost.....
Crime, Inc.
Doesn’t the key Democrat strategy consist of extracting stolen goods from one segment of the population to bestow upon their constituents?
“Dem Senator’s Small Business Experience Was Co-Running Store that Sold Stolen Goods”
Perfect experience for a tax and redistribute Democrat!
Well, the only thing positive I could say is that she has more experience in small business than Odumbo.
Not to mention she is more prepared to function in what passes as the political world of today.
Typical DIMocRATs.
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