The Scandal That Could Blow Up Rand Paul's Machine
A criminal probe involving his father's 2012 campaign is inching dangerously close to Paul's inner circle.
—By Andy Kroll |
ON DECEMBER 26, 2011, a week before Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, an influential Republican state senator named Kent Sorenson and his wife, Shawnee, arrived at a steak house in Altoona, a suburb of Des Moines. A goateed Mr. Clean look-alike, Sorenson was a hot commodity. His deep ties to the state's evangelical leaders and home-schooling activists made his endorsement highly sought after by GOP presidential hopefuls, particularly the second-tier contenders who had staked their campaigns on a strong Iowa showing. Sorenson had picked his horse early, signing on as Michele Bachmann's Iowa chairman in June 2011—a coup for the Minnesota congresswoman's upstart campaign.
Joining the Sorensons was a bespectacled political operative named Dimitri Kesari, the deputy campaign manager of Rep. Ron Paul's 2012 presidential bid. As caucus day neared, Ron Paul's campaign was surging in the polls but needed a late boost if he wanted to meet his goal of finishing in the top three.
That's where Sorenson came in.
When the state senator left to use the restroom, Kesari produced a $25,000 check—drawn from the account of Designer Goldsmiths, a jewelry store run by his wife—and gave it to Shawnee Sorenson. Two days later, Kent Sorenson left a Bachmann campaign event, drove straight to a Ron Paul rally, and declared that he had defected.
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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/rand-paul-2016-kent-sorenson-iowa
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a one Jesse Benton, a grifter/con artist who weaseled his way into Ron Paul's campaign by marrying his grand daughter.
He's the slime scum of the earth.
In August 2012, conservative activist and former Ron Paul aide Dennis Fusaro released emails and phone conversations that implicated Benton in being involved in an attempt to bribe Iowa state senator Kent Sorenson in order to secure Sorenson's support of Ron Paul's presidential campaign. Sorenson initially supported Michele Bachmann's candidacy, but switched his support to Paul, prompting Bachmann to accuse the Paul campaign of bribing Sorenson.[22][23] Sorenson resigned after a special investigator found it "manifestly clear" he violated ethics rules by accepting money and then denying he'd done so.(2013) [24]
Fusaro then released a phone conversation regarding Benton's employment with the McConnell campaign, in which Benton said he was "sort of holding my nose for two years because what we're doing here is going to be a big benefit for Rand in 2016." The incident was referred to on Twitter as "nosegate."[25] In response to Fusaro's actions, Benson stated, ""It is truly sick that someone would record a private phone conversation I had out of kindness and use it to try to hurt me. I believe in Senator McConnell and am 100 percent committed to his re-election. Being selected to lead his campaign is one of the great honors of my life and I look forward to victory in November of 2014." The McConnell campaign stated that Benton would "absolutely" keep his job with the campaign.[26]
Benton resigned his post in August 2014 when details of a bribery scandal from Paul's 2012 presidential campaign came to light.(2014).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Benton
The old man might have had a real chance if he knew how to hire people and then manage them. But he didn't.
fluid and effortless efficiency of a cow on roller skates.
