Posted on 04/10/2010 9:48:16 PM PDT by delacoert
Conservatives want the GOP to grab Harry Reid's Nevada seat. Only problem: An unknown "Tea Party" candidate is messing up the works. posted on April 5, 2010, at 1:22 PM Is Scott Ashjian a Tea Party "faker"? Photo: Scottashjianforsenate.com Best Opinion: Wash. Times, Wash. Post, TPM...
The Tea Party has made a crusade of defeating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in the 2010 elections, but its efforts are being thwarted...by the state's self-described "Tea Party candidate," Scott Ashjian. Both Republican and Tea Party leaders are allegeding that Ashjian is a fake — perhaps even a liberal plant — who threatens to split right-leaning voters and hand Reid a victory. Here's a concise guide to the situation:
Who is Jon Scott Ashjian? Ashjian, 46, is a former longtime Republican, a Mormon father of three, and the owner of an asphalt company and 26 other small ventures. He created the Tea Party of Nevada in January and is running under its banner in a bid to unseat Reid. He says he identifies politically with Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin, and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX).
So why are Tea Party organizers after him? They accuse Ashjian, a complete unknown, of fraudulently using the grassroots movement's name to further his career — or, worse, acting as a Reid-backed stalking horse. Tea Party-backed Republican candidates, including GOP front-runner Sue Lowden, fear that an unauthorized "Tea Party party candidate" could siphon off GOP votes and let Reid squeak by to reelection. "Get lost," says Tea Party Express spokesman and talk radio host Mark Williams, in an anti-Ashjian web ad. "None of us has ever heard of you, or even seen you at a Tea Party rally."
Are the third-party fears justified? Yes. In a February poll for The Las Vegas Review-Journal, before Ashjian entered the race, either Lowden or GOP candidate Danny Tarkanian beat Reid in head-to-head matchups — but the inclusion "generic" Tea Party candidate narrowly threw the race to Reid.
What's behind the allegations that Ashjian's a Reid plant? Detractors have noted that the secretary of Ashjian's Tea Party of Nevada, Barry Levinson, is a registered Democrat. The fact that Ashjian and GOP candidate Tarkanian share an Armenian heritage is also being questioned. Tarkanian alleges that "Harry Reid's staff, campaign, whatever" hand-picked Ashjian to split the state's Armenian vote: "They know the Armenians are very close [and will] vote for each other." Reid and Ashjian deny any collusion, and say they've never had any contact. The Las Vegas Sun looked at the charges and concluded that Ashjian is "no stooge of Sen. Harry Reid."
How does Ashjian respond to the split-vote concern? "I don't think Republicans own the Tea Party," Ashjian told CNN. "In fact I know they don't in Nevada, because I do. That's what's really got them in an uproar."
How much of a threat is Ashjian to rival Tea Partiers or the GOP? It's unclear. He has legal and financial issues — he resolved a $5,000 bounced-check accusation April 2, avoiding a possible felony charge. But he reportedly still owes more than $200,000 in back taxes. Ashjian maintains he's the victim of a GOP smear campaign, and vows to "finish this race."
What implications does the Nevada intrigue have nationally? It has heightened fears of third-party Tea Party candidacies. In an April 4 Washington Post op-ed, former Vice President Dan Quayle warned Republicans nationwide to co-opt the Tea Party movement so it doesn't split the conservative vote as Ross Perot did in 1992. That said, argues David Phillips in Examiner.com, a strong Ashjian showing may "help the Tea Party populist movement in the long run by showing that the Tea Party is strong enough to field its own candidates," despite the self-serving warnings of Palin and other Republicans.
Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal, Las Vegas Sun, Washington Post (2), Washington Times, CNN, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, Examiner.com
Sounds more like a Tim Geithner plant than a Harry Reid plant.
Sounds like someone hand picked to be in the Obama regime....tax cheat and whines about the GOP attack machine.
They know that the Tea Party offers them a hundred "Ross Perot opportunities".
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I am sure you are correct there. The tea party leadership should buy up every permutation of tea party .com .org .usa etc and maybe register in each state as a party to avoid fake ones...get ahead of the scam.
This Ashjian clown is trying to help harry reid get re-elected or he’s just plain stupid. Either way, anyone wasting a vote on this clown is an idiot.
It’s a good thing this has come to light early and there’s plenty of time for the truth to shake out. Thia Ashjian guy has virtually no chance of winning once he’s exposed as a self-serving weasel. His star will drop like a stone down a well and he’ll be a non-issue come election day.
Yeah, look what Ross Perot did....
He wouldn’t be running to win, so it doesn’t matter if he has virtually no chance of winning. The problem is that he could get some votes, all of them would come from the Republican, and Reid would win narrowly.
The Tea Party should get the name somehow, and maybe be like the Conservative Party in New York. Rarely run candidates.
Americans, and Tea Party Patriots in particular need to be vigilant to make sure there aren't red herrings like this guy trying to misdirect our votes. It is quite possible this won't the be only state it's tried in.
>>How does Ashjian respond to the split-vote concern? “I don’t think Republicans own the Tea Party,” Ashjian told CNN. “In fact I know they don’t in Nevada, because I do. That’s what’s really got them in an uproar.” <<
That should be the killer statement. He should know that NOBODY owns the Tea Party.
I’ve heard many pro-repub ‘cheerleaders’ whine about not voting for a 3rd party guy so as not to split the vote and let a dem win the election. Do repubs think they are entitled to a seat merely by not being dems? What ever happened to earning a seat due to one’s stance on the issues coupled with a solid record of past performance? Where is the repub’s responsibility for splitting the vote by not presenting a true conservative option rather than a rino or wimpy moderate (read - dem light) like j. mccain? If they don’t want the vote to be split - go look in the mirror rather than blaming the voters who are desperately seeking a valid candidate - and, not finding one in the dem or repub camps, seeking one elsewhere.
Ross Perot was a well known billionaire, the founder of EDS, and an American patriot.
Yes, his run for President did result in bent willy getting elected, but you can't compare the two.
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