Posted on 06/23/2011 9:47:07 PM PDT by iowamark
At today’s Iowa Straw Poll land auction, participating campaigns were surprised by a mystery participant who would not state which campaign she was representing.
Kellie Paschke, a lobbyist whose clients include Iowans for Tax Relief, arrived at the scheduled Straw Poll auction intending to bid on a parcel of the Iowa State Center for an undisclosed candidate.
Before the meeting started, representatives of Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, and Rick Santorum were seen outside the building discussing the situation of the mystery bidder.
The representatives went inside and began the meeting, but a short time later, campaign representatives and party staff were seen outside the back door of the RPI headquarters, presumably discussing how to handle the situation.
All of these individuals then went back in the building, but soon came out yet again for more discussion. At this point all of the campaigns were ready to walk away from the auction. Pawlenty’s Iowa Campaign Manager, Erik Helland, then arrived to provide reinforcements for the Pawlenty staff already present. Eventually, everyone went inside again, and it was disclosed that Paschke was at the Straw Poll Auction to bid on a lot for Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan.
Before McCotter’s involvement was revealed, sources linked to Rick Perry confirmed to TIR that Paschke was not there on his behalf.
With all of these unusual happenings, it was unclear whether the auction would actually occur today. Eventually, bidding did take place. Here are the details TIR has been able to uncover so far.
-Ron Paul was the highest bidder for a lot for $31,000.00
-McCotter bought a lot for $18,000.00, he was the second highest bidder
-Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain where the next highest bidders, with each getting a lot for $17,000.00.
-Rick Santorum spent $15,000.00 for his lot.
-Pawlenty ended up spending $15,000.00 for a less desirable lot.
-Newt Gingrich was represented at the meeting but did not bid.
Pot dealers?
I attended the Ann Coulter event in Troy (MI) last night and neither she or anyone in the audience during the Q & A made mention of McCotter...She had just been in Lansing earlier in the day. I wish I had asked her what she thought of him instead of asking whether Marc Lamont Hill was a real doctor.
It’s not really a test of organization. It is 1. a shakedown by RPI and; 2. Let’s see how many people we can give free tickets to and bus in.
If I were in McCotter’s district I would vote for him. After all its McCotter or another Conyers or Dingell.
Who might be interested enough in securing a location but without revealing their identity?
It's clearly not Paul, Bachmann, Gingrich, Cain, McCotter, Santorum, or Pawlenty, as they had representatives there and all bought locations (except Gingrich). It's not likely to be Romney nor Huntsman, because neither has no reason to make a move like this secretly.
That points to two possibilities: either someone not affiliated with a candidate wants a prime spot (and is conceivably willing to pay for it), or this is being done on behalf of someone who is going to enter the race but who has not officially done so yet -- likely possibilities here are Perry and Palin.
The article does not mention whether or not Paschke secured a space in the auction -- that's a pretty important piece of missing information.
I wouldn’t think it would be anyone currently dealing dope, as they’re probably the least likely to want it legalized and would be squeezed out by bigger players in the event of legalization.
Ron Paul gets almost all his contributions from individual donors, like me ($375 proudly donated so far this campaign season).
Paul, unlike just about all of the other politicians, gets very little money from special interests, because he has a 30 year-plus track record that says he can't be bought.
It's all there at the FEC website. Real easy to see who owns your candidate, and easy to see who Dr. Paul's contributors are - professionals like me who will give him the maximum during the 2012 election cycle, and the military personnel, college students and other low-income types, etc. who will give what they can to help this great patriot spread his message.
Clinton/Gore and John Edwards had lots of small donors, too. Legal secretaries, Buddhist nuns, and so on.
Never said they didn't - what I said was, unlike your examples and just about all other politicians, Dr. Paul gets almost no special interest money. He can't be bought, and most organizations gave up trying long ago.
What I’m saying is that it’s a bad idea to rely on FEC reporting.
Competition is great, until you go from being a competitor to being a competitee.
Teddy Roosevelt?????? Did you forget the /sarcasm tag?
Teddy was a progressive like Wilson and FDR (the official name of the Bullmoose party was the Progressive party). In the political sense, he was the great-grand-dad of Barak Obama's politics.
I believe that person is Sarah Palin.
I believe Sarah Palin would be downright insulted that you compared her to Teddy Roosevelt.
That's your right. But it looks like a lot of people just make Palin into a mirror image of their own ideas. I'm not so sure she's that ideologically focused on the past or that she'd see TR simply as a villain or enemy. It doesn't look like Ronald Reagan did.
You need to go read “Liberal Fascism” by Johah Goldberg.
If you still feel the same way about Teddy Roosevelt, then I’ll retract my statements (but you won’t).
Teddy Roosevelt’s letter to Charles Davenport on his wonderful ideas on eugenics.
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/33/capture03082010173211.jpg
Yes, and finding people to give free tix to and bus in is a test of organization.
The secret candidate was McCotter.
Yeah, he’s been pretty impressive on the House floor and he seems like a decent enough conservative. Gutfeld thinks the world of him, and Greg’s a sharp guy (Red Eye and weekly guest on BOR).
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