The Democrats face some serious challenges in the mid-term elections next month. The economy has not responded in the way that they had hoped, and the Tea Party has energized a mushy Republican party. What are they supposed to do? Well, when in doubt, confuse the issue.
This story is based on two stories–an Associated Press story in the Long Island Press on October 8th and a story by Scott Johnson posted at Power Line on October 9th. Both stories deal with a supposed Tea Party candidate running in New Jersey’s Third Congressional District.
According to the article at Power LIne:
“Desperate times call for desperate measures. South Jersey’s Courier-Post newspaper now reports that the Adler campaign recruited a fake third-party candidate (Peter DeStefano) to draw votes from Jon Runyan, the Republican candidate opposing Adler.”
“…Roh’s work is deserving of something like a Pulitzer Prize, but I doubt that it will get anything like the publicity it deserves. Roh helpfully quotes one Democratic operative providing the explanation for what has transpired: “The goal was to take 5 percent of Runyan’s vote.” The AP covers the story here.”
The Long Island Press reports:
“The operatives told the Courier-Post the plan was shared with members of the South Jersey Young Democrats, and some in that group gathered signatures for DeStefano – while others didn’t because they thought the plan was unethical.
“Republicans started raising suspicions about DeStefano months ago when they found many of the signatures on his nominating petitions were from Democrats, including a former Adler campaign staffer.”
There are other instances of this throughout the country. There are some real questions about a third-party Senate candidate in Nevada and also some questions about a third-party candidate running for Governor of Massachusetts. The idea is to split the Republican vote and allow the Democrats to win. It’s probably not illegal to run as a third party candidate in order to split the vote, but it is another reason for voters to pay strict attention in this election season and vote carefully.