The Chico News and Review lit into Doug LaMalfa bad along with David Stafford Reade and Mark Spannagel. If anyone thinks that LaMalfa will do anything to Mark Spannagel over this – think again.
Congressional candidate Sam Aanestad has charged that the campaign of his opponent for the 1st District seat and fellow Republican, state Sen. Doug LaMalfa, has violated federal disclosure laws and maybe even committed libel.
Aanestad, an oral surgeon from Grass Valley, says a website posted about a month ago questioning his professional background fails to disclose who is behind it. In a press release Tuesday (May 15) Aanestad said the site, Sam4Congress.com, which heavily criticized his record as a state assemblyman and senator, was paid for by LaMalfa’s campaign without proper disclosure. (The site has been taken down in recent days.)
“In a clear violation of federal campaign finance disclosure laws, and verified yesterday by release of official Internet registry documents, Doug LaMalfa’s congressional campaign registered and built a negative website about Sam Aanestad, then posted the site on the Internet while disclaiming its contents to link with another candidate in the race, Republican Michael Dacquisto,” the release says. “The website, www.Sam4Congress.com, violates a number of campaign finance laws, including several illegal independent expenditures and conspiracy to improperly disclaim a federal campaign website.”
When first posted the site, which includes less-than-flattering photos of Aanestad, carried a disclaimer that said it was from a group called “Free Thinkers for D’Acquisto.”
Dacquisto, an attorney in Redding, is another Republican candidate in the eight-member race for retiring Rep. Wally Herger’s seat. He said he had nothing to do with the website.
“Yeah, Sam Aanestad called me several weeks ago and said somebody had a website up, and he basically said he was not happy,” Dacquisto said in a phone interview the day of the press release. “I told him I don’t do that, and he said, ‘I believe you.’ They didn’t even spell my name right.”
The Aanestad campaign filed a lawsuit to try to determine who was behind the site and subpoenaed records from its host, Wix.com. On Monday (May 14) the campaign released the records, which show the site was registered on April 18 by Mark Spannagel, LaMalfa’s chief of staff and campaign manager.
The next day LaMalfa consultant Dave Gilliard released this statement via email: “Neither Doug LaMalfa, nor the LaMalfa campaign, had any knowledge or involvement in the construction or posting of the website in question, which just came to our attention this morning.”
It also added this disclaimer about the role of humor in politics: “Political satire has a long history in American politics, something that thin-skinned candidates, or those trying to hide their record, sometimes have trouble fully appreciating.”
Gilliard did not return a call asking about Spannagel’s role in matter, but told The SacramentoBee that Spannagel is working for LaMalfa’s campaign “on a part-time basis.”
Dacquisto said Aanestad originally brought up the subject durng a candidates’ debate in Chester on May 4. At the time, he said, Aanestad asked about it and Dacquisto assured him he wasn’t behind it. LaMalfa’s only comment on the matter, Dacquisto said, was that he was not in favor of dirty politics.
“This means either he’s lying or he has no idea what his chief of staff is doing, and I don’t know which is worse,” Dacquisto said. “And who’s paying the chief of staff to do this? The taxpayers?”
At a press conference held outside of LaMalfa’s vacant Redding office, Aanestad pointed to the information his Grass Valley attorney, Barry Pruett, had received via the subpoena, according to a story in the Redding Record Searchlight.
“That shows a direct link to the LaMalfa campaign and the kind of deceitful, dishonest tactics they will go to win this election,” he said. “If they’re going to be deceitful and dishonest now, you wait until he’s entrenched as a congressman when no one can touch him.”
Dacquisto echoed those words.
“It is worse than disappointing,” he said. “It is despicable. I would never use someone’s name without their permission, and these kinds of hardball activities are an example of politics as usual, and it’s not what the voters want. Doug LaMalfa should fire anyone who was involved in this in any way, shape or form.”
He questioned LaMalfa’s claims of ignorance about the matter.
“If Doug LaMalfa didn’t say to his chief of staff, ‘Get Dacquisto’s name off of there,’ wouldn’t you think he would at least ask the guy, ‘What are they talking about? Why is this out there?’ And then the chief of staff would either say, ‘Oh it’s nothing,’ or he would tell him the truth.”
At some point the disclaimer on the website changed from “Free Thinkers for D’Acquisto” to “100% TRUE, 100% VERIFIABLE, 100 % POLITICAL SATIRE.”
An early posting questioned Aanestad’s professional background.
“FYI Sam Aanestad is not an ‘Oral Surgeon’ or ‘Doctor’ as he claims,” it says. “He is only licensed as a dentist, did not to go medical school and does not have an MD. How important is this? Not very except as evidence of a long and deliberate habit of misleading voters of the district.”
A later posting includes this message: “From opposing keeping hardened murders [sic] and gang members behind bar [sic] for life to granting taxpayer financed financial aid to illegal immigrants, Sam Aanestad isn’t the Principled Conservative he claims.”
Spannagel and David Reade, LaMalfa’s chief of staff when he was an assemblyman, have both run afoul of the California Republican Assembly for their campaign tactics.
Last July the CRA Board of Directors kicked Spannagel and Reade out of the conservative group after they were accused of manipulating the assembly to get its endorsement of Mitt Romney in the 2008 presidential primary. Reade is currently Assemblyman Jim Nielsen’s chief of staff.
Reade was expelled from the CRA for 10 years and Spannagel for five.
Aanestad backer Jim Ledgerwood, a local long-time activist in the Republican Party, said he too was disappointed by the news.
“I’ve been around for a while, and I’ve never seen anything this dirty,” he said.
Remember People vs Olivetto? Case number 03CR3725
I have spoken to people who believed that Olivetto was guilty as sin. However, Jeff Seaton brow-beat the rape victim and had investigators and others harrassing her (according to sources). The victim lost the nerve to continue and the rapists walked free because the charges got dismissed.
In a letter to the editor – Jeff Seaton was bragging about how he defended these rapists. (There were two) He described the criminal justice system as a “guantlet for defendants“.
Imagine what Jeff ”288″ Seaton will do to crime victims as a Judge?
Why did Arnold Zeiderman and the Amador County Republican Party endorse this guy?
People vs Vick
Jeff “288″ Seaton (did you know his campaign PO Box is box 288?) – represented a defendant who molested a child. Vick had prior convictions. (288 is the Penal Code Section for Child Molestation)
However, Jeff Seaton and everyone knew Vick was guilty as sin – as did the private investigators that Seaton hired. The case was disgusting and the details would make all but the most hardened sick to their stomach. (But not Jeff Seaton)
The case was in the late 1990′s and Jeff Seaton as is his usual custom got continuances and was able to stretch the case in to about a $10,000 bill to the defendant.
Seaton also hired an expert named Tamara Wishnowski to develop questions that would devastate the little girl who was the victim.
What would Jeff “288″ Seaton do as a Judge?
Why did Arnold Zeiderman and the Amador County Republican Party endorse this guy?
People VS Eisenbeis
In the case of People Vs Eisenbeis – Esienbeis beat his wife. He beat her frequently.
Jeff Seaton actually represented the wife in Family Court around the same time he was retained to defend the husband in criminal court! Where was Keith Morris when you needed him!
The latest source told me that Seaton used to stare down the former Mrs. Eisenbeis and similar to the rape victim in the Olivetto case he intimidated her.
Eisenbeis later broke her arm and finally ended up going to prison.
Would Judge Seaton glare at abuse victims? Would Judge Seaton ask psychologically devastating questions to try and scar little girls emotionally for the rest of their lives? Would Judge Seaton make his courtroom a gauntlet for rape victims?
What would Judge Seaton do if another Jennifer Minton case came to his court?
… and Arnold Zeiderman and the Amador County Republican Party endorsed this guy!
We have competitive races in every district. There are a variety of reasons… there are Moderates that disagree with the Conservative leadership of the Central Committee and there are some leftovers of the Team LaMalfa character attacks of two years ago.
The bottom line is that the Placer CRA will be meeting on 4/4 and finalizing our team – that being said, here is who I am supporting for Placer GOP Central Committee District by District.
All the people on this list are CRA members (or CRA aligned) – they are Fiscal Conservatives, Pro-Gun, Prop-8 supporters… the Committee is elected by Supervisor District:
D1 (In the order you will see them on your ballot): Vote for 7
Eric Eisenhammer
Ryan Pinney
Jim D’Orso
Scott Jefferson
Phil Ozenick
Gordon Hinkle
Tom Hudson
D2 Vote for only these 5:
David Patterson
Damian Armitage
Chris Schaff
Roger Salstrom
Noreen Skillman
D3
Aaron F Park
Ed Rowen
Greg Janda
Bryan Taylor
Bill Halldin
Ken Hubert
Hayley Voudouris
D4
George Park
Jeff Atteberry
Lynn McCaleb
Joe Dorr
Scott Johnson
Mike Frey
Lynn Kyme
D5 (Vote for only these 4)
Fred Eichenhofer
Ken Higgins
Mark Wright
Beth Wright
The reason why the Central Committee is important is because we register voters, and get people out to the polls to vote. In addition – in the post prop-14 environment we have to endorse candidates pre-primary to help identify the Republicans. This fall, we will be vetting dozens of candidates running for local office and endorsing them.
There are some good people that did not make my list – but most that are not on my list of endorsed candidates are either ideological moderates and are some that are openly hostile to the current leadership or both.
Fraud. Pam Tobin.
Visit www.pamtobin.com for all the details about who Pam Tobin really is.
In most of Placer County you have to re-register as a Republican to run for office. The notable exceptions are when you have a vengeful state senator helping you or there is a $9,900 plane ticket that people get fixated on that your opponent had…
There is no such baggage against Kirk Uhler.
So, Pam Tobin who ran against then Supervisor Ted Gaines and lost by 40+% as a Democart – re-registered Republican before running.
Let’s have a look at Pam Tobin’s “Republican” pedigree:
1. She got “sick” hours before the Placer County 2012 Lincoln Reagan Dinner (ironically, so did Beth Gaines) and was unable to make it.
2. She publicly supported a Liberal Democrat, Charlie Brown for Congress over Tom McClintock.
3. She publicly attacked Congressman John Doolittle.
4. She has never donated to a Republican running for partisan office.
5. Her public advocacy includes opposing development of any sort at any time anywhere. (Including opposing Bayside Church!)
6. She works for a firm in San Diego.
7. She has rarely been seen at local business related events.
8. Her top advisors read like a who’s-who of the left of Placer County.
9. $10,000 from the Placer Public Employees Union!
10. Rate hike after Rate Hike as a member of San Juan Water Board.
It would be one thing if she had endorsed and supported some Republicans somewhere for something. Can’t find that anywhere.
In fact, you will learn that Pam Tobin is a tax-and-spend liberal in the mold of Jerry Brown whose Republican registration is a thin veil for who she really is – a trojan horse for Public employee unions who appear to be obsessed with destroying Placer County’s finances.
Make no bones about it – Pam Tobin wants to join with Big Daddy Jack Duran and the Tree-Hugging Jennifer Montgomery to give away the store to Placer County’s public employees.
David Stafford Reade ran against Sam Aanestad in 1996 for Assembly. There is a particular hatred for Aanestad in the entire LaMalfa / Gilliard / Reade crew.
Click here to see an ad run against David Reade in 1996. Reade was exposed for having three DUI’s, including one with possession of narcotics. It would be reasonable to assume that David Stafford Reade may well have been involved in this illegal operation as well.
Here is the Record-Searchlight commentary in its’ entirety.
By the standards of political flame wars, nothing on the anti-Sam Aanestad website www.sam4congress.com was all that scorching.
He’d had a high-dollar state car as a legislator? Well, him and every other member of the Assembly and Senate until budget cuts yanked that perk last year.
He’d cast an occasional vote that deviated from the conservative line? Independent thinking! The horror!
The Record Searchlight had printed unkind editorials about him? True! And not a rare experience for north state politicians.
But the site’s weaselly tactics — and the LaMalfa congressional campaign’s craven response to rival Aanestad’s complaints — are not just cowardly but also, arguably, a violation of federal election laws. The heart of those rules is disclosure of who’s behind political statements. You know, “I’m Wally Herger and I approve this message.”
Well, Aanestad’s campaign offered credible evidence — subpoenaed from the domain-name host — that none other than LaMalfa’s Senate chief of staff and congressional campaign aide, Mark Spannagel, had registered the site last month. So did the campaign stand behind its work, as a decent sense of fair play and the law demand?
On the contrary. Initially, the site was attributed to “Free Thinkers for D’Acquisto” — presumably trying to pin the negative anti-Aanestad campaigning on yet another Republican candidate for the seat, Redding lawyer Michael Dacquisto. After Dacquisto raised complaints a few weeks back, that “credit” disppeared. Then Tuesday morning, shortly after Aanestad’s campaign released the evidence of a Spannagel connection, the site abruptly went dark. Just when it was getting noticed — where’s the pride in its craftsmanship?
Then, Tuesday afternoon, LaMalfa’s campaign released a laughable statement denying that he or his campaign “had any knowledge or involvement in the construction or posting of the website in question.” Right, it was an independent expenditure — by LaMalfa’s chief of staff.
It’s not as if an obscure website skewering a rival is the gravest sin in politics. Heck, political news junkies will see worse this week.
But as Aanestad accurately pointed out at a press conference Tuesday, this bit of juvenile underhandedness is the sort of dirty trick LaMalfa and his political entourage have long made a specialty. This is the guy who, back in 2004, sent out ads linking Tehama County Supervisor Barbara McIver and pornographer Larry Flynt.
Politics is a contact sport, to be sure, but if this is how people get to Congress, is it any wonder the voters don’t trust politicians in Washington?