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So, what’s the deal? Sources tell me that among other charges looming is an “Armed Home Invasion.” The charge showing here if I can decode it properly, is delivery of a controlled substance 40 grams pot with other charges showing… and no bail set. Where’s the Columbian coverage? Don’t tell me this mere blogger has scooped the rag AGAIN!
Fascinating. More later.
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More numbers are out for the 18th. Most of them speak for themselves.
The others running but not fund raising include the excitable Rich Carson, and Jon Haugen.
With the NRA’s endorsement of Ann Rivers and her continuing enviable fund raising prowess, unmatched by all the other candidates combined, The Vancouver Business Journal called it right when they named her the Republican front-runner. She banked around $8700…. last week.
Dennis Kampe, the lone announced democrat running (Jon Haugen ran for the state senate against Zarelli as a democrat back in 08) Banked a respectable $2400 or so for the week.
Jon Russell impressed, just not the way he might think; by banking $160, $60 of which came from Russell himself.
Brandon Vick, whose family landscaping business must be in the height of their season, has not raised any reported funds since June 20.
Anthony Bittner stopped campaigning months ago. He last reported income in April, and last filed a C4 (Expenses) for May; he’s skipped all campaign events to include parades, editorial boards, forums and CVTV’s video voter guide. He does not have a picture or statement in the Voter’s Pamphlet, although he claims he submitted both.
Do these kinds of numbers guarantee victory for Rivers? Of course not. In a primary scenario, one need go back no farther then the legendary Burkman-Campbell primary for state representative back in, what was it…. 06?
But the fact remains that Rivers is receiving the most POLITICAL support in addition to her monetary accomplishments.
Russell has gone increasingly negative, following the pattern that, well, has resulted in precisely zero political victories around here for candidates where Russell has received a pay check, to include $16,000 from Liz Pike.
His minions are scrambling. But he lacks the time and money needed; too many people know about his proclivity to lie and exaggerate; too many are turned off by his use of Washougal City Government as a campaign prop and far too many find it impossible to believe, as he finds it plausible to believe, that he bears no responsibility for the Beverly Hillbillies type government in place on his watch.
Brandon Vick has worked hard and well. He hasn’t been able to devote the time he’s needed to run an all out campaign but he’s done the best that could be expected under the circumstances.
Bittner, on the other hand, seemed to think that all he needed to do was file and put up a few signs.
Good luck with that.
The “independents” running for this gig have yet to address the “how are you going to get anything done” aspect of the “what next?” in the equation.
Out numbered 97 to 1, chances are few that they could get anything done, or keep anything harmful from getting done.
It’s been a fascinating 8 months are so… a learning experience for some, and exercise in futility for others. And we’ll know 2 weeks from today who moves on… and who moves into obscurity.
Cross posted at Jon Russell Watch.
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Well, here’s the numbers based on C-3’s filed by the candidates.
Brandon Vick………………$200 to $7300 ($4,415 actual donations)
Jon Russell …………………$195 ($175 in personal funds) to $11,500 or so
Anthony Bittner…………..0 the same at $4571
Ann Rivers………………….$3550 to $43,679 ($35,470 actual donations)
Dennis Kampe……………..$1335 (Plus $1000 in personal funds) to $16,960 ($14,160 actual donations)
Anyone else running has either dropped out or filed short form, limiting their financial involvement to $5000 or less.
So, what’s it all mean?
It means Bittner, Russell and Vick have no serious support.
It means that the democrats have written the 18th off and made Kampe their token candidate, when he has to write himself thousand dollar checks…. that aren’t even loans.
I’ve been doing this long enough to know that money is certainly not the only indicator of support. I’ve been to a couple of parades, for example.
I look at Ann Rivers’ US Senatorial size parade posse, in comparison to lesser candidates like Jaime Herrera or any of the others running…. and I’ve got to wonder: who really has the support?
When Russell finally accepted the inevitable, that is that as a congressional candidate, he had little chance to rise above punchline status and ditched that to run for the 18th, I figured he was a kamikaze candidate.
Russell knows he can’t win. While he claimed he had an “Army of 200 volunteers” when he bailed out of his flaming congressional run, there’s no evidence that he has anything of the sort.
Two hundred volunteers could hold car washes and raise more money than Russell has. And an abysmal showing in this election will fortunately mean he’s through.
Recent events verifying his propensity to lie will follow him for the rest of his hopefully short political career.
Bittner has almost completely disappeared, sullying what otherwise could have been a promising political career by engaging in rather rank cowardice.
While a painful conclusion to draw, the fact is that Bittner has yet to attend a single, solitary forum of any kind. He’s blown off the 18th District PCO’s, the Columbian Editorial Board (An act that for incumbents I recommend, but for new candidates represents something of a vital learning experience and name recognition opportunity) a couple of forums and has, so far, blown off CVTV as well.
From all appearances, this has long since ceased to be a political campaign as much as it’s become an ego boost to a kid who seems to be incapable of taking representation of the people seriously.
Brandon Vick is a young man with a possible future in this business at some point… but now ain’t that point.
He has shown himself incapable of raising anything approaching the necessary money to get his message out. And, unfortunately, it seems he’s saddled himself with many of Shannon Barnett’s campaign herd… and, well, they weren’t all that… and as a result… well, we see the result.
Except for some minor exaggeration on his web site (No Brandon, in fact you’re NOT “the only candidate that has the strength, vision and energy needed to win these battles.”) he has not engaged in the falsehoods of a Russell as a campaign strategy.
At some point, with more experience and a better plan, he could become a force to be reckoned with.
This, however, is not that point.
There are 4 candidates fighting over what amounts as the same universe of disaffected and fringe elements. Haugen has gone completely off the reservation by espousing the idea that we should just eliminate the House of Representatives (ala the Nebraska plan) while Carson’s issue, allegedly based on a failure of the mainstream parties to assist him in his now finished crusade to keep the BPA from running power lines down the street from my place, has vaporized as much as his ability to raise money.
Russell, who is now dealing with 6 different PDC violations (1 repeated) along with allegations that will dog him for the rest of the time he’s in politics, (Concerning his almost pathologically false portrayal of his wife as a doctor) and as someone engaging in a whisper campaign because he’s afraid to make allegations in public, attempts to take ownership of Tea Party affiliation. Vick, who at least showed up for several weeks at the We, The People vetting sessions (also, come to think of it, blown off by young Mr. Bittner) while Russell didn’t seem to be all that frequent a guest; as something of a claim in.
Unfortunately, these people are pounding each other over the same group of voters, and are likely to cancel each other out. Kampe will get the votes of the few democrats who will actually vote in the primary before being destroyed in the general, but his percentage of the vote will likely put him in the top two positions come primary night.
Rivers has run a superior campaign in every respect and looks like she’ll win all of it in the general, but will certainly be in the top two in the primary. Focusing on the issues an staying on target is it’s own reward.
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Earlier, I had posted this:
Regular readers already know that CCP has filed complaints against two candidates in the 18th District. So, here we are a few days later…. let’s see how they’re doing now, shall we?
First was Anthony Bittner, who really doesn’t want to be the state representative from the 18th District unless someone hands it to him like a chalupa at Taco Time.
Bittner has failed to file anything since the 27th of May. While not required to file C-3’s if he hasn’t made any deposits, which is something of a euphemism for “if he’s so lame he can’t raise any money,” he’s still required to file for his expenditures.
On June 10th, Bittner was required to file a C-4 for that purpose. According to the records, he’s filed nothing.
This is an error on my part; Bittner in fact filed two C-4’s within 48 hours of the CCP complaint filing… although it is bizarre that according to his filing for April (submitted 44 days late) Bittner indicated he had zero expenses of any kind.
Clark County Politics regrets the error, and since Bittner is now in complaince, will not be filing further complaints aginst his campaign at this point.
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Next was Jon Russell. Russell, in direct violation of PDC requirements, has been filing his paperwork manually instead of electronically.
Even though he and every other candidate was warned by the PDC via email on Friday, he’s STILL choosing to break the law by failing to file electronically.
That’s just one of many of Russell’s violations, detailed here:
But how someone who has sworn an oath to uphold the law as an abysmal example of an elected officials in the Train Wreck known as Washougal should expect anyone to support him when they are deliberately breaking that law is beyond me.
Tomorrow, presuming these issues aren’t rectified, I will file an additional PDC Complaint against each of these candidates, as they continue on in their journey of disrespecting the law they tell us that we should send them up to Olympia to make.
Fat Chance.
Cross posted at Jon Russell Watch.
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I freely admit that politics is a complicated game. Some, quite mistakenly, believe themselves to be good at it (See Jon Russell Watch for a good example) while others desire their 15 minutes of fame while actually completely lacking in anything approaching substance.
Anthony Bittner is just such a person.
Clark County Politics has filed a Public Disclosure Commission complaint against Anthony Bittner because Anthony has shown himself incapable of understanding the transparency aspect of the campaign finance system as embodied by the Public Disclosure Commission.
Anthony has yet to show up at any Republican campaign function. He has missed the 18th District PCO meeting, disrespecting GOP officials; he has missed every candidate forum. He has, in fact, missed every political function since he announced.
That, of course, is his privilege. But the filing of the necessary paperwork to show transparency in campaign finance isn’t a suggestion…. it’s the law. And Anthony Bittner, as of this writing, hasn’t filed any of the required paperwork since April 27th.
And that’s illegal. And that’s why I filed the complaint against him.
I will be filing another complaint tomorrow against someone who should know better.
Much more to come.
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That’s today’s quiz question: who is filing on time for the Public Disclosure Commission and who isn’t?
Well, let’s take a look, shall we?
Filing C-3’s (donation reports) were due on the 7th and 14th.
Who filed for those dates?
Well, Ann Rivers did. Brandon Vick did. Dennis Kampe KINDA did. But he missed his June 7 filing… and then got it in a little late. He filed a C-4 on June 7, but no C-3.
What about the rest of the candidates? Who’s breaking the law?
Anthony Bittner? Check. He hasn’t filed a thing since April 27th.
Jon Russell? Check. He was supposed to file C-3’s on the 14th, according to this:
June 1 Begin filing C-3 reports weekly, each Monday, for deposits made during
previous 7 days (Monday thru Sunday)
Russell’s filing manually in an effort to make it a little more difficult to find out that he’s paying off congressional debt with state representative campaign funds… something of a definite no-no. And, of course, the second he’s able to find enough suckers to get him up over $10,000, (You know, the same $10,000 he claimed to have already raised to the PCO’s on May 22nd? THAT $10,000?) he’s going to have to retroactively file his entire campaign electronically.
But then, Russell’s never been one about true transparency, has he?
And where’s his filing for the 14th?
No where.
Hiding hings as a part of your campaign isn’t all that great of a strategy. Paying for things with state funds that are prohibited for a federal race… also not cool.
Paying someone (Gary Wyram) to do hit pieces under the guise of disinterested bystander for We The People without him indicating that he’s being paid to do it?
Typically Russell. And typically unethical and scummy.
Cross-posted at Jon Russell Watch.
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We have enough lying scum in politics… and now we have Anthony Bittner.
Bittner mislead KOIN 6 news into believing that HIS signs were damaged in the sign destruction rampage of Friday through Saturday when the victim who suffered the most by far was Ann Rivers, who lost hundreds of dollars worth of signs while Bittner’s were left alone.
Instead of having the guts to tell KOIN the truth, or correct their story, this simple minded idiot just posts it on his Facebook page as if it’s true.
Here’s a picture of his Facebook page:
Here’s the link captured off his page
Anthony Bittner for Washington State District House of Rep. 18th District
Koin 6 reporting on the sign vandalism in my race.
There is no excuse for this kind of despicable conduct. None. I wonder if he’s going to show up at the Republican Women’s Function tomorrow.
I hope so. He’s got some explaining to do.
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Earlier, I mentioned the rather odd coincidence that Ann Rivers had suffered hundreds of dollars in damaged and destroyed signs over the Friday – Saturday period in the Hazel Dell/Salmon Creek area.
The coincidence?
None of the damaged signs were Anthony Bittner’s. All of the damaged signs in that area were co-located with Bittner’s.
Anthony was just a bit miffed at me for pointing that out. Having schooled the young man as to what threats would avail him and having pointed out that no campaign or campaign supported by low-level morons who would engage in this type of activity had ever won, I thought that would be the end of it.
Well, guess what. It wasn’t.
DayPortPlayer.newPlayer({articleID:”16818″,playerInstanceID:”5BBCE779-E203-9ADA-C7CA-C0061E0C00DE”,domain:”koin.dayport.com”,rootCategory:”126″,categoryID:”127″,videoHeight:”212″,videoWidth:”373″});
SOMEONE, and no, I don’t know who, sent this picture to KOIN 6,
claiming that the sign damaged was a Bittner sign. That’s obviously untrue, but then, the same mentality that could destroy other people’s property in the name of a political campaign was, no doubt, similarly responsible for this lie to the media.
I sincerely hope that Bittner had nothing to do with this. But I also know that yesterday, the picture in question was removed from River’s facebook account unknown to Rivers.
There is no excuse for this. Certainly, by now, Bittner has contacted KOIN 6 news to correct the story…. right?
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Yesterday, I published a post that included the following observations:
Over the past 48 hours, hundreds of dollars worth of signs, primarilly but not exclusively those of Ann Rivers, have been destroyed or damaged in the Salmon
Creek – Hazel Dell area.Oddly, most of these signs are located next to Anthony Bittner signs. Here’s an example of their work:
Clearly, this was done by a Bittner supporter, and is representative of most of the damage done.
So, here’s the deal, Anthony:
Damaging political signs is a criminal offense. Criminal. You hear what I’m saying?
I’ve been doing campaigns for over 20 years. I’ve run into this garbage before.
People have been arrested. NO ONE’S campaign who has EVER been connected with this kind of garbage has either won, or had any political future.
To whoever is doing this: Grow up. because the next sign trashed may very well be under photo surveilance.
Know what I mean?
For more information, go to Ann River’s facebook page.
In response to this post yesterday, I found this appended to the post:
Anonymous said…
I would ask that you please retract the statement in your latest post regarding sign vandalism. It is NOT clearly an Anthony Bittner supporter. Vandalism is a criminal offense but so is slander, keep that in mind.
Anthony Bittner. 921 XXXX 12:43 PM
Do not arm wrestle with me, young man… you will lose.
First of all, for your general fount of information,”slander” is a deliberate spoken untruth… “Libel” is a deliberate written untruth. Learn the difference.
Second, that I conclude that the moron who damaged these signs supports you in no way libels OR slanders YOU, or anyone else, for that matter.
Third, Washington State has no CRIMINAL LIBEL statute: RCW 9.58.010 was declared unconstitutional in 2008 and repealed by 2009 c 88 Sec 1.
You want to go fist city with me? Go get your lawyer and bring it on.
You want me to post a denial from you and support for repairing all signs out there?
Then you ask. You don’t demand, particularly when it’s clear that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Meanwhile, perhaps you should focus on the more mundane issues… like filing your PDC’s in a timely manner, a place where YOU have violated the law.
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Over the past 48 hours, hundreds of dollars worth of signs, primarilly but not exclusively those of Ann Rivers, have been destroyed or damaged in the Salmon Creek – Hazel Dell area.
Oddly, most of these signs are located next to Anthony Bittner signs. Here’s an example of their work:
Clearly, this was done by a Bittner supporter, and is representative of most of the damage done.
So, here’s the deal, Anthony:
Damaging political signs is a criminal offense. Criminal. You hear what I’m saying?
I’ve been doing campaigns for over 20 years. I’ve run into this garbage before.
People have been arrested. NO ONE’S campaign who has EVER been connected with this kind of garbage has either won, or had any political future.
To whoever is doing this: Grow up. because the next sign trashed may very well be under photo surveilance.
Know what I mean?
For more information, go to Ann River’s facebook page.
Clark County Politics 