KFL endorses Huelskamp, makes life awful tough on Wasinger

While I left the country for spring break, it seems politics never takes a break anymore.

Kansans for Life took the unprecedented step of endorsing Sen. Tim Huelskamp for Congress a few days ago, which makes it, I'm sure, the earliest endorsement of a candidate in KFL history.

What makes this endorsement so interesting is Rob Wasinger's attempt in a March 10 fund raising letter to make it appear the National Right to Life committee had endorsed, or was leaning towards, endorsing him.

"Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee said I had been ‘a strong ally and key strategist in many pro-life fights in Congress."

There really seems to be no limit to the lies the Wasinger campaign is willing to tell in order to further Rob's own personal agenda of power in Washington. He's even willing to distort a fellow pro-lifers words in order to extract more money from Kansans hard earned paychecks.

So far, Rob has been unable to elicit even a penny in donations from the first congressional district. It seems that Rob's hit a wall, and when the chips were down, knowing how bad it would look to turn in another quarter of reports with no donations from the district he wants to represent, he decided instead to twist words and throw a fellow pro-lifer under the bus in order to gain the power he so desperately wants.

This desperate lie just further highlights Rob's continued inability to gain the support of Kansans in his campaign. And it just adds to the lies already told by the Wasinger campaign. Easily proven lies like telling the public he had already bought a house in Hays when in fact he had already changed his address to Cottonwood Falls. Like going on a national blog and saying I had posted something I hadn't. Like saying all of his campaign funds would be used in the first district when his campaign finance report only shows reimbursements to himself and his family. And now claiming an endorsement he's never received. What lie will the campaign tell next?

To me personally, this is just further proof of the failed strategy of the Wasinger campaign. Use unsuspecting national pro-life leaders to convince the folks back home that he's the most "pro-life" of them all and then build from there, eventually eliciting donations from people in the first district and shedding his "Washington persona."

But the problem with that strategy (or I think in Rob's case strategery) is pro-life activists in Kansas are engaged. They've been fighting the hard fights for years; they know who's friend and who's foe. They know who's been there for them when a fight needed to be fought and who threw prominent pro-lifers under the bus for their own gain. And no amount of outside influence is going to change their minds.

And that, I think, is why you're going to slowly see the Wasinger campaign implode. It won't happen overnight as I don't think he's tapped out his donors from Brownback's Presidential campaign, but as that money dries up and he becomes more desperate, you'll see more tricks just like the Doug Johnson endorsement lie. And each one will just put another nail in the coffin of his campaign.

Wasinger campaign workers, contributors are behind KS-01 and Boldra hit blog

When I started my blog, I began with just a quick google search of Rob Wasinger. I didn't know who he was or even where he was from, so I wanted to know more about him. Quite honestly, someone from Sen. Brownback's office didn't seem like they could be that bad to me.

Combining his name with Sam Brownback turned up many different results. One was a March 2008 press release from the McCain campaign naming their Catholics for McCain committee. Wasinger was named to the Steering Committee. I made note of it at the time because the release was from March 2008 and listed his home as Virginia, not Kansas.

I also did a Newsbank search for Rob Wasinger. That turned up some very interesting quotes in his position on the Catholics for McCain Committee, but not much else.

It was about that time a Google News search returned a Hutchinson News article about Wasinger and his recent move back to Hays. I also got more information from Dirt Diver Kansas and the Kansas Jackass about where exactly he lived. Before that time I knew he lived in Virginia, but not much else.

I also did a public search of Rob's voting history and found he had only voted once in Kansas, this past November. That was when I decided that while he may have worked for Sen. Brownback, he was clearly being an opportunist in moving back to Kansas just to run for public office.

At the same time, anonymous comments began appearing that claimed Wasinger had received this endorsement or that endorsement. I searched his site and could find no such evidence. I put up a post asking for evidence. Then I did a google search of "Wasinger, Pavone endorsement" and it returned a Facebook group page for Wasinger's campaign, with word for word endorsements that I had found anonymously on my blog.

They read like press releases, but they were no where to be found on Wasinger's website. The creator of the group was Billy Valentine from Franciscan University. Another quick search told me the university was located in Steubenville, Ohio.

This explains the mysterious endorsements that Wasinger would never acknowledge publicly and yet were thrown around as if they were fact. To those making the comments, they were indeed a fact, because they were involved with the Wasinger campaign.

I continued with a google search of "Valentine, Wasinger" and that returned the same Catholics for McCain page I mentioned above. Billy Valentine was on the Catholic Students for McCain committee. It also returned a result that showed Valentine was National Chairman of Students for Brownback.

A review of Wasinger's Jan. 30, 2009 campaign finance report showed a $250 contribution from Valentine. There was also a $250 donation from a Steven Valentine, a lawyer in Alexandria, VA.

Finally, the search returned a blog that Valentine wrote on frequently and was run by Franciscan University students. Steven Valentine was also listed as a contributor to the now defunct blog.

Before I go any further, there should be a discussion of the abilities and the limitations of IP address tracking.

I use a service that gathers web stats and individual hits. I pay extra for the service to give me additional information about my visitors. Part of that gathers their IP address and tells me where they are located.

The IP address that is gathered isn't from an individual computer as one might think. Actually, your internet service provider has a group of IP addresses that they use for a certain area, and an IP search will return that group of addresses rather than one specific address. So, that can be a limiting factor.

For example, when the Kansas Jackass visits and leaves a message, I can match up the time of his comment with the time of a hit that left a comment in my service. Even though he is located in Osage City, his IP tracks to Carbondale, according to my web service. That's because the internet service provider he uses has a set of IP addresses that they use for Osage City, Carbondale and Baldwin City. So if you go to another website that tracks IP addresses, some will return Carbondale, but others will return Osage City and another may return Baldwin City.

However, because that set of IP addresses is specific to those three cities, no other location will be returned besides those three cities. So, knowing an IP address can narrow a search considerably, if it's in the right area. Knowing a comment came from Kansas City or Wichita, that doesn't help as much. Knowing a comment came from Hoxie, that narrows things down considerably.

Fortunately, the locations for the IP hits I've gotten are not hard to decipher at all.

I began to receive numerous hits from an IP that resolved to Wierton, WV. That was very curious as I couldn't find any connections between Rob and West Virginia. Then I remembered the limitations of IP address tracking and sought out another site where I put in the IP address manually to find where it resolved to. My second search returned Steubenville, Ohio, just across the river from Wierton.

February 13th was an interesting day. I had posted a commentary the night before unrelated to the first district campaign, so I was rather surprised when it was chosen to attack Sen. Huelskamp rather than something I had written specifically regarding the campaign.

In any case, the barrage of comments gave me a wealth of information about where Wasinger's support was coming from.



Many of the comments were from Ohio. (The tagging of "Billy Valentine" is mine)

Another bulk of comments were from Massachusetts. These were perhaps the most devious while the others were just rather immature.

A smaller bulk were from Virginia and DC. One even came from the US Senate.

Interestingly enough, all of the comments were preceded by a visit from Rural Telephone Company in Hays. I would imagine not many people from Hays, Kansas use the Google Chrome browser, and even fewer still would visit this blog and then have a barrage of out-of-state comments appear. But, I could be wrong. (Again, the tagging of "Rob Wasinger" is mine.)

However, the most interesting comment came from a Terry Schilling at the Steubenville IP address. Another quick search told me Terry was a former student body president at Franciscan and also had received over $2,000 as an intern to Sen. Brownback.

The comment was clearly left by mistake, using his real ID rather than switching to anonymous. The comment was deleted by Schilling who then systematically went about erasing any evidence he had ever been here. Unfortunately for Schilling, even though the comment was deleted, the fact that it was left can't be deleted.

So this lead to a whole new line of searches which returned a copy of the Franciscan University school newspaper which identified seven Brownback interns during his Presidential campaign. One of them was Terry Schilling, another Billy Valentine. So, in reality, it could be any seven of them, or more likely, all of them.

I think in the end trying to nail down a specific person is pointless. Really, all that has to be done is to show the connections between these students, Rob Wasinger and the attack comments left here. So much for a clean campaign.

A bit of humor for you. This line of searches also returned the same Franciscan University blog that I mentioned before. But Terry's name wasn't there. Instead he had changed it to "Manny Rivera" but somehow forgot that he had tagged his name on previous posts.

If you follow Manny's blogger profile, you'll get the same url in your address bar as following Terry Schilling's profile from his comment left here.

So it became quite apparent from the rants left here Feb. 13 that there was certainly a more coordinated effort going on. And the hit from Hays didn't seem to indicate it was unaffiliated with the Wasinger campaign.

Next up came the YouTube videos from the First District Meeting at Kansas Days. I previously wrote about those where I partially explained the connections between KSNBC-01 and the Wasinger campaign. You'll note not a one anonymous comment after that little story.

In essence, the YouTube videos are helpful because the link left as a comment here was immediately followed by me, allowing me to be the first to view the video. This means whoever made the video left the link, otherwise I couldn't have been the first to view it. The comment was left from Steubenville, Ohio. (Again, the tagging of "Billy Valentine/Terry Schilling" is mine)

Further, those who were at the First District meeting will know the angle of the video shows it was taken from the same place the Wasinger campaign stood and watched. So, the video somehow, mysteriously, found its way from the first district meeting to Ohio. Gee, I wonder how that happened?

Next up is the uncanny ability of information from campaign finance reports only available from the Kansas Secretary of State's office showing up on KSNBC-01.

Of course, the Ohio folks would have you believe this information was sent anonymously, via their oh-so-clever anonymous tips box. So let's think that through. First, we have KS-01 stating they'll put an anonymous comment box here. That was at 12:45pm on Feb. 25th. Then we have the hit story on KS-01 at 7:44pm the same day. Am I to believe that years of campaign finance reports were anonymously submitted to KS-01 through a tiny box and reformatted into this in a matter of seven hours? Am I really to believe the graphic didn't come directly from the Wasinger campaign?

If you had any doubts, then doubt no longer. A copy of a fund raising letter was put up on March 15. Am I also to believe that jpg and adobe files can be submitted through their tiny box?

And then there is Billy Valentine going on race42008.com and saying pictures of Wasinger's children are on this blog. It's a bold face lie and is, of course, the same lie that was put up anonymously on KS-01 and not taken down. Is this where the Wasinger campaign is at? Telling flat out lies to try and win a congressional seat?

And finally, we arrive at the Boldra hit blog. As the only blog to link to the site, am I to believe they are not the ones behind it? We've seen some very prolific bloggers on the Wasinger campaign's staff. Am I to believe they are not the ones behind the shenanigans? After going on a national Republican blog and telling lies?

In the end it doesn't really matter which student is behind the two blogs, it only matters that the evidence overwhelmingly points to that group of students who have numerous ties to Rob Wasinger. In the end, all that has to be proven is that Rob is pulling the strings behind the scenes. Who's actually doing the dirty work doesn't really matter.

I think I'm beginning to understand why Sen. Brownback has refused to support Rob in his campaign. I can say with certainty it's the dirtiest campaign ever seen in Kansas history, and it's all due to the outside influence Rob has brought to the state to try and buy a House seat.

I don't think this will stop Rob or his out-of-state supporters. However, I think this does give Republican leaders in Kansas reason to pause when thinking about supporting Rob in his campaign. And in fact it already has, as Rob has yet to gain the endorsement of any group active in state politics. Are these the kind of actions you want to see in your Congressman? Many in Kansas politics are saying, "No thanks!"

So the next time you see Rob on the campaign trail, why not ask him about his KSNBC-01 blog and what has been published there. Ask him about his connections to Franciscan University and the prolific bloggers found there. Ask him if he can explain the amount of information that is finding it's way onto that blog with lightening speed. Ask him if he really meant it when he signed a clean campaign pledge or if he just signed it so he'd have cover while his out-of-state supporters did his bidding behind a thin veil of anonymity.

I doubt Rob will have many answers.

Huelskamp highlighted on Eagle blog

The Wichita Eagle editorial blog noted today Sen. Huelskamp's opposition to a plan that would consolidate Kansas counties into 13 versus the 105 the state currently has.

“Wouldn’t we just save a lot more if we eliminate them all?” — Sen. Tim Huelskamp (in photo), R-Fowler, on the proposal by Sen. Chris Steineger, D-Kansas City, to consolidate Kansas’ 105 counties into 13 supercounties

The rhetorical question highlighted the question of how far politicians should go in considering government consolidation. The only state in the union that is not further organized into counties is Alaska.

KSNBC-01, in their usual fair handed fashion, believed this to be a quote of support of eliminating all counties in Kansas. Of course, the author doesn't seem to understand that the outrageous nature of this claim not only reflects poorly on the author, but it also provides further evidence the author of KS-01 is also behind the new Sue Boldra hit blog.

The Hutchinson news has more on the Boldra blog flap.

Boldra enters Big First race and gets a Wassyngton welcome

Goodness, I step away from the computer for a couple days and everything breaks loose.

Well, there's now four people who want to replace Jerry Moran. I'm sure that's just the start. I really wouldn't be surprised to see eight or nine different candidates either get in or out by the time it's all said and done.

In any case, it would seem Team Wassyngton has learned their lesson well and put out a hit site on Sue Boldra before she ever even announced her candidacy. I'm not really sure what to make of the blog or the comments. There are a few that seem to be from Boldra supporters that say the site is a fake but they don't ever say that the claims in the post are factually wrong, so that's a little troubling.

Of course, the more posts that are put up on the blog with the same tired picture, the more it becomes obvious it's a hit blog and nothing else. I, of all people, can understand refuting something to a point and then just saying, you know, if folks can't figure out the truth from that then common sense really is dead. So maybe the Boldra people got to that point quicker than I did.

I've never been good at pretending to be something I'm not, so no liberal masquerade blogs from me. Sorry to disappoint you. (And I know there are some of you that really are disappointed!!!)

Then again, it seems Team Wassyngton isn't very good at masquerading as a liberal either... or acting like they're from Kansas for that matter.

So while I'll give dirty politics credit where it's due, I'll also note that Team Wassyngton hasn't exactly figured out that over-the-top stuff doesn't go over in Kansas, even in the blogosphere. If they would have just stopped with their first post, it might have passed by under the radar, but in typical Wassyngton fashion, they just can't help themselves. (Can you say 300 million comments in 3 minutes???)

But, I will say that at least they started the blog late Sunday night and then posted a link on KSNBC-01 early Monday morning, a whole eight hours later. They can't pretend to be a gay marriage lover, they can't seem to lose that pesky eastern accent (in writing no less), but by golly, they sure have good timing, don't they?!

Sebelius finally gets some Obama lovin'

After being an Obama groupie for over a year now, Sebelius finally got a little lovin' with an HHS nomination today.

I can't say that I'm thrilled for the governor. While I'm happy she's leaving Kansas (hell, I'd help her pack the U-Haul), she's potentially going to be in a position where she can harm not just people in Kansas but the whole nation. Her government-fits-all solutions are not what we need right now. To the rest of the nation, from the bottom of my heart, I'm so very sorry what we've given you.

On the bright side, I can't wait for the Senate confirmation hearings. I'd like to know which Senators are going to be on the committee. Even liberals have reported that her nomination was being held up because of her ties to George Tiller. I can't wait to hear some of the questions that'll be thrown to her. Kind of sucks when you don't have the Kansas press to hide behind, doesn't it?

Oh, and don't worry about that budget thing. We knew you had no idea how to clean up your own mess anyway.

Heulskamp on Stay Red Kansas

Sen. Huelskamp has a guest post on Stay Red Kansas. Stay Red is allowing all of the primary election candidates give an appeal as to why they should be elected. Go on over and give it a read. Here are a few sections I particularly liked:

My record as a Kansas conservative leader is clear and consistent: For more than a decade in the Kansas State Senate, I've been a leading advocate for fiscal responsibility, the sanctity of life, judicial restraint, private property rights, and the protection of marriage.

While a lot of politicians talk about transformational conservative leadership, few actually try it. For the last dozen years, I am proud to say I have been a leader in fighting for innovative solutions in the Kansas State Senate – and I look forward to putting that same experience to work for you in the United States Congress.

A rather boring story

Well, this is going to be rather boring, but here goes...

My blog was graced with being the first place where Wasinger supporters linked to the first Huelskamp video they put out. It was just dumb luck that I happened to be online at the time and was the first one to view the video, as you can see by the screen shots with this post.

I've never been the first person to view a video on YouTube except when I was the one loading it. So, the only way that specific link could have been posted here was if the person posting it was the one who uploaded it.

The IP address of the comment links back to Steubenville, Ohio.

This is the same IP address as the first commenter to route people to the KSNBC-01 blog. Thus, our fair and balanced Ohio friends are apparently also the ones who produced both videos.

Both video's are from the first congressional district meeting at Kansas Days and, as everyone can tell, have been heavily edited. The angle of the camera is consistent with where the Rob Wasinger supporters were standing.

On Feb. 13, there were a barrage of comments on this post. It was surprising to me that this post triggered such an outrage from Wasinger's supporters because it didn't even have anything to do with the first district race. I just thought it was something that needed to be said.

In any case, all of those came from either the Steubenville, Ohio, Virginia, Washington D.C., or Boston areas. There were two different folks from Virginia while the other locals featured one commenter each.

Most comments concerned reimbursements to Sen. Huelskamp's wife. I discovered that only reports from 2006 are available online, so someone had to have gone to the Secretary of State's office and get campaign finance reports from 1996 to 2006. How that information got into the hands of bloggers from Ohio, Virginia and Massachusetts isn't clear to me.

One hour before the comment barrage started, there was a hit from an IP address in Hays for a few minutes.

There's of course more to this than what I've put up here, but I think it's best for everyone involved, even the out-of-state Wasinger supporters, that I stop here. There's of course nothing wrong with supporting your candidate; I do it.

And really I can't complain too much about the two videos. They're editing isn't that great so it's easy to see it was selective in nature. But of course, I'd hate to see a full audio file of the first district meeting show up on the internet.

I think the only problem I would address is the person from Massachusetts that decided to attack the adoptions of Sen. Huelskamp. I don't think you're doing your candidate a service by going there.

Instead of signing a clean campaign pledge and then attempting to attack anonymously from Ohio, Rob should have just been straight and honest about his attacks. At the very least, it'd be nice if you referenced your material.

KSNBC-01 today said they endorsed Rob Wasinger. Again, rather than attacking Huelskamp in a thin veil of fairness, I'd hoped that they would just be up front and honest about who they support. I had hoped today's endorsement would clear that up, but unfortunately, it didn't.

Here at Kansas01, we set out to follow the race in a non-partisan manner. We hope that we have been true to our intent, and we hope to continue reporting the race in such a manner.

...we will continue to chronicle the race, cutting through the spin, which means that we will continue to report on developments equally.

The Hutch News has a story up about Rob's new house in Cottonwood Falls. Why he told the Hutch News in December he'd bought a house in Hays I still don't understand.

Cottonwood Falls is a great town and the Flint Hills are just gorgeous. One of the best drives you can take is from Council Grove to Cassoday on K-177.

Also, the Kansas Jackass did a story about Huelskamp working to curb card check legislation in Kansas. I'd say more about unions and why they're good and bad sometimes, but I don't have the energy today.