From The Hill:Ohio Republicans are alarmed and amused by James Harris's attempt to dethrone Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who is in danger of indictment, having been named as the infamous "Representative #1" in the plea agreement lobbyist Jack Abramoff reached with government prosecutors.You can put me down in the amused column.
While Harris is on the ballot, he has not spent the $5,000 that would require him to file a report with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Harris's introduction to the GOP and media establishment has come from his long-winded press releases and meandering e-mails to reporters, incorporating teen-speak, made-up words and snippets of famous poems.
These press releases have Republicans worrying and laughing at the same time.
Harris, casting himself as the conservative and squeaky-clean outsider, says he has no paid campaign aides and writes the press releases himself. He sends releases out two or three times a week.
On Monday he told reporters that he has met "thousands" of Republicans in the 18th Congressional District and that he would be the only chartered financial analyst in Congress if elected. The first two pages of the seven-page release are dedicated to Harris's campaign; the remaining five incorporate news items, including part of a recent Vanity Fair article that describes a mutually beneficial friendship between Ney and Abramoff.
When Ney questioned the seriousness of Harris's campaign, based on Harris's failure to file an FEC report, Harris wrote that "Ney, the entrenched incumbent, is complaining to the party and the media that Harris is not spending enough money! Duh!"
He continued, "I'm a farmer's son. I'm frugal with my campaign dollars and if elected, I'll be frugal with our taxpayer dollars."
Harris is struggling against low name recognition. And the struggle has not always appeared to be worth the effort.
When the House voted to renew the USA Patriot Act, Harris tried to make an issue out of Ney's past opposition to the legislation and implored the incumbent to vote for renewal. After Ney did so, he dismissed the idea that Harris had swayed him.
Ney spokesman Brian Walsh said, "Ney could not even tell you which borough of New York City Mr. Harris has been living in the last 10 years before moving to Ohio, let alone where he purports to stand on particular pieces of legislation."
Harris responded to this slighting remark by saying he had been scheduled to attend a meeting in the World Trade Center later on Sept. 11, 2001, and was therefore a "near-miss target."
"That [comment] threw him into the nutty," an Ohio Republican lawmaker said.
Earlier this week, I was in the ticked off column. Why? Because rather than take his criticisms of my criticisms to me, Mr. Harris decided to take them to someone else first. In his subsequent emails to me, Mr. Harris failed to mention that he went off on this person who has no control over WMD's content. And I'm none too happy about that.
But I'm willing to let bygones be bygones because quite frankly I love his press releases.
NOTE TO ANYBODY ELSE WHO HAS AN ISSUE WITH WMD's CONTENT: My email address is WMDtvMatt@yahoo.com. Don't bother people who have no way of helping you with your grievences. Better yet, try clicking on the Join the Discussion button and defending yourself. I'm a pretty fair-minded guy, chances are pretty good I'll promote your comments in to the permenant record.
