Tag: monica wehby
Midterm Roundup: Another Plagiarism Scandal

Midterm Roundup: Another Plagiarism Scandal

Here are some interesting stories on the midterm campaigns that you may have missed on Wednesday, September 17:

• According to the Wesleyan Media Project, Democrats are running more ads than Republicans in the key Senate races taking place in Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, and Virginia. That’s good news for Democrats (assuming that political ads actually make a difference, which is up for debate).

• Two new Quinnipiac polls upend the conventional wisdom in hotly contested races. In Iowa, Quinnipiac finds Republican Joni Ernst opening up a 6 percent lead over Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley among likely voters. Other polls have shown a much tighter contest; the Real Clear Politicspoll average shows Braley ahead by less than 1 percent. Similarly, Quinnipiac finds Colorado governor John Hickenlooper down 10 to Republican challenger Bob Beauprez, while the poll average has Beauprez up by just 0.5 percent. It remains to be seen whether these results are outliers, or the first indications of a major shift toward the GOP.

• Along those same lines, a new New England College poll finds Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) leading Republican challenger Scott Brown, 51 to 40 percent. Shaheen leads by just 3.8 percent in the poll average.

• Monica Wehby, the Republican Senate nominee in Oregon, apparently plagiarized her health care plan from Karl Rove’s SuperPAC, American Crossroads. Wehby was once viewed as a rising star with a chance of upsetting incumbent Democrat Jeff Merkley; now, not so much.

• And Rep. Tom Cotton (R-AR), the GOP challenger to Senator Mark Pryor, is showing off his softer side. Republicans presumably hope that it will go better than his last effort, in which included the freshman congressman claiming “I’m warm, damnit.”

Photo: Monica de Argentina via Flickr

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Controversy Hampers Rising GOP Star Wehby As Primary Approaches

Controversy Hampers Rising GOP Star Wehby As Primary Approaches

Republicans in Oregon were hopeful that Salem-based pediatric neurosurgeon Monica Wehby could give Democrats a run for their money in the state’s 2014 Senate race. But the spotlight that has shone on the first-time candidate may have them rethinking whether Wehby is the formidable candidate they hoped for.

On Friday, Politico reported that Wehby was accused of stalking her ex-boyfriend Andrew Miller in April 2013. According to a police report, Miller claimed that Wehby entered his home without permission and even harassed his employees. He claims he now regrets calling the police, and that he and Wehby remain friends to this day.

Complicating matters, Miller’s company, Stimson Lumber, is one of the Wehby campaign’s primary donors. Miller also teamed up with Nevada businessman and sex hypnotherapist Loren Parks to create “If He Votes That Way in Salem, Imagine What He Will Do in Congress,” a committee directly dedicated to challenging Wehby’s primary opponent, state representative Jason Conger. The team privately funded attack ads against Conger, with Miller providing over $30,000 and Parks offering $70,000.

This prompted the Democratic Party of Oregon to file a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission. The complaint alleges that given the relationship between Wehby and Miller, it is impossible that she did not know about their plan to release the ad. Whether Wehby was aware of the ads prior to their release, or if Miller — a private donor — is privy to campaign strategy, she may be in violation of election law and could be required to pay a fine.

Wehby’s troubles don’t end there. On Monday, she appeared before a judge to defend surgeries she performed on children under the care of Katherine Parker. Parker is accused of 18 counts of criminal mistreatment or first-degree assault for convincing doctors her children needed unnecessary surgery.

Conservative-leaning groups Wenzel Strategies and the Taxpayer Association of Oregon PAC both released polls in early May showing Wehby leading Conger by 21 and 20 points, respectively. But a mid-April survey from Democratic pollster Benenson Strategy Group found Conger leading by 2 percent, with most Oregon Republicans undecided.

Since Oregon employs a vote-by-mail system, many ballots were mailed and returned before the negative accusations against Wehby broke. But even if the incidents create only a minor backlash in the primary election, they could hurt her already difficult bid to unseat the Democratic incumbent, Senator Jeff Merkley.

In a general election matchup, a Daily Caller poll finds Wehby ahead of Senator Merkley 45-41 percent. Alternatively, Benenson shows Merkley leading by a 20 percent margin.

In any case, unseating the incumbent will be a challenging task in Oregon, where voters haven’t elected a Republican in a statewide election in 12 years.

Screenshot: Monica For Congress YouTube

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