Channel 13 (WHO-TV) in Des Moines is reporting that current campaign manager for presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, Eric Woolson, confirms her story that state Senator Kent Sorenson left her campaign suddenly and that he and Sorenson had discussed the $30,000 cash payment and an additional $8,000 a month Sorenson had been offered by the Paul campaign.
MSNBC reports that it might be against Iowa state law if Sorenson takes money from the Paul campaign. However, according to Woolson, the money would not come directly from the Paul treasury, but would come from consulting firms, associated with Paul. If true, this would make Paul’s claim that Sorenson wasn’t offered money by him technically true.
Wes Enos also left his official campaign position, defending Sorenson’s version of the story.
27 comments
so because her own campaign manager says it it must be true. That makes no sense at all. Of course he would defend her.
First, I said it was apparently true. The truth will come out soon enough.
But obviously, with a name like DWI, you must be a Paul supporter.
Ah, Shedlock. You gotta be an advocate of Bachmann with a snarky, stage mommy comment like that. It’s completely over for Bachmann, of course. The shrill emotionality of her assertion (Sorenson was bribed or bought) is unattractive by any measure and she comes across like a woman scorn. It is unsavory and should not be a component of any presidency. Between now and the 3rd, the fury of being jilted or dumped will dominate her comments ad nauseum as she tries to spin it, accuse or explain it away. And now Enos has come to his senses and abandoned the increasingly failing effort which is the Bachmann candidacy. But I guess, ultimately, this is what the pageant is for. Right, stage mommy?
And the testimony of her two top campaign aides yesterday must be false?
How is something apparently true when the two top officials yesterday said is was not but the new guy says “yes”? It couldn’t be personally motivated could it? As in, hope he still has a job after Tuesday…
You must not be reading the story. Of the two who commented yesterday, one is Sorenson himself, the other was Wes Enos who could not personally know whether it is true or not.
Bachmann’s own political director, not planning to leave Bachmann’s campaign, said it wasn’t true as did Sorenson and Paul’s campaign. So Bachmann fired the political director, I understand. Wes Enos, I believe his name was.
You still think this is true?
Knowing Eric Woolson, yes.
I didn’t want to get into insider knowledge or personal opinions on this. I was hoping to stick with the public statements. Everybody with experience in Iowa politics could surely pick sides based on their opinions of the people involved.
At this point it would seem Bachmann would fire everyone until she got the answer she wanted. It’s sad but is seeming more likely to be the case.
The Free Market Ron Paul is always talking about 🙂
Obama should bail out Michele Bachmann’s campaign.
Ummm….,so bachman’s campaign manager confirms here story and that is evidence of it being true, how so? It is unbelievable that any one would derive any apparent truth with this evidence. How lame you are. And DWI Ron Paul will be good Isreal our aid to them is not what keeps them safe and with us off their backs they will be Ble to settle their problems with their nieghbors anyway they see fit, being more powerful than all the other nations of the region they won’t have any trouble.
It supports Bachmann’s story because now two different people have said Sorenson told them he was being offered lots of money. It does not matter whether he does get paid or not, it is whether or not he told Bachmann (and Woolson) that he was offered the money.
Two different people, that are paid by her to make her look good? Please find me a source that isn’t being paid out of Michele Bachmann’s pocket.
Are you sure it was a supposed $30k CASH payment? Just curious if you knew that to be the case because the article didn’t mention it as being a cash payment. Woolson’s comment mentioned ”
offered $30,000 dollars upfront, and that he was going to be offered $8,000 dollars a month for as long as Ron Paul was in the campaign”. I was just curious because the cash portion would lend to more secrecy that would be harder for both the Bachmann camp to prove and the Paul camp to deny.
Cash means lump sum, not that it wasn’t a check.
Thanks for the clarification. I guess I just had a different interpretation of “cash’ when reading your article
If Mr. Woolson is telling the truth, I would venture to think it happened something like this:
Sorenson began with the Bachmann campaign in February – before Ron Paul announced that he was going to run for President. Sorenson said in an interview that he called the Paul campaign before deciding whether to go to the Bachmann camp. The Paul Campaign people said that they weren’t sure if he was going to run or not, so Sorenson decided to end up working for the Bachmann campaign. Then POSSIBLY the Paul Campaign, early on after it announced Ron Paul was running, asked Sorenson in the early stages if he wanted to switch over to the Paul campaign and offered him terms. I could POTENTIALLY see this happening – which would have been many, many months ago and not recently like it is portrayed/made for one to believe. That is the only scenario in which I believe this is possible. Meaning the money could have been offered several months ago, but it never came to fruition because at that time he was still with the Bachmann campaign. If this is the case, then it is really grasping at straws in my opinion and a distortion of the truth. Frankly, I completely do NOT believe that the money was offered recently (if at all). That is my take on all of this.
I would be very interested for someone in the media to ask Eric Woolson the approximate time when Sorenson told him this. I think that is THE important question. It doesn’t even have to be exact by any means. I just want to know if it was months ago or if it had been in the last few days or weeks. Assuming it is true that Sorenson was offered money, if it was done months ago when Ron Paul first started his campaign then it is a non-issue to me and in my opinion it makes the Bachmann Campaign look really bad by trying to distort in a very bad manner. If it was done recently as in the past few days, then it is quite the different story.
Interesting questions, Jason.
So, you can buy love after all. How much of Paul’s support is astroturf and how much of it is real? We will find out next week, I guess.
LOL oh please, they fired Enos the moment he said that the accusations were false.
Apparently true my behind, that’s like saying, “In other news, the search for the missing cheeseburgers is over as the Hamburgler says he saw Grimace eat them.”
I don’t take Michele’s campaign staff at face value. Kent was torn about whether to work with Michele in the first place, and he only did back before Dr. Paul decided to run. Paul’s people basically got Kent elected in the first place.
Michele has a problem with telling the truth. Just like that “family reunion” she was at, when her own mother says she wasn’t there. Calling herself Doctor… saying she was a “tax litigator” like she wasn’t a PROSECUTING IRS tax attorney… the list goes on and on for how she’s prepared to tell bold faced lies.
Perhaps someone should ask the Bachmann campaign if Sorenson was being paid by them through the funnel of a consulting group. How else is Sorenson supporting is family for the last year?
His business just recently closed and income from legislative work.
Still should be asked. Heard many rumors that this is precisely the agreement that was used by Bachmann’s campaign to pay him, and now the Bachmann campaign is saying that this is how the Paul campaign will pay him. Coincidence?
Susan Geddes (Sorenson’s campaign manager) makes the same claim as Bachmann and Woolson. Why should she make this up when she has worked closely with and supported Sorenson?
This bone-headed move is going to backfire on Ron Paul. Iowa is a caucus state not a primary state and Iowans don’t take to kindly to these political backstabbing parlor games. The real question is this: If Kent Sorenson was so torn in his decision, why not simply wait 6 days before switching camps? What possibly could Kent do in only 6 days other than….attempt to damage the Bachmann campaign at a critical moment? There is no way to spin out of this cold calculated attempt to sway Iowan voters just days before the caucus.
Kent appeared with Bachmann earlier in the day but refused to make a speech when offered claiming that his throat was sore…only to drive to a Paul event and make a speech endorsing Paul. Busted.
The Iowan voters will have the last word on this sordid affair. Not a smart move by the Ron Paul camp.
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