Bob Lord has the Shadegg campaign making rookie mistakes

As Election Day draws ever closer, the strong challenge that the Bob Lord for Congress campaign is mounting against incumbent John Shadegg is pushing Shadegg's campaign into making so incredibly dumb moves...

Let's see -

There was using a picture of a veteran in a campaign ad without his permission...and then insulting that veteran (and former POW) with a condescending faux "apology."

There was putting out another spot without the legally required "paid for by" statement, which could result in the Shadegg campaign paying thousands of dollars more than other candidates to air their ads.

Now there's the embarrassment of losing a campaign credit card.

In a Democratic Party office.

From an AZ Dem press release -

A credit card for John Shadegg's campaign was found this weekend under the front desk of a Democratic Party office.

The card is issued to a senior Shadegg campaign operative, lists Shadegg's re-election organization and was found near Democratic campaign materials.

The Democratic Party notified Shadegg's campaign office that the card has been found. The party has also filed a report with the Tempe Police Department and with the credit card company.

"It's extremely disturbing that a senior campaign operative for Republican John Shadegg would leave a credit card under a desk at one of our offices," said Maria Weeg, Executive Director of the Arizona Democratic Party. "We let Congressman Shadegg know we found his credit card and requested Shadegg promptly explain what a member of his staff was doing in our office and how his campaign credit card arrived in our office."

According to PolitickerAZ, the Shadegg campaign has responded by saying that the credit card was brought to the Democratic office by one of his campaign volunteers in order to purchase an Obama bumper sticker.

Huh?????

So the question now is whether the intended purpose of the purchase of an Obama bumper sticker was to proclaim the Shadegg campaign's support for Barack Obama (something that I'm certain that Shadegg's good friend John McCain will want to discuss :) ) or if they were purchasing the bumper sticker to deface or misuse it in some way (just for harmless laughs, of course).

Something which may or may not be legal to do once they've taken ownership of a particular bumper sticker, but which, legal or not, is still utterly petty.

Why do I not believe that Shadegg's campaign wanted the bumper sticker because of its support of Obama?

Actually, I think they showed up at the Tempe office to spy or more, but that's only my opinion, not an actual accusation. Yet.

Anyway, given all of the dumb mistakes and the blatant disregard for campaign rules (written and unwritten), is it any surprise that the Shadegg campaign has retained the K Street law firm of Sidley Austin, or that one of the firm's partners is Thomas Green, one of the people who defended the Republican "plumbers" of Watergate break-in fame? According to campaign finance records, they spent nearly $12K with Sidley Austin in just the month and a half from August 14 to September 30. (page 100 and 101 of this .pdf from the FEC)

Sounds like the Shadegg campaign is doing one thing right - they're following the Boy Scout maxim of "be prepared."

Later!