Yes, the rumors are true (thanks former SM Guest Blogger Nayagan). Amit Singh, who I first wrote about here and who Vinod later interviewed here, has lost his bid for a congressional seat in Virginia to his primary opponent. The Reason Magazine blog provides a play-by-play of the “dirty tricks” that were used against him by fellow Republican Mark Ellmore:
We knew pretty early in the night at Amit Singh’s victory party that the candidate would lose. The first hint was nebulous: It was that Singh’s opponent Mark Ellmore, a social conservative who’d been running for two years, had blanketed the district with signs, and that there were areas (especially in Fairfax County, which contained almost half the precincts) with no Singh presence whatsoever. “They needed more visibility,” said Aaron Biterman, who’d voted for Singh then volunteered for Vern McKinley. “We needed more damn signs!” said Singh, tongue planted in cheek…So, Singh was blunt early in the night when I asked how he felt about the vote. “That mailer with the fake quote killed us,” he said. The mailer in question was an 11th hour hit job that quoted scattered sources, including the blog of Mark Blacknell, to paint Singh as an anti-troop false Republican who refused to vote for John McCain. Singh referred to the current mission in Iraq as “operation baby-sit,” so Ellmore claimed he “insults our military professionals.” Singh was about as disappointed as half the GOP when McCain lucked into the nomination, so he was, obviously, a libertarian who would destroy the party. A picture of Singh and Ron Paul completed the attack. [Link]
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p>When Ellmore was later confronted about using scare tactics like generating fake quotes to smear Singh so close to the day of the vote, he came up with perhaps the greatest excuse I have ever heard uttered by a politician:
Amit Singh had actually seen Ellmore at the polls and chastised him for the smear; Ellmore put the onus on his 17-year old campaign manager and said he’d apologize after the election. [Link]
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p>It didn’t help Amit that the turnout for the primary was pathetic:
“Turnout is, I don’t want to say anemic, but turnout is very, very, very, very light,” said Rokey Suleman, Fairfax County’s general registrar, who predicted that turnout was unlikely to exceed 5 percent by the time polls close at 7 p.m…In Fairfax City, general registrar Jeremiah Vangen reported just 605 ballots cast by 2 p.m. out of more than 14,000 registered voters. Polls close at 7 p.m. [Link]
Amit ended his campaign by stating he wasn’t sure if he was going to run again in two years and that he was unlikely to accept the Vice Presidential spot on the ticket should McCain make an offer.
If true as alleged on the mailer, Amit has plenty of GOP allies if he’s not voting/endorsing McCain.
I say this as a lifelong conservative who can’t stomach the thought of a McCain presidency and is leaning towards Bob Barr.
Why doesn’t Amit sue?
If Mark had put out a mailer that said Amit was a child molester, he would sue, so why not sue now for liable.
We hear all the time politicians saying “that was a misquote,” but this was a blatant error that the Post confirmed and ripped him a new one.
Sue
I don’t think that Democrats do these kind of smear campaigns, and Democrats are also less likely to “misquote”. The Republicans always “misquote” their opponents, but their errors are always in to the detriment of the Democrats.
I wonder if this would change Amit’s view of his own party?
I hope the picture with Amit Singh is not the reason that Ron Paul chose to drop out of the race today for president.
From the comments to the article, I just found out that Amit Singh’s campaign speeches included this line:
Hahhhhaaahhhhh!!!
(it’s so awful, but I can’t stop laughing!)
And even better? The idiot commenter watched the speech as an undecided but was so offended by the line, he’s now volunteering for the Ellmore!
Here’s the comment. I hope I’m not missing something here since he calls this glove/mit line a “smear.” wtf?
Abhi, the denizens of the bunker are casting votes for barracks chief next Tuesday, and I guess you should know I told everyone you’re a prune faced bed-wetter. I’ll apologize on Wednesday, ‘kay?
Reason comment threads are great because there’s always the odd Lew Rockwellian fuddy-duddy libertarian, fulminating over some perceived fault that the rest of us can’t understand (Note the classically curmudgeonly response from Lew himself about “little war criminal” Amit). That being said, I loved how the flyer accused him of not voting Macaca in ’06–a time when not just a few dyed-in-the-wool GOP voters held their nose, turned their head sideways, coughed twice and voted for Mr. Scots-Irish.
thanks for posting, Abhi.
I am NOT prune-faced!
I followed this campaign pretty closely, and seriously, any time I waded into the comments on any online article about it, a hot scrubbing shower was in order afterwards. There are some foul kids playing in primary politics.
The sad thing is that Ellmore probably could have won without doing this – Republican primary voters aren’t known for being a thoughtful lot, and when given the choice between doing something smart (voting for a candidate with a future, Singh) or demonstrating their allegiance to a failed agenda (Ellmore), well. But no, that just wasn’t enough, it seems.
(FWIW, some local Dems supporters did a good job of trying to measure up to this crap in the Connolly-Byrne primary (in Tom Davis’ district). Was embarrassing, if you ID as a Dem.)
I’m impressed that he had the courage not to castrate his identity in order to appear more demographically cohesive by converting, adopting an Anglicized name, and all that jazz. I disagree with his politics, but I can respect him.
Careful, Palab, or Bobby will exorcise you, too.
Modern-day American democracy in action. Terrible.
Sorry guys, but Amit never had a chance against Ellmore in the GOP primary, let alone against unseating Moran in the election. I’m with MCinDC–Singh was a better candidate for the GOP, and Ellmore’s a total sleazeball, but really, the guy never stood a chance in the 8th CD. We’re dyed blue out here.
And I’m going to do my part to make sure this one piece of VA stays that way, dammit.
*typo – MBinDC.
Boston Mahesh, I am a Democrat who ran for Delegate for Obama and lost gloriously(heh heh, I just went for fun to see what the process was like). And I can tell you that Democrats will lower themselves to such depths to smear a fellow democrat. Remember 2004 when Dean was smeared in iowa with those reprehensible ads morphing Dean’s face into Obama’s. Lieberman lied his ass off when he was a Democrat when he ran against Lamont in the primary. I am no fan of Jindal, but Louisiana Democrats are not exacty paragons of virtue during campaigns.
Anyway, it is such a shame. Amit Singh seemed like the rare Indian republican who seemed very likable and reasonable. Not cut from the Dinesh D Souza cloth. Just your regular achiever who seems to want to do some good.
When i saw Rare Indian Republican, I meant republican politician in the news. I know quite a few decent Indian republicans who are not very active in politics.
If you want to play in the sewer then dont complain if you get a little shit on your shirt.
If Indians run as Republicans, they have to follow the Jindal model. Convert,be the most ultra conservative guy, and marry an Indian girl.
Were all sorry that Mr.Singh lost but….
The great Tim Russert just passed away and I don’t want to threadjack but us desi’s no matter what side are views are, will miss him. This falls election will not be the same with out him.
this might be true, but i don’t think anybody who, by default, puts public officials off the record and then requests a by-your-leave before quoting anything they say, and of whom cheney’s office thinks that the best way to get their message out is to put cheney on his show, since “it’s our best format to control the message” – even after the iraq war – is hardly what i think as a paragon of great, or even, good, political reporting. he was a consummate insider and expert performer of the media-politics dance of washington.
he was a bit of a wonk about the political process, and i give him props for his enthusiasm on that count, though. that, and the fact that anybody who disliked chris mathews intensely couldn’t have been all bad.
so, who gets his spot? brian williams? probably not chris mathews, although that would be ironic. olbermann is probably perceived as too anti-establishment and snarky. maybe david gregory? russert is supposed to have liked him, but is he considered seasoned enough?
I know, I’ve been drinking and pouring out liquor all day.
you and big russ both…
We still have Randy Quaid. He looks just like Tim and thats better then nothing.
‘Amit ended his campaign by stating he wasn’t sure if he was going to run again in two years and that he was unlikely to accept the Vice Presidential spot on the ticket should McCain make an offer.”
The statement is an example of SM’s nonpartisan mockery, no doubt.
Dude, RTFA. The last paragraph:
At the end of the night, given how long he’d known the result, Singh was resigned but gloomy. “There were nights I woke up in a sweat, worrying that I’d let you down,” he told a room of very young supporters and volunteers. (I don’t think anyone was over 33.) He begged them to stay involved then settled in to party. He would stay involved with the GOP, but he wasn’t sure yet if he’d run in two years. (The nomination would probably be his for the taking if he did.) “I sensed something was wrong with America at its core and culminated in a campaign for Congress,” Singh told supporters in an e-mail today, “but it won’t end there. No, I’m not seeking the VP nomination.”