* GOP hopefuls drop finance aide amid investigation…
The Republican congressional campaigns of Aaron Schock and Tim Baldermann parted ways with their shared campaign treasurer after news reports suggested he could be involved in an accounting scandal.
Christopher Ward served as campaign treasurer for Schock and Baldermann and previously had worked for the national party. Several media reports out of Washington, D.C., suggest Ward could be part of an investigation involving questionable accounting during his time with the Republican National Campaign Committee.
* How did Hillary win key city wards? Bosses’ pledges for Obama fall short: Clinton, Alvarez ‘were just very popular with Latinos and women’…
Does that mean the ward bosses have lost their power to carry their wards?
Did they cut secret deals to back Hillary Clinton for president and Anita Alvarez for state’s attorney?
Or was it just another “Year of the Woman,” in which women and Hispanics voted their preferences instead of those of their ward bosses?
There could be some loud fireworks the next time Illinois Senate Democrats meet behind closed doors.
Two of those Democrats, Martin Sandoval and Tony Munoz, contributed a combined $45,000 to Rep. Rich Bradley’s losing Democratic primary campaign against Sen. Iris Martinez. That is a big political no-no.
…the Frank Giustra-Kazakhstan-Uranium affair, blown open by The New York Times last week, serves as a reminder that the relationship between the Clintons and money has not always been lily-white.
Initially, Williams was brought in to run the campaign even though Solis Doyle was still there. The result was confusion for the staff, who weren’t sure who was really in charge, the source said.
But even more troublesome was the campaign’s money crunch. Over the last seven years, Clinton had raised $175 million for her re-election and her presidential campaign. But Solis Doyle didn’t tell Clinton that there was next to no cash on hand until after the New Hampshire primary.
“We were lying about money,” the source said. “The cash on hand was nothing.”
Clinton didn’t tell Solis Doyle she was lending money to keep the campaign afloat. Solis Doyle found out third-hand. And when she asked Clinton about it, the senator told her she couldn’t understand how the campaign had gotten to such a point, the source said.
