Comments on Advance Indiana™: Does Marlin Stutzman Have An Aaron Schock Problem?

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/05/09/ta...

2016-04-22T12:20:56.731-05:00

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/05/09/tax-writing-congressman-violated-tax-law/ Does anyone think that this story was dug up by anyone not in Indiana? Now, if you cannot count to 500 maybe your head has been jarred once too many times?

Did you miss this one in the Chicago Tribune? &qu...

2016-04-21T18:42:31.630-05:00

Did you miss this one in the Chicago Tribune? "In our 2012 US Senate race in Indiana, I ran the NW quadrant of the state for Richard Mourdock. I was personally responsible for making sure we had the 500 signatures in the 1st Congressional District to put Mourdock on the ballot. Not only did I triple make sure he had much more than the required signatures, but that the sheets were photo copied for the record. Even school age children know to get double the signatures & copy them.

I am very disappointed and discouraged that the Board didn't see fit to comply with the law of the minimal threshold required 500 signatures for Todd Young this past week. One of the Republican Board Members Bryce Bennett, who voted to allow Todd Young on the ballot, rather ironically is a donor to his Senate campaign. Integrity and ethicalness says Bryce should of recused himself from voting because of conflict of interest, but he did not. This has done great damage not only for trust in the process for the voters, but to the process itself. If Todd Young cannot complete the basic requirements, then he certainly should not be entrusted to represent Indiana in the Senate by the voters.

Suzy Barnhart, Merrillville" I will mention that many business people who attend business conventions very often take advantage of the tax deductions of air fare and sign up for "post convention" trips which may or may not be tax deductible depending on the business purposes, e.g. are there business reasons to associate with certain people in a social manner? In political life, not being on Ways and Means, raising money for campaigns would take candidates to all sorts of places. If I had to go to California near LA I'd sure combine business with pleasure. I hope he was able to get the direct flight to LAX from Indianapolis.....

As a hit piece, the AP is a fail. As for kids at ...

2016-04-21T07:12:36.412-05:00

As a hit piece, the AP is a fail. As for kids at the Reagan Library there is also his Air Force One, Marine One, movies, shows, and lots to keep kids occupied. But, it is nice to know that the candidate has two kids of those ages. I didn't know that. So, instead of apportioning air fare Stutzman decided to reimburse for all of it. No big deal. While California is expensive the clue that he was campaigning was the $1,147 van rental.....pretty steep for a one day vacation. In an effort to balance reporting, I guess, the Young failure to report $75,700 is reported (who knew) and Young's fine was $8,670.00 American according to MGroppe. Still, it does reflect something about candidates that the one trailing has spouted off on a late campaign smear while failing to mention his own transgressions .... that information only being disclosed by the Stutzman spokesperson.....

It depends on the child. I would have enjoyed it a...

2016-04-20T20:36:18.998-05:00

It depends on the child. I would have enjoyed it at that age, but I admit I wasn't like most other kids at that age.

On the other hand, one might question the wisdom o...

2016-04-20T20:25:48.226-05:00

On the other hand, one might question the wisdom of taking a 10 year old and a 14 year old to the Reagan library. I wouldn't, but that's because I like to have fun on a vacation. I hope they made some other stops.

$3,000,000 plus can buy you a lot of oppo research...

2016-04-20T18:20:33.923-05:00

$3,000,000 plus can buy you a lot of oppo research. I rather suspect AP was fed all of these observations but I think every politician in America should visit Ronald Reagan's tomb. It is a bucket list item for patriotic Americans...even ex Marines. There are plenty of books to select from in their gift shop and the self guided tour is well worth doing as a revisiting of American history usually is. Only thing missing is Sam Donaldson's hectoring, the mindless press hatred and misinformation they put out against him and his successful policies.
I don't know what he was doing but the idea you would fly out, spend one night in a hotel, and fly home sounds stupid. There is a lot to do in that area aside from the Tomb and Library....a country guess is that some function was held there and a portion of his expenses were properly related to the funds he used. The day I was there it was raining but I still spent a bit of time with Ronald Reagan thinking about him, Maggie Thatcher, Pope Saint John Paul The Great, Lech Walsea, and, of course George Meany whose use of CIA funding kept the union movements behind the Iron Curtain alive and the idea of solidarity.