Very Serious Allegations Made Against 2012 Ron Paul Campaign Manager Jesse Benton

[angelatc]

Sure, he's an ally, but he has no common sense. To publicly go after Ron Paul's campaign was politically ignorant as all hell. Yet, he made the conscious choice to do it. Woods is only human and I think his ego got the best of him in this situation.

You're making a mountain out of a molehill, which is what Benton did. Tom didn't crtitcize the campaign, he made a simple suggestion. Anybody who was remotely normal would have said thanks and either moved on it or just moved on.

Benton's fragile little ego took it as an insult, decided that Tom freaking Woods was now a persona non gratis to the campaign, and proceeded to hire Matt Collins.

What a skilled manager he is, eh?


ETA: And I've worked with Tom. He doesn't have an ego. Benton, on the other hand....

 

[angelatc]

Actually, I've seen way too much of the crap around here where mud was flung at Benton and the gaggle joined in to pile on. Such was the case when Benton was accused of earning piles of money from Ron Paul's '08 campaign, when it was proven that no, that wasn't accurate at all. That money was mostly reimbursements for charges he had put on his personal card for all kinds of things having to do with the campaign. I had hoped the campaign had learned from that and would have a corporate credit card if Ron ran again, but I guess it all happened so quickly, it wasn't the case yet again. The same BS charges were leveled again in '12 and once again, the gaggle joined in. This is just one of the many examples. Sorry, but I'm not going to pile on the bash squad, just because most here are on it.

It's not a bash squad, because it's true.

Those people on the ground worked hard to get those positions, and Benton and his alleged elite gang of alleged self-important cronies created a huge scandal that will now likely be used against those people who likely had nothing to do with it.

And you're blaming the people who printed the story.

The fault here doesn't lie with the people looking for truth.

 

[Matt Collins]

Tom didn't crtitcize the campaign, he made a simple suggestion.

Actually yes he did, openly, and publicly. I'm over it, I don't care, I didn't even really care then, it was in poor taste and had some negative effects, but it really didn't matter to me much other than it was just one more thing to divert our attention away from winning. I like Tom, I think he's an ok guy, and I like his books and lectures. Again, it's not an issue to me, but it is important that the record be set straight. I don't see any reason to rehash this sort of nonsense though, it's not really productive.

Benton's fragile little ego took it as an insult, decided that Tom freaking Woods was now a persona non gratis to the campaign, and proceeded to hire Matt Collins.

LOLz, Jesse did not hire me, and I was on the Campaign from day 1. Also Tom was part of an independent expenditure PAC at the time which means it wasn't legal for the Campaign to coordinate with him in any way.

 

[fr33]

Please stop talking about Woods or Wenzel. Throughout this whole topic there have been people who try to change the subject or dismiss things based on personal vendettas.

If you think that I'm going to donate $2500 to a Rand Paul campaign that has Benton involved, you are an idiot and the people that would donate are idiots. It's time for Rand 2016 to get serious and not pay dishonest people.

 

[fr33]

Speaking of personal vendettas, it is an outrage that Adam Kokesh is in a cage while Jesse Benton is in a mansion. Is this a liberty movement or is this a scam?

 

[NewRightLibertarian]

This is the stupidest topic in recent memory. Benton recruited a paid campaign staffer from Bachman to RP. BFD, this happens in every campaign. Are some of you that clueless about how politics works?

Wow, the Bentonists around here are really becoming unhinged. I hope many more allegations come out about this big fat liar and fraud and enemy of grassroots liberty supporters Jesse Benton so that he is ruined before he besmirches our movement even more than he already has. This will also make the people around here that are hoping for Mitch McConnell's success because Benton is his hired gun look like pathetic fools which amuses me.

 

[jjdoyle]

LOL, really, we got more delegates to the convention than all of the other candidates except for two of them, and it's possible we would've been in 2nd place if there hadn't been shenanigans on the part of the establishment.

Even Ron himself said he never expected to place 3rd in the Iowa beauty contest, yet we ended up with the vast majority of Iowa's delegates. The Campaign outperformed and exceeded expectations.

Compare it to 2008 for example.

Ron won both 2008 and 2012 because he created a longstanding movement with multiple organizations that will outlast both him and his campaigns.

The campaign was dishonest, when it kissed Mitt Romney's ring on his hand and helped him win the nomination without attacking him as Doug Wead said they agreed, because of a "threat" by Romney's people they would go nuclear. With people like Jesse Benton sabotaging the delegates out of Louisiana to secure his future paychecks, I don't see why anybody would donate/support any candidate he is associated with moving forward.

The point of the campaign was to win the nomination, not collect money to sit on. When the campaign stopped trying to win the nomination, Ron should have dropped out immediately. When the campaign agreed to not attack Romney, thus not trying to win, it should have ended.

As someone on the inside, I can assure you that didn't happen.

You can't assure anything, because the campaign was dishonest from at least January on according to Doug Wead. If they sat by asking people to donate to a campaign just to collect a paycheck, that is part of the problem. How long were you employed by the campaign?

This is just typical politics that stinks, what should be investigated is when Jesse Benton and Ron Paul 2012 campaign staff decided to not attack Mitt Romney and actually try to win, and why they continued to ask for money after that.

 

[Feeding the Abscess]

Actually yes he did, openly, and publicly. I'm over it, I don't care, I didn't even really care then, it was in poor taste and had some negative effects, but it really didn't matter to me much other than it was just one more thing to divert our attention away from winning. I like Tom, I think he's an ok guy, and I like his books and lectures. Again, it's not an issue to me, but it is important that the record be set straight. I don't see any reason to rehash this sort of nonsense though, it's not really productive.





LOLz, Jesse did not hire me, and I was on the Campaign from day 1. Also Tom was part of an independent expenditure PAC at the time which means it wasn't legal for the Campaign to coordinate with him in any way.

http://www.tomwoods.com/blog/my-memories-of-jesse-bento/

So I just went ahead and made a whole bunch of videos, viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, and wrote a whole bunch of articles (here’s my favorite), on my own during the campaign in defense of Ron against his critics. I was not earning a five-figure monthly salary for this.

I then went ahead and signed on with Revolution PAC. (I resigned from it in March of this year, because I had said from the beginning that I would be on board only through Super Tuesday. Also, it was a very busy time in my life, and I felt I couldn’t contribute enough.) The excuse for my absolute exclusion from everything, put forth by the official yes-men, is that my involvement in the PAC erected a legal obstacle to any involvement in the campaign.

This particular lie has the sequence of events reversed. I joined the PAC only after I had been blacklisted. But I kept my mouth shut during the campaign every time I saw people say, “Woods isn’t allowed to work with the campaign because of the PAC.” I never corrected anyone. I kept the real story a secret for Ron’s sake. No one on earth can fail to understand why I might want to tell it now, to set the record straight.

And no, I wasn’t looking to be hired so I could get that five-figure monthly salary. I was prepared to work for free.

 

[LibertyEagle]

Ahem.... Let's wait and see where any investigation into this leads before we continue defending these reimbursements.

What the hell are you talking about? That was cleared up long ago in BOTH election cycles by looking at the accounting data.

 

[LibertyEagle]

Oh bullshit, Abscess. Woods flung shit several times during the campaign and he did it on his website. It was linked to on this forum and discussed ad nauseum when it happened. I remember it because I was shocked that Woods would do what he did. I lost a lot of respect for him then.

 

[compromise]

Woods understands history. He understands economics.

He is severely lacking when it comes to politics.

We need people like Collins and Benton who'll get their hands dirty and do what needs to be done to guarantee victory.

People on here seem to focus too much on a few mistakes they've made while ignoring the hundreds of hours of hard work they've put in to the cause of liberty.

 

[Feeding the Abscess]

Oh bullshit, Abscess. Woods flung shit several times during the campaign and he did it on his website. It was linked to on this forum and discussed ad nauseum when it happened. I remember it because I was shocked that Woods would do what he did. I lost a lot of respect for him then.

http://www.tomwoods.com/blog/the-ron-paul-moneybomb/

Hardly anyone on these forums disagreed with these suggestions. You're going to have to be more specific than "Woods said stuff, therefore ____." Link to something.

Coincidentally, that post by Woods is what set Benton on the warpath.

 

[Feeding the Abscess]

Woods understands history. He understands economics.

He is severely lacking when it comes to politics.

We need people like Collins and Benton who'll get their hands dirty and do what needs to be done to guarantee victory.

People on here seem to focus too much on a few mistakes they've made while ignoring the hundreds of hours of hard work they've put in to the cause of liberty.

Woods is far better with the Steve Deaces of the world than anyone on the campaign was. Comparing Wead's pitch to Deace with Woods' is like comparing Mike Hampton as a Colorado Rockie and Pedro Martinez in 1999. Woods is great with messaging, which is a vital part of politicking.

 

[cajuncocoa]

Tom Woods > Jesse Benton.

Not even a fair comparison, really.

 

[cajuncocoa]

Woods understands history. He understands economics.

He is severely lacking when it comes to politics.

We need people like Collins and Benton who'll get their hands dirty and do what needs to be done to guarantee victory.

People on here seem to focus too much on a few mistakes they've made while ignoring the hundreds of hours of hard work they've put in to the cause of liberty.

Please enlighten all of us as to how many victories have been guaranteed thus far.

 

[BamaFanNKy]

 

[PaleoPaul]

Tom Woods > Jesse Benton.

Not even a fair comparison, really.

lol, you're going to give credence to a neo-confederate?

 

[Feeding the Abscess]

lol, you're going to give credence to a neo-confederate?

Tom Woods opposes all states. Except for the 19th century South, which was apparently so libertarian that he had to throw that whole opposition to coercion and his belief in self-ownership thing out the window.

Logic, bro.

 

[cajuncocoa]

lol, you're going to give credence to a neo-confederate?

I stand by my statement.

 

[Badger Paul]

Ahh, Iowa politics. In such a competitive environment with the Presidential nomination on the line you think Sorenson is the first Iowa pol to take money under the table for an endorsement? Iowans want you to believe the state's politics is filled with Midwestern honesty and goodness and yet I remember Lew Rockwell saying this kind of crap has been going on for a long time in Iowa because of the caucuses. At least Illinois is honest about their corruption. Don't be surprised in the future we have the Iowa primary because of it.

Sorenson was supposed to be part of a wave of conservative "reformers", a Tea Partier elected in 2010. Instead he's had his hands out every since he got elected. His vote was for rent, first to Bachmann and now to Paul. Bachmann was going down. He didn't need $30,000 to switch sides. I would have told him the bandwagon waits for no one and Protestantland western Iowa can go straight to hell.

The evidence shows Sorenson is corrupt but as much as I despise Benton I must agree there's no smoking gun directly tying Benton to an illicit payment and all this whistleblower is saying is that he should have known. Still, though this little juicy little nuggett will be in the Kentucky press soon enough and a nice bone for Matt Bevin and Allison Grimes to chew on. The last thing McConnell needs is this distraction or been seen as employing a corrupt campaign manager. He's under no obligation to Rand to keep Jesse, especially if the perception of Benton being a glorified gofer is accurate. McConnell can find somebody else with less baggage to get him coffee and open the mail. If this is downfall of Jesse Benton in the same manner as Jack Hunter, keeping up appearances, so be it. Good riddance.

Oh yes, this is a smear without question. There's internal war going on in the Iowa Republican Party and this is a nuclear missile strike without question. Robinson is part of the establishment (former Iowa GOP chair) and they don't like the Paulites running things out there pure and simple. So with all this going on, the fact he's implicating Steve Deace in all this, the state party's chances of both winning an open Senate seat and re-electing Gov. Branstad could be imperiled. If I'm an Iowa Democrat I'm having fun watching this unfold.

If it's any consolation nowhere in these leaks is Rand's name mentioned. However, if things shake out poorly for the party in 2014, we may well have put together a brand new Iowa staff and may well find the landscape completely different by 2015, with no straw poll to worry about or even a caucus for that matter if Sorenson is just the tip of the iceberg of the corruption that is Iowa politics.