Candidate Marvin Scott (R-7th CD) Continues His Lies

Marvin Scott has gotten into quite a few controversies during his campaign against Democrat André Carson. And this one isn't something he can blame on staff or volunteers or "the media."

On an October 12th appearance on Greg Garrison's radio show on WIBC, Scott claims he has been endorsed by Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaksa and Republican Vice Presidential candidate in the 2008 presidential campaign. This Sarah Palin blog doesn't have Marvin Scott's name in their list, which was updated the day before Scott appeared on Garrison's show. Scott seems to have made this up in a pathetic attempt to bolster his cash strapped campaign.

Scott has a history of doing exactly this. In his 1996 campaign in the then 10th Congressional district, Scott sent out a fundraising letter claiming that former President Gerald Ford, former Governor of Indiana Robert Orr, and former Department of Education Secretary William Bennett were chairman of his campaign. Believe it or not, the media challenged him on this claim, and he was forced to fess up.

If you ever need a good laugh, head on over to his Facebook page. He held a "money bomb" in September with a promise to post the results in 48 hours. Those results never came. He's holding one now, and I expect similar abysmal results. He keeps saying he's a "Tea Party candidate", but the Indianapolis Tea Party doesn't endorse candidates and I'm unaware of other regional Tea Party groups that have provided endorsements.

Hat tip to Wilson Allen, who posted about this latest Scott controversy over at Indiana Barrister and his Facebook page.

Stan Solomon, Marvin Scott's Campaign Manager, Resigns.

Stan Solomon, a controversial talk radio host, has resigned his post as Marvin Scott's campaign manager. Scott is running against incumbent André Carson (D-7th) for the House of Representatives.

Solomon has been under fire from those in the blogosphere, as well as the state and national Stonewall Democrats, for controversial comments he has made under his Twitter account. His comments contained many slurs and offensive remarks against gays and those of the Islamic faith. Some of those comments were "Gay stands for Got AIDS Yet?" and remarks encouraging the bombing the city of Mecca, considered a holy place of the Islamic faith.

If only the county GOP put some effort after slating Carlos May, maybe this all could've been avoided. May might not have won in a center-left district, but I do believe he would've avoided controversy such as this.

More on Marvin Scott Continues to Evade Responsibility

In yesterday's WISH-TV news story, controversial talk radio host and Marvin Scott's campaign manager Stan Solomon came under fire by several bloggers and the Indiana Stonewall Democrats for making comments highly derogatory of LGBT and Islamic peoples. Scott called Solomon a "loose cannon" and said he would take action.

Marvin Scott on his Facebook profile has posted that "Mr. Solomon has apologized."

Whoa there cowboy! Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater! Slow down there!

Give me a break.

As I predicted, Scott has decided, once again, to evade responsibility. He's acting as if he's a political newcomer, and that his staff's controversial actions and Internet postings do not reflect upon him. Political campaigning 101 basically states that you are a reflection of the candidate. If Solomon and people like Robert Croddy, who have worked in politics for quite some time, have no grasp of that concept, then there is little hope for Scott's campaign. And that's ignoring the issue that he is entirely unelectable in the 7th Congressional district.

Blog roundup:

The Bilerico Project
Indy Democrat (here and here)
Advance Indiana

Marvin Scott Campaign Incites Controversy, Continues to Evade Responsibility

Marvin Scott is the Republican nominee for the 7th Congressional District of Indiana. He beat the slated candidate, Carlos May, during the primary. But even at that time, he was facing controversy within his own party, and things have not improved.

Brian Jessen of Indiana's Conservative Hardball reported that his comments were repeatedly deleted on Marvin Scott's "Fan" Facebook page. Jessen was inquiring if Scott still believed in taking people who are poor living within the city and forcing them into rural areas. Gary Welsh mentioned this idea of Scott's in this blog post, and Scott called it "recolonization."

Jessen also mentions in his post that Scott, in his 1996 campaign, used names of a few conservative icons that he claimed supported him. It was later uncovered that these claims were baseless.

Jessen then reported that he received a call from Marvin Scott, hoping to clear the air on Jessen's post. Jessen questions why his posts were deleted on Facebook, and Scott initially denies it, but then admits that he doesn't maintain the day-to-day operations of his Facebook fan page. Robert Croddy does. And this practice of deleting anything that isn't downright praise-worthy of Marvin Scott continues to this day. Croddy continues not just to delete posts, but block people who come from across the political spectrum, including yours truly.

And today, the Indiana Stonewall Democrats have called for the resignation of Stan Solomon, Scott's campaign manager. Solomon is a talk radio host, formerly of WIBC, but now hosts on the Internet. His messages on his Twitter feed have come under controversy, including encouraging the bombing of the holy Islamic city of Mecca, and saying that "Gay stands for Got AIDS yet?".

Scott, when confronted with Solomon's hate-speech, gives a fairly evasive response.

Let's be clear: Marvin Scott does not believe in answering questions to the voters he is supposed to be communicating with. Croddy has evaded responsibility in communicating with voters, and months later Scott has done nothing to correct Croddy. I suspect the same will happen to Solomon.

Of course, by alienating the LGBT community, Scott is alienating a growing portion of the Indianapolis/Marion County area. As I noted, a pro-marriage rally only draws a few dozen demonstrators, and much more counter-demonstrators. Scott, running on big government conservatism including supporting Arizona's controversial immigration law and supporting a Federal Marriage Amendment, is doing just that, and is only alienating voters with these positions.

Don't worry, my liberal friends. Carson has this seat in the bag. Do what I did, and ignore the world according to Marvin Scott. He'll be teaching in Butler again when the Spring semester starts up. Maybe, one day, the 7th will have an actual, competitive race.

Bil Browning of the LGBT site The Bilerico Project weighs in as well, and contains screen shots of some of the controversial tweets.