I don't know if this is just stone-cold stupid or irony to the nth degree. But one thing is clear. If I made this character up people would accuse me of satirical overkill.
Scott D’Amboise, a self-proclaimed Tea Party candidate, has raised more money than any of his fellow Maine Republicans in the race to replace retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe, winning support by promising to trim government spending and balance the federal budget. He’s even accused Snowe of being “fiscally irresponsible.”
Ok... let's note that ALL "Tea Party" candidates are "self-proclaimed" because there is no such party. They don't have a convention. They don't have primaries. They don't have caucuses. They don't appear on the ballots. They are Republicans.
Riskay Republicans, to be sure, but Republicans nonetheless.
There is no doubt that what passes for logical rigor among the Tea Party sect would make a character from Alice in Wonderland cradle their head in dismay, Scott D'Amboise takes things to a whole new level. A recent article in the Washington Guardian, citing research by a company called Investigative Check, reports that:
An investigation of public records shows the small business owner [D'Amboise] filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in 2003, succumbing to more than $100,000 of debt from credit cards, doctors, hospitals and a mortgage. It’s an episode from his past that is absent from his official campaign biography, and one he doesn’t dwell on while he courts voters in the June 12 primary.
D’Amboise’s campaign blames a medical crisis that required his son to undergo seven operations. “He didn’t have adequate health coverage and was forced to file for bankruptcy,” said Sam Pim, D’Amboise’s campaign manager. “When you have a sick child, you have to do whatever is necessary to help that child.”
Pim said D’Amboise has occasionally mentioned the bankruptcy in the context of the medical crisis on the campaign trail while discussing his opposition to President Barack Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act. “He is in favor of repealing Obamacare,” Pim said.
He's not alone (yes, I know...surprise, surprise)
The InvestigativeCheck review identified five additional Senate candidates with bankruptcies, tax liens or criminal records:
• California businessman John Boruff, who is running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate, filed for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy in San Diego, California in 2009 after his business suffered when Lehman Brothers collapsed and left him with an unpaid $80,000 loan. “When you’re a lifetime businessman things happen. We paid all our payrolls...but we had to file the business bankruptcy to protect our home,” Boruff said.
• A perennial candidate running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, Scott A Boman, filed for bankruptcy in 2001. He has previously run for Senate as a Libertarian; this year he is running as a Republican. Boman told the Sinclair TV network that a series of bad decisions led him to a point where he couldn’t keep up with his own debt. “This became a personal crisis requiring either the option of default or bankruptcy. I chose the latter, which is generally a more acceptable approach under the way creditors look at one's debt,” he said.
• Former state senator John Carroll is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Hawaii. In 1994, Carroll filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and between 1996 and 2010, the IRS and the State of Hawaii have filed nearly $800,000 in tax liens against him. Although, Carroll did not respond to repeated attempts for comment, he confirmed the bankruptcy in an article in the Honolulu Advertiser in 2002. In a Hawaii newspaper article he explained the bankruptcy was "forced on him when foreign partners tried to squeeze him out of the pilot-leasing company he founded."
• Nashville businessman Larry Crim, a candidate for the Tennessee Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, filed for bankruptcy in 2008. A campaign spokesperson told the Knoxville News-Sentinel that he was a victim of “predatory lending” for a development project. His bankruptcy filing case closed just last year.
• Ronald McNeil, a businessman running as a Republican for U.S. Senate in Florida, was issued a tax lien in 2005 for more than $1.8 million in unpaid taxes between 1994 and 1999. He told InvestigativeCheck the IRS made numerous “idiotic filings” against him and he appealed them for years. If elected to the Senate, he said, “I will be the worst enemy the IRS ever had.” McNeil did not reply to the Washington Guardian’s request for additional comment.
Checking out InvestigativeCheck's "Exposed" section yielded one amazing hit....
James Joseph Minder, the Chairman of the Board of Smith & Wesson, had an impressive resume. But his list of accomplishments failed to mention the 15 years he had spent in prison for armed robbery and attempted escape. In fact, a newspaper article from 1959 referred to him as the “shotgun bandit.” When the convictions became public, the gun-company executive swiftly resigned.
Nice...
You'd think a 15 year gap on a resume might get noticed. But at least we now know gun manufacturers really hate ALL kinds of background checks.