Campaign staff for Democratic Rep. Tom O’Halleran (AZ) busted a pair of Republican operatives trying a trick that was as stupid as it was dirty. Two men calling themselves Jose Rosales and Ahmahd Sadia showed up at O’Halleran’s office trying to donate $39.68, out of a jar, and demanding a receipt made out to the Northern Arizona University Communist Party. Their whole approach was sketchy as hell—in addition to the jar foolishness, when asked for an email address to send a receipt to, they abruptly changed the address they’d given—and when they left, O’Halleran's staff clearly knew what was up:
Lindsay Coleman, the finance director for the campaign, then drove to the local Republican field office to return the money. Almost immediately, the man who identified himself as Rosales appeared from a room inside the office and was identified as Oscar. He accepted the money from Coleman.
That must have been fun: “Hi, I think you’re trying to frame us up for taking money from communists! Here’s your money back.” Also, communists, really? Although from the names it seems they were supposed to be a Latino communist and a Muslim communist, so there’s a prospect to terrify the Republican base.
In short, Republicans committed a crime—making a federal campaign contribution under a false identity—in hopes of making a Democrat look bad to whoever cares about contributions from communists in the year 2018, and did it so ham-handedly that their opponents were able to turn it back on them pretty much immediately. Well done, guys.
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