Virginia Primary June 10th: The Amazing Adventures of Cantor and Gutierrez

The Virginia Primary is June 10th. Here's how "reaching across the aisle" in 2014 works with Virginia as a springboard, as we head into the November elections. The scene was set sometime ago, behind closed doors somewhere on Capitol Hill or in a private club in the D.C. area. I can't give you an exact date of a hatched plot, but I can point you to one public outing in late July 2013 at a Queens, New York Jewish Center. Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA) jointly appeared with Democrats in support of what most of us understand is amnesty. One of the three Democrats attending was Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL). Gutierrez is the among the most ardent supporters of open borders, amnesty, a path to citizenship that ends in amnesty -- if illegals become U.S. citizens or have permanent residency and voting rights, Gutierrez is for it, and he is not insisting that borders be secured first. Yesterday, Gutierrez, from Illinois, rode into Richmond and stood on the Virginia State Capitol's steps and decried Eric Cantor as an "obstacle" in the way of securing amnesty or a 'path to citizenship.' If you've been paying attention, you are rolling your eyes right now.

Queens Jewish Center: Rep. Eric Cantor (third from left), 
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (center back row), 
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (far right)

Important to this story: Cantor has a conservative challenger -- perhaps the first ever that Cantor has to worry about. Dr. Dave Brat is a professor of economics at Randolph Macon College. Brat does not want Cantor-styled immigration reform. He wants borders secured first, then we talk about what comes next. Rather than debate the issues, Cantor believes he has the political capital to dishonestly trash his opponent.

So Gutierrez rode into Richmond.

Cantor's and Gutierrez' clever brilliant, subliminal move yesterday should backfire if details are reported. Let's go back to 2013. Here's a quote from the three-day get-together at the Jewish Center:

Indeed, it was an interesting three days last year, when Cantor and Gutierrez toured together as part of a group intending to promote “comprehensive immigration reform.” At the time, Cantor said of his current foe Gutierrez: 

"Luis [Gutierrez], the leadership you’re providing through thick and thin right now as we try and navigate these very tough political times in choppy waters. My hat is off to you. I’m very grateful." ~ Eric Cantor

Cantor and Gutierrez have the same goal -- their agreed goal of 'comprehensive immigration reform.' Gutierrez and Democrats need Eric Cantor and his powerful position as House Majority leader in Congress; what better way than to convince GOPers to keep him there by positioning Cantor as a foe-to-be-feared by Democrats, against the holy grail of bringing 12+ million people "out of the shadows."

In response to Gutierrez yesterday, Eric Cantor took the low road and stood up for "the kids:"

“I’ve always been for the kids that never committed any illegal act in entering this country because they were brought here … by their parents unbeknownst to them,” Cantor said in an interview Saturday. ~ Eric Cantor, May 28, 2014

The problem is, as written in the Senate legislation which pro-amnesty Republicans are mimicking, with the kids come masses of relatives already here and still in foreign countries, and felons need not be concerned.

Cantor has led the push in the House for a "comprehensive immigration bill," without securing borders first. He wants it passed by the end of summer 2014 and has said it is "doable."

Cantor has refused to debate challenger, Brat. The Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) has dissolved into corruption -- Cantor-paid corruption, with the new head of the RPV, Shaun Kenney, on Cantor's payroll. Yet, at the Republican Party of Virginia 7th District Convention this month, Cantor's 7th district strong-man, Linwood Cobb III was ousted as chairman, and replaced with "Tea Party favorite," Fred Gruber.

Dr. David Brat

Brat has won support from some big-name conservatives and has tapped into discontent across Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. On Wednesday, Brat planned to travel to Washington to meet with leading conservative agitators, a sign that his effort is starting to be taken seriously at the national level. Source: Washington Post May 2014 

In late March, Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) joined with Democrats at the Ritz-Carlton on Amelia Island, Florida "to collaborate with a group dedicated to defeating conservatives in Congress." The event:

..."was organized by a group that has "received money from left leaning unions, George Soros backed-organization, and a major Democrat contributor." 

Cantor's top consultant, Ray Allen, reportedly said he will "bankrupt the RPV," if necessary to put Cantor's people in charge:

Sources tell PJ Media that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s long-time top consultant, Ray Allen, has “angrily” stated to multiple individuals that he intends to bankrupt the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV), to install his own people throughout all levels of RPV’s State Central Committee, and to rebuild the RPV with money from Eric Cantor’s donors. 

Ray Allen is considered the “brain trust” of Eric Cantor’s Young Guns, which has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and has hired staff with the intention of retaking control of the RPV at all levels. (Eric Cantor and Ray Allen lost control of the RPV in 2012, when Tea Party/conservative candidates won seats at all levels of the party, taking majority control from Cantor allies.)  Source: David Steinberg, PJ Media

Cantor needs help in his home district, where he was recently boo'd and heckled numerous times at the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) District 7 Convention for telling serious, now debunked Cantor-originated, untruths about Dave Brat's conservative creds:

They booed Cantor, cheered for Brat and even ousted Cantor’s right-hand man as 7th District Republican Committee chairman in favor of one of their own [Fred Gruber]. More at The Blaze

So Democrat Gutierrez came to save the day for his pro-amnesty cohort (likely snickering while doing it -- thought you wouldn't notice). It reminds me of a cunning twist on Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) convincing Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) to join the Gang of 8 pro-amnesty groupies. Didn't work out so well for Rubio.

Cantor sent out thousands of high-quality fliers stating a dishonest position. Gutierrez helped push the dishonesty that Cantor is an "obstacle." Repeating a third time: Gutierrez needs Cantor in Congress.

If you believe describing Cantor's  'pathway to citizenship' as "amnesty," is going a tad too far, then think of it as a "pathway to citizenship" with provisions that you will not like, that you will regret, your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will regret, long after you are gone. Think of it as a horrible joke on you and yours. 

From Cantor, January 10, 2014: During a House floor exchange with House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) on Friday morning, Cantor said:

“immigration reform could be an economic boon to this country,”...

particularly voicing support for a measure that would likely grant legal status for undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children. Source, January 10, 2014

From Cantor's February 2013 "Major Policy" Speech, Making Life Work:

We must balance respect for the rule of law and respect for those waiting to enter this country legally, with care for people and families, most of whom just want to make a better life, and contribute to America. Source: Eric Cantor's Majority Leader website 

Defeating Eric Cantor's return to Congress is a huge step toward defeating amnesty. Defeating Eric Cantor's return to Congress is a huge step toward securing our borders before we do anything about laying a pathway for illegals. Learn more about Dave Brat here, see Dave Brat on the Issues here. The Virginia primary is almost here. Give consideration to your vote. One way or the other, you have the opportunity to change history.

Posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook

Non-Registered Voters Gathered Signatures for John Conyers: Disqualified From Ballot Until Liberal Judge Stepped-In

Remember the 2012 presidential elections when Republican presidential candidates Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich failed to receive the required 10,000 signatures for a ballot placement in the important state of Virginia? They did not end up on the ballot, but Democrats in Michigan have better fortunes. Congressman John Conyers, running for yet another opportunity to screw the American people through his congressional privilege, allowed non-registered voters to circulate petitions gathering names for his run, and -- the petitions failed to get the required 1,000 VALID signatures. After the INVALID names were removed, Conyers had only about 400 presumed VALID names. The petitions were still circulated by unqualified persons. The Michigan Secretary of State said Conyers' name would not be on the ballot and cited the state's "purity of the ballot access process," but a Detroit federal judge cited Conyers' "good intentions." Guess who won.

"The Michigan Election Law is designed to protect the purity of the ballot access process," the Secretary of State's review said. "The laws governing this activity place affirmative duties on petition circulators. As evidenced over the past two election cycles, when campaigns fail to comply with the law by executing basic principles of petition circulation, they create their own 'ballot access crisis' when their failures are discovered by or brought to the attention of election officials. In this instance, consultant Steve Hood freely admitted that he failed to ensure that the petition circulators he hired to work on Conyers' campaign were registered to vote."

"The Michigan Election Law is designed to protect the purity of the ballot access process," the Secretary of State's review said. "The laws governing this activity place affirmative duties on petition circulators. As evidenced over the past two election cycles, when campaigns fail to comply with the law by executing basic principles of petition circulation, they create their own 'ballot access crisis' when their failures are discovered by or brought to the attention of election officials. In this instance, consultant Steve Hood freely admitted that he failed to ensure that the petition circulators he hired to work on Conyers' campaign were registered to vote."Despite the state's legal findings on the very same day that state election authorities determined that Conyers did not belong on the ballot, the Obama-appointed federal judge reversed that decision and insisted he be placed there anyway. 

And Conners' "good faith intentions:"

There's evidence that the failure to comply with the law was a "result of good-faith mistakes that (circulators) believed they were in compliance with the statute," the judge said. Source: Fox News

A little more detail:

After Conyers’s primary opponent, Reverend Horace Sheffield, challenged the congressman’s ballot petition, election officials discovered that a large number of his campaign’s signatures had been collected by volunteers who weren’t registered Michigan voters, as the law required. Source: National Review Online 

Sheffield is a Democrat. He was allegedly arrested and charged with "misdemeanor violence."

Another example:

In 2012, Michigan Republican representative Thad McCotter was kept off of the ballot because of invalid signatures. McCotter initially pursued a write-in campaign, before eventually dropping the effort and resigning from Congress.

Conyers said he trying not to "smile openly."

Find Cartoonist Mike Thompson's Facebook page here, and at Detroit Free Press here.

Posted by Maggie @ Maggie's Notebook 

Eric Cantor Puts Head of Republican Party Virginia on His Payroll?

Congressman Eric Cantor (R-VA), majority whip for the U.S. House of Representatives, has quite a game going in his home state of Virginia, maybe a game ending in political life or death. Cantor, a left-leaning Republican, teetering on the right edge of a seat on the left side of the aisle (see it here in graph form) has reportedly hired K6 Consulting Group to manage his June primary and opponent, conservative anti-amnesty economics professor Dr. Dave Brat. Connected to K6 is Shaun Kenney a well-known, Cantor-supporting blogger on a site billed as "Virginia’s premiere conservative web site." Kenney was recently appointed Executive Director of the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV). Kenney's wife is listed as the "principal" of K6, Shaun's brother is involved and Shaun Kenney is registered as the owner of the K6 website. There is a palpable conflict here. Do you think the question "Eric Cantor Puts Head of Republican Party Virginia on His Payroll needs a question mark? Cantor's former political director has said Dave Brat “is probably the first time that Eric has had a credible opponent with a comparable education and background”. Convenient, huh. Put a blogger, Shaun Kenney, who has been quite favorable to Cantor in the past, and who formerly served as the RPV communications director, into the Executive Director seat of your state Republican Party, and then hire his wife's company to direct your campaign. Maybe Karl Rove worked this out on his white board.

Dave Brat - Eric Cantor

I could tell you stories coming from active Republicans in the Virginia Republican Party about Kenney's recent, worrying, political shift on his blog, but it's already been done here: Banana Republicans: New Head of Virginia GOP on Eric Cantor's Payroll.

Quoting Virginia Right:

Update 6:30 AM – Wednesday [April 16, 2014] – K6 Consulting dot com is registered in Shaun Kenney’s name. So what we find so far is that

Shaun Kenney

Shaun Kenney’s wife Melissa is the Principal Owner of K6 Consulting, Shaun Kenney is the owner of the Website Name yet we are told all payments to K6 consulting go to Shaun’s brother and JR Hoeft who do not appear on any of the documents I can find on the internet.
This is beginning to remind me of Eric Cantor’s sneaky amendment that made insider trading illegal for Congressmen yet exempted Cantor’s wife. And it begs the question that if Shaun Kenney is not benefiting from checks written to K6, why are he and his wife even involved?
Update 10:30 PM: I did a little research on K6 Consulting LLC and found some interesting information looking up the company information. This link names a Melissa Kenney as the Principal, which is Shaun’s wife. And I assume this is where the checks go.
K6 Consulting Group LLc
XXXX Venable Rd
Kents Store, VA 23084
Contact: Melissa Kenney
Title: Principal
Phone 434-589-XXXX

The Bull Elephant:

• The night before the FEC Campaign Finance reports were made public, Bearing Drift disclosed to the public that K6 Consulting does work for Cantor. It was an attempt to stay ahead of a story they knew would be toxic, since, contrary to the claims by Kenney on Breitbart today, Shaun Kenney had not been “very open” about the relationship between K6 and Cantor.

From Sara for America, now a Texan but was once a Tea Party founder in Virginia (much more on Cantor's background and "pathetic" voting record here):

Eric Cantor has drawn a tea party opponent that has some serious bona fides.  Meet  Dave Brat:

Brat has a few interesting factors working in his favor. First, he’s expecting support from some of the deep-pocketed outside groups that have long been frustrated with the current Republican leadership. Brat couldn’t speak on the record about which groups he has met with, but he tells NRO that the political figures and organizations that have indicated interest in his candidacy are “as big as they get.”
“I think it’s safe to say it will definitely rattle some cages when it comes out,” he says....
Why  would we want to challenge Eric Cantor when he’s next in line to succeed John Boehner, and is one of the most powerful  leaders in DC?...

The short answer from Sara is that Cantor is not interested in meeting with constituents or debating opponents. His wife is an editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, so constituents get an occasional viewpoint in the print media, and the free beer at his annual picnic -- that's about the extent of his contact with We the People, but he did have time to attend a fundraiser designed to destroy the Tea Party and conservatives - a tony event at an exclusive hotel on Florida's Amelia Island. More on that below.
I have it on good authority that Pat Mullins, chairman of the RPV has been asked to explain how Kenney was hired to a job that should be designed to further the choices of Republicans in the state of Virginia, to be fair and objective to all candidates, yet is on the payroll of the incumbent. A second question: is there an employment contract that should prevent this possible ambush of the people's choice?
If you are a conservative in Virginia, you are forced to fight your own party.

Around 5:45 p.m. Monday, March 24 swaths of conservatives marched into the Henrico Board of Supervisors Meeting Room in Henrico, Virginia—inside Cantor’s congressional district. They were there for the Henrico Republican Mass Meeting, something both Cantor and his conservative primary challenger Dave Brat, an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College, had been pushing their respective supporters to attend.

The meeting, Virginia activists say, had morphed into a surprise proxy battle because of a series of recent incidents in which GOP party officials departed from tradition and excluded dozens of conservative activists from attending local party conventions. The practice has been named “slating” and has come up in other states' GOP party chapters sought to exclude acolytes of Rep. Ron Paul.

At the end of the above meeting:

...conservatives nominated one of their activists, Russ Moulton, to serve as the meeting’s chairman. As the final votes were being tallied, loud cheers drowned out the count, but Moulton won by 5-10 votes, according to White.
Moulton opted to follow tradition and allow any Republican in good standing to attend the convention.
In an interview, Moulton ripped Cantor for working against conservative activists.
“I don’t understand why Eric Cantor is picking such a public fight with the conservatives in his own base,” Moulton said. “The Tea Party, the Liberty movement, pro-life conservatives, pro-gun activists. Source: Breitbart

Full recognition came into the bright light of a Spring day with that recent meeting, sponsored and funded by George Soros and the Republican Main Street PAC, a PAC working for nothing "main street" Republican:

Obviously, what’s reported was going to go on there on Amelia Island has been very disturbing to all of us who are very conservative in the House…we’re the people that apparently intended to be the target of what they’re doing on Amelia Island….
When the subject is, as it has been portrayed, that we’re going to have a fundraiser and help destroy the Tea Party, then that’s like saying, ‘gee, this goose is laying these golden eggs, so why don’t we kill the goose, cut it open and see what happens then, cause it’s just making too much noise. We’re tired of the goose honking.’ ~ Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

In today's political environment, when spending and corruption are rampant and Eric Cantor is attending meetings funded by George Soros, itching for amnesty, and with a conservative opponent making the path back to Washington no walk in the park, Cantor must have felt he had to do something. Integrity calls for Kenney to voluntarily step down from his new position at the RPV, for the RPV to simultaneously give him his walking papers, and for Cantor to publicly demand it.
Virginia Right says Dave Brat is the "Republican Eric Cantor Pretends to Be."
Ann Coulter endorsed Brat for very specific reasons:

Anyone opposing an incumbent Republican for any reason other than amnesty is a fraud or an idiot. Right now, immigration and Obamacare are the only things that matter. Since every Republican voted against Obamacare, that leaves only immigration.

Conservatives who ignore amnesty while carping about the debt ceiling, TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), the Internet tax bill or Benghazi are too stupid to help their country.

Freedom Works ranks Cantor at 43 percent conservative for 2014 and 59 percent for 2013, 37 percent for 2012.
I know people waiting for (shocked that it hasn't happened already) Shaun Kenney to be released from his position as Executive Director of the RPV. Just how powerful is Eric Cantor?
Make no mistake about it, all politics are NOT local. Every vote cast by Eric Cantor on Capitol Hill affects my family in Oklahoma and yours wherever you are. If you can help Dave Brat fight uphill against the establishment, visit him here, and visit him here even if you can't help. 

Posted by Maggie @ MaggiesNotebook