| Ed Martin apparently couldn't be bothered to file a routine ethics form for House candidates until nearly a year after it was due. The deadline is 30 days after you first raise $5,000 for your campaign, or May 15, whichever comes later. Martin actually filed for numerous extensions of this deadline, but there's an absolute limit on the deadline at a 90 day extension. Martin pled that his time was limited by the fact that he is a private citizen with a family and a small business.
Adam and Sean bring up good points. Adam points out that Ed Martin had time to do a zillion other things, like tweeting, writing blog posts, attending tea party rallies, rubbing elbows with football players, etc., yet couldn't find time to file a disclosure form.
And Sean points out that Ed Martin is an attorney and was competent enough to accomplish a number of other things in his career:
He [Ed Martin] was able to file personal financial disclosures as Matt Blunt's disgraced Chief of Staff (somehow!).
Martin also found the time and wherewithal in recent years to create and lead a host of organizations, like the American Issues Project, the Missouri Roundtable for Life, Missourians United of Life, SaveAB.com for America, Term Limits for Missouri, Big Canoe Consulting LLC, the Institute for Transparent Government (!), M Kay LLC, Conservative Heartland Leadership Conference, the Missouri Center Right Coaltion, his Whitey Herzog non-profit.... How did he manage?
I'll add to that he served as the Director of the St. Louis Election Board under Matt Blunt.
There's a few possibilities here. Ed Martin could be completely incompetent, but with enough sheer energy and ideological zeal to get himself hired and associated with a number of rightwing politicians. Or he's hiding something and needed time to figure out how to cover his tracks. The most likely description is that Ed is a guy with a lot of energy and smarts, but who doesn't care a whit about rules or even reality if they trip him up.
I say most likely because his past bears that out. Martin sought a free hunting permit as the Governor's Chief of Staff. He ran up a 2 million dollar tab in taxpayer money in a case that ultimately got him let go from his job as Blunt's chief of staff. During this campaign, he has portrayed himself as a simple private citizen when it suits him, even as his resume clearly shows him to be the consummate insider. And of course he has either repeated outright lies like the debunked death panel smear or smiled silently while his supporters talk nonsense about Obama's birth certificate.
I shudder to think how awful this guy could become and how much taxpayer money might be wasted if Ed Martin actually made it into Congress. |
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