Bob Bennett and Tim Bridgewater Together

I don't know what I think really about this.  It seems a little fishy but it could just be a coincidence.  Read for yourself and make your own opinion...

This is an excerpt from this article on Redstate.com:

Months ago I told you Bob Bennett and Tim Bridgewater were cutting a deal. I got so much blowback from so many people I actually had to remove the post from the front page of RedState. I stood by the story, but the brouhaha that resulted necessitated the post going into draft mode so we could get on with the day.

Well, I was and am right. And it is more and more clear that Tim Bridgewater is playing seriously dirty in Utah with the help of Bob Bennett cronies.

First, as I said back them, Bennett and Bridgewater struck a deal to throw support to Bridgewater should Bennett lose. Keep in mind that Bob Bennett knew before the Utah convention that he was going to lose.

Second, we have the mysterious case of a Mike Lee mail piece. The mail piece had a picture of Mike Lee over the Mormon Temple in Utah and a picture of Bob Bennett over the U.S. Capitol. The mail piece asked voters to determine which of the two better represented Utah values.

The piece clearly was designed to appear like it came from Mike Lee and was calculated to put Mike Lee in a terribly light. It came out right before the convention and had lots of people condemn Mike Lee for bringing religion into politics.

There’s only one problem — Mike Lee had nothing to do with it. And it now looks more and more like Tim Bridgewater did.

He is denying it. Of course Bridgewater is also denying he was ever a lobbyist despite filing lobbyist disclosures proving he was a lobbyist. He also is denying helping send federal tax dollars to Mexico to help build housing for the poor that apparently does not exist on behalf of a man the U.S. government won’t let in the country because of suspect drug trafficking ties. He also is denying sending U.S. tax dollars to Indonesian companies despite formerly bragging about it.

Tim Bridgewater is lying — not misrepresenting, not distorting, just flat out lying — about his record. So it is no wonder he is lying about participating in this mail piece. More and more it looks like not only is Bridgewater connected, but so is Bob Bennett.

And the web is all connected through a guy named Tim Stewart.

Tim Stewart is a former Bob Bennett staffer. He has now aligned himself with Tim Bridgewater.

Remember again ‚ this is a key fact, the Bennett campaign knew that Bob Bennett would not make it out of the Utah GOP Convention before the mail piece was prepared and mailed. The Bennett campaign knew the race came down to Bridgewater vs. Lee as the mail piece was being plotted.

    Tim Stewart, who spent seven years as a legislative aide for Bennett and now is a lobbyist and founder of the group Saddle PAC, coordinated the mailer with a pair of D.C.-area consulting firms, according to e-mails and invoices provided to The Salt Lake Tribune.

    Stewart said late Monday that he wasn’t the mastermind, but instead was a go-between for a group of Utahns whom he would not identify.

    “I sincerely wish that I could take credit for what may be the most brilliant and possibly the biggest single game-changing political play in Utah politics in the last 20 years. But I can’t. I am not that diabolical nor creative,” he said.

    “Instead, I am just a two-bit, wannabe political consultant, contacted by some Utah folks wanting to exercise their First Amendment rights. They came up with a great idea and we found a vendor and that’s about the extent of it.”

Note that Tim Stewart, like Tim Bridgewater, is a lobbyist who stands to rake in huge dollars off Bridgewater in the same way he did with Bob Bennett.

Stewart will not say who put up the money, etc. for the mail piece, but Mike Lee’s campaign has filed an FEC complaint. The feds will now investigate and find out. Someone may go off to jail as a result.

Mike Lee’s campaign is also asking Tim Bridgewater to join him in demanding a full investigation. Naturally, Tim Bridgewater is remaining silent. Why? Because his campaign is culpable.

Tim Bridgewater, endorsed now by Bob Bennett, cut a deal with Bennett before the Utah Convention for Bennett to get his supporters to go with Bridgewater once Bennett dropped out. Tim Stewart, straddling both camps, designed a mail piece, targeted convention voters, and dropped it right before the convention to hurt Mike Lee.

Read the comments on this article, they are really quite interesting.

Chicago Politics in Utah

I just received an email from Jim DeMint, Chairman of the Senate Conservatives Fund an a United States Senator regarding the infamous 'temple mailer' sent out to smear Mike Lee's campaign.  This is part of what he wrote:

About a week ago I wrote to you about a very dirty ... and likely illegal ... campaign smear against Mike Lee, the conservative candidate for U.S. Senate in Utah. If you missed that message, click here to read "Chicago Politics in Utah." 

After additional investigation, we have tracked down a new source of the now infamous 'temple mailer'. According to a report by the Salt Lake Tribune published this morning, Tim Stewart is responsible for writing the smear mailer which violates federal campaign finance law. Click here to read the full story.

Mr. Stewart is a former aide to U.S. Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and is now a Washington, DC lobbyist who has made political contributions to Bob Bennett and to Tim Bridgewater -- Mike Lee's opponent in the June 22nd primary.

Our research also shows that Tim Stewart has worked as a lobbyist for Fannie Mae-- one of the largest bailout recipients in the country -- as well as for numerous interests seeking taxpayer-funded earmarks. 

You probably also won't be surprised to learn that Senator Bob Bennett -- the 18-year incumbent who was defeated by the voters at the May 8th Republican Nominating Convention -- came out last week against Mike Lee and endorsed Tim Bridgewater, his opponent.

I'm not implying that the Tim Bridgewater campaign had anything to do this... at least directly.  But this does not look good for Tim Bridgewater and is another reason to 'Beware of Bridgewater.'

Tim Bridgewater and a Mexican Drug Trafficker

This is by far the most damning evidence against U.S. Senate Candidate that I have seen thus far...

By now it’s a well known and established fact that Utah Senate candidate Tim Bridgewater isn’t exactly the traditional small business man that he wants Utah voters to believe; rather, he’s a lobbyist who specializes in getting taxpayer money for his own and for his clients’ businesses – including overseas businesses like Indonesia Power.

But did Tim Bridgewater stoop so low as to secure a $3 million taxpayer-funded loan to an alleged Mexican drug trafficker in 2004?

Here are the facts. You decide.

As Chairman of the Board of Interlink Capital Strategies, Tim Bridgewater did in fact secure a $3 million OPIC government loan for a subsidiary of Canelos, Inc. The loan was to be used to buy land to build low-income Mexican housing.

Now I know some of you are probably asking yourself, “Why the @#^&%! is the government lending taxpayer money to build housing in Mexico?” Calm down and take a deep breath, because it gets worse!

The Chairman of Canelos Inc. is Alejandro Canelos. The federal government is deeply worried that Mr. Canelos may be involved in drug trafficking, potentially using his for profit corporation’s sources of revenue to participate in drug trafficking. Consequently, Canelos has repeatedly been denied visas to the United States.

I know what you’re thinking again, “Regardless of whether or not this Canelos guy was or was not involved in drug trafficking, shouldn’t there be a law that prohibits the U.S. government from lending taxpayer money to a business owned by a foreigner who isn’t allowed in the country?”

But wait, there’s more. As far as I can tell, there’s no evidence the money was ever used to buy land or build low-income housing. None. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

And finally, here’s the real dilemma for Tim Bridgewater: After having made a career out of distributing taxpayer money out of the country, on what moral ground is Tim Bridgewater going to stand when Utah taxpayers need an advocate in the Senate to denounce foreign aid and corporate welfare? The answer is none.

He gave up that ground with every taxpayer loan he secured for his clients. And if he tries, the Democrats in the Senate will surely call him out for it.

By the way, if somebody can find proof that the loan was actually used to buy land and build low-income Mexican housing, please take a picture and send it to me – it might just replace that hole in my pocket with a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart.

But what would really make feel good is if you would give to Bridgewater’s opponent, Mike Lee, a true conservative who believes in smaller, limited government and who has never been in the business of big government or funding possibly mythical houses in Mexico for suspected drug traffickers.

Source:  http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/06/14/did-a-candidate-for-the-us-senate-use-your-tax-dollars-to-help-a-mexican-drug-trafficker/

Introduction

First of all, let me introduce myself.  I am a first time Utah State Delegate.  Over the past 2-3 years, I have because more and more informed into what is going on in this country and what I believe we need to do to change the course we are on, which is not a good one.  I am also a supporter of Mike Lee for the U.S. Senate. For those who read this, that might taint you.  You might say I have a biased opinion.  That might be true.  I believe it is a well informed and well educated opinion.  I have done a lot of research and talked to other delegates and elected representatives.  I wanted to make sure that people know who Tim Bridgewater really is before they vote for him.  It's common in politics for a candidate (or any politician) to say one thing but do something else entirely.  I have yet to see that out of Mike Lee but there are some things I question about Tim Bridgewater that I wanted to share with you to help the people of Utah make their best decision on who would make the best U.S. Senator for the state.