…and what precisely would encourage such a bruising e-mail from one-time U.S. Senate candidate Howie Lind?
This.
Former Lind campaign manager Patrick Murphy kicked the rumor mill into high gear with a Facebook status about the former 10th District Chairman’s “serious moral defects”. Here’s what the status said, and it’s worth noting that someone put some money behind it to ensure it was seen:
Upon investigation, it appears Lind’s defects are as real as they are disturbing. According to sources, Lind has been separated from his wife for a year and is not pursuing divorce. Additionally, the candidate resides in Washington, D.C. on a majority of nights, in a condo blocks away from the U.S. Capitol.
That property is apparently owned by Lind’s mistress, whom he has maintained an affair with since at least the beginning of his ill-fated bid for Senate.
Not the way to start your Monday morning. Read the rest over at JHPolitics, as Justin Higgins has done phenomenal work exposing this bullying tactic.
When pressed about his marital status, Lind told one source he was not pursing divorce so his wife would continue receiving health benefits from her husband’s military benefits. In reality, if divorced, Lind’s wife would continue to receive the same benefits, while also becoming entitled to half of Lind’s military retirement pay.
Ouch…
Of course, knowing this… Lind in a presumably separate note to his former confidant and right hand man issued the following threat:
From: Howie Lind <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, Feb 9, 2014 at 1:36 PM
Subject: Facebook
To: Patrick Murphy <REDACTED>Patrick, if you keep this up, I will ensure you don’t get a job in politics again.
Lind announced last week that he would seek the GOP nomination for outgoing Rep. Frank Wolf’s seat in VA-10 against frontrunner Del. Barbara Comstock. Other notable (though not necessarily for good reasons) contenders have been perennial Kansas candidate Rob “Lamb Chop” Wasinger, former Bush administration staffer Stephen Hollingshead, and Delegate Bob Marshall — who is expected to announce this week.
Comstock is widely speculated to have a comfortable if hard fought lead over the rest of the divided field.
UPDATE: JHPolitics gets a phone call from Howie Lind:
Howie Lind has responded to the story, reinforcing that he is legally separated from his wife but not divorced. He maintains that he must remain married so that his wife continues to receive military retiree health insurance benefits. He also maintains that he lives in McLean, but spends time with a “friend” in Washington, D.C..
As for Murphy, Lind argues a different series of events.
“I actually fired Patrick about 3 weeks ago,” Lind said. “He maintains that he left the campaign because of ‘serious moral defects’, but I fired him. It has nothing to do with that. He’s an incompetent campaign manager.”
You can read the entirety of the exchange here.
