Occupy Blogger Caught Up in Election Fraud Flap

A local blogger and journalist who also volunteers on political campaigns reportedly admitted to a dirty trick email effort against the Republican candidate in the Rockingham District 32 special election race, according to the Concord Monitor.

Carl Gibson of Concord sent out a hoax email to media outlets covering the race for the open seat race that represents voters in Candia, Deerfield, Northwood, and Nottingham stating that Yvonne Dean-Bailey, the GOP nominee, was dropping out of the race against former state Rep. Maureen Mann, the Democrat. The email, which was sent on May 14, 2015, looked professional and stated that the candidate, who is 19, and a college student, was postponing her campaign to focus on finishing school.

While neither candidate would talk about it, at first, a spokesman for the NH GOP said in an email to the Monitor that it was a hoax.

On Friday, Gibson, a former volunteer for Mann who identifies himself an independent journalist and blogger with work published on left-of-center publications like Occupy.com, Salon, and Think Progress, owned up to the fraud, blaming “one too many beers” at 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon.

“I thought it was funny,” he told the Monitor. “I didn’t really think it would be taken seriously.”

On Saturday, Dean-Bailey said she was disappointed that a person who had previously worked for Mann would try to confuse voters with misinformation.

“I want to represent my district with honor and distinction, and I am committed to running an honest campaign that focuses on the important issues facing our state,” she said.

At least one election complaint has been filed with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. The NH GOP intends to file another complaint next week since it believes that Gibson has violated NH RSA 666:6:

“Any person who shall, without authority, sign the name of any other person to any letter or other document, or falsely represent that any other has written such letter or document, knowing such representation to be false, for the purpose of influencing votes, or who shall by false representation, use, employ or assign the name of any other person, or a fictitious name on a radio or television broadcast or other means of communication, to signify endorsement of a political party, candidates or programs, or, for the purpose of influencing votes, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”

Republican Party chairwoman Jennifer Horn called Gibson “a radical extremist” and said it “speaks volumes about (Mann) and her candidacy.”

The NH GOP also noted some of Gibson’s previous pranks:

In 2011, CBS News reported that Gibson took credit for sending out a hoax press release on behalf of General Electric that falsely claimed the company was returning $3.2 billion to the U.S. Treasury. In his biography, Gibson brags about how his outrageous stunt caused General Electric stock to temporarily drop by $3 billion. According to pictures posted on Gibson’s Facebook page, he was arrested in 2012 at the “Occupy Wall Street” protests in New York City.

Political bickering

Members of New Hampshire’s politirati quickly began pointing fingers of blame at each other online the day the hoax email story was published.

Independent conservative political writer Kimberly Morin of the GraniteGrok.com said the hoax targeting Dean-Bailey showed Democrats had reached a new low. Former state Rep. Jan Schmidt, D-Nashua, said the presence of Morin and others commenting on the Monitor article showed that it was “a political stunt drummed up by the FreeStaters and their friends to throw a wrench into the process.” Morin countered, “Democrats always cheat. This is just the tip of the iceberg for what has been a disgusting campaign by Maureen Mann and Democrats.”

Progressive political blogger Susan the Bruce stated that a “responsible news story would have included a screengrab of the email” and added that she found it interesting that the “libertea” crowd was complaining about Democrats. State Rep. JR Hoell, R-Dunbarton, countered, “Are you implying that the (Monitor) made the story up?” Bruce offered, “I wouldn’t imply. I’d come right out and say it, and you oughta know that better than anyone.”

The special election is May 19.

Read the full stories on ConcordMonitor.com.