By FITSNews || The race for South Carolina’s Third Congressional District took a decidedly accusatory tone when the campaign of S.C. Rep. Rex Rice accused unknown persons “apparently associated with the Jeff Duncan for Congress Campaign” of hacking into private campaign email accounts and stealing confidential information.
“Through means unknown to the Rice Campaign, the Duncan Campaign has obtained internal emails from the Rice Campaign without authorization,” states a letter from Rice’s campaign manager to the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and local solicitor’s office. “This is prima facie evidence of a violation of the South Carolina Computer Crime Act, and the Rice Campaign accordingly respectfully requests this matter be fully investigated by the appropriate South Carolina law enforcement authorities.”
Sheesh … like SLED doesn’t have enough legitimate investigations on its plate.
Anyway, the letter specifically accuses Rep. Duncan himself of making use of the “illegally obtained email,” which contained a draft press release in which Rice’s campaign was to receive the endorsement of a local lawmaker.
A spokesman for Duncan’s campaign called the accusations “totally absurd,” adding that the Duncan campaign “didn’t hack or authorize anyone to hack” into Rice’s computers.
“Jeff has run an above boards campaign and so has Rex,” said Duncan communications director Dan Hoover.
Hoover tells FITS that “an email was provided to the campaign anonymously” which contained a press release, something he says is “hardly sensitive information.”
Nonetheless, Hoover says that Duncan’s campaign will cooperate with any investigation into the source of the leaked email, saying that his candidate “believes in the rule of law.”
Frankly, our hunch is that this entire “incident” was contrived by the Rex campaign in an effort to place Duncan in a negative light. After all, the polls that we’re seeing from the 3rd District show Duncan – whose fiscally conservative credentials are nearly unimpeachable – pulling away from Rex, who only discovered fiscal conservatism when it came time to run for higher office.
Plus, Rice’s consulting firm – Richard Quinn & Associates – is well known for playing the “whine card” and accusing opponents of negative campaigning when it discovers that its candidates are falling behind in the polls.
Oh, Rice’s firm also has a reputation for gratuitous social conservative pandering.
Anyway, you can read Rice’s complaint by clicking on any of the documents below …
WEB EXTRAS
(Click to enlarge)
By uptown downtown April 8, 2010 at 12:44 pm
Typical Jeff Duncan and his ilk hacking into people’s emails. Really?
I’m sure all your friends at the Club for (China) would be real proud of this.
By Dexter April 8, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Nice work, Jeff Duncan. You can claim all day that you didn’t steal the car nor know it was stolen, but you were caught driving it. That is your handwriting on that email, and there is no question that it was stolen. This the kind of people that the Club for Growth supports? I hope they don’t do anything for Tim Scott. I like Tim Scott
By Barney Fife April 8, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Who is running Rex’s campaign? Hmmmmmm……….
Oh yeah, Robert Cahaly. He’s also running Ken Ard’s campaign, who has operatives smearing Bill Conner. Does anyone else see a direct correlation here?
Robert Cahaly is a bad man. He will do anything to win. Anything.
By Barney Fife April 8, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Now that I read the complaint etc. So What? This is petty at very best. I doubt Allen Klump stole it. Someone probably sent it to him. Happens all the time. All campaigns have moles.
Rex and his folks are obviously scared of Jeff Duncan. Not sure why, but I think this little stunt will change my vote from Rex to Jeff.
By Recovering Lobbyist April 8, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Look at the dates on the emails. They do not match up with the complaint.
By sclawboy April 8, 2010 at 1:08 pm
1. Do all these campaigns really just use Gmail? That’s kind of sad and high school student council-ish…
2. Did Rice’s people really let loose these emails showing everyone’s email addresses? Oops.
3. This mysterious American Patriot is none other than the Greenville County GOP. Why is Sam Harms getting involved in the 3rd District campaign?
By Wake Up April 8, 2010 at 1:23 pm
This is the kind of crap that RQ&A loves to pull. Just shows that Jeff Duncan is kicking Rex Rice’s ass and they are desperate to do something about it.
By Do whatever it takes April 8, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Sure hope the Duncan campaign hasn’t broken any other laws. Discovery is a bitch.
By Toyota Kawaski April 8, 2010 at 2:42 pm
bARNEY fIFE WRONG try again.
By billybob April 8, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I think the Rex Rice campaign “leaked” the emails to the Duncan campaign. RQA is known for do many underhanded things. This is a good example of one of those right here.
Remember discovery can be on both sides of the issue. They might discover Adam Piper sent the email.
By Gee, you're dumb April 8, 2010 at 2:58 pm
I just looked at that email and one thing is abundantly clear: as wrong as it is to condone the stealing of internal information, that’s not actually the worst thing that happened here.
The fact that Duncan would take an email that he knows to be in possession of to be illegal and unethical, print it, put his handwriting on it and then give it to someone who wouldn’t be happy that he has it might make him too stupid to even be a State Representative, much less a Congressman.
By Harumph April 8, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Ducan knows what a computer is?
By dccarter2010 April 8, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Coming from someone who follows state politics and worked on Shane Massey’s campaign, I can honestly say that Jeff Duncan is a man of integrity. Rex Rice and his campaign team, well they are the lowest of the low regarding integrity. When Shane was still in the race, rex campaign team had a website, http://www.shanemassey.com, that would redirect you to Rex’s campaign website. The website has changed since then, but it proves that the Rex campaign has run anything but an ethical campaign.
By POPhillip April 8, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Connor and Gross will do even more than Cahaly to win. For all of the above, they are rather good at fucking up a sure thing. Their combined efforts will do a lot to help elect Duncan and Richter. Count on it.
By sid April 8, 2010 at 11:40 pm
What a silly publicity stunt. It makes Rice and his team look like a combination of whiney little children and incompetent boobs, rather than the violated, noble campaign that they had hoped people would see.
By Ynotfirst April 9, 2010 at 6:42 am
third district is very very corrupt. always has been. always will be, it appears.
By Calhoun Fawls April 9, 2010 at 7:01 am
One of these sorry individuals is going to be my Congressman. I hate this kind of crap. Rice is making a dumb move. To me, it seems like he can not control his own campaign, much less a congressional office staff. This matter should have been handled internally. Calling the cops and asking them to use their resources in this tight budget time is just boneheaded. What’s next for Rice, will he call the cops to investigate a yard sign that got missing?
By Concered for the Third April 9, 2010 at 8:25 am
The dates of the e-mail don’t match up at all with the dates in the complaint. Furthermore, if the text of the e-mail was ready for immediate publishing, why does it have an aberrant typo/run-on/improper sentence in the very first line? It looks more like a fudged e-mail text than something to legitimately throw mud at a good candidate over.
By Disappointed April 9, 2010 at 10:00 am
This was a very civil campaign until Rex Rice and his thugs brought this crap up. I hope everyone in the district learns how under handed the Rex Rice campaign is. We do NOT need for him to be our next Congressman!!!
By Mountaineer April 9, 2010 at 11:39 am
Who is John Dalen?
By WB April 10, 2010 at 1:25 pm
POPhillip, not sure who you are or even think you are but Bill Connor and Josh Gross are easily the only folks in all of the Lt Gov campaigns that ARE above reproach.
Robert Cahaly is a sleazebag of the lowest order and his fingerprints are all over this. If you knew any of the information that actually is well-known behind the scenes, there’d be no doubt that Larry Richter and Ken Ard are both gunning for a sleaze-off. Not sure who wins that one
By littledoc April 14, 2010 at 10:35 am
This is so stupid. There are so much more important things that need attention. This is child like behavior and uncalled for. Jeff Duncan will definitely get my vote.