HARVERD’s Funder Fumble

The latest in a string of amateur hour moves, the 10th Congressional District campaign of Hill staffer Rob Wasinger—already famous for touting his “Harverd” credentials—released a fundraising email today that reveals a continuing absence of competent adult supervision.

Fundraising appeals are fine. We’re all used to them, even where the appeal is full of distortions. In Wasinger’s case the major distortion is where he dubs himself the “conservative alternative” to the “beltway lobbyist” in the race. This is a slam on Barbara Comstock’s work as a Republican lobbyist for a few years in the mid-2000s. But, looked at another way, it’s a lame attempt by someone who has spent HIS ENTIRE ADULT LIFE working inside the beltway in D.C., who is running his campaign on the backs of Capitol Hill cronies (see here and here and here), and who is completely unknown in the 10th District—leveled against a respected local legislator who is actually the conservative alternative to a squishy, opportunistic career Hill staffer.

But in addition to the lame attempt at a put-down, the “Harverd” grad managed to send out as a final email a version that contained all of his internal edits telling the sender to place links in the email to his “funder page.” Here’s the relevant text (emphasis added):

Team-

It’s been a heck of a week since we announced our campaign for Congress.

I jumped in this race because I’m troubled by the direction our country is headed. As a father, I cannot sit idly by as the Washington status quo continues to run up a tab that future generations will have to pay.

My sentiment has made me quite unpopular with the Washington Insiders. As the Northern Virginia Daily dubbed me as the “conservative alternative” to the beltway lobbyist in this race, the establishment put us in their crosshairs.

But If you know me, then you know that I am not one to back down. We are going to continue to run an aggressive campaign that espouses freedom, family, and limited government — the principles that made America great. To improve the strong efforts of our grassroots campaign, I’m asking for your help today. (link words “your help today” to fundraising page)

As the establishment insiders ramp up their efforts to attack us and our principles, I will need additional resources to fight back and spread our positive message over the next 70 days.

Can I count on your support of $250, $100, $50, $25 or any amount that you can afford? (Link last sentence to funder page)

Please click here to make a secure financial contribution today. (Link last sentence to funder page)

With your help we will win this race. We will take our shared conservative vision to Washington. And we will fight to get our country back.

Thank you for joining us in this important fight. Your support is invaluable.

For freedom,

Rob Wasinger
Your Conservative Candidate for Congress

The trouble Wasinger has had running a competent campaign started on day 1, and apparently has not improved.

Perhaps this is more astroturfing from Wasinger? Maybe if he leaves edits in an email and doesn’t actually put the links in where he instructed for them to be inserted, he can give the impression that he actually has staff and a real campaign operation.

Back during his 2010 Congressional race in Kansas, Wasinger said the following: “We have two simple choices. We can choose prosperity for Washington, DC or we can choose prosperity for the rest of America. I will always choose Kansas and America.” We urge Rob Wasinger to continue putting Kansas first, and to leave Virginia alone.

Cross-posted at Virginia Virtucon.