Democrats Standing by NC Senate Candidate Cal Cunningham Despite Sexting Scandal
“Democrats need to net at least three seats to win back the majority, and North Carolina has been seen as a potential tipping point state by both parties.”
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Despite the news that North Carolina Senate candidate Cal Cunningham has been caught in a sexting scandal, Democrats are standing by their man.
They have little choice in the matter. Their donors have already invested millions in this race, and it is seen as the possible tipping point in control of the Senate.
James Arkin and Burgess Everett write at Politico:
Sexts and coronavirus: Must-win Senate race upended down the stretch
It was a crazy 24 hours in North Carolina’s Senate race: Just a few hours after Republican Sen. Thom Tillis reported a positive coronavirus diagnosis on Friday evening, his Democratic opponent Cal Cunningham admitted to sending romantic texts to a woman who is not his wife.
The events have upended what’s seen as a must-win race for Senate control. Cunningham said he would not drop out of the race after the text messages were revealed on Friday evening, while Tillis had to close his campaign headquarters and quarantine ahead of confirmation hearings for a Supreme Court vacancy…
In a statement on Saturday morning, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee indicated it was sticking with Cunningham.
“North Carolinians are supporting Cal because he will protect health care coverage for pre-existing conditions, fight to bring down the costs of prescription drugs, and help our country recover from this crisis. We are confident that he will bring the same courage and determination to the Senate as he has while serving our country in uniform,” said Lauren Passalacqua, a spokesperson for the DSCC.
This is the bottom line:
The stakes couldn’t be higher for Senate control. Democrats need to net at least three seats to win back the majority, and North Carolina has been seen as a potential tipping point state by both parties. It’s unclear how Cunningham’s text messages or Tillis’s positive diagnosis might affect the polls, which have narrowly favored Cunningham.
Cunningham has one thing going for him. Democrat voters likely care more about taking control of the Senate than they do about a sexting scandal. We’ll soon find out how independent voters feel about it.
The stakes are high and anything could tip the scales of the race.
Christina Zhao writes at Newsweek:
Sexting Scandal in North Carolina May Help Republicans Hold on to Senate
The sexting scandal that has plagued North Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Cal Cunningham’s campaign could help Republicans hold on to the legislative chamber this November in a brutally competitive race with 35 seats up for election.
North Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Cal Cunningham, a married father of two, has admitted to sending romantic text messages to Arlene Guzman Todd, a former female staffer who is not his wife. With the scandal emerging one month before Election Day, Cunningham, who’s taking on first-term Republican Senator Thom Tillis, has declined to drop out of the race.
“It’s chaos—it’s really what I see it is,” said David McLennan, a Meredith College political science professor, according to the Associated Press.
One has to wonder if North Carolina voters are having John Edwards flashbacks.
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Comments
Cal Cunningham is a home wrecker. He violated officer conduct rules for the Army. Ms. Guzman, the woman he had affair with, is the wife of an enlisted solider. It’s heartbreaking, Cal “Pants” Cunningham has wrecked this man’s family. https://youtu.be/HgecwWYf7ow
That is tough to watch, knowing what has happened since. I wonder if her husband was the one who shared the text messages. They appear to be taken from her phone.
It’s a bit more than a tenet of some officer’s code of conduct or a rule. It’s a violation of article 134 of the UCMJ. The maximum penalty for this violation is dishonorable discharge (dismissal in Cunningham’s case as he is an officer, which carries the same disgrace), forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and one year in confinement.
It has to involve actual physical sex, not just virtual sex via sexting. Everyone know it’s not normally charged as a stand alone offense unless it’s particularly egregious. It has to be directly contrary to good order and discipline or particularly service discrediting.
Usually it’s one or the other, but in this case it’s both. I can’t imagine anything more directly contrary to good order and discipline than this. It would meet the criteria if it was merely a LCOL sleeping with an enlisted man’s wife. Cunningham is a lawyer, a JAG officer. What would happen if his side squeeze’s hubby was charged with a crime and during one of his periods of active duty he or the officers below him were tasked with prosecuting him? Or defending him?
We already knew his wife can’t trust him, but she doesn’t seem to care about anything except being a Senator’s wife. Now no one up or down this guy’s chain of command can trust him.
And what could be more service discrediting than a reserve JAG officer to get exposed having an affair with an enlisted soldier and then have it become national news because the idiot is campaigning to be a Senator in a high profile contest?
On another thread this guy said he wanted people to respect his family’s privacy and in the next breath said he wasn’t going to drop out of the race. I noted that if had any concern at all for his family’s privacy he’d drop out of the race, and out of the public eye.
But considering the legal jeopardy he may have put himself in family privacy may be the least of his concerns. I look at people like TFG and I can’t for the life of me understand what they can possibly be thinking. There’s no way I’d put myself in this position in the first place. Not that I want to portray myself as some kind of saint. But if I was tempted, I at least know better not to s*&t where I eat. But if I ever did find myself in this position I’d do some quick mental math and get out of the spotlight as soon as possible.
Not this arrogant, self-absorbed jackass.
And I couldn’t be happier. I’m so glad the Dems haven’t learned a lesson from the Anthony Weiner debacle. As in, “Hey, you know, maybe we shouldn’t throw our full support behind a candidate who is caught up in a sexting scandal because, you know, maybe middle age crisis type candidates don’t exercise good judgement.”
Hell, no! The Democrat party is all in. It’s orange man bad, full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, hold my beer month at the DNC.
Excellent.
Interesting that leftist NC newspapers like the Jacksonville Daily News refuse to report on Cunningham’s sex scandal, not surprisingly, after giving him a glowing front page review.
Hold on. Is there a second mistress?
https://nationalfile.com/north-carolina-attorney-claims-friend-is-nc-democrats-second-mistress/
Hoo boy. If verified, that’s really the end for Cunningham.
He’ll replace Harris as Biden’s running mate. In the Democrat party you can’t confine such talent to a mere statewide office.
“Democrats Standing by NC Senate Candidate Cal Cunningham Despite Sexting Scandal”
You misspelled “because of”.
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