Sunday July 24th, 2022
"A total disorganized mess" : How Duke picked Pendleton as his running mate
AN NBS Election Special Report.
PART ONE:
Sources from within the Alan Duke Presidential campaign have described to NBS how the former Oklahoma Senator came to pick former General Lloyd Pendleton as his Vice-Presidential running-mate two weeks ago.
The information and story given to NBS paints a disorganized campaign, with the nominee himself often unsure what was going. After clinching the nomination at the end of April, Duke made what looked a smart move appointing the former Governor of Nebraska John Moore as the Chair of his VP search team, alongside George Rohr and Campaign manager, Mark Patterson.
In May, the three man team drew up a "long list of twenty five possible names" (Pendleton was on this list) which between them was whittled down to a shortlist of ten. These ten would go through the formal vetting procedure (filling out a questionnaire, supplying full financial records, and a search of social media etc), the ten person short-list did not include Pendleton, and this list was put to Alan Duke for his approval (we understand Duke made it very clear that he would not accept the vetting of either North Carolina Governor David McNamara or Utah Governor John Elderton).
The Ten person shortlist
- Sen. Rob Buchanan (VA)
- Former sec. Stephen Kendrick (IN)
- Sen. Ruth Norton-Stewart (OH)
- Sen. Michael Rojas (NM)
- Sen. Barbara Layton (NC)
- Rep. Daniel Abend (KY)
- Rep. Patty King (GA)
- Gov. Art Scheider (OH)
- Radio host Henry Stern (AZ)
- Sen. Sorah Wheeler (AK)
After being formally notified that she was on the short-list, Norton-Stewart called Moore and said she "didn't wish to be included and was focused on winning re-election to the Senate". This lead to some panic with Moore speaking to Duke asking him to reconsider vetting Governor McNamara instead of RNS, but Duke point blank refused. This led to nine being formally vetted at this point. Within days of receiving the paperwork back, and reports on the background checks, serious problems where found with Patty King, and Henry Stern. (King answered the questionnaire "like a campaign rally" one person close to the Duke campaign told us) , and the fact she had several links with groups described as "conspiracy nuts and Neo-nazis", Plus searches of Stern's bank records showed he had "gifted thousands of dollars from supporters of his radio show", plus two of his donors to his failed 2018 Arizona Senate campaign had links to the Russian mafia. Moore attempted to remove him from consideration at this point, but Duke overruled it because he likes him "he is my kind of guy, I like him, he stays". But with King further searches found that she had several close friends who are or were members of different far-right groups, and a picture was found of her in 2014 at the Eagle’s Nest, Hitler’s Bavarian mountain home exclusively used by Nazi leaders during World War Two, and remarks regarding Hitler and the Nazis " They got many things right, and Hitler saw the threat of communism, a threat we still face today" was found from a search of the internet from 2015. This time, Moore was able to persuade Duke to remove her from consideration.
Then unrelated to the financing questions or past behavior, Michael Rojas the popular governor of New Mexico was already at the edge of removing himself from consideration. He filled in the vetting paperwork, but almost didn't send it back, according to sources from the Governors office, he disliked Duke on a personal level, and knows that becoming Duke's running mate would likely mean he would lose re-election if he's tied to Duke in a very Hispanic state. He had been kept in at this point by party loyalty and ambition, but was at the knife's edge, before deciding to call Moore to withdraw his name.
Also, with no news of further interest from the campaign, Rep. Daniel Abend pulled his name from consideration to focus on both his House race and helping the NRCC keep the House.
With all of this the list was now down to six names
- Sen. Rob Buchanan (VA)
- Former sec. Stephen Kendrick (IN)
- Sen. Barbara Layton (NC)
- Gov. Art Scheider (OH)
- Radio host Henry Stern (AZ)
- Sen. Sorah Wheeler (AK)
All six agreed to face to face interviews with Moore, Rohr and Patterson. Kendrick like Rojas, seemed to only be going through the process out of party loyalty. "His heart isn't in it" Moore remarked to Rohr afterwards. Barbara Layton, she said wanted the job "but had serious concerns of Duke previous comments about females, and especially female elected officials" adding "I don't disagree with him on a lot, I think I would be an asset to the campaign, but he (Duke) would have to "dial down" some of his comments". The stern interview was a farce, he turned up half an hour late, with Moore and Patterson believing he was drunk "I made one big mistake after my Senate defeat in 2018, I should never of conceded, I should of claimed the result was rigged or stolen, (he lost by fewer than 4,000 votes), adding that he thought Duke "should not concede the race even if he clearly lost, we could stir up a load of trouble", this was even to far for George Rohr, and he called Duke saying "Stern is out, he is nuts".
Buchanan, Schieder and Wheeler all performed well, and it was these three that the panel recommended to Duke that he met for face to face interviews.
PART TWO coming Monday.