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Charity pays Chapman a salary
May 16, 2008 | In the News
Associate Press, Rawls, 05/15/08
Republican Secretary of State Beth Chapman works with a state-supported charitable organization that pays her consulting firm nearly $50,000 a year, raising claims that she is no different than legislators with state jobs now under fire as double dippers.
Chapman said a $25,000 state grant to the charity, which helps abused and neglected children, is used to pay the salary of the group's coordinator, Mac Stinson, and does not go to her.
But State Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turham took issue with Chapman doing outside work that involves state funding.
"Alabama taxpayers might find themselves feeling abused after learning that ever since she first took full-time public office in Alabama in 2002, Secretary of State Beth Chapman has held a second, taxpayer-funded job in Shelby County -- all while collecting her $79,000-a-year state paycheck," Turnham said.
GOP cancer: Party could lose 20 more seats
May 14, 2008 | In the News
Politico.com | By: John F. Harris and Josh Kraushaar
May 14, 2008 08:09 PM EST
For the past 18 months, ever since the 2006 elections, congressional Republicans have been like a hospital patient trying to convince visitors that he is not really all that sick: a bit under the weather; actually feel better than I sound; should be up and about any day; thanks for asking.
Suddenly -- belatedly -- all pretense is gone.
The Republican defeat in Tuesday's special election in Mississippi, in a deeply conservative district where, in an average year, Democrats cannot even compete, was a clear sign that the GOP has the political equivalent of cancer that has spread throughout the body. Many House GOP operatives are privately predicting that the party could easily lose up to 20 seats this fall.
