Why Pat Hughes and Paul Caprio are a disgrace to Illinois “conservatives”

Andy Martin’s news conference criticizes Caprio’s attempt to “be on both asides of the fence at the same time,” and Pat Hughes’ attempt to deceive conservative voters with a sham endorsement process.

U. S. Senate candidate Andy Martin blasts Pat Hughes and Paul Caprio for “campaign fraud”

Martin says D. Paul Caprio’s deceptive actions have destroyed the bogus-to-begin-with Pat Hughes campaign

NEWS FROM:
ANDY MARTIN /2010
Republican for U. S. Senator
“He works for
the People of Illinois”
Suite 4406
30 E. Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60611-4723
(312) 440-4124
www.AndyforUSSenator.com
www.AndyforUSSenator.blogspot.com
www.AndyforUSSenator.wordpress.com

www.MarkKirk.us

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Andy Martin condemns Paul Caprio’s “sleaze” and Pat Hughes’ “inactive” political ethics.

(CHICAGO)(September 6, 2009) Republican U. S. Senate candidate and insurgent “Internet Powerhouse” Andy Martin told a Chicago news conference Saturday that Paul Caprio’s attempt to deceive conservatives by staging a bogus endorsement process for his own undisclosed client, and by seeking to deceive Republican county chairman as to Caprio’s true role in Pat Hughes' U. S. Senate campaign, have fatally compromised both Hughes and Caprio.

“You can’t be on both sides of the fence at the same time,” Martin said. “Caprio took $10,000 in cash from Hughes, and joined Hughes’ ‘campaign,’ and then went around the state pretending to be an impartial ‘conservative leader.’ Even Illinois Democrats don’t use such fraudulent tactics any more.

“Caprio maintained a public image of impartiality, and used that false image to recruit signers to his ‘county chairmen’ letter, while he was secretly on Hughes’s payroll. If Caprio had disclosed his financial interest and his role in Hughes’ campaign, people would have said ‘Whoa,’ how can you be leading an endorsement process for your own client?

“Caprio even stooped to defrauding Phyllis Schlafly, one of the great ladies of the conservative moment. It almost looks as though Caprio would bamboozle his own mother for a buck.

“Is there no limit to how low he will stoop? Is there no limit to Pat Hughes’ embarrassing incompetence in allowing Caprio to make a laughingstock of Hughes’ campaign?

“Rather suspiciously, Hughes recently surrendered his license to practice law and went on ‘inactive’ status, though he still refers to himself as an ‘attorney.’ Maybe Hughes surrendered his law license and went on ‘inactive’ status because his professional ethics are ‘inactive.’ His campaign ethics were ‘inactive’ for sure in conducting his bogus endorsement charade. An honest lawyer would know better than to deceive the public. Hughes doesn’t have the common sense to know right from wrong. Some attorney.

“Let me be clear: Illinois Republicans will never regain the public’s trust by being as seedy as the Democrats. Conservatives will never defeat the ‘Combine’ by being as corrupt as Combine members. The only way we can win back the trust of Illinois voters is by holding ourselves to a higher standard and by showing we are more honest and open than the Democrats; not by showing that conservatives are just as sleazy as the sleaziest slime balls in Illinois politics.

“I have been fighting political corruption in Illinois for over forty (40) years. In those years I never took a penny from anyone to deceive the public about my goals. I have the scars to prove I fought crooked judges and crooked politicians and helped send the bad guys to prison. Pat Hughes didn’t even bother to vote until recently. And he wants to be a U. S. senator?

“Barack Obama’s dirt diggers and mud merchants went over my entire life last year, looking for ways to smear me. All they could come up with were stale examples where I had been attacked for exposing corruption in the courts. I am preparing to break a big judicial corruption scandal in DuPage County, right in the Republican heartland. Obama found nothing on me. I have lived an honorable life. I will continue to do so.

“Pat Hughes couldn’t even launch his own candidacy without engaging in fraud. How is he going to attack Democrats? Or even Kirk? By challenging their ethics?

“Hughes is an embarrassment to every conservative leader who announced his or her support for Hughes, and every Illinois voter who was defrauded by D. Paul Caprio’s sham endorsement charade in Bloomington.

“Hughes is apparently nothing more than a ‘front’ for Caprio’s own money-raising operations. Caprio’s ‘political consulting’ is clearly saturated with sleaze.

“If Pat Hughes is as stupid and incompetent as Caprio makes made him look, I feel sorry for Hughes. Hughes told people in Bloomington he is a great lawyer with excellent courtroom skills. If that is true, why did he make such a pathetic speech in Springfield on Republican Day? That was no great lawyer speaking. There is a big gap between what Hughes promises and what he produces, other than the $10,000 he produced for Caprio’s bank account and thousands more for others.

“The bottom line: Paul Caprio secretly orchestrated an endorsement process for his own client, while concealing his initial receipt of $10,000 from Pat Hughes, and Caprio’s ongoing role with Hughes. Caprio was using Hughes as his personal cash machine.

“Caprio’s ‘caper’ is one of the most sordid episodes in recent Illinois politics, in either party. That this shameless legerdemain was conducted by a so-called ‘family’ leader is a disgrace to the conservative movement of which Caprio claims to be a part.

“I want conservative support, but not at the price of my personal integrity or public morality,” Martin concluded. “Pat Hughes has a lot to learn before he steps into the political arena. He won’t learn it from hucksters like Caprio.”