Ray Metcalfe: We should have known...

This has been a big week for Ray Metcalfe as he's watched Ted Stevens indictment by a grand jury on 7 counts of "false statements." I can imagine Stevens being arraigned in a D.C. court is a sight Metcalfe has waited to see for a long time. He's earned it, I'll give him that. Muckraking is what he does best.

However, it seems that Metcalfe is less-talented in the areas of candidacy for Senate, party loyalty and most importantly, following Federal Election Commission rules.

Tsk, tsk...

First off, Ray has never been a serious candidate. I'm not referring to other people taking him seriously; I'm suggesting that Ray never entered this race to be a serious candidate. A visual example is the campaign picture at the top of the post. Now I've seen much better pictures of Ray and what serious candidate would use one that looks like a cross between Nosforatu and Yoda?

Back in 2007 when Ray Metcalfe first announced his candidacy for the Senate, we should have seen what he was up to after all, he told us:

"I intend to do to the Democratic Party what Sarah Palin is doing to the Republican Party," Metcalfe said in an interview with local media on Sunday. "I expect the leadership of the Democratic Party is just about as happy to see me as Randy Ruderich and the Republican Party was to see Sarah Palin."

Interestingly enough, we heard almost nothing from Ray throughout most of the campaign and not because he was being ignored--he wasn't doing anything.

Now, of course, when we are close to the primary and Ray hasn't got a chance-in-hell of winning, he comes out with paid ads promoting unfounded accusations against Mark Begich.

Ray Metcalfe is now advertising his "three hour tour" on KUDO AM and KABA AM, according to Tati Broadcasting. That's the tour where people are supposed to get on his bus, called the USS Minnow, and Metcalfe drives them to places around town where he alleges shady real estate deals went down.

He also spends a chunk of those three hours (after taking campaign donations) trying to paint Mark Begich and Ted Stevens with the same brush.

Significant difference: there are NO investigations going on in any level of government regarding Mark Begich and that includes Ray's allegations against Begich.


There are those who argue that Ray is running for office and this is just more campaigning. I agree that is true...to a point. I've spoken to a number of campaigners working for various Democratic candidates in the state right now and Ray is doing something that is crossing the line...he's handing the Republicans their anti-Begich talking points in the general election. It doesn't matter whether or not they are true--we can see that in what's being used against Barack Obama. He's tainting the probable Democratic candidate in the general election...and Ray is doing so when it's obvious that he's never been a serious candidate in his own mind, much less in public. It's no wonder that a number of Dems never trusted him, he's using this platform to grasp for another "15 minutes."

According to the FEC letter, it seems that he should do less fame-searching and more bookkeeping and paperwork to keep himself from deeper trouble. The other "cleaner" he compared himself to, Sarah Palin, has already found herself on the wrong end of an investigation.