Stolle’s Aide Switches Sides
By Greg L | 14 November 2007 | Virginia Senate | 27 Comments
I’ve learned this evening that Senator Ken Stolle’s legislative aide Will Payne has a new job — with the Mark Warner campaign, of all things. Until this surprise move, this individual would have been participating in Republican strategy sessions, campaign manager level conference calls, while apparently interviewing for a position with, and quite possibly actively assisting a campaign that was raising enormous amounts of money to defeat Republican candidates.
When it was finally time for this putz to come clean about what he’s been up to, here’s the full explanation that is provided:
From: Will Payne
To: Will Payne <whpayne2@yahoo.com>
Subject: New contact information
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:03:50 +0000As you may already know, I have just moved to work for Governor Warner’s Senate campaign. I want to make sure that you have my new contact information if you choose to stay friendly with me:)
You can use my personal Yahoo email or my new work address. My cell phone number may change. Thanks.
Will Payne
Will.Payne@MarkWarner08.com
Friends of Mark Warner
1029 North Royal Street
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
(703) 962-8558 work
(757) 880-7544 cell
www.MarkWarner2008.com
Oh, I’m sure all sorts of folks are going to “choose to stay friendly” with someone who abused their trust like this. I hope the Warner folks, who apparently don’t dwell on such issues very much, will be happy with their new hire that has shown such strong moral character. I guess he’ll fit right in with the campaign, though.
The other utter dimwit here is quite obviously Senator Ken Stolle. If Stolle’s personnel decisions are marred by such obviously flawed decision-making, the chance of anyone sharing confidential information with him or his office will be remote at best. It’s going to be up to Stolle to prove his staff is trustworthy, and given Stolle’s own behavior in the Senate over the past several sessions, that’s going to be an uphill battle. He wasn’t what you’d call a “team player”, by any stretch of the imagination.
Perhaps Jay O’Brien, Bob Fitzsimmonds and Ken Cuccinelli would sure like to know just how much their difficulties this election cycle had to do with Ken Stolle’s Legislative Aide funneling information back to Mark Warner. Until that is determined, I imagine the level of cooperation between Cuccinelli and Stolle will be pretty minimal, not that there was likely a whole lot of cooperation there to begin with.
Stolle, how about you just call it quits, OK?
UPDATE: Apparently Will Payne was telling folks that he had got a new job about ten days before the election, but couldn’t tell anyone anything about what it was. At that same time he was sitting in on all of these teleconferences where election strategy was the main topic of conversation. Not cool.
I’m pretty surprised Mark Warner would stoop to this level. It’s not like Will Payne was some sort of James Carville or something. He was a minor player, but one who had very valuable information for Democrats right before an election, and offered nothing substantial to the Democrats other than his inside knowledge of Republican campaign strategy.
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27 Comments
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This is unbelievable. I first met Will more than four years ago. I never suspected that he would do something like this. What a shame.
Does the possibility exist that he might have been non-partisan and just checking out a venue to work in an office higher than state level? I’ll admit I know little about Stolle and even less about this Payne fellow, but what are the chances that he just wants to work in a higher office, and working for a proven winner to get there?
Rob, in a word, no.
You don’t get ahead in the world of politics by abusing trust. You don’t leverage the confidential information you have in order to benefit the other side.
This person will never be trusted, for fear that he will do this again. Would you tell this guy anything really important?
WH*RE!
Maybe he had enough of the Republican party and decided to take his skills elsewhere? People have been known to switch parties. Warner is a fairly moderate Democrat and, well, the R’s that you mention are pretty far to the right of the scale…
He watched to many news conferences with John Kerry and thought it was OK to flip-flop!
Craig, just keep smoking whatever it is that you are…
This is unbelievable. The next questions are when did Stolle find out Payne was leaving the party, what did Warner know and when did he know it and which seats did Payne cost the Senate GOP?
I hope Stolle’s colleagues in the Senate appreciate his boy helping them to the minority.
BTW, the
explanation is very convincing. Oh, the Dems have control of the Senate going into redistricting, but he put a smiley face on the email - it’s OK.
his contact info is right there…
Where Ed Rollins? He cannot even get on CNN anymore.
After Warner he is dead and I doubt Warner will keep him around long, how can he trust him.
Greg,
You’re assuming that there was an abuse of trust or that Will disclosed confidential information while considering the post in the Warner campaign, but you have nothing on which to base that assumption other than your own worst expectations. But on the other hand, as you yourself observe in your 8:57 comment, you don’t get anywhere in politics by doing that. If the Warner campaign expected Will to do that, and I doubt they did, Will wouldn’t have done it anyway. While the first statement is an assumption as baseless as yours, the second is based on years of knowing Will Payne.
You’re taking an even bigger leap by attributing this to Ken Stolle. Stolle doesn’t like Jim Gilmore, but he’s hardly alone in the Virginia GOP on that point. But Stolle didn’t tell Will to do this, and Stolle doesn’t have control over his employee’s actions any more than any other employer would. So how is Stolle to blame, other than your eagerness to find fault with him?
On the other hand, someone like Stall’s former campaign manager, Pat Murphy, directly abandoned the Stall campaign and went to work for the enemy. Now if you’re looking for someone who had access to confidential information and could have cost the Senate GOP a conservative caucus member and a majority-preserving vote, blame him.
What about John Hager, who joined the Warner Administration? Like it or not, he’s still chairman of RPV.
Simply put, you’re making a mountain out of a molehill on this simply because you don’t like it. And while you’re entitled not to like it, there are still going to be people who remain friends with Will because they know that he did not abuse their trust and they know that politics isn’t the most important thing in life, and neither is the political party or candidate your friend supports.
By the way Stolle funded more than 80% of FitzSimmonds Campaign through PAC’s which he and his comrades control.
A wasted investment, that money could have saved Jay O’Brien and control of the Senate.
I don’t think Stolle or Payne feed Warner any information
which cost Republican seats.
But the guy takes knowledge, skills and abilities to the other side.
Why do republicans and GOP donors spend money on these guys only to have them turn around and work against us.
Stolle is a RINO anyway. He is worthless. He is the main reason why this state languishes with over a million illegal aliens. To call that guy a republican is an assault on the name.
I have to agree with Anonymous @10:54. True, he switched sides with respect to party affiliation, but that’s not to say he’s abused the trust of Stolle or anyone else. It’s a specious claim to say he’s leveraging confidential information for the benefit of the opposition, unless you have proof that he’s done so. That’s like saying I could never work at AMD as an engineer because I’m working for Intel as an engineer.
And to Anonymous @ 11:26, so what if he takes his knowledge, skills and abilities elsewhere? It’s his prerogative to do so. Is it undesirable because it costs the Republican party an able body, or because it gives one to the Democrats? If you’ve determined by now he’s untrustworthy, surely you’re better off to be rid of him.
This is why I’ll be an indepedent forever. Partisan politics will override principle and common sense everywhere it’s found.
Corr: Independent forever.
Maybe the guy just wants to go wtih the better candidate and one that is going to win anyway. Warner is going to beat Gilmore. This is the same Senator Stolle who has made public statements that he does not support State Police and 287g training and only wants it handled in the jails. He is also the one who helped kill a lot of immigration bills last year.
How is this any different than Gary Friedman? Speaking of trust…..
At least this guy made a clean break rather than slinking around and carrying tales.
Once again on this blog, much is being made out of these legislative assistant positions. I laughed when Fittzsimmonds supporters were actually asserting that these are some knd of “insider” policy shaping jobs. They aren’t. They are administrative posts that are VERY apolitical, and in some instances the positions are held by people of the opposite party of their bosses. There are some legislative assistants who have held their positions even as a different member of a different party was elected to the post. Some General Assembly members view this position just for what it is: a constituent affairs adminstrator…..and yes…they have to make coffee too.
They are people hardly in a position to be included in high level campaign and policy strategy sessions on the statewide level. Heck, Stolle himself probably has a hard time getting in on those conference calls.
Maybe he’ll reveal the secret State GOP coffee recipe.
Advocator,
Thats funny, I don’t care who you are..
Clean it Up,
Different legislators rely on their legislative assistants to do different things. Some may be the secretaries you describe, but other legislative assistants are involved in policy, are involved in campaigning, and are insiders even down to advising about tactics inside the caucus. That’s not to say that Will Payne was one or the other.
Greg L said on 14 Nov 2007 at 8:57 pm:
Rob, in a word, no.
You don’t get ahead in the world of politics by abusing trust. You don’t leverage the confidential information you have in order to benefit the other side.
C’mon Greg, this is a stretch, even for you. And as for you above comment, if you really want to split hairs then lets talk about some of the Republican candidates that you supported in this election cycle who abused the trust of their constituents…namely Corey Stewart and the two mailers that he sent out regarding the immigration resolution and the mailer about the proffers in which he lied about a BOCS vote that hadn’t even taken place yet, and when it did take place the vote failed even though Stewart told everyone that it had already passed….yes, that’s really trustworthy, Greg. Unfortunately for PWC, Stewart did get ahead for abusing the trust of this County.
I agree with Rob; it is wrong to assume that Stolle’s aide was feeding secrets to the “enemy.” perhaps he just wanted to further his own career. and unlike you, Greg, there are a lot of people out there who are politically moderate and can work on both sides of the aisle. And to say that his supposed feeding of secrets to the Democrats cost Fitzsimmonds and O’Brien their elections is absurd…I can’t speak for O’Brien, as i don’t live in his district, but as far as Fitzsimmonds, he lost because he was a bad candidate, not because stolle’s aide may or may not have been feeding information to mark warner. you cannot prove any of this and therefore you need to stop making such false accusations.
Curious that there is no mention in the comments about Will’s involvement with Chris Stolle’s losing campaign…
Bob FitzSimmonds is a four time loser and the Republican will let him run again in four years and again he will loose.
Billyboy,
Care to speculate on why they keep letting him run? If I were a Republican, I would be howling like a stuck pig if he were allowed to run again. I just don’t see this individual as a mainstream candidate.
Greg - It appears to me that it is YOU that is the dimit, not Stolle and not Payne. You yourself say:
The other utter dimwit here is quite obviously Senator Ken Stolle. … given Stolle’s own behavior in the Senate over the past several sessions, that’s going to be an uphill battle. He wasn’t what you’d call a “team player”, by any stretch of the imagination.
You then go on throughout your article and berate Mr. Payne for leaving. You questions Stolle’s behavior, call him a dimwit and then allege with absolutely no evidence that this guy is stealing condifdential information from one campaign to bring to another - in this case he has left to work for a moderate Democrat who seems to be more Republican than most Republicans are nowadays.
Maybe Payne is concerned with the good of the Commonwealth of Virginia or maybe he just wants to work for someone that he feels better about. Seriously, it is so clear that attitudes like yours have lead to the Republican’s loss of ontrol of the Congress. People like you need to wake up. Payne may have realized that the Republican Party was leaving people like him behind. If you spend more time figuring out why he left and less time with your conspiricy theories, perhaps you could help improve your party.