Top aide to N.H. congressman resigns

A top aide to U.S. Rep. Charles Bass (news, bio, voting record) resigned Tuesday after disclosures that he posed as a supporter of the Republican’s opponent in blog messages intended to convince people that the race was not competitive.

Operators of two liberal blogs traced the postings to the House of Representatives’ computer server. Bass’ office traced the messages to his policy director, Tad Furtado, and issued a statement announcing Furtado’s resignation Tuesday.

“Tad Furtado posted to political Web sites from my office without my knowledge or authorization and in violation of my office policy,” said Bass, who apologized to the bloggers and said he referred the matter to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

Posting as IndyNH and IndieNH, Furtado professed support for Democrat Paul Hodes but scoffed at a poll showing him tied with Bass and suggested Democrats should invest their time and money elsewhere.

“I am going to look at the competitive race list to figure out where to send another mydd.com/netroots donation and maybe help out in other ways,” IndieNH wrote. “Maybe CT or NY for me — they are at least close by. Anyone interested in pooling NH efforts for some of those races?”

Laura Clawson, who runs “Blue Granite,” and Michael Caulfield, who runs “NH-02 Progressive,” said they were suspicious of IndieNH’s postings from the beginning.

“You see this all the time on political blogs, some elaborate act where someone says, ‘Now, I hate to say something against a Democrat, but,’” Clawson told the Concord Monitor. “So you develop an eye for it. And this poster definitely tripped all the wires.”

After tracing the poster’s IP address, Clawson posted an article last week on the results, and the postings stopped. The bloggers said they also could see opposition research done on Hodes by the same computer user, under searches such as “Hodes and gay marriage” and “Hodes and taxes.”

Bass said in an interview Tuesday that Furtado apologized to him and was “obviously very upset” about the incident, but was not available for comment. There was no phone listing for Furtado in the Washington metropolitan area.

House ethics rules state that congressional staff time and equipment may not be used for campaign purposes, and that criminal and financial penalties can be assessed. The rules also say congressmen are responsible for their staff members’ actions.

Hodes spokesman Reid Cherlin said that although he thinks the resignation is appropriate, “I don’t think it answers the real questions here” because of the opposition research apparently being done from Bass’ congressional office.

Hodes said the Bass camp must have felt threatened by his campaign, his second run against the incumbent.

“The sad thing is to use taxpayers’ money to play dirty tricks in an election,” he said Tuesday.

There was a similar controversy in New Jersey earlier this month, when a liberal blogger accused a campaign staffer for Republican Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr. of using aliases to pose online as an “ardent Democrat.” Kean denied the accusation.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060926/ap_on_el_ho/nh_house_blogger

http://nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060927/NEWS02/109270098