Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jay Stamper put out an aggressive statement this week in support of gay marriage. We don’t agree with him on that issue (government should stay out of the marriage business completely), but his release raised an interesting question …
Who is Jay Stamper?
Earlier this week we ran a guest column from an anonymous Democrat. This writer ripped Stamper and urged the S.C. Democratic Party (SCDP) to recruit a “real candidate” – a “reputable Democrat” – to challenge him for the party’s 2014 nomination.
“He is not a viable candidate,” the columnist wrote of Stamper, adding that he “is a convicted felon and appears to have moved from Washington State to South Carolina this year solely for the purpose of running for office, but he can’t raise any money to do so.”
“His financial disclosure shows he is in serious debt and has no income,” the columnist added.
Stamper received probation and more than $10,000 in fines related to his former business – Federal Savings. According to prosecutors, Stamper’s company was misleading investors and selling unregistered securities.
Stamper disputes that characterization.
“I received very bad advice from lawyers, acted on that bad advice and ended up paying a heavy price for it,” Stamper told FITS. “I never lied, cheated or stole. No one lost any money except for me. I took responsibility early on and made it my continuing priority to make sure my investors received the promised return on their investment – even contributing $600,000 of my own money to make sure that happened.”
Democrats – still smarting from the Alvin Green debacle of 2010 – remain unconvinced.
“He’s a convicted felon who moved to South Carolina in March,” one top Democrat told us, adding “Why do you think he picked our state?”
Another Democratic strategist expressed concern that Stamper’s bid was “about attaining some other end than actually being elected to the U.S. Senate.”
“No one knows anything about his real motivations for seeking this seat,” the strategist said.
Stamper is undeterred in the face of such criticism.
“The bottom line is that we all make mistakes,” he said. “I have my issues, Lindsey Graham has his issues and then there are the real issues: jobs, education, infrastructure, tax reform, the budget crisis.”
“I expect to be hit hard on this by Lindsey Graham, who sees scandals everywhere, from Benghazi to the IRS Tea Party scandal,” Stamper added. “Of course the real scandal is that Graham voted to authorize over $1.4 trillion in spending for overseas engagements and nation building when we desperately need nation building right here in the US for infrastructure.”
Graham – who has $7 million in the bank for his reelection bid – is facing a trio of challengers in the 2014 Republican primary election, Upstate businessman and former congressional candidate Richard Cash, Lowcountry businesswoman Nancy Mace and S.C. Sen. Lee Bright (R-Spartanburg).
Collectively, Graham’s challengers have raised less than $500,000 since announcing.
36 comments
Not only does Stamper not have a snowball’s chance in hell, even if the SCDP found a candidate with proper background it wouldn’t matter as far as Graham’s seat anyway.
Both Stamper and the SCDP are living in a fantasy world if they think they are knocking SC’s favorite butt pirate off his perch.
He will fit well with the Democrat Party.
By contrast, Senator Lee Bright has walked the walk and proven himself to be a
genuine Tea-Party Republican fiscal conservative… by declaring bankruptcy in order to get out of paying his debts. All above-board and legal-like- what a great way to cut spending!
Isn’t South Carolina the state that chose Newt Gingrich to be the next presidential candidate and chose Mark Sanford as SC congressman after he went AWOL and used the state money to carry out his affair? Guess if anyone wants to try for a political office, they can come down to good old SC and try out..
The Dems better primary him and do it with somebody good. There are a bunch of Repubs who won’t vote for Graham in the general election. Repub grassroots dis-satisfaction with Graham is the Dems best bet at winning that seat.
Get real!This is SOUTH Carolina!Whoever has the R by their name will win.
Let’s see, carpet bagger, bogus banker, bogus real estate sales firm CEO, internet hoaxter and web address squatter from the land of grunge, over priced coffee, rain and amorality – looks like the perfect Democrat candidate.
Stamper is so bad that even the politically obtuse folks in the “land of grunge” wouldn’t vote for him.
And Lindsay Graham is the perfect Republican candidate.Your point?
I’m kinda hopin’ somebody else’ll show up – I’d vote for Lindsey over this carpetbagger but only while holding my nose.
Carpetbagger? Hell, if he comes all the way from Washington state that makes him an illegal imagrent, or at least a foreigner.
Nice comment spelling champ.
Nice comment, Captain Punctuation!
My two older children call my younger one a Yankee because he was born in Charlotte…
Carpetbagger refers to any body who “ain’t from around here” getting involved in our politics. I lived in Washington state for a few years – beautiful place, great beer – most amoral (not immoral) place I’ve ever lived.
TBG respectfully disagrees.
Anybody. But. Lindsey.
A convicted felon running for U.S. Senate? This is South Carolina.
This guy has some balls to talk about lawyers… According to his financial disclosure, he hasn’t paid back the ones that kept him out of jail.
This is the same Jeremy (Jay) Stamper who filed with the Sec. of State in March as a non-profit known as Palmetto Regional Center Corp. The address given is 3411 River Dr. Cola., SC 29201. Bet he’s up to no good.
Hey Jay, I mean Jeremy, nothing like making a living selling fake certificates of deposit, huh?
Hard to believe, but Alvin Green is a more credible candiate than this flake.
Thank you Charles, but why do you say it is hard to believe?
Stamper whom I’ve known for almost five years, has had two lifelong dreams – to run for (and be elected for!) Congress as two of his family members have done (including his grandfather long-time Boeing President Malcolm Stamper) and to live in South Carolina. Both of these dreams hatched as a college student majoring in Government at Connecticut College, interning for several U.S. Senate candidates and taking trips to the South Carolina coast. Although he was born in WA state, he has lived all over the country on both the east and west coasts and has started (and sold) numerous successful businesses over the course of his entrepreneurial career.
Why are people within his own party focusing on only one of those business, that, of the 37 states it operated in, resulted in a war between attorneys about the very vague interpretation of securities regulations? SEC regulations were not clear about exemptions for certain short-term products – it is really the attorneys who wrote the original offering documents that are at fault in my view. Or perhaps it is the SEC for not making their regulations more clear so that any attorney would be able to interpret them as intended. More than anything that experience of having to accept a plea because there were no additional funds to continue defending himself and his clients, has made him a stronger EVEN MORE VIABLE candidate who now feels strongly about the need to reform vague, complex laws and regulations… our tax code perhaps?
Although innocent, does pleading to a charge due to his attorney’s misinterpretation of legal regulations make him any less viable of a candidate than others? Is choosing to not fight further for his innocence worse or better than other politicians in office who knowingly broke the law, but were not caught or charged? Take a politician who may have used drugs at some point in his or her lifetime. Were they knowingly breaking the law? And if they had been charged whether innocent or not, would that have made them a non-viable candidate? There are several President in our past that would fall under this category.
There is a reason why our constitution does not prohibit those who might have plead to a charge from running for office. Our justice system is far from perfect and it is important to examine the circumstances that lead to Jay’s deciding to accept this charge and give up his defense to use his own funds to honor his commitment to his investors.
I contend that he is courageous for putting his life under scrutiny by the public, having to explain and defend a situation that happened long ago, and of course for working tirelessly for the ideals he believes in.
Jay – this has to be the most transparently fake blog comment I have ever seen.
“… More than anything that experience of having to accept a plea because there were no additional funds to continue defending himself…has made him a stronger EVEN MORE VIABLE candidate who now feels strongly about the need to reform vague, complex laws and regulations… our tax code perhaps?(So what you’re saying is we need more stupid criminals for our representatives)
Although innocent, does pleading to a charge due to his attorney’s misinterpretation of legal regulations make him any less viable of a candidate than others? (No it makes him stupid for hiring an idiot for a lawyer) Is choosing to not fight further for his innocence worse or better than other politicians in office who knowingly broke the law…(No it makes him guilty as charged)
There is a reason why our constitution does not prohibit those who might have plead to a charge from running for office. (Yeah, our founders thought we’d be smarter than that but then there’s Alcee Hastings) Our justice system is far from perfect and it is important to examine the circumstances that lead to Jay’s deciding to accept this charge and give up his defense to use his own funds to honor his commitment to his investors. (Like maybe he was broke….)
Not buying what you’re selling here my friend.
Boy-o-Boy! This essay was immediately ready for posting on Fitsnews….
Long ago? Five years isn’t long ago.
He’s a carpetbagger who thinks people here are so stupid they will vote for him.
He picked the wrong party. The GOPers love carpetbaggers.
Last time the Democrats nominated a carpetbagger for governor – and, he had lived here more than 5 months – they used the residency law and brought his dreams to an end.
Thumbs down for dissing Ron Paul.
Thumbs up for referencing ol’ Charles “Pug”.
…interning for several U.S. Senate candidates…
Note to self:
Add “Unpaid intern to Alvin Greene” to resume’.
This guy was pimping himself out to GOP folks last year calling himself a Ron Paul Republican who was going to challenge Graham…The all of a sudden he is running as a democrat.
Details?
Sorry, just have to let this one play out. He asked enough GOP folks to assist him in writing that it will be put out in time.
Lying, worthless piece of shit…sounds like Ron Paul.
Didn’t work out well last election for “Flattop Bob” (?), though he did get TBG’s vote.
“(government should stay out of the marriage business completely)”
Is it not a legal contract in every country on the planet?
Do you think all issues through so poorly before you come up with what you think is a pure ideological opinion?
I shall vote a straight Democratic ticket.
Suggestion for “Today”s Tuneage” :
“Take the Money and Run” THE Steve Miller Band