For sale: Conservative bloggers and (possibly) Mike Huckbaee

Are bloggers getting extra "advertising" cash from campaigns? And is Mike Huckabee's endorsement for sale?

Published August 23, 2010 10:01PM (EDT)

Mike Huckabee and Meg Whitman
Mike Huckabee and Meg Whitman

Tucker Carlson's "Daily Carlson" reports that conservative blogs are taking money from Republican candidates and campaign consultants for positive coverage.

Jonathan Strong's Journolist stories demonstrated a propensity for exaggeration and occasional outright invention, so I take this with a grain of salt. But an unnamed campaign operative does call it "standard operating procedure" to pay for good coverage.

According to Strong, a strategist for former California gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner hired a blogger named Aaron Park as a "consultant," although Park did not disclose this fact at "Red County," the conservative blog he wrote for. Which was smart, considering Red County had, in fact, received $20,000 from the campaign of Poizner's opponent, Meg Whitman.

Apparently a number of small-market, barely read political blogs are seeking -- receiving -- extremely inflated sums of money for "advertising." But on the whole, the DC's article seems to be sexed up beyond the point of usefulness, as I have no idea how common the practice is or if it even happens outside of a few isolated incidents.

Meanwhile, someone working for Florida gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott has alleged that Mike Huckabee offered to endorse Scott, if Scott gave Huckabee $250,000. Huckabee, obviously, denies the charge, which doesn't actually make that much sense. He has endorsed Scott's opponent, Bill McCollum.


By Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene

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2010 Elections Meg Whitman Mike Huckabee War Room