Former Mother-In-Law Doesn’t Want Grandkids Used As Campaign Props
Posted on October 1, 2008 at 5:31 pmDemocratic state Senate candidate Randy Camp is once again at the center of some in-law drama.
It appears that Camp’s former brother-in-law, who has been sending letters to citizens of the 26th District documenting his disgust over the treatment of his sister during her 20-plus year marriage to Mr. Camp, is not alone among members of his family in having a fondness for committing his thoughts to paper.
Post Politics has learned that Nancy Roland, the mother of Camp’s former wife Lisa, has also written a letter. In the missive, which was sent to an estimated “hundreds” around the district, Roland echoes her son’s accounts of the mistreatment of her daughter as well as Camp’s many admitted adulteries.
But she also adds a new charge.
In the letter, Ms. Roland asserts that she asked Mr. Camp to refrain from using his daughters and grandchild, her granddaughters and great grandson, in political ads.
“Because of all Lisa had been through, I wrote and begged him not to use the children and our great grandson in his politics. He has ignored my request,” Roland states in the letter.
The daughters, Catherine and Leigh Camp, however, have been on the campaign trail and were featured in at least one political advertisement along with pictures of Catherine’s young son, Brayden.
Camp’s ex-wife, Lisa, confirmed that she was aware of the letter and while she did not solicit or instigate it’s writing, she does vouch for it’s content.
On the subject of Catherine and Leigh’s campaign activities, Lisa Roland tells Post Politics that while she has never asked her daughters explicitly to refrain from the practice (and never would), she has expressed her feelings on the matter.
“They know I’m not fond of it,” explains Ms. Camp. “But, he’s their Dad. I want to them to have a relationship with him. I would never stand in the way of that.”
Nancy Roland also confirmed that she did author the letter because of “everything my daughter has been through.”
When asked whether she had been helped with the letter or its distribution by Republican operatives or political opponents of Camp, Roland responded, “Oh no, I am not really a political person. I’m a political independent. I vote for the best person for the job.”
Roland added that Mr. Camp has, to date, neither answered nor acknowledged her letter imploring him not to use her grandchildren in his political campaign.
Requests for comment to Randy Camp were referred to Senate Democratic Caucus Political Director Mark Brown who issued the following statement.
“Randy’s grown daughters love their father and support his campaign because they understand the importance of this election to their futures and the future of District 26. They agree with their father about the importance of bringing good-paying jobs to the district and improving access to health care. Obviously, Gresham and her surrogates desperately want to change the subject from the fact that Gresham’s top legislative accomplishment has been to raise her own pay.”
Do You Know What Dad’s Best At?
Posted on September 23, 2008 at 2:23 pmSerial adultery? No? So close.
A television commercial from the 26th District state Senate campaign of Randy Camp — featuring his supportive offspring:
Camp Was Randy: State Senate Candidate Admitted Adultery As Grounds For Divorce
Posted on August 22, 2008 at 2:34 pm
While State Senate Candidate Randy Camp has received the blessing of the state’s highest ranking Democrat in his quest to hold the state Senate seat of former Lt. Governor John Wilder for the party, another state Democrat of significantly less prominence is not at all enthusiastic about the candidacy of Mr. Camp.
Tommy Roland, brother in law to Mr. Camp for 20 years, has written a damning letter, obtained by Post Politics, in which he calls into question his former brother-in-law’s fitness to serve.
The letter, dated July 15, which Mr. Roland says was sent to Governor Bredesen, Lt. Governor Wilder and “various others around the 26th state Senate District” accuses Mr. Camp of gross martial misconduct.
“Randy Camp’s conduct while married to my sister was horrible. He was having several affairs right under our noses. His actions have resulted in at least two broken marriages and damage to others, Families in both Crockett and Gibson Counties have been hurt by all of this. Lisa also received anonymous letters from Nashville telling her of extramarital affairs as well,” says Roland in the letter.
Attached with the letter is a copy of the divorce judgment against Mr. Camp in which Camp concedes to adultery as grounds for the divorce. An appellate court decision which gets into further details of the divorce including a dispute over alimony, is also online.
“Mr. Camp contends that the trial court erred in awarding Ms. Camp alimony in futuro rather than rehabilitative alimony, and in setting alimony at an inappropriately high amount. Mr. Camp asserts that, as the trial court found, Ms. Camp is a healthy and intelligent woman who is capable of earning $25,000 to $40,000 per year, depending on whether she completes her bachelor’s degree. He argues that the parties did not enjoy a lavish lifestyle during the course of their marriage and that, in light of the division of property, Ms. Camp is able to maintain a lifestyle similar to that enjoyed prior to the divorce and does not need alimony in futuro.”
Camp’s brother-in-law says that, while he does usually vote Democrat, he is not a political person and has no political agenda — he simply feels called to speak out.
“I’m just a country boy standin’ up for my sister,” Roland tells Post Politics. “If [Camp] had just waited a year or two, nobody in this family would have said a word about any of this.”
Indeed, timing seems to be a very crucial issue for Roland. He objects quite vigorously to the opening of wounds so quickly after infliction contending that the final divorce appeal was only resolved a month before Mr. Camp threw his hat in the ring for state senate (although he did appear to waver a bit).
Tommy Roland explains, “After nearly twenty years of infidelity and two years fighting in court, we all thought it was finally over. Then, thirty days after the court decided for Lisa, Mr. Camp announced his candidacy. How he could even think about running for office at this point in time is unbelievable.”
When contacted Camp’s ex-wife, Lisa Faye Roland Camp, told Post Politics that while she was not aware of her brother’s intention to send the letter she supports her brother in “doing what he felt he needed to do” and vouches for the letter’s veracity.
“Everything in the letter is true,” explains the candidate’s ex-wife.
In 2006, Camp resigned his position as State Administrative Officer of the Courts stating at the time his reason for the resignation in a press release.
“For the past several months I have been dealing with personal matters involving my family in West Tennessee,” Camp said. “These matters have now reached a level of complexity that will require even more of my attention over the coming weeks, perhaps months.”
Contacted by Post Politics, Camp said he was aware of the letter and, in fact, said the one originally received by Post Politics is not the only one of its kind circulating. Indeed, a different version of the letter, dated July 28, includes a postscript mentioning the harassment he received after sending the first letter.
Camp thinks that the distribution of these letters are, at the very least, intriguing.
“For a guy who claims to know nothing about politics, it’s interesting that these letters are shipped through bulk mail and seem to be sent to targeted voters,” explained Camp.
Camp tells P-squared that his campaign has received many, many calls about the letters most always from white female voters. Camp says that even when the callers are male they are always calling on behalf of a wife or a sister. Camp would not comment on whether he thought the letters were part of a coordinated effort by political opponents.
As to the content of the letter(s), Camp says there are both true and untrue statements contained within. He says, in the interest of his daughters (who support him and travel with him on the campaign trail), he is not going to go about rebutting any of it. That said, Camp does not shy away from admitting wrongdoing.
“Listen, like some folks have told me, if they had just stuck with the truth it would be bad enough,” said Camp. “I’m not hiding or covering up anything.”
The alimony dispute, Camp explains, was in the interest of his children.
“My ex-wife got quite a bit of property up front and she is capable of working. I was simply trying to get more money to my children. The judge made his decision, though, and that’s the end of it,” Camp explained.
Camp does not believe that his adultery should in any way disqualify him from office.
“If we only allowed perfect people to serve, we wouldn’t have many people up there,” explained Camp. “But that’s up to the voters to decide.”
Camp will face current state Rep. Dolores Gresham, who weeks ago emerged from a squeaker of a GOP primary with former candidate Bob Schutt, in the general election for the traditionally Democratic seat. The open seat is crucial one in the battle for the General Assembly as the Tennessee state Senate is currently divided evenly 16-16-1.
SEE ALSO:
Appellate court judgment
Tommy Roland Letter
Photo Of Camp with Harold Ford, Jr.
Bill Hobbs
Sean Braisted
McCain Doesn’t Try To Hide The Scarlett Letter
Posted on August 18, 2008 at 5:57 amThe Median Sib praises John McCain for fully embracing Pastor Rick Warren’s question about his greatest moral failing:
McCain, on the other hand, demonstrated a clear understanding of his position on the issues and had the ability to reply succinctly and, I might add, humbly at times. I thought his reply about his greatest personal moral failing was amazing. He faced the #1 moral failing that the dems blast him on (something that happened over 25 years ago) and admitted that yes, it WAS a moral failing, and yes, he is an imperfect person. He didn’t try to explain it away or cloud the issue.
SEE ALSO:
Liberadio(!)
American Conservative
Daddy Pundit
Coyote Chronicles
Sharon Cobb
Instapundit
Blog From The Capital
10,000 Monkeys
More Edwards Reactions
Posted on August 10, 2008 at 6:38 pmThe Tennessee Guerilla Women provide video from the now infamous interview where John Edwards admits an affair with a woman not his wife:
To be sure there are more “important” things to be discussing but, this world, it is what is. More reactions from the Tennessee blogosphere are below.
And yet, it’s a big [expletive deleted] deal that Edwards had an affair and then ran for president, but not for John McLame, who had an affair and finally asked for a divorce from his first wife while she was recuperating from cancer surgery? Hey, dudes, get your [expletive deleted] priorities straight if you are going to fuss about sex scandals.
Baby Boomers in politics amaze me. I’m not one of them, but I have to say, they have changed the world.
I don’t necessarily mean that as a compliment.
People can do the nasty with whom ever they want to. I honestly don’t care.
But don’t act surprised and contrite when people find it distasteful. Adultery is like cancer. Most folks have been impacted by it in one way or another and when they find out about these things, they personalize it. And if they have been impacted by adultery and they hear of this sort of news, then folks who did what the guys up there did are immediately put on the putz list.
I like Elizabeth Edwards so much, and I couldn’t figure out why she’s defending her husband. And then the sad truth hit me.
She’s dying, and she’s going to leave a little girl and a little boy to grow up without a mother. So she needs to keep the family together, so when she’s gone, the young children won’t hate their father for what he did to their mother and they will have their father around.
Elizabeth put her husband ahead of her life so he could go for his dreams,(and the selfish bastard still…) and now as she’s living and dying, she’s putting what is best for her childrens future ahead of her pride and pain and anger.
She’s a remarkable woman, and deserves so much better.
SO NOW THAT WE KNOW THAT THE PRESS COVERED FOR EDWARDS — just as, pre-invasion, they covered for Saddam — that raises a question: What else are they not telling us for fear it will hurt the Democrats’ prospects?
One, I appreciate the fact that Edwards “man upped” and did all of this public confession without forcing his wife to stand by her man. You remember the infamous Hillary 60 minutes and now everybody else feels like they must subject their wives to the Hillary standard. Even when Jim McGreevey admits to sleeping with the same sex, he takes his wife out there. The Republican pervert from the men’s bathroom stalls takes his wife out there. Give me a break! Edwards gets high points from me for going this public confession alone. He committed the act alone without his wife, the confession should be his his alone.
I sometimes wonder if people pay attention to what comes out their mouths. Edwards now has plenty of time to try to make things right with his family, as political career is over.
John Edwards’ hypocrisy is even worse now. He’s the one who made his seemingly perfect family the centerpiece of his campaign, and made his own wife into a martyr in the process. Moralizing others, and accusing those who disagreed of elitism, was how he got his message across.
And how can we use that offensive and judgmental word “cheating” about a domestic situation we literally know nothing about? We don’t know what private agreements may have been reached between the Edwardses — up to and including the possibility that she may have been physically delbilitated to the point of accommodating, or even suggesting, alternate forms of companionship for her husband. I think we all know of relationships involving physically impaired partners — of either gender — in which there is a tacit understanding of that sort.
Perhaps if he had taken a look around once in a while, at all the good people who were helping him up, he might have realized that he didn’t get where he was all alone. Then perhaps he wouldn’t have felt so much like superman.
It’s a bad situation for his family regardless of what he says, but to know that he’d have meaningless and loveless sex wouldn’t really be very reassuring to his wife, in my opinion. And it would certainly make her question the character of the man she married that he would hold his marital vows in such low regard.
So his chief fundraisers have been paying his mistress off under the table. So Mr. Two-Americas sent his bastard child off with his single mother. So he made one of his married apparatchiks take the fall for it. So he hid it for a year. So the national press refused to cover it as a favor to him out of more respect for his wife than he ever had for her.
God. Who hasn’t done the exact same thing?
Am I disappointed? Yes, a little–as with Bill Clinton and Gary Hart, I just want to ask: What the hell were you thinking? When you’re in the media spotlight, it might be a good idea to at least try to make your personal life above reproach.
What I am ticked about is that Edwards ran for president after all this happened. Not only did that greatly increase the odds that his family would get dragged through this mess, but had he won the nomination we would likely have lost an election that should have been a gimme in this political climate. Hubris among powerful men who cheat on their spouses is hardly new or remarkable though. With luck the short-attention-spanned public will soon get distracted by the Olympics and these two can get on with their own issues without us sticking our noses in it.
Edwards continued to repeat “supermarket tabloid” every single time he was asked about the baby being his, his meeting in the hotel with is mistress, hush money being paid, etc.
In other words, while he claims he’s taking responsibility for what he did, he’s trying to discredit every single word of the Enquirer at the same time.
Well, John, it was the National Enquirer who broke the story in 2007 about your affair, and people then dismissed it as just a supermarket tabloid.
Those days are over for you, Mr. Edwards. And you’re such a narcissist, you really think people are automatically going to believe you again and dismiss the Enquirer?
Not a chance!
Most grownups doubt that Young is the father. Assuming he is not, the Young family’s prestige and reputation have been tarnished in order to protect Edwards’ infidelity and the lies that John and Elizabeth have been telling. That would mean the Edwardses pulled another family into their scandal, which makes it increasingly difficult to consider this a private family matter.
Meanwhile, Edwards treatment of Rielle Hunter is horrific. Depending on which story you believe, Edwards either passed his mistress on to his friend Andrew Young after he was through enjoying her, or the Young story is a lie and Edwards just doesn’t want to claim the daughter he fathered with Hunter.
In his confession yesterday Edwards said he didn’t love Hunter, which means he just announced to the world that he used her for sex and now he’s done with her. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and now Hunter’s family is now challenging Edwards to take a paternity test. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of Rielle Hunter. I also don’t think we’ve heard the last of John Edwards’s confessions.
SEE ALSO:
Allan Butterfield, National Enquirer, tells about his John Edwards investigation.
“Extra” Interview with Edwards mistress Rielle Hunter
Edwards’s Ex-Lover Rejects Idea Of DNA Test
You Wanna Talk About Adultery? Are You Sure?
Posted on April 23, 2008 at 7:45 amCommenting on his personal blog, TNGOP Communications Director Bill Hobbs states that he cannot believe that Rep. Stacey Campfield didn’t make a very obvious retort when berated before the Judiciary Committee during discussion over a bill allowing men to opt out of child support payments for children determined not to be theirs:
Briley, you’ll recall, was the very married father of four who, according to press reports, cheated on his wife and had an affair with the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association lobbyist while she was shepherding legislation through the House Judiciary Committee that Briley chaired.
Campfield managed to hold fire and not blister Briley with the response Briley so richly deserved, but I’d have loved to have heard him respond, “No, Rep. Briley, I don’t believe adultery is ever appropriate. Do you?”
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