John McCann’s financial disclosure leaves unanswered questions

Congressional candidate John McCann finally got around to filing his required personal financial disclosure statement with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives after his failure to do so on time was brought to the public’s attention by the New Jersey media. True to the halting and uncertain style of his campaign, McCann filed his twice… on the same day.

Of interest is the odd way in which he reported his own income.  First, McCann confused his reporting requirements with those of his spouse – and filed as if she were the candidate:

Later that same day, he filed his already late disclosure statement, only this time he included his income:

Hey Republicans!  Look how much John McCann made working for the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County.  Doesn’t it make you a little queasy?

And what does “fees” mean?  How do you earn $498,545 in “fees” while working full-time on the Bergen County payroll?  Is this going to be one of those deals where this guy bills for more hours than there are in a day?

Under the source of income, McCann simply writes “Practice”.  What does that mean?  And is he even following the law?  The law and the instructions that accompany the financial statement are very clear on how to report income:

So what’s the deal?  Why has John McCann failed to fully disclose the source of nearly $700,000 in income?

And if “practice” refers to McCann’s law practice, why is it that earlier in the disclosure statement he reports its value as so little?

And why does he report that his law practice had no income?

None of it makes any sense, which is kind of the norm with John McCann.

The madness continues…

Did McCann photo-shop picture with Trump?

For us, the candidacy of John McCann has been a bag of laughs.  So fond are we of poking fun at his haughty -- yet hapless -- way of stumbling forth, that a few of our contributors have seriously considered helping him in the primary.  That's how much we will hate to see him go.

So here's the latest.  Somewhere along the way, the McCann campaign procured a photograph that pictures "Stumbling John" and The Donald shaking hands.  The President appears just a bit too animated, while McCann looks as if he just came from the shower and forgot to dry his hair.  We don't know where the photo came from, or when, or even if it is real. 

What leads us to question it is the McCann campaign's habit of changing the background to the photograph to suit their mood.  Why anyone would take such an important campaign image and then screw with it is beyond us.

(SOURCE:  McCann for Congress website)

(SOURCE: McCann for Congress Facebook page)

So what's next?  McCann shaking Trump's hand in front of the Eiffel Tower?  Or the two of them at the Great Pyramid of Giza?  Maybe they will photo-shop them with lederhosen or sombreros?  Or in Turkish towels, fresh from a sauna?  There is no end to what the McCann campaign can do with this photograph... except bring back its original honesty, if indeed, it was there in the first place.

Yet another case of John McCann pissing down his own leg.  Or perhaps it was his campaign that pissed on his leg?  Either way, it left the candidate a bit... soggy.

Candidates say the darndest things.

Here is candidate for Congress John McCann, explaining how it works to an enraptured audience of YR's and others...

Did McCann pay for an endorsement? Aide says, "yes".

John McCann's campaign did themselves a mischief again. 

This time by shopping around a story to the Washington Examiner about McCann's recent fundraiser with Sebastian Gorka, a former foreign policy advisor at the White House who was fired by the Trump administration after a few months on the job.  The Examiner story leads with the following headline: 

"Sebastian Gorka wades into New Jersey primary for another $5,000."

The article ends with:

"Before supporting McCann in New Jersey, (Gorka) looked west, endorsed Republican Danny Tarkanian in Nevada — then a candidate for Senate — and collected another $5,000 in “speaking fees.” Asked in February whether he sold his endorsement to Tarkanian, Gorka said it was an “honorarium” and added that an endorsement sale “would be illegal.” 

When reached for comment for this story, Gorka answered: “Get a life you hack. You’re not a journalist so I have nothing to say to you and I’m blocking this email.”

Brutal stuff... which led to this morning's Politico story in which McCann claims to deny everything his campaign told the Examiner:

MCCANCEL PAYMENT -  The Washington Examiner, a conservative publication,  reports  via an anonymous campaign aide that 5th District Congressional candidate John McCann paid former Trump adviser Rick Gorka, who endorsed him and raised money for him, $5,000. McCann denies this on Twitter. "This not true. FEC filings will show my campaign did not pay Gorka a penny. The statement by my aide is simply not true." I've been waiting for McCann's FEC report because Gorka has a history of being paid not for his endorsement but, ahem,  a "speaking fee."  Of course, McCann or Gorka could have headed off that Washington Examiner story that McCann says is false if either had answered my question about whether Gorka was being paid when I asked it two weeks ago.

The conduct of the McCann campaign has raised eyebrows before.  Some key consultants on the campaign have bragged to some very reputable people about what they were being paid by McCann -- and yet their names never appeared on the McCann campaign's disclosures to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).  Now we have this Gorka affair.

Well, they don't call him "Stumbling John" McCann for nothing.  Shambolic. 

On gun-control, McCann tries to have it both ways.

When phonies want to appear as though they support the Second Amendment, they have a nice photograph taken of themselves with a firearm of some kind.  So following in the footsteps of John Kerry and Barack Obama, candidate John McCann posted a photo of himself playing with a gun.

(FYI:  Gilson works for McCann.  One lies, the other swears by it.)

All this play-acting aside, when John McCann was asked to fill out a questionnaire that would put in writing where he stood on the issues affecting the Second Amendment, hunting, school safety, and such -- McCann refused.  He will show up and spew some b.s. (so long as he isn't video-recorded) and take a picture, but he won't put in writing where he stands.

McCann dissed the NRA when they asked him to step up and tell them where he stood on the issues of importance to their members.  McCann wants it both ways.  He wants NRA votes and Brady Campaign votes.  That's dishonest.

Typical lawyer?  Well, there are good, pro-Second Amendment attorneys out there, so we think it is more a case of typical urban political machine lawyer.

Candidate John McCann served as the right-hand-man to the Democrat Sheriff of Bergen County (according to the Bergen Record).  He's the guy who switched Bergen County from GOP red to Democrat blue.  In 2016, the Sheriff ran on a ticket headed by Democrats Hillary Clinton for President and Josh Gottheimer for Congress.  John McCann worked for the Democrat then, celebrated that victory with his boss, and continued to work for the Democrat until late last year, when he departed to run for Congress as a Republican.

Why would McCann do such a thing?  He had 167,000 reasons a year plus benefits.  That was reason enough for McCann.

John McCann has been in bed with Democrats for years.  A case in point is John McCann's sneaky little way of getting contributions to Democrat candidates.  Take this example from Passaic County.

McCann's wife used her maiden name and her office address in New York City to slip $1,000.00 to a Democrat running in Wayne Township.  Here is a copy of the report, filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC):

SINGLE CONTRIBUTOR VIEW

John McCann is a phony -- a b.s. artist.  He is supported by corrupt convicts and thug life.  Politics is worse for his presence on a ballot.

McCann dissing Jewish voters in CD05? What will NJGOP do?

Once again, "Stumbling John" McCann has pissed down his leg.  A liberal both by habit and instinct, McCann couldn't help but go overboard when trying to "improve" his conservative credentials.  So McCann brought in a controversial figure who has been linked in the media with some rather unsavory folks of the "blood and soil" variety.

This is what so-called GOP "moderates" do, like last year when they trashed a Sikh in race in Southern New Jersey.  Instead of winning on ideas -- and ideas are cross-cultural and colorblind -- they go with personalities, trying to turn a candidate into a celebrity, and when that fails, they go straight to what they think their party's base is really all about. And it isn't, but they don't know that.

Here is what was reported this morning in Politico, by Matt Freidman:

The former chairman of Bergen County‘s Republican Party is slamming a congressional candidate for raising money with Sebastian Gorka, a one-time adviser to President Donald Trump who wore a medal associated with a Hungarian group that collaborated with Nazi Germany.

“It’s absolutely despicable. It shows that I have to assume that John McCann approves of this man,” said Bob Yudin, who chaired the Bergen County GOP from 2008 to 2016 and backs McCann rival Steve Lonegan for the GOP nomination in the 5th Congressional District. “This man seems to have sympathy toward fascists and Nazis, and this act of accepting support from him disqualifies John McCann in all ways and manners from being my congressman.”

...The 5th District has approximately 67,000 Jewish residents, or just over 9 percent of its population, according to the Jewish Data Bank. That’s the second-largest Jewish population of New Jersey’s 12 congressional districts.

You can read the full column here:  https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2018/03/23/mccann-slammed-over-ties-to-former-trump-adviser-gorka-325596

Gorka has been accused of selling his endorsement to candidates looking for readymade "Trump" cred.  The Washington Examiner reported (February 22, 2018):

Sebastian Gorka doesn’t want to talk about his special friendship with Danny Tarkanian, the insurgent Republican challenging incumbent Sen. Dean Heller in the Nevada GOP primary.

Asked at CPAC whether he sold Tarkanian his endorsement, the former White House strategist bristles. “No, because that would be illegal,” Gorka tells me in his English accent, taking care to emphasize each word. “I was given an honorarium.”

As the Washington Examiner first reported, the timeline of payments and speeches and endorsements is as follows: Gorka endorsed Tarkanian on stage in Nevada on Dec. 20. Disclosures filed with the Federal Electoral Commission show that the candidate paid the speaker $5,000 the day before.

The campaign later confirmed the payment and claimed it’s not unusual for politicians to pay speaking fees to their endorsers. But a search through FEC records shows the opposite. In the last three election cycles, only two candidates ever made such payments.

Asked if it is normal for him to get paid for speaking gigs with politicians, Gorka guffaws: “Me getting speaking fees? Every week, yes.”

You can read the full column here: 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/sebastian-gorka-denies-selling-danny-tarkanian-his-endorsement-for-5-000

McCann's event with Sabastian Gorka is March 28th.

The NJGOP is trying to expand its base along the lines of demographics.  We don't know what demographic group they are shooting for with someone like Gorka, but we advise them to take the path of ideas.  Ideas are open to everyone.