The campaign spokesman for Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul reportedly resigned Thursday evening amid a controversy over a social networking Web page that he maintained.
Liberal blogs first posted allegations that Christopher Hightower had racist remarks and pictures on his MySpace.com Web page. Hightower originally disavowed any connection to the Web page; hours later, Paul's campaign manager announced that Hightower had stepped down.
The controversy has the potential to derail the momentum Paul had been gaining from his strong polling numbers and his powerful Internet-based fundraising machine, which brought in over $230,000 in a single day this week.
Paul's primary opponent, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, said the incident should call into question Paul's judgement as a candidate.
"The views and behavior displayed by Rand Paul's Communications Director have no place in this campaign," Grayson said in a statement. "I think Rand Paul's judgment is seriously in question at this point."
Grayson pointed to recent statements made by Hightower in which he refused to condemn a video made by a Paul supporter that incorporated Adolf Hitler in an ad that bashed Grayson as evidence that "there seems to be a patter of these kinds of disturbing views in [Paul's] campaign.
"I think it's time [Paul] made it clear where exactly he agrees and disagrees with Chris Hightower," Grayson said.
Update: Paul Campaign manager David Adams dismissed Grayson's comments Friday morning.
The situation involving Hightower "was becoming too much of a distraction. Chris resigned to end the distraction," Adams said. "Trey has said a lot of things, he'll say a lot more things. We're confident that as the campaign moves along more and more Kentuckians will grow to trust Rand and see the wisdom in electing him our next United States senator."
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Comments
Like father like son.
The Paul family is white power all the way.
Sad that they would let the hate infect them so.
Posted by: capt
| December 18, 2009 9:39 AM
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