Richardson's PI: An Update

The Richardson campaign takes issue with my short post about the private investigator hired by Richardson's presidential staff. That Richardson's campaign paid $12,500 to one Michael Corwin, a PI, is not in dispute. But Richardson's communications director, Pahl Shipley, said that Corwin does not perform opposition research -- in fact, no member of the Richardson campaign does. Corwin performs background checks on Richardson's own staff.

The campaign contracted with a company to perform public records background checks and research potential hires and others associated with the campaign- a standard practice. He does not do research on opponents. If the other campaigns are saying they don’t do those kinds of internal checks, they’re not telling the truth. You’ve been around long enough to know better. Let me be clear- the campaign has not hired anyone to perform research on opponents. I could have told you that in a quick phone call. The better Governor Richardson does in the polls and the more attention he gets the more dirt other campaigns try to shovel. It’s a shame that it is apparently so easy to have others do the dirty work for rival campaigns. Unfortunately your credibility also takes a hit. Governor Richardson is keeping to his pledge of not engaging in negative campaigning, as difficult as that is given what the other campaigns are doing. Think about it- when was the last time our campaign sent you something negative about another candidate?

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/07/richardsons-pi-an-update/50030/