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Tommy_Carcetti

(43,080 posts)
Thu Oct 24, 2019, 11:52 AM Oct 2019

Third Party Candidates and Tim Canova

(I realize this is borderline GD: DP, but I think there are issues that go beyond the primary itself in here. If mods find it necessary to repost, I will.)

Hillary Clinton's charge against Tulsi Gabbard--implied, since she did not bother to use her name, and yet Tulsi immediately confirmed it was all about her--that Gabbard was being used as a propaganda tool for the Russians and could even be groomed as a potential third party disruptor candidate, was received by some as a wild conspiracy theory.

However, to say the notion of a candidate of Gabbard's ideology might "go rogue" is some ridiculous, far-fetched notion is actually a shaky premise. There has already been an example of one such candidate.

In 2016, a professor named Tim Canova decided to challenge then-DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her Florida Congressional Seat.

Many Democrats--including here at DU--who had some gripe or grievance as to Wasserman-Schultz's handling of the DNC were quick to jump aboard the Canova bandwagon, offering their vocal--and sometimes even monetary--support. Canova fashioned himself a "good liberal" and an alternative to what he claimed was the epitome of the party establishment. And he took prominent stances on environmental issues and civil rights, issues we seemingly could all agree with.

But at the very same time, he was doing some very questionable things. Such as appearing on the radio show of Joyce Kaufman, an extreme far-right local talk show host who was once tapped to be one-term Republican Allen West's chief of staff and once proclaimed at a tea-party rally, "If ballots don't work, bullets will!" Kaufman offered Canova her support in his campaign against DWS, and Canova gladly took it. I remember raising the alarm about this at DU when it happened, but it mostly went unnoticed.

Canova continued to receive positive word-of-mouth support from many Democrats as his candidacy continued, perhaps less as an endorsement of Canova as instead a way to complain about whatever irked them about DWS's leadership.

Then in the summer of 2016, the DNC famously got hacked and emails of party officials--including DWS--popped up on Wikileaks. Canova decided the best reaction to this criminal activity (which intelligence has since confirmed was the act of the Russian government) was to file an FEC complaint against DWS, citing to these emails as evidence of some sort of plot by her against him.

In the end, Canova's 2016 primary challenge fell short. DWS beat him by about 14%, which was narrower than some of her previous challenges but still a comfortable win on her part representing thousands of votes in her favor.

Following his defeat, Canova did not go graciously, however, alleging that thousands of votes in his favor were destroyed. His gripes against the DNC only got worse, and by early 2017 he was going on record supporting wild conspiracy theories about the DNC supposedly murdering its staffer Seth Rich.

His vocal pronouncements--including over his Twitter account--seemed to support an odd policy, decrying any sort of engagement against the Syrian Assad government and also insisting that the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 in support of Donald Trump was a "hoax" and the investigation by Robert Mueller into such interference was a "witch hunt." He is a vocal supporter of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and frequently retweets pieces by quasi-left media figures Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate, Michael Tracey, and others. He recently posted pictures "in solidarity" with the Paris "Yellow Vest" movement, a movement many believe has benefited from covert Russian support in an effort to destabilize the center-left French Macron government.

And by 2018, Canova decided he was going to quit the Democratic Party for good. He would still challenge Debbie Wasserman Schultz as an independent though. This time, DWS won in a rout--Canova received only about 5% of the vote, but Canova again astonishingly claimed he was the victim of voter fraud. He then attached himself onto Republican efforts to stop a recount of votes in Broward County that actually dealt with the razor-thin results in the Governor and US Senate Races.

By all appearances, Canova seems to have resigned himself to being nothing more than an agent of chaos. And if you go to his Twitter feed (but be careful not to levy any sort of criticism his way, or he will block you--I know this personally), you will find a most bizarre amalgamation of feeds. You'll see occasional left leaning pronouncements on environmental issues, a lot of support for Julian Assange, a lot of re-tweeting of quasi-left pundits, and increasingly more and more a lot of retweeting of Republicans and conservative figures without criticism, including many tweets by Donald Trump himself. Most of these deal with attacks on the Democratic Party or the investigation into Russian interference with our elections.

Tim Canova and Tulsi Gabbard share many of the same beliefs and ideologies, and if you want to get a sense how Gabbard might end up, the road paved by Tim Canova since 2016 seems to be a good guess.

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Third Party Candidates and Tim Canova (Original Post) Tommy_Carcetti Oct 2019 OP
All you need to know about that asshole dalton99a Oct 2019 #1
And like Trump, he can't spell worth shit, either. nt Tommy_Carcetti Oct 2019 #2
That is one dumb mfer. Scurrilous Oct 2019 #3
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