Robin Hayes Quotes Himself

Firstly, I do not live in Robin Hayes' district. I have the unfortunate luck of living in the NC 9th (Sue Myrick) which looks to be in GOP puppet hands for some time to come. However, I am right on the border of the NC 8th. For those of you that do not know the story here, Larry Kissell ran against Hayes in a grassroots, upstart campaign two years ago only to come up short by around 300 votes.

This time around, Kissell is getting more support from the DNC, but nothing compared to the machine of multi-millionaire Hayes.

My point- I have been seeing a Hayes ad recently that claims accuses Kissell of failing to pay taxes, Social Security, and Medicare on his employees. This has been itching at me, mainly because of Kissell's bio. You see, Larry Kissell was a textile mill manager until the industry went into the ground, then went back to school to and became a public school teacher in Montgomery County. Anyone see where I am going here?

WHAT EMPLOYEES????????

So, I just saw the ad on again and paid special attention to the text on screen sourcing this accusation. The citation is "The Hill", 6/12/2008. I went to thehill.com and did some searching and found the following date 6/11/2008 (I am pretty sure this is the article):
Link: thehill.com

Rep. Robin Hayes (R) is wasting little time going after Democratic opponent
Larry Kissell this cycle, releasing a television ad this week that accuses
Kissell of skirting campaign payroll taxes.
For each of his two campaigns
against Hayes, this cycle and last, Kissell has hired all his staff as
independent contractors. That means they are responsible for paying their own
taxes and Kissell is not paying for Social Security, unemployment benefits or
Medicare.
The ad, Hayes’s first of the cycle, says Kissell is “manipulating
his workers’ paychecks to save himself a buck.”
Kissell spokesman Thomas
Thacker said the campaign only recently hired field staff that will be full
employees, and that they will be paid July 1. He said that in the 2006 cycle,
the campaign was so poorly funded that it relied on volunteers and
month-to-month consultants.
He said the staff would be doubling soon and that
about half of it will be on payroll.

There are 2 things that are so, so, so wrong with this.

First, Kissell did nothing wrong, for short term assignments (and sometimes long term), it is accesptable and even common to hire people on a "W-2" or "1099 Only" basis. If you don't believe me, ask anyone you know that works in IT. It happens every day and is not unethical or criminal.

Second, and this is the part that makes me crazy, look at the article. Hayes' ad is quoting thehill.com quoting the HAYES CAMPAIGN. The entire section of the article is simply a "sources at the Hayes campaign report that" article.

I tend to divide the politcal spectrum into "good guys" and "bad guys". More on that later, but Hayes is one of the bad guys and needs to go as soon as humanly possible.