Projo Politics Blog

On the Stephen Laffey front:

The oft-quoted press secretary for his failed ’06 Republican primary challenge to then-U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee is now working for his single biggest backer: the conservative Washington-based Club for Growth.

In a brief interview earlier this week, former Laffey spokeswoman Nachama Soloveichik said “it was kind of a natural transition. Obviously, I share their values and their ideals. I was familiar with the Club for Growth and they were familiar with me somewhat from the campaign and they were looking for a press person and that happens to be what I do.”

Soloveichik, 27, joined the Laffey bid for the U.S. Senate after graduating from the University of Chicago with a master’s degree in public policy, and a stint as an assistant to the general counsel at the American Jewish Congress. She went to work for the CFG, which funneled more than $366,000 from its support-base into Laffey’s coffers, last January.

Laffey still appears prominently and often on the Club for Growth’s Web site. But whether the group -- which favors such far-right Republican precepts as “school choice” and the replacement of Social Security with private, individual retirement accounts -- would back him in another race is certain. “I know there is talk about [Laffey] running for governor. We almost never do governor’s races,” Soloveichik said.

Political Scene, meanwhile, has obtained a copy of previously unavailable documents the Federal Elections Commission sent former Chafee campaign manager Ian Lang on the results of its investigation Lang had requested into alleged Laffey campaign violations during last year’s primary contest.

As previously reported, Laffey agreed to pay a $25,000 civil penalty for failing to disclose, on his publicly filed fundraising reports, the Club for Growth’s role as a conduit for more than $366,000 in campaign contributions.

Lang also alleged a prohibited corporate campaign contribution by Laffey supporter and fundraiser Vincent Indeglia. The charge focused on a letter Indeglia circulated among the employees of his company, American Labor Services Inc., that not only advocated Laffey’s election but also asked each to provide the name, address and telephone number “of every Hispanic citizen he or she knows is not registered to vote . . . so that they may be registered as Republican voters.”

The FEC concluded the company “made a prohibited corporate expenditure,” but opted to “admonish” Indeglia and his company rather than pursue a case since the cost to produce the letters was “likely de minimis and the actual dissemination was very limited.”

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