Six Conservatives to challenge Quince in Senate primary

LANSDALE--There are many familiar faces in the POG Senate primary race.

As of the filing date, six Conservatives--all of whom ran in 2010--have announced they will challenge incumbent Sen. Charlie Quince for their party's nomination.

Running against Quince are MPs Julie Dennings, who represents the electorate of Dynsmore Hills, Fran Habries, who represents Canton North, Reuben Stykes, who represents the seat of Kyena, and Tanner Zannie, who represents Black Forest.

Businessmen Terry Silvi of Garamond Lake and Mike Indano of Kingham are also running (Indano ran as an independent in 2010, and is now running as a Conservative).

Quince formerly served in the National Assembly, and was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Donna Almone in 2007 to fill out the remainder of longtime Sen. Newton Jeffs' term.

This will be Quince's first Senate race, and he faces an uphill battle after several years of a very centrist voting record in the Senate have upset many of his fellow Conservatives.

Furthermore, Quince has done little to distinguish himself in the Senate, and has been less-than-enthusiastic to embrace the more conservative positions of POG's other CNS senators, Dick Trau and freshman Bobby Hafen Jr.

All of this has prompted Dr. Kerry Rudgley, Director of Dulkalow University's Edinough School of Government, to rate Quince as the most vulnerable senator in the primary season.

"There's a good chance Charlie Quince will not win his party's nomination for the 2012 election," Rudgley said in a video on his website.

Quince's opponents have taken him to task over his breaking with the party on national security, economic and education issues. He has sided with Nationalists on several major votes, angering party leadership and his constituents.

"Charlie Quince has not represented the people of POG the way they want to be represented. He has consistently sided with the liberal Nationalist agenda while in the Senate," Rep. Julie Dennings, who nearly won the CNS Senate nomination in 2010, told GBC Local Radio KEYD 1049 AM.

The most harsh criticism came from Reps. Fran Habries and Tanner Zannie.

Habries told GNN's James Madine Quince should be "trounced" from office for his forsaking of party ideals, while Zannie told POG political blogger Kyle Stevens that Quince is having an "identity crisis."

"He can't decide if he's a Conservative or a liberal," Zannie mused.

Quince's three other challengers took a much more tempered approach. Terry Silvi told the Lansdale Focus that Quince had failed to show economic leadership in the Senate, and had failed to stand up for business interests within the province.

Indano told the POG Press Association, "We can do better," regarding choosing a senator.

Reuben Stykes simply told the Mavocke Capitol that "it is time for new leadership in the Senate."

Quince, for his part, has defended his record in the Senate, and has pointed to his bipartisanship while in office as proof he is getting things done.

He's been active in fundraising, pulling in about $1.3 million since December, but that number is relatively small for a POG Senate candidate, and he's done little campaigning, as most of his fundraisers have been in Mavocke.

"He's not POG's senator, he's Mavocke's senator. He should represent them instead. He spends more time there and obviously likes Mavocke more than his home state," Zannie said.

Quince's campaign rebuffed those comments, saying the senator "cares deeply" about POG and has "fought for the province since day one" in the Senate. The campaign also points out at least one fundraiser was held in the city of Brockhaven in east-central POG, and the senator has a host of upcoming events in the province.

"Senator Quince knows how Mavocke works. In order to get things done, you have to have connections and be networked with the right people. Charlie Quince knows that, and while he and his briefcase are often in Mavocke working for the province, his home and heart will always be in POG," spokeswoman Karina Wilmbach said in a phone interview with the NPF.

POG is a "delegate state," meaning candidates for statewide offices win their parties' nominations not in a statewide primary election, but in a series of smaller local elections in all of POG's 128 counties.

The first round of county elections is set for May 16.

Plane disappears from radar off POG coast

GLENDENING, Province of Grassadellia--The Coast Guard is scouring the northern coast of POG after a small jet went off the radar while flying over the Lorean Sea near the coastline.

The private Cessna Citation CJ3 jet was about eight miles off the coast of northern POG at 7:45 pm Tuesday when it disappeared off the radar screen.

Air traffic controllers at Glendening National Airport lost contact with the aircraft around the same time.

There are believed to have been four people on board the plane, which was bound for Glendening, POG.

The National Aviation Authority (NAA) is investigating, but has released few details, including the name of the jet's owner.

The search for the plane will continue tomorrow morning at daybreak.

NAT leaders condemn liberal group's hackings

MAVOCKE--Assembly Minority Leader Allison McGint has condemned a liberal group and its anonymous website hackings that have targeted Conservative members of parliament.

At a press conference Monday, McGint, a Nationalist member for Salberry in central Damoign, called the tactics "childish" and "disrespectful."

In particular, McGint took issue with the sexist and personal insults made against various members of the National Assembly, most recently, East Deschire Rep. Sara Fraser, of whom hacksters posted offensive pictures online after hacking Fraser's Twitter account.

"This kind of behavior is childish and disrespectful, and if anyone--regardless of political stripe or belief--engages in this kind of behavior, it demeans the political process and degrades the political leaders who are targeted," McGint said.

She added the group has no support from the Nationalist Party or parliamentary leaders.

"In no way is this anonymous group affiliated with or supported or funded by the Nationalist Party. Our party strongly disavows sexist and offensive attacks on members of parliament," she said.

Later in the day, Senate Majority Leader John Morandi (N-Lial) also criticized the attacks.

"These tactics really disrupt the political process, and they are a distraction and made in distaste. No member of parliament should ever be demeaned or made fun of because of their gender or race or religion. That's not the Grassadellian way," Morandi said.

Conservatives have decried the hackings, and claim the NAT has been slow to condemn them.

"The Nationalist Party has been inexcusably slow to disavow these kinds of offensive attacks on Conservatives. It begs the question, and makes you wonder: is the NAT behind these attacks? Or are they just amused by them and allowing their party's extremists to continue this type of political degradation?" Rep. Gary Kessler, member for Solomon, Veroche said in an interview with the GBC.

Assembly Majority Leader Brandon O'Malley, Conservative member for Coupling-Olean Basin in Damoign, also questioned the NAT's sincerity in condemning the attacks.

"This sort of thing happens in politics. Extremists on both sides will hijack the political process and hack into websites and say hurtful things and post inappropriate images and content. This sort of thing happens, unfortunately. And I think it's very telling that the Nationalist Party has been extremely slow to denounce these Twitter attacks, particularly those on Conservative women," O'Malley said in a press conference Monday.

Conservative women in the Assembly also voiced their opinions on the matter.

"There's no doubt that women face a higher hurdle in the political world," Veroche Rep. Beth McGill, of Jilanovich-East Waters, said in an interview with the Grassadellia City Times.

"There's a lot of sexism out there, and it's ironic that the Nationalist Party, which prides itself on being the 'pro-women party,' is allowing this kind of behavior to continue and has been slow to distance themselves from it."

Crown Police are continuing to investigate the hackings, although the agency has publicly said few resources have been assigned to the issue thus far because of the relatively innocent nature of the web crimes.

"We certainly do care about cyber security and cyber privacy," Crown Police spokesman John Goening told the NPF. "But we have to devote our resources to crimes that are very serious in nature and more threatening to public safety than internet hackings."

"This investigation is ongoing, however, and we discourage any group from trying to hack into any website where they're not permitted. Our cyber crimes unit will catch up with them eventually," Goening said.

Assemblywoman's Twitter account hacked again

MAVOCKE--The Twitter account belonging to East Deschire Assemblywoman Sara Fraser, Conservative member for Bridgeworth, has been hacked for the third time in the past seven months.

Wednesday evening, Fraser's account started "tweeting" comments targeting the assemblywoman.

"I'm a hypocrite for supporting 'energy independence' while giving money to the big oil companies," one post said.

Another post equated Fraser with US Republican politician Sarah Palin.

"When it comes to stupid conservative women, America has Sarah Palin and Grassadellia has Sara Fraser!" the post read.

Another post featured a link to a photo-shopped picture of Fraser in a bikini, and one final post falsely announced Fraser's resignation.

"Because I cannot fairly represent my constituents, I will be resigning my seat for Bridgeworth effective tomorrow."

Fraser's office was finally alerted to the hacking, and quickly deleted the posts and responded to them.

"Hacked yet again by the radical liberal haters. Seems their only tactic is hacking and hurting others." read an actual post from Fraser.

Fraser's office says her account has been repeatedly targeted by a militant liberal group known as "Progressive Warriors," a play on the conservative "Freedom Warriors" movement that arose last summer.

The liberal group has confirmed it has been responsible for the hackings., which took place first in October 2011 and then in January of this year.

Crown Police have been investigating, but say they have yet to find the hacksters, who often operate anonymously.

The group has gone after other members of parliament, and a spokesperson for the Crown Police said the agency is investigating but is not offering a reward for information.

"We don't waste public money by posting rewards for hackings. There are more important things to post rewards for," Sgt. Dan Swacker said.

However, Fraser's campaign is using the hackings as a fundraiser. Her campaign sent out another email Thursday morning, calling on her supporters to "silence these liberal militants once and for all."

"Nothing would enrage the left-wing liberals more than to have Sara Fraser re-elected for Bridgeworth in December," the email said.

Fraser also said on a local radio program in Derosa, East Deschire, that she considers the fact she's been targeted by the liberal "extremists" to be a compliment.

"Obviously, they find me very threatening, or they wouldn't be targeting me," she said. "I find that quite flattering, that out of all the members of the Bodies, they would go after me so diligently."

The Progressive Warriors group has not responded to Fraser's latest comments. NAT leaders say the group is not backed by them nor are they aware of the group's membership. But they have declined to condemn the PW's tactics.

"I think it's kind of funny," Damoign Rep. Chaz Beio, member for Bluedenny, told reporters in the capitol rotunda.

"You know, if they're posting things that are extremely hurtful and disrespectful, that's not cool. But if they're just posting ridiculous little things like what I've heard about, it's kind of humorous. And if you don't like it, that's politics. It's rough and tumble."