December 01, 2006
Ron Sims campaign contributor held in sex sting
A former long-time King County government employee, Larry Corrigan, has been arrested for allegedly trying to arrange sex with a decoy posing as a 13-year-old girl. Corrigan has been an active donor to numerous Democrat candidates, including Ron Sims, Larry Phillips, Cynthia Sullivan, Michael Spearman and Mark Sidran.
Corrigan currently makes his living as liquor distributor.
A Larry Corrigan also donated to the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center and the local Girl Scouts. (I find only one Lawrence Corrigan in King County).
How did the Seattle Times headline the story? "Well-known GOP activist held in sex-predator sting" He did support GOP candidates too. If he's guilty, good riddance. But it seems odd that the Times would choose to highlight only that one facet of his busy life.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 01, 2006
07:08 PM | Email This
1. I think Larry Corrigan definitely qualifies as a "GOP activist" under current standards. After all, about 75% to 80% of his financial contributions went to GOP candidates, and about 20% to 25% to Democrats. This is approximately the same percentage of the time that King County GOP leaders such as Michael Young or Kirby Wilbur can be counted on to support the Republican candidate.
If Larry Corrigan gave 75% to the Democrats instead, he might be called a "Democrat contributor", but certainly not a "Democrat activist". The Democrats will certainly court any financial contributor, especially one who gives more money to Democrats than Republicans. But they will not allow anyone into their party leadership who is supporting candidates of any other party other than their own.
2. For example, Mike McKay (either individually or through his McKay Chadwell law firm) has given the following contributions to Democrat candidates:
Christine Gregoire -- $200.00
Ron Sims -- $550.00
Greg Nickels -- $100.00
Mark Sidran -- $500.00
Michael Spearman -- $100.00
Yet Mike McKay would still be called a "GOP activist". He was chosen by state GOP leaders to chair George W. Bush's campaign in Washington in 2000 and 2004, as a delegate to the GOP National Convention in 2000 and 2004, and is head of the patronage committee responsible for vetting presidential appointments in Washington.
Would the Democrats choose a person of such divided loyalties to be in a high leadership position in their party? Hell no! Would Republicans in other states do the same as we do here? Probably not.
3. If Mr. Corrigan were a subscriber to the Times, I wonder would they say "Seattle Times subscriber held in sex predator sting"?
4. Of course, the fact that Larry Corrigan was Dave Reichert's campaign treasurer in 1997 and 2001 doesn't make Corrigan into a Republican. Dave Reichert used to be a Democrat.
When he first ran for office in 1997, Reichert was endorsed by the King County Democrats:
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=2559588&date=19970910&query=reichert+%22king+county+democrats%22
The King County Democrats don't endorse anyone for office, unless they declare themselves to be a Democrat:
http://www.kcdems.net/documents/2006%20General%20Questionnaire.doc
Ron Sims and Dave Reichert endorsed each other in 1997 and 2001, when they were each running for King County Executive and King County Sheriff, respectively. Reichert contributed to Sims' re-election campaign in 2001. (The PDC on-line database only goes back to 2000.) Reichert also donated to former State Democrat Chair Karen Marchiori in 2000, when she was seeking a state House seat in District 48.
On the other hand, Darcy Burner used to be a Republican and voted in the Republican presidential primary in February 2000.
Too bad no one asked each of them in any of the candidate forums and debates why each of them switched parties.
5. Somehow I don't think it was his political stripes that made him what he is.
6. The GOP is reaping what they sow by making everything political with their scorched earth policy.
Perhaps the headline should have read:
"Sound Politics reader held in internet sex sting"
7. From the Times article:
"was deputy treasurer in Reichert's 1997 and 2001 runs for King County sheriff. He was also a supporter without an official role in Reichert's congressional campaigns."
Yeah, I think that makes you a Republican, not a Democrat.
8. He used to be a Republican PCO, too.
9. Ha ha ha. "Ron Sims contributor" How freaking desparate and in denial can you get? Any idiot knows this perv's and one time wanna be kingmaker's political leanings, the Grand Old Perverts.
10. Like always it is the party support that causes the problem if the paper can paint it that way. I doubt it. If he was looking for underage sex he deserves to go to Jail. If he be Republican or Democrat it matters not. What would the paper say if he was a Democratic Activist? They would mention he was arrested for attempting underage sex.
These days when they do not mention Republicans odds are that they are Democrats. Right. Because the Press will never publish if they are Democratic Activists only if they are Republicans. So logic says if no party is mentioned they must be democrats. When people want to blame a party the opposite is also true. Can I logically say that if no party is mentioned they must be Democrats? But because the press always looks for a Republican angle to attack Republicans but never seem to do the same effort for Democrats people can start you thinking. But the proof to my argument is that Democrats want Felons to vote so as Logic was taught to me in a liberal college. Felons must support Democrats. Therefore Democrats are Felons/Criminals. Simplistic as most liberal colleges teach logic to be that simplistic.
11. Richard, You keep walking into these dark rooms and turning on the lights! Keep it up, I know there are many more.
12. It's a stretch of the truth to call someone an activist of one party when his actions involved two. It would make more sense to refer to him as a
"political activist" and then describe his actions factually in the article. Of course, then the GOP angle would be gone.
Second of all, what point is there in identifying him as a political activist in the title? What does that have to do with his crimes? The only thing one can accomplish in trying to tie a crime to a political affiliation is to damage that affiliation.
This is clearly bias. Sorry.
13. Say, wasn't the divorce file of a certain Democratic Political Activist supposed to be opened on December 1st? It must have been his party affiliation the caused him to dump his first wife, cheat on his second wife a week before the wedding, abuse and cheat on her and then default on child support payments. It may have been at the Democratic Party where he learned to hide assets and make illegal campaign contributions, perhaps the IRS can clear that up for all of us once the files are open. Of course no honest politician would have voluntarily been associated with an individual like that right? That's the implication made in the article about Corrigan, so we must assume they would be consistant and apply the same standard to Dotzauer and Cantwell. We will see.
14. I think the discussion of political affiliation for these folks is missing a really huge "bigger picture". That picture should prompt some introspection, asking the question: what have we done to produce a society that feels free, even if they are public figures, to participate in, for example, sexual stalking of young girls? What we have done is socially and judicially loosen all standards of behavior, and endorsed a personal sense of entitlement in everyone. The sixties began a group think era of no accountability for anyone. It continues today and will become all pervasive unless we all say stop. We all need to learn that saying NO is not only very simple, it is liberating. Our freedoms lie not in protecting every single opinion and abberation in existence, but in protecting standards of behavior and ensuring that those who break our laws or ignore those standards are shunned and pay the price for their actions.
15. Nothing to see here... Move on.
16. The GOP is reaping what they sow by making everything political with their scorched earth policy.
If you ever wondered exactly what projection looks like, wonder no more. You'll never get a better example than this.
17. I agree with Katomar, the problem is not political affliation or lack of it, it is has standards. There will be moral failures of all political stripes, all religious persuasions, and
every possible gender orientation. In my opinion, members of the MSM are moral relativists regarding
their behavior and that of their friends. Wonder if Nicole Broduer would support school choice for
low income schools, especially since she sends her
child to private school. I might add, as a good parent, she should chose what is best for her child. But, the MSM is not relative in politics and they protect those with their political ideology and go after those who differ.
18. It's called Headline branding. Burn negative GOP associated words into reader's gray matter. Editors control the headline which the majority of readers in their busy, don't want to stand in a long Starbucks line, lives never go past. As long as the papers can keep hiring the lefty editors, all is good in their world.
19. Pope brings up a good illustration of media bias. If a Democrat were cited for contributing he would be a Democrat contributor, but a Republican would be a Republican activist.
An extreme example on the World scene is how some anti-American or anti-Semitic media outlets refer to terrorists as freedom fighters.
20. Corrigan has been chasing down young girls for years. Many people in town know about this horny bastard. He lives on Craigslist and prowls like a sick animal. He uses contribution money to buy gifts for his girls as well.
21. Here is the full list of people Larry Corrigan donated to.
http://tinyurl.com/yedqzg
Let people decide for themselves what he was.