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Palin Smacks New Jersey’s Daggett for False ‘Drop Out’ Claim

November 01, 2009 7:15 PM

Sarah Palin was inadvertently dragged into the New Jersey governor’s race on Sunday.

Teddy My colleague, ABC News’ Teddy Davis, has more:

Sarah Palin is chiding Chris Daggett, an independent candidate for governor of New Jersey, for inaccurately claiming Sunday morning on MSNBC that she had urged him to drop his third-party bid.

“Despite what candidate Chris Daggett is claiming, I have never contacted him or his campaign,” wrote Palin Sunday on her Facebook page. “I have never asked him to drop out of the N.J. governor’s race. Now, if a politician is going to play loose with facts like this, the electorate needs to know it.

“So, to the good people of New Jersey, please know that Daggett’s claims are false,” she continued, “I’ve never even suggested he should drop out of the race.”

She then slyly added, “But, come to think of it ...”

A Daggett spokesman acknowledges that Daggett’s claim on MSNBC was incorrect.

“She never contacted us asking us to drop out,” Daggett spokesman Tom Johnson told ABC News.

Johnson said Daggett got the incorrect impression about Palin from people on his campaign bus who themselves were mistaken and relying on an unsubstantiated blog item.

“Someone wrote mistakenly on a blog that Sarah Palin asked Chris Daggett to drop out of the race,” said Johnson.

Kevin Gass, a volunteer traveling on the Daggett campaign bus, heard the incorrect Palin item, assumed that it was true and twittered about it from the Daggett campaign bus.

“I could not make this up,” tweeted Gass. “Sarah Palin just asked Chris to pull out of race. Republicans getting scared much?”

It turned out that Palin, who endorsed third party conservative Doug Hoffman over liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava in the 23rd congressional district of New York, had not called on Daggett to leave the New Jersey governor’s race. All she had done in an Oct. 27 Facebook post is urge voters to back Chris Christie, the Republican candidate, over Jon Corzine, the incumbent Democratic governor, and to give money to the Republican Governors Association.

“It seemed plausible, even though it was inaccurate, because [Rudy] Giuliani and other big Republicans have asked him to drop out,” said Johnson.

Johnson said that neither Daggett nor anyone in the campaign knew that the Palin claim was false until the former Alaska governor wrote about it on her Facebook page, prompting reporters to contact the campaign.

“We didn’t know it was inaccurate until Palin put this thing out,” said Johnson.

“It’s a big ado about nothing,” he added. “We’re getting more attention for this than for our detailed plan to cut property taxes by 25 percent.”

This is the Daggett exchange on MSNBC which prompted Palin’s criticism on Facebook. It occurred at 8:35 a.m. ET:

MSNBC: “How about the GOP? Have they given you any pressure to step aside? You know, you would think, because it would seem that you’re pulling more from Chris Christie’s camp, as I said, and if the election does go, say, to Jon Corzine, if you have that moniker of ‘spoiler’ put at the end of your name. How do you feel?”

DAGGETT: “I don’t worry one way or another about it to be honest with you. And I have had Republicans come in from Rudy Giuliani to Sarah Palin to Christy Mihos, who is running for governor in Massachusetts, to people in the New Jersey Republican Party. And to be honest with you, they don’t understand. I am not running as a disgruntled Republican. I am running as a person who believes that neither party has been willing or able to step up to the issues that face the state and make the tough decisions and we need that kind of leadership in New Jersey if we’re ever going to fix the problems that face the state.”

November 1, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (61)

User Comments

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"My name is Sarah Palin, and I (blah, blah, blah)."

"The problem with the country is "(blah, blah, blah)."

"My strongest trait is that I am functionally-illiterate (blah, blah, blah)."

"I watch the Russians from my front porch (blah, blah, blah - You Betcha [wink, wink])."

"Everyone needs to listen to me because I (blah, blah, blah)."

See, now we never have to hear from or read about Sarah Palin again, for her total essence has been listed above.

Posted by: saftgek | Nov 1, 2009 8:05:13 PM

It's no wonder this woman mistakenly believes she is relevant. The MSM keeps treating every one of her inane blogs or tweets like legitimate news. Who cares what someone who couldn't fulfill her obligations to her own electorate thinks about what's going on in other regions? Get over your love affair with this loon already and let her concentrate on writing vanity pieces about how 'rogue' and 'daring' and 'special' she thinks she is. At least that keeps her safely away from elected office.

Posted by: Mickey7 | Nov 1, 2009 8:34:29 PM

how long until tina fey and catie couric will be wearing bags over their heads for having steered the masses in the wrong direction?

Posted by: Mercy | Nov 1, 2009 8:35:05 PM

Watching the GOP today is like watching a sugar cube melt in the rain, it's sweet and it's disappearing.

Posted by: JR | Nov 1, 2009 8:35:43 PM

Mercy, maybe they will right after Palin starts wearing hers for destroying the GOP.

Posted by: JR | Nov 1, 2009 8:37:19 PM

Now that Ms. Palin is no longer governor or in elected office why is her opinion even being considered in anything? She is simply irrelevant and that became her choice when she abandoned Alaska for a personal quest.

Posted by: Jim | Nov 1, 2009 8:38:09 PM

This sounds like a setup to discredit the third party guy. Where did the campaign bus people read this erroneous information. That's the question people should be asking.

Posted by: lynn | Nov 1, 2009 8:41:36 PM

How, exactly does no one onDaggett's campaign know tha Palin didn't ask him to step down? Someone read a random blog entry, never questioned it, and others passed it on to the press/public, including the candidate that was NEVER SPOKEN to by Palin... Sounds like a bunch of sophomoric mistakes for a serious Gov. campaign.

Posted by: N2vip | Nov 1, 2009 8:42:29 PM

Reading the comments on this story cracks me up. You guys are SO threatened by Palin that you spend day after day commenting on how irrelevant she is. If she is so irrelevant then stop commenting and blogging about her day after day. Ha

Posted by: Nerrietick | Nov 1, 2009 8:48:09 PM

Why does anyone care what she says. She quit her job without completing it and is not qualified to judge anyone. The more attention one gives her the more credibility she has. If no one cares or listens or buys her book....she will get the point.

Posted by: talmag | Nov 1, 2009 8:49:26 PM

thank you Sara you are really helping us again:)

Posted by: bonita | Nov 1, 2009 8:49:50 PM

keep up the good work Sara the Democratic Party thanks you sooooo much you are the gift that keeps on giving:)

Posted by: bonita | Nov 1, 2009 8:52:14 PM

The republican party needs to clean up its ranks and be more conservative! Purity above all. You are either with us or against us. Fire up the furnaces!

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. I hope the democrats can get out the vote and send limblaugh and the republicans a message.

Posted by: rightbehind | Nov 1, 2009 9:05:36 PM

Why would she want him to drop out everybody already knows the only reason he is running is to try to get votes away from Christie

Posted by: brent | Nov 1, 2009 9:07:05 PM

“We didn’t know it was inaccurate until Palin put this thing out,” said Johnson. “It’s a big ado about nothing,” he added. “We’re getting more attention for this than for our detailed plan to cut property taxes by 25 percent.”

And that's something to brag about?? Geez, did your boy Gass write the detailed plan about property taxes too???

Posted by: Cin | Nov 1, 2009 9:15:31 PM

"She is simply irrelevant and that became her choice when she abandoned Alaska for a personal quest."

Yet Obamabots insist on spending hours blogging about someone so irrelevant. Odd, isn't it? But then that's why liberalism is called a mental disorder.

Posted by: Stacey | Nov 1, 2009 9:34:00 PM

Palin posts on Facebook? I didn't even know she could read. Oh yeah, that's right -- she told Katie Couric that she reads...ALL OF THE MAGAZINES! Maybe she really only looks at the pictures. LOL -- She's such an embarassment.

Posted by: jmb | Nov 1, 2009 9:45:53 PM

These upcoming elections are going to be soooo entertaining with Palin involved. Gonna really enjoy this.

Posted by: Jim Bob | Nov 1, 2009 9:47:37 PM

Can't stand a quitter...especially when she thinks she is still relevant....

Posted by: della | Nov 1, 2009 10:20:14 PM

What a shame. Fox News uses these tactics.

Posted by: Cindy | Nov 1, 2009 11:04:58 PM

"Now, if a politician is going to play loose with facts like this, the electorate needs to know it."

Now if that ain't the proverbial pot calling the kettle black!

Posted by: WWW | Nov 1, 2009 11:55:43 PM

My prediction for next Tuesday - Sarah Palin: 3 (NJ, NY, VA) - Obama: 0

Admit it, she has a knack for knowing when and how to insert herself into the discussion to influence political outcomes. It will be interesting to see what direction she takes with her book.

Posted by: Monique | Nov 2, 2009 12:02:41 AM

Boy - Daggett doesn't miss a beat. Caught out in a direct lIE - and he just blames it on some aid mis-quoting a blog entry... riggghhhtttt.... He was trying to play the Dems not liking Palin, in hopes he could take some of their votes. If he will lie about something little like this - what else will he lie about?

Posted by: clr | Nov 2, 2009 12:34:39 AM

Can I just say that all of you people are completely stuck on stupid.
A Daggett staffer messes up, Palin corrects the record and you all sit her and bash her by repeating the same, old stale garbage you've been bashing her with for over a year.
Take a hate break...You're losing your ability to assess situations.

Posted by: Maria | Nov 2, 2009 1:20:15 AM


I would seriously like to know one thing: would you folks have preferred Palin stay in office in Alaska, crippled from actually governing her state by multiple "ethics violations" charges (entirely fabricated), being flung at her wholesale, every week, every *day*, which she must endlessly address at taxpayer expense...or that she step aside and letting her very capable lieutenant governor take over? The point was to have the state governed. She made the decision that was best for the state. How is this "being a quitter"?

The point of politics is not to stay in, tooth and nail, no matter how corrupt you are or are accused of being. If Rangel stepped down, I wouldn't call HIM a quitter. And in his case, the accusations are true. But he won't leave.

Posted by: Angela in Seattle | Nov 2, 2009 1:38:19 AM

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