He has also, according to some, used many underhanded political tactics -- including the infamous smear campaign against John McCain in 2000.
Insiders have long speculated about Tompkins’ role in the anti-McCain push-polls. But one reporter -- James Shannon of Greenville’s Upstate Beat newsweekly -- says he obtained a “direct admission” of guilt from Jason Puhlasky, a lobbyist who at the time was a consultant for Tompkins firm. Shannon reportedly told the PBS news show NOW about a 2002 conversation he had with Puhlasky.
Here is an excerpt:
“I remember (the quote) quite explicitly. It was at a backyard barbecue at the home of Edwin Foulke, a local attorney (who was) then the chairman of the Greenville County GOP … a number of candidates were there that day, including Peeler and former Congressman Mark Sanford, who had been largely unknown outside his former Charleston-area House district when he filed for governor. After languishing in fourth place during the early primary campaign, Sanford was starting to move up though the consensus was that if Peeler did not escape the primary without a runoff, his likely opponent would be Atty. General Charlie Condon.”
Puhlasky (whom I had never met before that day) spoke confidently of their ability to dispatch Condon in a runoff, and in fact Condon (whose nickname was “Crazy Charlie”) had some exploitable flaws.
‘Isn’t it a little risky just focusing on Condon?’ I asked. “What if Sanford makes the runoff?” Puhlasky grinned and said ‘No problem. We gutted McCain in three days, and we can do it again.’
The reference was to the infamous ‘push poll’ tactic, first seen in a 1978 Congressional election between Democrat Max Heller, the progressive mayor of Greenville, and Republican Carroll Campbell, a state senator looking to move up. Using the cover of a third candidate, Lee Atwater devised a scheme to call voters. Those who expressed a preference for Heller were asked, ‘Would it change your opinion if you knew he was a foreign-born Jew who doesn’t accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior?‘ As crude as it sounds, it worked. Heller’s double digit lead disappeared the weekend before the election and he lost.”
Warren Tompkins is also credited -- or blamed -- with successfully using Web sites to blister opponents. For instance, ADailyShot.com -- a site set up in 2006 as a news site but which turned out to be a pro-Mitt Romney site, used to spill “dirt” on opponents including Mike Huckabee. But Tompkins made national news when his firm apparently established PhoneyFred.org, an anonymous site devoted to smearing Fred Thompson. Following is an account from the Washington Post blog.
Anti-Thompson Site Connects to Romney Camp
A top adviser to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney appears to be behind today's launch of a new Web site attacking GOP presidential rival Fred Thompson.
The site, http://www.phoneyfred.org/, paints an unflattering picture of Thompson, dubbing him: Fancy Fred, Five O'clock Fred, Flip-Flop Fred, McCain Fred, Moron Fred, Playboy Fred, Pro-Choice Fred, Son-of-a-Fred and Trial Lawyer Fred. [View
an image of the Web site] Shortly after a Washington Post reporter made inquiries about the site to the Romney campaign, the site was taken down.
Before it vanished, the front page of the website featured a picture of a regal Thompson dressed in a frilly outfit more befitting a Gilbert and Sullivan production than a presidential campaign. Under the heading, "Playboy Fred," the site asks the question: "Once a Pro-Choice Skirt Chaser, Now Standard Bearer of the Religious Right?"
Nowhere on the site does it indicate who is responsible for it. But a series of inquiries leads directly to the website of Under the Power Lines, the political consulting firm of Warren Tompkins, Romney's lead consultant in South Carolina.
The website is hosted by a company called bluehost.com, a firm based in Orem, Utah. An inquiry of that website about phoneyfred.org returns the following statement: "Domain phoneyfred.org is still attached to your politicalnetroots.com account as Addon," the site states. "For security reasons, you must remove it BEFORE you can continue. After detaching phoneyfred.org from politicalnetroots.com, you should experience some brief downtime on phoneyfred.org while its DNS propagates to your new account."
The site http://www.politicalnetroots.com/ brings up the homepage for "Under the Power Lines," which lists Tompkins as "Partner, Consultant," along with Terry Sullivan and Welsley Donehue.
South Carolina politics is known to be rough-and-tumble. In 2000, it was in South Carolina that then-candidate John McCain ran into an organized effort to tar his character, including anonymous allegations that he had fathered a black child.
At the time, then-candidate George Bush was desperate to stop a surging McCain, who had just won a stunning upset in the New Hampshire primary. Tompkins was the chief strategist for Bush in South Carolina at the time, though Bush campaign
officials have always denied that the campaign was responsible for the attacks.
A spokesman for Romney's campaign said he would look into questions about the anti-Thompson site. "Our campaign is focused on the issues and ideas that are of paramount concern to voters," said spokesman Kevin Madden. "The website we are focused on is MittRomney.com."
Tompkins did not return calls or emails for comment.
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