In the days after he admitted live on the radio to funneling campaign contributions through family members, including his toddler son, Republican nominee for Vermont’s lone seat in the U.S. House Liam Madden equated news coverage of his confession to a “farce” and “Democrat propaganda.”
But it was in fact his former GOP primary opponent, now Libertarian candidate, Ericka Redic, who initially raised questions about Madden’s campaign finance filings — and on Wednesday called for him to drop out of the race.
“Almost all of his money on the finance reports… come from people with the last name Madden, so it’s not like he’s gotten all this money from Vermonters,” Redic said on WVMT’s Morning Drive radio program on Oct. 18. “Or maybe it is, but why did it get filtered through his family? I think it’s worth somebody asking.”
The following week, Morning Drive hosts Kurt Wright and Anthony Neri asked Madden about his toddler son’s $5,300 donation, as Madden reported to the Federal Election Commission. Madden explained live on the air that he “drained” his wife’s business’s bank account, distributed thousands of dollars among family members, then asked them to donate the money back to his campaign.
Campaign finance law experts told VTDigger last week that the scenario is a “textbook” case of utilizing straw donors, which is illegal. Madden said he funneled money through his family members to inflate his fundraising totals in order to qualify for certain candidate debates before the primary.
On Wednesday, Vermont Democratic Party Executive Director Jim Dandeneau said the party plans to file a complaint against Madden with the FEC, but hasn’t yet. “It’s on the to-do list,” he said.
Vermont Republican Party Chair Paul Dame told VTDigger that the GOP has “too many other things that are bigger priorities” to do so before Election Day next week. Redic said she plans to file a complaint, but hasn’t yet. Brendan Quinn, a spokesperson for the Campaign Legal Center, told VTDigger that the center hasn’t begun the process of filing a complaint because “we wouldn’t want to do anything so close to an election (and thus be seen as possibly influencing it).”
Redic’s exposure shed light not only on Madden’s self-described donor scheme, but also on a wound within the Vermont Republican Party that has festered since Madden won the party’s primary in August.
“Liam cheated,” Redic told VTDigger in an interview Tuesday. And it was by cheating, she said, that he stole the party nomination from a legitimate Republican candidate. Madden beat out Redic and former GOP congressional nominee Anya Tynio in a three-way Republican primary.
“He removed a voice from the ballot that has been voiceless for decades, and that is the most frustrating and unfair thing about it,” Redic said.
In a press release Wednesday morning, Redic’s campaign said Madden “disqualified himself” and “should immediately withdraw from the race for Congress.”
Madden, a self-described independent, is a staunch opponent of America’s two-party political system. When he entered the GOP primary lineup earlier this year, he said he was doing so to gain the media coverage and debate platform typically reserved for major-party candidates ahead of the primary election. He also pledged that, should he win the Republican primary, he would rescind the party’s nomination and run in the general election as an independent.
Madden did not keep that promise. Having missed the deadline to register as an independent candidate, he instead held onto the Republican nomination, sending the Vermont GOP into a tailspin. He wouldn’t commit to caucus with Republicans in Washington, should he prevail in the general election, and so the state party declined to support his candidacy.
“I would happily take the Republican label and keep it a two-person race, because the label means nothing to me,” Madden told VTDigger in August. “The actual chance of winning means a lot more.”
Redic on Tuesday harkened back to Madden’s initial failure to register as an independent and said his fundraising blunder was his second “major error” of his campaign.
“What’s going to happen when he gets to Washington, and people’s lives are on the line, and billions of dollars?” she asked. “Possible World War III we are on the threshold of, and this young man, who can’t even follow directions, wants to be sent to a place of authority. And I don’t think he belongs there.”
Asked on Tuesday if he agreed with Redic’s claim that Madden stole the nomination from a legitimate Republican candidate, Vermont Republican Party Chair Paul Dame said he did — “and a woman,” he added. (Vermont remains the only state in the country that has never elected a woman to Congress.)
“There’s no doubt that Liam participating in the Republican primary took that spot away from Ericka,” Dame said.
Madden declined a phone interview with VTDigger on Tuesday. In a lengthy text message, he said, “I can understand why people who wanted an actual Republican to win (the primary) would be upset that an independent actually did win.”
But to say he stole the nomination, he said, is “hypocrisy.”
“It is an unwillingness to take responsibility for losing from the so-called champions of personal responsibility in the Libertarian Party,” Madden said.
Dame also pointed to competitive congressional races across New England this year that have attracted major campaign efforts — and dollars — from the national Republican Party apparatus. Not so in Vermont, where Democratic nominee Becca Balint is heavily favored to win, and major Republican donors have steered clear of the race.
Balint’s Democratic primary win was hard-fought, but without a strong Republican contender in the general election, both Dame and Redic said her path to win in November is much easier.
“When your (opposing) major party candidate is not connected to the party and the fundraising opportunities that that provides, and you know that your opponent isn’t going to raise very much money, you can take it pretty lightly, and I’m sure that she has,” Dame said.
In a written statement, Balint’s campaign manager Natalie Silver retorted that “Becca has built an extensive and deep base of support, which is why she has a commanding lead over the field during the general election.”
This year marks Vermont’s first open congressional race since 2006. If there were a time to flip outgoing U.S. Rep. Peter Welch’s seat from blue to red, Dame said this was Republicans’ shot.
“I think especially for me, it was a big disappointment to not have a candidate who wanted to work with the party because we lost a lot of potential fundraising opportunities,” Dame said. “You look at places like in Rhode Island and Connecticut where those state GOPs have very viable candidates in places (where) it was harder for Republicans to win.
“That could have been the story in Vermont, as well. But that’s not what happened.”
