Who is Scott Ashjian?

Scott Ashjian

by Rick Lax

PART ONE: The Back Story, Which You Have to Read Through Before We Can Get into the Juicy Stuff

I donated $35 to Tea Party of Nevada Senate candidate Jon Scott Ashjian. No, I'm not a Tea Partier; I'm a journalist who thought it'd be a good way to get an "in"with the campaign.

Six hours after I made the donation — this was back in mid-March — I got a personalized e-mail from Ashjian saying,"Richard, Thank You!! I will fight for you!!"

I replied with an e-mail applauding Ashjian for opposing tort reform, and asking him what I could do to help his campaign.

No reply.

Maybe he was busy. Back then, Ashjian was appearing on Fox News, drawing double-digit support and posting fiery Facebook status updates: "Harry Reid is pushing this Health Bill!!! Obama will sign it for sure!!! Reid must GO!!!!! The only candidate that can stop him is ME! Scottashjianforsenate.com! I will Stop the madness come November 2010!!!!"

But Scott Ashjian had one small problem ... and it wasn't his painfully juvenile overuse of exclamation points; it was legitimacy. Prior to the campaign, he'd demonstrated no involvement with the Tea Party whatsoever.

Nobody had heard of the guy . . .  things were just getting interesting...

Read The Bizarre Story of Tea Party Candidate Scott Ashjian and $35.