Rest of the Story

 

By BEN DOBBIN, Associated Press Writer

 

BATH, N.Y. - Sealed divorce records alleging a Republican candidate for Congress once threatened his wife at gunpoint were obtained by his Democratic opponent's campaign manager, a prosecutor said Thursday.

 

 

 

On instructions from Democrat Samara Barend's campaign manager, a college student went to the Steuben County Clerk's office in September to get "publicly available information" about Republican state Sen. John "Randy" Kuhl, county District Attorney John Tunney said.

 

Court-sealed documents detailing Kuhl's divorce in 2000 were included inadvertently, and the student, Andrew Rachlin, 22, copied the papers and turned them over to Barend campaign manager Jonah Siegellak, said Tunney, who investigated at Kuhl's request.

 

Barend and Siegellak have repeatedly said there was no connection between the campaign and the release of the divorce papers. In the Oct. 7 edition of The Leader newspaper in Corning, Siegellak said that "no one in this camp went to retrieve those documents."

 

Barend in a statement Thursday did not address Tunney's findings, saying instead: "Today it was made clear that Mr. Kuhl is the one who has explaining to do. Now he is free to explain why he told the public there was `nothing incriminating' in the documents."

 

Kuhl and his former wife, Jennifer, have called the release of the papers "ugly politics" and an invasion of the family's privacy.

 

"I was extremely disappointed to learn that Samara Barend was behind" the disclosure, Kuhl said in a statement.

 

The district attorney said no charges will be filed.

 

Kuhl is running against Barend for the seat vacated by retiring Republican Rep. Amo Houghton. Barend is a former aide to New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites).

 

Earlier this year, Illinois Republican Jack Ryan ended his U.S. Senate bid after the release of divorce records that included allegations that he took his wife to sex clubs.

 

More marriage lessons from the Family Values Party.

Edited October 22, 200421 yr by Texsox

No connection, lmao

No connection, lmao

the records "were included inadvertently"

 

LMAO. Oops, look what I inadvertently gave you :rolly

 

I think his campaign needs to adopt a "tough on crime" platform and show the candidate holding a gun to lots of people's heads.