Jon Scott Ashjian is Harry Reid Mole in Tea Party Disguise? Scott Ashjian Tea Party Pretender?

Have you heard about this? Jon Scott Ashjian is running against Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) on the Tea Party of Nevada ticket, but appears to have no backing from the movement. Tea Partiers say they've never heard of him, never seen him at a Tea Party meeting...the message to Ashjian: "Get Lost." See the video below.

Scott Ashjian

Ashjian has an IRS lien on his property due to an unpaid tax bill for $200,000+, and one of his numerous small businesses, A&A Asphalt Paving Company is defending a lawsuit claiming the company passed a bad check in October 2009 for $981. Ashjian closed the company a month later. He will be in court later this month defending his contracting license. This from the Las Vegas Sun:

In Sun interviews, Ashjian said the IRS lien and the Contractors Board were news to him, which he said is not surprising fiven his sprawling business enterprise, which he said includes 27 properties.

There are reports referring to Ashjian as a "wealthy" businessman - and apparently one who refuses to pay his tax bills.

Sue Lowden, considered to be the Republican with the best chance of unseating Reid, says it is "a little strange. I don't know who this person is. He's never been involved with anything that I'm aware of in this state."

Tea Party Express spokesman Mark Williams says Ashjian is in the race to split the ticket and hand the race to Harry Reid.  Source: The Daily Caller.

This quote is attributed to Williams, which seems to suggest that Ashjian has made some very controversial remarks, not welcome or acceptable to Tea Partiers:

"Case in point, those people who call themselves Tea Partiers while engaging in racist or homophobic behavior, Williams wrote. "Same goes for those who misrepresent themselves for the purposes of personal gain or in some misguided effort to confuse the general public."

Maybe Williams will explain the accusations of "racist or homophobic behavior." If it's true, we need to know it.

According to Reid-B-Gone (love that), a Tea Party Express event this weekend in Searchlight, Nevada, Harry Reid's hometown, won't see Scott Asjian on the speaker's stage, and his invitation didn't get lost in the mail.

But here's a twist: The Examiner's Mark Anderson looked at every campaign contribution from the last name "Ashjian" around the country, and found the contributions decidedly support Republicans. Trying to find any information on donations made to Scott Ashjian for the Nevada race yields nothing, but this says Ashjian plans to fund his own campaign. Maybe Ashjian wanted to run, had no political connections, and glommed on to a Tea Party. So what do you think? Is Ashjian a Reid mole or a Tea Partier in disguise?


Photo Credit: Sam Morris - Las Vegas Sun



Mark Williams of Tea Party Express about Scott Ashjian (video)