Politics & Government

Bostic Staffer: I Hired Ali Akbar

Kerry Wood says he hired controversial blogger.

UPDATED: Includes response from Bostic campaign manager David O'Connell on Sanford campaigns remarks regarding transparency.

The mystery of who hired blogger Ali Akbar has been solved. A volunteer staffer for the Curtis Bostic congressional campaign, Kerry Wood, told Patch he hired Akbar and is also responsible for the creation of the web site trustcurtis.com.

Through campaign manager David O'Connell, the Bostic campaign originally said neither Akbar nor the website were approved. O'Connell later said the website was the work of an "overzealous volunteer." 

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Plenty of people were surprised when Bostic finished second to former Gov. Mark Sanford in the Republican Primary for the First Congressional District.

Among those who were surprised was the Bostic campaign itself. The campaign appears to have been caught off guard with the results and in the scramble to prepare for a run-off on April 2 against the better known Sanford, staffers were not communicating with each other as to who was handling what responsibility.

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For instance, on Monday, , emerged on social media as a vocal supporter of Bostic’s.

The spokesman for the Bostic campaign, David O’Connell, said Akbar was not authorized to speak for the candidate.

In addition, O’Connell said the website trustcurtis.com was created without his approval.

On Wednesday, Wood came forward as the person who hired Akbar.

Wood told Patch that he has been working for the Bostic campaign as a volunteer since February and that he contacted Akbar last Thursday. Wood said that Bostic offered to pay him, but he declined. In turn, Wood offered to pay Akbar, but, Wood said, Akbar declined to be paid until after the race and his effectiveness could be measured.

According to documents available on the Federal Election Commission website, two of Wood's companies, Advanced Printing & Graphics, LLC and Dark Horse Strategy Group, LLC, were paid $6,200 by the Committee to Elect Curtis Bostic. $1,200 was paid to Advanced Printing & Graphics on Jan. 30 and $5,000 was paid to Dark Horse Strategy Group on Feb. 14.

Akbar is the founder of the National Bloggers Club, an influential online presence that produces content in support of conservative issues. Akbar spoke to Patch via message on Monday and confirmed portions of background. He has not responded to subsequent inquiries.

Wood is based in the Upstate and a longtime figure in conservative politics in South Carolina. He ran unsuccessfully for Superintendent of Education in 2006 and for Senate District 11 last year.

He also worked as the South Carolina State Director for Rick Santorum’s presidential bid in 2012. Santorum endorsed Bostic on Tuesday.

Wood said he hired Akbar to work at the presidential debate at Wofford College last year and has been in touch with him periodically since then.

Wood said that some of the confusion from the last week is a result of an inexperienced group of volunteers working on their first congressional campaign under a strict deadline.

“Everybody is scrambling to do the best possible job,” Wood said. “This is a true grassroots effort.”

Wood said he asked Bostic for permission to create the trustcurtis.com website and did so when it was granted.

When asked if he was aware of Akbar’s criminal record, Wood, who has worked in law enforcement, said, “I know what a criminal looks like and (Akbar) is not a criminal.”

Wood emphasized that the recent confusion was a result of his actions, and his only.

“If somebody should be thrown under the bus here, then it’s me,” he said.

When asked to comment on the Bostic campaign, Joel Sawyer, spokesman for the Sanford campaign, told Patch:

"Their campaign has skipped out on numerous candidate forums, they've failed to file the proper financial disclosures, and now they're changing their tune about whether they hired a particular consultant and put up a particular Web site. There seems to be a disconcerting pattern developing here with regard to a lack of transparency."

In response, O'Connell said:

"I don't think any rational person believes the Sanford campaign has any standing on the subject of transparency."

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