Ed Martin Gives Dana Loesch's Husband $2500 Prior to Loesch Attacking His Primary Opponent

Last week, I described how tea party talk show host Dana Loesch publicly freaked out on Republican candidate for House of Representatives John Wayne Tucker. Loesch claimed that allowing Tucker on to her radio show would be the equivalent of "electioneering," despite the fact that she had Tucker's Republican primary opponent, former Matt Blunt Chief of Staff Ed Martin, on her show multiple times. Loesch also blocked Tucker's supporters from commenting on her page on facebook.

Over the weekend, Loesch continued her attack via Twitter. Since the original outburst, Loesch has publicly attacked John Wayne Tucker's character:

She attacked his faith:


And she accused him of "bullying" her (without providing any evidence):


So what would cause Loesch to so publicly violate the Republican's 11th Commandment ("Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican"), when she could have dealt with all of these issues privately. Loesch clearly went out of her way to try to publicly humiliate John Wayne Tucker. Tucker, by the way, denies that he ever requested to be on Loesch's show, and Loesch has not provided any evidence to back up that claim.

I originally thought that this bizarre blowup was just a result of the St. Louis tea party's astroturf relationships with Republican insiders like Ed Martin. However, it turns out that there's another important part of the story. It turns out that Ed Martin had written a $2500 check to Shock City Studios, the business co-owned by Loesch and herLoesch's husband Chris. The check, according to the Federal Election Commission report (page 115), was for video production:

In other words, Ed Martin gave $2,500 to Chris Loesch's business in February. Since that time, Dana Loesch has had Martin on her show but never John Wayne Tucker. And then, a few weeks before the primary, Loesch freaks out publicly, attacking Tucker on her Twitter account, her facebook page, and her radio program.

Now, in the interest of not becoming the very thing I am fighting against by adopting all of the same nasty tactics, let me acknowledge that there may well be a good explanation for all of this. But Loesch has yet to provide any evidence to back up her claims, and the situation certainly looks pretty fishy.