Hate to unscoop the Huffington Post, but Pres. candidate, Bill Richardson's PI on the payroll was reported a month ago in the Free New Mexican.

Now the HuffPo is calling it fairly unusual for a presidential campaign to hire a PI for research? Really? I thought that was de rigeur in this day and age:

The P.I. in question is Michael Corwin of New Mexico-based Corwin Research & Investigations. Here's a blurb on Mr. Corwin from his University of New Mexico lecturing bio:

Michael Corwin, a licensed Private Investigator, has been conducting civil and criminal investigations since 1988. He operates the firm of Corwin Research & Investigators, LLC in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Corwin is the author of the book, Training Manual on Private Investigation. He has been a featured speaker at conferences and seminars. Corwin’s cases have been featured in the local and national media, including an Edward R. Murrow award-winning Dateline NBC episode.

Sounds like a helluva guy.

-- MDT

Labels: Bill Richardson, election, Michael Corwin, politics

The Daily Caveat doesn't delve into politics too often (much less Nigerian politics) but there's a story in the May 30th issue of DC political rag, The Hill that's worth reading.

The article details the export of U.S.-style campaign tactics to the democracies in the developing world. Amongst the many prominent players who got a piece of the election action was The James Mintz Group, investigative alma mater for The Daily Caveat.

According to The Hill article, U.S. Justice Department Foreign Agents Registration Office documentation shows that the Mintz Group took in about $16,000 for research and consulting services.

-- MDT

Labels: election, FARA, Mintz Group, Nigeria