Ben Tribbett = Duke Advisors LLC??

So after a nice holiday break, I've gone through Chap's finance reports and Ben Tribbett's name is nowhere to be found.

This means one of the following:

1. Ben Tribbett was a full time volunteer
2. Chap somehow covered up Ben's disbursement
3. Chap broke a campaign finance law

I spent a few days thinking about it and couldn't come up with an answer. Finally I went back and looked one more time. On the October 29 filing period, under the Itemization of Expenditures, there are 14 expenditures listed as "salary". Out of those 14 expenditures, 13 have individual names by them. One does not. The one that does not is listed as Duke Advisors LLC.

I refuse to believe Ben Tribbett would work full time for free. So either Ben Tribbett started a consulting company and got paid through Duke Advisors LLC, or Chap broke the law.

If the answer is that Ben got paid through Duke Advisors LLC, there may be a number of reasons for this. Pick how many ever you think apply:

1. Chap was embarrassed to have Ben on the payroll
2. Chap thought of Ben as a political liability
3. Chap thought NLS was influential enough to have an affect on the outcome of his election, so he paid to have Ben write good things about him
4. Chap didn't think NLS was influential, he just didn't want bad things written about him in the blogosphere

If Ben is in fact Duke Advisors LLC, I guess all the campaigns now know how to get good press from Not Larry Sabato. Just pay him off.

And Ben Tribbett's credibility takes another hit.

Not Larry Sabato Goes After Tim Craig

With a comment on BVBL, J. Geils sums up the whole story perfectly.

Have you no shame?

What is the point of this post? Why would this be of interest to “our elected officials in Richmond”? How can BVBL claim to know the specific details of the filming of this event and why should readers rely on his account?

This entire posting strikes me as a tad convenient. Consider the order of recent events. Key members of the Virginia Democratic blogosphere get their noses (not to mention their inflated egos and, potentially, their wallets) out of joint because Tim Craig writes a column questioning the wisdom of Judy Feder and Leslie Byrne in aligning themselves with some of those same bloggers as a strategy for victory. Then, Tribbett and Feld go after Craig. Next, Roll Call publishes a story naming the DCCC’s 40 top districts and Virginia doesn’t make the cut, thus reinforcing one of the points in Craig’s column. Since Tribbett and Feld can’t attack Craig directly based on his private life, they leave it to their favorite scribe in the Virginia Republican blogosphere, BVBL, to make the slam. Finally to make the smear complete, Tribbett links to BVBL from his blog so that everyone can read the even-if-true-irrelevant information.

Tim Craig is employed by the Washington Post. Although that publication has a liberal slant, it still has to adhere to journalistic standards that blogs such as BVBL, NotLarrySabato, and RaisingKaine do not. Craig is something that BVBL, NotLarrySabato, and RaisingKaine are not and will likely never be: a professional reporter. This posting, and what is fast becoming a cyberspace-food-fight against Tim Craig by NotLarrySabato and RaisingKaine, represents the kind of writing that discredits the blogs.

This all began because Craig wrote a column suggesting that Judy Feder and Leslie Byrne might face more of an uphill struggle than their enthusiastic supporters might realize. Even if there was something that justified highlighting an event in Craig’s life in an attempt to subject him to public ridicule (and I don’t think there is or ever could be), fulfilling the requirements of his employment by penning a column of basic political analysis certainly is not it.

Without even knowing for a fact whether that was Tim Craig or not, they put it on the internet claiming it is. And even if it is Tim Craig, who cares?

Tim Craig said it perfectly when he responded to a previous attack by Ben:

As for you assertion, it is laughable for you to lecture me or any member of the Richmond press corps on journalistic ethics.

Also, I'm not done with Chap's finance reports. When I get some time this weekend I'm going to look into it more.

MAJOR SCANDAL

OK, not really. But by Ben's standards this certainly is a mega-scandal, so I'm going to treat it as such.

This blog has gotten a lot more readers than I thought it would and I have received numerous tips about Ben so far. Don't worry, whether they are credible or not they will all be posted at some point, but this one is too interesting to wait.

Apparently it's pretty well known that Ben was working out of Chap Petersen's office full time. However, according to my source Ben's name is nowhere to be found on the Chap! financial reports.


I haven't looked to confirm this since I don't have time, but since we're using "Not Larry Sabato" standards, it's not really necessary to confirm something before posting it. And I don't believe for one second that Ben was a full time volunteer.

What's going on here?

Virginal Ben

Someone in the comments labeled this blog as a hate site. I don't think that's an accurate description. Instead, think of this more as a watchdog site, in the same mold as CREW. We're just here to keep an eye on him and to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Virginal Ben is a Ben Tribbett hate site, one of the originals in fact. I wish the author would fire it back up.

This One Really Pissed Ben Off

Ben claims that "this is beneath acceptable discourse".

How many photoshops has Ben done and how many things has Ben written that are "beneath acceptable discourse"?

Ben Tribbett is a Hypocrite with No Credibility, Part I

When Ben Tribbett feels someone should be elected, he will write anything about anyone running against that person. It doesn't matter if it is a primary or general election, Ben will spread vicious rumors, false accusations, and manufactured "scandals" which only he thinks are actual scandals.

Such was the case in the primary between (Senator-elect) George Barker and Greg Galligan. There were many posts on this race, each one more outrageous than the last. The one that is relevant to this discussion is a post called "Barker's Alliance With Republicans". This post wasn't even close to one of his worst, but the funny thing is he ends it with

"Barker owes all Democrats an apology for this cavorting."

Pretty unbelievable considering Ben was just featured with a defacto endorsement on an ultra-conservative Republican's mail piece who he would've ran against in the general election had he won the nomination.

One example out of many of why Ben Tribbett, aka Not Larry Sabato, has no crediblilty whatsoever.

The Obligatory "Ben Was Kicked Out of the Democratic Party" Post

In 2005, Ben actually thought he could be a member of the General Assembly, so he ran for the House of Delegates (it probably would have been the end of this great Commonwealth had he made it there). Luckily, he ran against Dave Marsden, a moderate Democrat and former Republican, in the Democratic Primary.

To make a long story short, he lost or dropped out or something and ended up endorsing Republican Michael Golden on Not Larry Sabato. Michael Golden, mind you, was about as conservative as they come, probably to the right of Jerry Kilgore.

Michael Golden took that post from the former Democratic candidate and did a mailing with it:

Of course that post and that mailing prompted this from the Fairfax County Democratic Party:

Ben hilariously claims that he is going to sue someone over this because he wasn't actually kicked out of the party, instead he just decided not to pay his dues. Yeah. Ben Tribbett is going to sue someone over something they said about him.

Either way, Ben actually got kicked out or they tried to kick him out. Like I said, no one wants anything to do with this guy.

(Thanks to Daily Whack Job for hosting the images)

Why Ben Tribbett Watch?

Ben Tribbett is the writer behind the popular political blog “Not Larry Sabato”. He specializes in Virginia politics, writing most frequently about Northern Virginia politicians, candidates, campaigns, and their role in the General Assembly. His blog is one of the most popular in Virginia, widely read among politicians, insiders, campaign staff, and party officials. It has grown in popularity mainly to his analysis of voting history in campaigns that people find insightful. By his own account “Not Larry Sabato” has approximately 1,179 readers a day.

But there is a problem. Ben Tribbett is nothing but an irresponsible, hypocritical, reckless hack. In addition to his evolving “predictions” and bullshit analyses, he uses his blog to attack people he doesn’t like personally, spread vicious rumors, advance his own political agenda, and often uses photoshopped pictures to insult people he doesn’t like. I put predictions in quotes, because Senator Ken Cuccinelli put it best when he recently wrote:

"Unlike one of my infamous constituents, Not Larry Sabato, I don’t continually refine my long-term predictions and then tell you how smart I am because my predictions the day before the election were ‘so accurate.’”

No one likes Ben Tribbett. Neither political party wants him. The only two politicians that want anything to do with him are Leslie Byrne and Chap Petersen, and even they try to conceal any collaboration. He has no real friends, although he thinks he does. If anyone is friendly to him it’s merely out of political expediency because they don’t want to be attacked by him.

Ben Tribbett’s bullshit has been documented all over the internet, mostly in the comments section of his own blog. To his credit he will often leave up critical comments, although many times he deletes the ones he doesn’t like. Other blogs have exposed Ben for the fraud and hack that he is. “Ben Tribbett Watch” will take these comments and blog posts and put them all in one place. There will be some original content here, but my job is easy since I only have to go back and find what other people have written and fact checked. We’ll go back and focus on some of the more outrageous and stupid things he’s written in the past and will keep an eye on his current posts as well.

How long will “Ben Tribbett Watch” last? I don’t know. Probably until I feel that there is sufficient information in one place to show that Ben Tribbett is nothing but a piece of shit with a blog. Also, this blog is going to be mean. Ben doesn’t hold back when he writes, and neither will I or should you in the comments. I’ll use photoshops of Ben, just like he does of other people. There will not be a lot of posts to Ben Tribbett Watch, maybe one or two a day, if that. Unlike Ben, I do not live in my parent’s basement and am forced to have a full time job like most normal adults.

It’s well known that Ben has made a lot of enemies and I’m sure there are a lot you who have stories or tips you would like to share. For tips about Ben Tribbett, and I’m sure there are plenty out there, email them to bentribbettwatch@gmail.com, confidentially guaranteed of course. These tips and/or stories should be rooted in at least 5% of the truth, since that’s often how much truth is in Ben’s posts.

This should be fun.