With the announcement by Ted Cruz that he is launching a bid for President of the United States in 2016, we would like to query him on his use of Ali Akbar, who is a convicted fraudster who was convicted of numerous felonies in Texas, in his up and coming campaign for 2016. The question is this: will Cruz continue to utilize Mr. Akbar as a campaign advisor or consultant to his campaign? It is no secret that Akbar was convicted of serious felonies for fraud and burglary in Texas. As a matter of fact, this site was the first to document Mr. Akbar’s status as a convicted felon a few years ago. Mr. Akbar continues to be a consultant on numerous political campaigns, and each time he is involved in those campaigns, questions surround that campaign about the shady tactics that Akbar and his cronies involve themselves in. Now, Akbar appears to be hyper-involved in the Ted Cruz Presidential campaign.
.@TedCruz is making the play for what conservatives have argued every time a more moderate nominee lost. Run boldly. pic.twitter.com/5rsYlQui1p
— Ali A. Akbar (@ali) March 23, 2015
People forget, @TedCruz is smart. Like intelligent and knowledgable and has a lot experience folks don’t know about. https://t.co/r9LtnurXGu
— Ali A. Akbar (@ali) March 20, 2015
Of course, Ted Cruz attended the 2013 Blog Bash that Akbar puts on each year at CPAC. Blog Bash is a gathering of conservative bloggers that Akbar uses as a primary get out the echo chamber messages that politicians need to use as a messaging center for their tea party views. Akbar was recently involved in the Groundswell Group 30 Front War messaging apparatus, as well as various campaigns which have utilized his services as a blogger power center. Cruz himself claimed at the 2013 Blog Bash event that he and the entire Washington political establishment were afraid of Akbar and his bloggers.
Cruz also comes from the school of Andrew Breitbart, below he sings the praises of Andrew Breitbart and praises him for what he brought to the table of right-wing media by offering a toast to good old Andrew.
In both videos, one can see Mr. Akbar standing to the side of Cruz. This improper relationship between Cruz and Akbar calls into question the effectiveness of the Cruz campaign when Cruz utilizes the services of convicted felons or fraudsters for getting his messages out. Will Ted Cruz renounce Ali Akbar or continue to embrace him? Calls to the Cruz campaign to ask about this issue went unanswered as of press time.
Ted Cruz came in 3rd in the CPAC poll of who has the best shot at 2016. The winner of that poll went instead to Rand Paul. So, lest we forget, Rand Paul has his own issues with utilizing convicted felons and fraudsters for his own campaign.
We are reaching out to Rand Paul to see if he will answer the question of utilizing Mr. Akbar as a consultant or campaign advisor. We will update this post if anyone at any of those campaigns answer these all-important questions.
I have worked with federal campaigns in the past and the legitimate ones will have nothing to do with felons. My guess is that Cruz is in it for the ego rather than the win, and Ali is in it for the money. I will say this, if Ali works on any campaign that starts getting traction, he will be exhibit number 1 in the opponent’s ads. He will be portrayed like the GOP portrayed Bill Ayers–sinister, menacing, evil, black and Muslim. In fact, with a name like Ali Akbar, he is something straight out of Hollywood and an opponent’s wet dream. I can see the ad, “Why is Ali Akbar on Ted Cruz’s campaign payroll?” The backdrop will be terrorists yelling Allah Akbar with Ali’s mugshots flashing on the screen. That’s the politics of personal destruction and guilt by association.