Fast & Fringiest: Meet the Top Cranks & Conspiracy Theorists in Rand's World

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Jack Hunter, The "Southern Avenger"

A Paul aide who’d spent years as a pro-secessionist activist and radio shock jock flew under the radar until 2013, when he was unmasked as the “Southern Avenger.”

The conservative news site The Washington Free Beacon dug up former new media director Jack Hunter’s ties to the League of the South, a neo-Confederate group, as well as transcripts from his stint as the “Southern Avenger” on talk radio in South Carolina. As the “Southern Avenger,” Hunter wore a wrestling mask printed with the Confederate flag, commended John Wilkes Booth for having his “heart in the right place” in assassinating President Abraham Lincoln, and decried the prospect of a “non-white majority America.”

Paul defended Hunter for weeks, arguing that “he was put up as target practice for people to say he was a racist, and none of that's true.” The senator was quick to say that he disagreed with much of Hunter’s writing and statements, though.

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Chris Hightower

Hunter wasn’t the first Paul staffer who left the senator’s team because of his fringe views. In 2009, then-Senate candidate Paul’s spokesman Chris Hightower resigned after a liberal blog dug up a post from Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Hightower’s Myspace page that read "HAPPY N***ER DAY!!!" above a photo of what appeared to be a lynching.

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Alex Jones

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Fritz Wenzel

In its early stages, Paul’s national operation employed pollster Fritz Wenzel, who’d previously worked for the senator’s 2010 campaign and the elder Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign. Wenzel, aside from having a poor track record as a pollster in general, conducted surveys for the conspiracy website WND that gave credence to the debunked birther conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S.

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Jesse Benton

Jesse Benton, a longtime Paul family fixture, has reportedly been tapped to run a super PAC supporting the Kentucky senator. That move officially brings Benton back into Paul’s orbit after a truncated stint as the campaign manager for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) 2014 re-election effort.

Benton's re-emergence could also prove a liability for Paul -- but not because of any statements he's made.

Benton resigned from McConnell’s campaign in August, shortly after he was reportedly subpoenaed in connection with a bribery scandal involving former Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-TX) 2012 presidential campaign. Benton was a top aide to the elder Paul’s campaign when an Iowa lawmaker, state Sen. Kent Sorenson (R), switched his endorsement from former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to the Texas congressman. Sorensen later pleaded guilty to selling his allegiance to Paul's team for $73,000.

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Full article
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/rand-paul-orbit-2016-liabilities