Angle aide accused of handing over campaign secrets in Massachusetts governor’s race

By Delen Goldberg

Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010 | 4:38 p.m.

Jordan Gehrke, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle's deputy campaign manager, has been named in a lawsuit accusing him and others of providing confidential campaign information to a candidate's opponent.

The lawsuit does not involve the Angle campaign or any other of her staffers.

Rather, Tim Cahill, Massachusetts' treasurer and the state's Independent candidate for governor, filed the lawsuit today alleging that Strategic National Campaign Management staffers, including Gehrke, supplied proprietary information to his opponent, Republican candidate Charles Baker, and the Republican Governors Association.

Cahill hired Strategic National Campaign Management to strategize and run the day-to-day operations of his campaign. Strategic National Campaign Management hired Gehrke to serve as Cahill's political director.

The lawsuit notes that Gehrke left the campaign before three other defendants whom the lawsuit more directly implicates in handing over Cahill's campaign secrets. Still, Gehrke is named as a defendant along with his former colleagues.

"Gehrke (and the other defendants) were entrusted with all of the confidential information that the Cahill campaign possessed about its strategic prospects and tactical plans," the lawsuit reads.

It goes on to accuse the aides of using "for their own personal benefit, confidential information pertaining, or confidential information concerning budget, ad buys, strategy, and tactics for the final push to the election."

Angle campaign spokesman Jarrod Agen said the lawsuit "is totally irrelevant to this race, nor does any Nevada voter possibly care about it."