Texas Congressman Running for Senate Goes AWOL

I hear there may be more breaking on this, but for ow CBS News reports:

 The suburban Houston Republican and fierce conservative is mounting a long-shot challenge from the right against Senate minority whip John Cornyn but has made virtually no public appearances in Texas as questions mount about his campaign finances. Now, he's stopped showing up for his day job, too.

Stockman has missed 17 straight House votes since Jan. 9- including one on the $1.1 trillion omnibus federal spending package he promised on Twitter to vote against. That's unusual since, even though Stockman has a reputation as a Capitol Hill renegade, he missed only about a dozen major votes all last year.

The disappearance is mystifying for conservative activists who were hoping Stockman could help them land another blow against the GOP establishment this year.

Lee Stranahan in earlier commentary has linked Stockman to Ron Paul Inc operatives. In December 2103, he wrote:

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been writing, tweeting, and talking about #Staffergate; a sweeping scandal that involves dirty, illegal and just plain wrong political shenanigans by key staffers of top name Republican politicians like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Rand Paul Rep. Michele Bachmann, & former Rep. Ron Paul.

The #Staffergate scandal is being moved along by law enforcement interest that’s resulted in recent FBI raids as well as a continuing Office of Congressional Ethics investigation against Bachmann. So far, the story we’ve presented. The scandal threatens to impact the political fate of both McConnell, who is facing a tough reelection battle in Kentucky as well as the 2016 presidential ambitions of Rand Paul.

Now add another ambitious GOP contender to the #Staffergate scandal roster: Texas Rep. Steve Stockman, who recently announced his primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn.

 The #staffergate connection is Danny Ferguson, whose LinkedIn resume lists him as “Media Strategist/Senior Adviser at Congressman Steve Stockman” as well as Campaign Manager for Stockman’s 2012 House run.

Ferguson is currently ensnared is allegations of campaign wrongdoing in Montana. It’s a story whose bizarre details–including boxes of documents found in a “meth house” in Colorado–have attracted both national media attention and the FBI. It also ties directly to other key players in #Staffergate.

The story is significant not just because of the impact on Rep. Steve Stockman for having a close advisor involved in alleged political malfeasance but because it also appears to indicate a multi-state, multi-election pattern of illegal campaign behavior by a top conservative political activism group, The National Right to Work Committee.