dalepeterson

Dale Peterson is famous for waving a Winchester rifle around in a campaign ad during his unsuccessful 2010 bid for Alabama state Agriculture Commissioner. The YouTube views of his ad far exceeded his vote count, but Peterson went on to start his own PAC with Ali Akbar as his adviser. Peterson is experiencing renewed notoriety today with his second shoplifting arrest in the last six months — this one at a Sam’s Club in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham:

While Peterson was shopping for groceries, he picked up a can of cashews and began eating the contents, police said. Before heading to the cash register, however, Peterson put the empty can back on a shelf.

On his Twitter account, Peterson attempted to downplay what happened in the store.

“I picked up some cashews when I got to Sams this afternoon. Ate a handful. Put them in my cart & kept shopping,” Peterson tweeted Thursday. “An hour later, when I went to checkout, I put the cashews back (forgetting I had eaten a few), purchased $700 of merchandise & went to jail.”

One is tempted to ask why he didn’t notice the can was a little light when he put it back on the shelf. Peterson’s previous arrest took place at a Hoover Walmart last October when he pushed a cart full of beer and toilet paper past the registers, then claimed he had simply needed to use the restroom.

Perhaps not surprisingly, when Peterson launched his America Get Up PAC in 2011 the website POLITICO quoted an “adviser” named Ali Akbar:

“Much like Senator DeMint’s Senate Conservative Fund PAC, Dale’s not afraid to play in the primaries and with DeMint sitting the primaries out this go-around, folks like Dale will fill that void,” said Peterson adviser Ali Akbar.

Akbar said Peterson wants the use his unique national platform to help “non-politician, straight-shooters with actual business experience.”

We assume by “actual business experience” Akbar meant ‘petty theft and burglary.’ This latest news means Peterson and Akbar will soon have the same number of actual criminal convictions on their records.

We also suspect that Akbar advised Peterson to take the PAC money and run. America Get Up PAC is listed as a “Super PAC” at OpenSecrets.org, where we also learn that it took in and spent $31,720 in 2011, leaving $15,702 in debts, with zero independent expenditures. The Treasurer for America Get Up PAC is Shaun McCutcheon, whose Conservative Action Fund gave Akbar $15,800 that same year. McCutcheon lives in Hoover.

Anybody want to bet whether Peterson has Super PAC overlord Dan Backer on speed-dial?

Hat tip to @NicoleGennette

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *