A left wing political operative arrested in July for harassing Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (VA-10) and her staffers was taken into custody this week in Nevada for assaulting the female campaign manager of a GOP candidate. Mike Stark, a staffer for the progressive super PAC American Bridge, has a long list of run-ins with Republicans and a record of being physically aggressive with women.
During the Fourth of July parades in Northern Virginia, Stark appeared with members of Democratic challenger Jennifer Wexton’s campaign team and volunteers which targeted the staff of Comstock. He was allegedly sent by Democratic strategist Paul Begala, according to some inside sources.
In an email from the Comstock campaign, a spokesperson said that Stark’s “behavior that day and others frightened volunteers and bystanders alike.” Furthermore, they said he is “in your face, uncivil,” and “the resistance left pays him and encourages him.”
The latest incident of violence involved Kristin Davidson, campaign manager for Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt at an event in Las Vegas. Davidson told police that Stark grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back, leaving her visibly bruising.
Stark reportedly barged into a room where Laxalt, Nevada’s attorney general, was meeting with Davidson and two other staffers, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
After he cornered her in the room, Davidson said in a statement to police, “I could not move.”
“Stark grabbed my right arm, twisted it behind my back, squeezed it very hard, and every time I tried to pull away he pulled me closer and gripped my arm tighter,” she said.
“You can make this stop, Adam,” Stark yelled at the attorney general.
“I kept screaming help me, stop hurting me, you are hurting me,” Davidson recalled. “I was terrified and at that point saw multiple colleagues try to pull him off me but Stark held tighter,” she added.
Las Vegas City Marshals intervened in the situation, relieving Davidson of Stark’s threatening grasp, taking him to the Las Vegas City jail. American Bridge has yet to comment on the most recent arrest involving their staffer.
Laxalt campaign spokesman Parker Briden told reporters after the incident, “Assaulting the female campaign manager of an opposing campaign is disgusting and it has no place in our system. This mob behavior from the left is out of control.”
Violence on part of Democrats has escalated throughout the country, with another situation this week that left two Minnesota Republican candidates reeling from politically-motivated verbal and physical assaults on the campaign trail less than three weeks away from Election Day.
In a report from The Daily Caller, Republican State Representative Sarah Anderson was threatened while door knocking in her district by a man who was following her and tearing up campaign signs. The man, describing himself as a “anarchist,” charged at Anderson yelling “go kill yourself.”
Secondly, Shane Mekeland, a GOP candidate running for an open seat in the state legislature says that he was physically assaulted during a recent campaign event. He has stated that he was “sucker-punched” and received a concussion from a suspect that has yet to be detained.