Lane Hudson
Lane Hudson is a former staff member for the United States Democratic Party and a liberal blogger who exposed the Mark Foley scandal.
Hudson was Profiled in Time magazine's 2006 Person of the Year issue.
Early life
A lifelong Democrat, Hudson was born in Darlington, SC and grew up in neighboring Hartsville. After high school in Myrtle Beach, he moved to Charleston, South Carolina and attended the College of Charleston. He worked for a number of political campaigns including that of John Kerry. In 1995, he met Mark Foley at a Capitol Hill bar, where Foley attempted to pick him up.
Stop [...] Predators
In July 2006, Hudson anonymously launched a blog called "Stop [...] Predators." His intention, as he stated on his blog, was "to serve as a clearing house for the public to report [...] predators and as a resource for concerned parents and citizens." Beginning in August, he started posting AbOUT Congressmen rumored to have [...] affairs with congressional pages, and solicited tips and e-mails. On 24 September 2006 he posted photocopied e-mails from Mark Foley to a 16-year-old page. The political blog Wonkette expressed skepticism about Hudson's post, and users of the website Daily Kos suspected the post to be a hoax, but on September 28, ABC News' Brian Ross confirmed the existence of the e-mails, which he had received in August but not previously reported on.
When Hudson's identity was revealed, he was fired from his job at Human Rights Campaign. Hudson joked that despite the fact that he simply told the truth, he was the only person in Washington fired over Mark Foley's exploits. Stop [...] Predators ceased updates after Hudson was fired.
Independent blogging
After losing his job, Hudson became an independent blogger. He started a blog called News for the Left and also began writing for the liberal Huffington Post.
Fred Thompson Complaint
On August 20, 2007, Hudson filed a complaint with the FEC regarding Fred Thompson. The complaint alleged that Thompson had violated the "testing the waters" clause of FEC law, essentially by acting as a de facto candidate without formally declaring himself as one. In response to the complaint the FEC has issued the following statement. "The FEC will now give Thompson 15 days to respond to the complaint. Following Thompson's response, election commissioners will decide whether to dismiss the case or investigate further." In Thompson's defense, "[Thompson] has not said definitively that he's a candidate for president. He is expected to make an announcement around Labor Day." Under current regulations he can only use the money to "test the waters".
External links
- Stop [...] Predators, Hudson's anonymous blog (no longer updated)
- News For The Left, Hudson's current blog
- Lane Hudson at the Huffington Post