September 18, 2015 03:20 PM UTC

GOP Presidential Staffers Box--With A Local Twist

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• by: Colorado Pols

Rich Beeson, left: last night in Michigan courtesy John Yob, right: working for Colorado’s Jane Norton in 2009

UPDATE: Another Republican comes forward with a story of violence committed by GOP political operative Rich Beeson of Colorado:

Those who like to hit people tend to keep hitting people, after all. Original post follows.

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A physical confrontation caught on tape between staffers for two GOP presidential candidates is lighting up political chatter this morning, and there’s a Colorado connection. As Politico’s Nick Gass and Kyle Cheney report:

John Yob, a Michigan political consultant working for Rand Paul, says he was punched in the face late Thursday by Marco Rubio’s deputy campaign manager, Rich Beeson, at the nearby Horn’s Bar. Yob, who is national political director and chief strategist of Paul’s Michigan campaign, quickly took to Facebook to publicize the incident and demand that Rubio fire Beeson.

“Last night I went to a bar on Mackinac Island for the GOP Mackinac Conference. I ran into a guy named Rich Beeson, who frankly I didn’t even know who it was at first because he isn’t relevant in our political world. Anyway, he is Marco Rubio’s national campaign manager. He literally physically assaulted me by punching me in the face,” Yob wrote in a Facebook post early Friday morning. “The state police are looking for him. I have it on video, from multiple angles. This will play out in the national media in the next few hours.”

Yob ensured that national media had additonal details. Asked for proof of the incident, Yob sent a cell phone photo of Beeson flipping him off, with both hands, and promised video of the punch later. Security video purporting to show the incident began circulating on social media late Friday morning. Mackinac Island police are looking into the matter…

Rich Beeson, the CM for Rubio, punched me in the face tonight on Mackinac Island. The Michigan State Police are looking for him. #MIGOP

— John Yob (@strategic) September 18, 2015

Yikes! Local political watercooler types will recognize the name Rich Beeson, a longtime local political operative who worked on a number of campaigns in Colorado before moving up to the big leagues as national political director for Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2012. Beeson was part of a “bubble” of Republican consultants surrounding Romney who helped lull his campaign into a false sense of security based on skewed polling showing Romney ahead. In addition, Beeson gets some of the blame for a disastrous voter contact system that failed the Romney campaign in dramatic fashion ahead of Election Day. Locally, Beeson worked for GOP gubernatorial loser Bob Beauprez in 2006, and was part of Josh Penry’s “shakeup” of the flagging Jane Norton for Senate campaign in 2009–which as you know did not exactly end in glory.

Looks like he’s got a pretty mean right cross, though.