January 4, 2016

Why the Heck Is Ben Carson Campaigning in Staten Island?

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tabor-roeder/22697784487/in/photolist-AzJ5xR-BtAuBT-uJH9Ac-uJxwrC-vp73Yn-vDfwWJ-vDfphL-vDfsvQ-vDfqLC-vDfsmm-vFxRce-uJxxoY-uJH9tD-uJxNXJ-zifWn3-xBUaGm-C7jUoh-qtuZpJ-qb2X8D-qCCmya-oaPSZz-o71jPh-paCfbP-o8Vgbm-ob6Tfb-oaSYmt-uJxNj9-vFxYCM-vEZAcW-vFWjFp-voYTUW-voYQ2y-vp7b5r-uJHkSk-voYJH9-voYCw9-uJxzgA-uJxzR3-pGkHLa-o5WLxt-o5WGoN-oiMCQw-otFWjs-pTETYi-orFCmu-otHw66-orFBjQ-owK4Tv-pf6ShJ-q1RTzP">Phil Roeder</a>/Flickr

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The New York Republican presidential primary is in 106 days, on April 19. It is the 37th nominating contest, coming more than three months after the first votes are cast in Iowa on February 1. So naturally Ben Carson is campaigning there on Monday night.

This is kind of strange. Carson’s campaign is a mess right now. When three of his top aides quit before the New Year, Armstrong Williams, Carson’s top advisor, found out about it on Twitter. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, once was at the top of the polls, but his numbers have plummeted in Iowa and elsewhere. Still, he insists he’s plowing ahead and remains a contender. If so, what’s he doing in Staten Island, while the other candidates rightly focus on Iowa and New Hampshire in the pre-voting homestretch? Some possibilities:

  • The ferry offers a great view of the harbor at a low price.
  • Carson wants to run for mayor of New York and is learning from Harold Ford’s mistake.
  • Fresh Kills is a cool name for one of the world’s largest garbage dumps.
  • Great pizza.
  • ???

There’s no real explanation for this stop. (Has Carson sold every book he can possibly sell in Iowa?) It’s the latest sign his campaign—though it collected $23 million in the most recent quarter—cannot be considered a serious effort.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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