HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Sen. John Walsh remained steadfast
Thursday amid an investigation into whether he plagiarized a research
project required for a master’s degree, winning fresh backing from
fellow Democrats in Montana and the governor who appointed him to the
Senate earlier this year.
The U.S. Army War College said in a
statement late Thursday it will examine evidence that Walsh included
both conclusions and verbatim passages from the writings of other
scholars in his 2007 paper, known as a strategy research project. The
college is in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
"The Army War College
initiated its own analysis of the paper and determined this morning that
there was reasonable cause to refer the case to the US Army War College
Academic Review Board," the statement said.
Walsh, the only
senator who served in the Iraq war, is seeking election in a race that
top Democratic strategists — prior to the plagiarism revelations — saw
as an uphill battle and unlikely to provide one of the seats the party
needs to hold onto its majority.
Earlier in the day, Walsh’s
campaign spokeswoman, Lauren Passalacqua, insisted her boss was staying
in the race against Republican Rep. Steve Daines. He got the backing to
do so from the state Democratic Party, whose spokesman, Bryan Watt, said
Walsh "took responsibility" for his mistakes and the party looks
forward "to standing and fighting with him."
Gov. Steve Bullock
said he had no knowledge of the plagiarism when he appointed the former
head of the Montana National Guard and the state’s lieutenant governor
to the Senate in February.
"Senator Walsh has a long history of
fighting for Montanans, both at home and in combat," Bullock said. "He
deserves respect for his courage on our behalf."
There is only a
short time for Walsh, Bullock and their Democratic colleagues to decide
whether the allegations are too toxic for Walsh to survive. A candidate
has until Aug. 11 to withdraw from this year’s contest, and the state
party has until Aug. 20 to name a replacement candidate, said Montana
Secretary of State Linda McCulloch.
If Walsh decides to drop out
after the ballots are certified on Aug. 21, a new candidate can’t be
appointed and Walsh’s name will stay on the ballot, she said.
Bullock
appointed Walsh in February when Democratic Sen. Max Baucus resigned to
become ambassador to China. Republicans and some Democrats blasted the
appointment, saying it was made without transparency and was designed to
give Walsh a boost in the midterm elections.
Bullock spokesman
Kevin O’Brien said the governor’s 2012 campaign reviewed Walsh’s public
statements, records and spoke with individuals who served with Walsh
before asking him to join the Senate.
"This didn’t come up," O’Brien said.
The
plagiarism allegation is the second potentially damaging issue raised
this year about the senator’s 33-year military career, which has been a
cornerstone of his campaign. It was first questioned in January when
records revealed the Army reprimanded him in 2010 for pressuring
Guardsmen to join a private association for which he was seeking a
leadership role.
"It goes right to his strength — his military
record and his integrity," said Montana State University political
science professor David Parker. "He was willing to take somebody’s words
and make them his own. That’s a question of honor."
Walsh said
that when he wrote the thesis, he had post-traumatic stress disorder
from his service in Iraq, was on medication and was dealing with the
stress of a fellow veteran’s recent suicide. He said he didn’t
plagiarize but that his thesis contained "a few citations that were
unintentionally left out."
The first page of Walsh’s paper borrows
heavily from a 2003 article in Foreign Affairs, while all six of the
recommendations Walsh listed at the end of his paper are taken nearly
word-for-word without attribution from a paper published by the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace. Another section is nearly identical
to about 600 words from a 1998 paper published by a research institute
at Harvard University.
Walsh submitted his thesis, titled "The
Case for Democracy as a Long Term National Strategy," nearly two years
after he returned from Iraq and about a year before he became Montana’s
adjutant general overseeing the state’s National Guard and Department of
Military Affairs.
College officials said the graduation status of
a former student has been revoked six times for plagiarism since 1990.
Walsh will have the chance to present material in his defense to the
review board before it makes a recommendation to college administrators
on whether any disciplinary action should be taken.
The college’s
student handbook includes pages of warnings against plagiarism and
details on how to properly cite sources, noting a student "should always
quote when lifting five consecutive words from a source."
"Sooner
or later, academic dishonesty will be discovered," the handbook states.
"Plagiarism is a serious offense that can ruin a person’s reputation
and career."