Tick, tick, tick. Mayoral candidate's time bomb goes off Wed or Thu.

Here's the online bio of the current mayor of Hughson, CA, running for his fourth term. Who will be the first here to discover where he got his MBA? The Modesto Bee newspaper already knows, and will tell all, either Wednesday or Thursday (www.modbee.com).

Thomas E. "Thom" Crowder
Candidate for Mayor; City of Hughson, California

The information on this page and on all pages linked below is provided by the candidate. The League of Women Voters does not support or oppose any candidate or political party.

Biographical Highlights

* Occupation: Business Owner/Paramedic
* Bachelors Degree-Political Science 1989
* Master of Business Administration 1993
* Businessman of the Year 2001 Republican Congressional Award
* United States Department of Labor OSHA Authorized OutReach Trainer
* City Councilmember-1992-1994
* Mayor City of Hughson-1994-2000 Three Terms

Top Priorities if Elected

* Proactive law enforcement & community policing
* Balanced controlled growth, residential and commercial
* Safe drinking water

 

I didn't notice anyplace where it mentioned his alma mater but, I did notice one Google page that mentioned that he was pursuing a PhD. If it is from the same place then maybe he will no longer be pursuing it after Wednesday or Thursday?

 

Harrington School of Business?

 

I wonder how The Modesto Bee knows, John.................

 

Russell: "I wonder how The Modesto Bee knows, John"

John: This is the email I received earlier today from the reporter:
--------------------
My name is Julissa McKinnon and I'm a reporter for the Modesto Bee newspaper
whose working on a story about fraudulent online universities. In my
websearch on this subject your name came up quite a few times and it seems
you're knowledgable on the subject. I though perhaps you could answer a few
questions I have about how these online universities scams operate.
--------------------

Apparently she was alerted by a local person in Modesto, definitely not by me.

 

Bill Hurd: "Harrington School of Business?"
-----------------------

It is Harrington University indeed, one of the Romanian fakes. Is this a guess or did you find something online (and if so, what?).

 

OK, you caught me. It was an educated guess after searching hundreds of sites. The Harrington name just kept popping up, but not with Crowder's name.

Now I can't even trace my site searches. The only thing I found (the 2nd time) was Crowder's claim to a 1993 MBA.

B Hurd
RA MBA

 

Dr. Bear: You've come across my special interest regarding non-accredited degree holders (i.e., politicians and public servants who have bogus academic credentials). It seems to me there is also an inordinate number of fire chiefs, police chiefs, medical examiners, councilmen, etc., with unaccredited degrees. For some reason (local media interest?) it seems almost epidemic in the State of Michigan. Among politicians at least, it is far worse among local-level types than state or federal, but among civil servants, I believe just the opposite. I'll bet anyone who wishes to delve further into it will find that male holders of such "degrees" also have a tendency to exaggerate or contrive military records. The ex-Navy SEALS maintain a web site that exposes phonies who claim to be veteran SEALS. Likewise, there are two others for those who claim to be highly decorated in combat or Viet Nam veterans. You might recall the baseball manager (I believe he was with the Montreal Expos) who resigned several years ago after it was disclosed that his claims of being a Viet Nam vet were entirely contrived. It might make an interesting masters or PhD study for someone to to cross reference those on these veterans-based esposé sites with unaccredited academic credentials. I have e-mailed several political opponents of unaccredited degree holders (as well as the local media there) about the candidate's academic credentials. On a couple of occassions I have had to swallow hard because I found the political position of the LEGITIMATE candidate to be almost intolerable. Still, the importance of exposing bogus degree holders is so important that I felt compelled to do it. Sadly, for whatever reason, in most cases, nothing is done about it, and the truth almost never shows up in the media.

This account, at least, made it into the Muskegon paper, later to be reported by Colonel David Hackworth, although I personally was in no way involved with it

http://www.hackworth.com/sw01292004z.html

 

Actually, it was Toronto Blue Jays manager Tim Johnson.

 

Hughson candidate's degree questioned

 

If this fellow doesn't have time for people pointing out that he's an academic fraud then he should stop being one.

 

Quoted from that Modesto Bee article referenced above:

If he truly believes what he said above it begs the question: Then why did he include the Harrington University MBA "degree" in his candidate information in the first place? Why didn't he just leave it out?

Did he include it because he's used that shaky credential before? Did he include it because he thought it might already be public knowledge? Did he include it because he thought it "looked good" and he might get away with it?

Doesn't he think voters ask themselves such questions when evaluating candidates?

Kit

 

what an asshat!
No soup for you, Mr ex-Mayor!

 

It is especially amusing that, when pressed, he sort of thought his alma mater might be in Tampa, Florida. Tampa was the home of the FBI's DipScam diploma mill program in its final years, and where its founder, and my co-author, Allen Ezell now lives.

John Bear, Ph.D. (Michigan State)
Co-author, Degree Mills (Prometheus Press, Jan. 2005)

 

Surrender

Crowder says he's done with campaign

Snippet:

• Thomas Crowder has posted a letter titled "I am no longer seeking the office of Mayor" on www.smartvoter.org, a League of Women Voters Web site.

 

But he wins anyway...

Crowder apparently winner in Hughson

 

I just love how indignant these folks get when caught. He claims he has been slandered... and that all the accusations are false. One school never existed and the other one said he wasn't a student at their school....

 

Crowder elected mayor of Hughson

(I see I've now made over 2000 posts. Maybe enough is enough ...)

 

oxpecker: "(I see I've now made over 2000 posts. Maybe enough is enough ...)"

John: And when you add the total of your pal Gert . . .
But I would encourage you to adopt, if you have not already, our family motto, "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing."

 

Been there, overdone that.