Eve Adams, Dimitri Soudas fight fraud allegations after nixed vote

The Conservative nomination vote in Ontario's new federal riding ofOakvilleNorth-Burlington may be at a standstill, but a heated battle rages onas the campaigns of MP Eve Adams and local chiropractor NataliaLishchynaratchet up their accusations against each other.

Adams and her fianc,Dimitri Soudas, say the allegationthat her campaign paid for partymemberships in order to build up support ahead of the nomination is false.

While not illegal under Election Canada regulations, it's against Conservative Party rules for someone to pay for another's party membership.

In an interview on CBC News Network'sPower & Politics,Rosemary Barton asked Soudasif he paid for any membership cards himself.

"Oh my goodness, absolutely not," he said.

He referred to a specific incident in which he visited a family who agreed to sign up as Conservative Party members. But because they didn't have the money on them at the time, Soudas said he agreed to pick it up at a later date.

"The reality is we processed more than 1,500 memberships,and the specific case of this family, when we discovered that they had not paid and we had not collected the money from them,we actually asked the party, proactively, to remove them from the membership list before it was even public knowledge," he said.

"We ran a super-tight campaign here and administrative errors sometimes do happen."

CBC News has also learned new details about complaints made by the Lishchynacampaign againstAdams's team.

Family 'harassed' by Soudas

According to sources,Soudascalled a family of five in the riding and pressured them to sign up forConservative Party memberships.

The family told him that they were Liberal supporters, but that didn't stopSoudasfrom pushing ahead, sources said.He told them that it was OK for them to take out Conservative memberships and vote for Adams in the nomination race. He then allegedly said the family could discard them and vote Liberal in the general election.

The family told the party they felt "harassed" bySoudas.It has been confirmed to CBC News that the number calling the home was indeedSoudas's, made when he was still the director of the party.

Soudaswas fired from the Conservative Partyin March after it was made known he was trying to interfere in hisfiance'snomination battle.

This incident is among a number of complaints thatLishchyna'scampaign director, JohnMyktyshyn, sent to the party about two weeks ago. TheLishchynateam said they have so far uncovered 38 cases of alleged membership fraud.

In a statement released on Friday,Lishchynasaid she accepted that the campaign "would not be an easy road to travel" but didn't expect to witness "such unethical activity."

"It is more than distressing to see a sitting member of Parliament conduct her campaign in such an unscrupulous, unethical and unnecessary manner while she seeks the party nomination in a riding other than the riding she currently represents," she said.

Adams brushed off the comments.

Complaints vs. complaints

"You know what, this campaign has really been marked by the fact that we've taken the high road from Day 1," she said.

"I haven't been disparaging another Conservative in public. I adhere to Ronald Reagan's great adage, 'Thou shaltnot speak ill of another Conservative,'" she said.

Earlier this week,Soudasfiled his own complaint to theCRTCand Elections Canada on behalf of the Adamscampaign.

The Adams team alleges that theLishchynacamp badgered Conservative supporters withrepeatedphone calls by a telemarketing firm. They complain thatthe firm did not say it was working forLishchyna, and thus violates telecommunications rules.

But sources tell CBC News those calls aren't illegal, because theLishchynacamp had hired a firm to do surveys via live calls.

The party is currently investigating the complaints.It called a random sample of more than 10 per cent of the new members(1,500 to 1,800 new members have been signed up). The party made150 to 180 calls and found that the complaints werealmost all about Adams's campaign.

The Conservative Party National Selection Committee will look at the results of the investigation and then proceed to make a recommendation to FredDeLorey, the director of political operations

Sources tell CBC News there could potentially be four results:

1. The statusquocould be maintained and the race goes on.
2. Adams couldbe told she can't run inOakvilleNorth-Burlington and must instead find another riding.
3. Adams would not be able to run at all.
4. The race would continue,but some of the new party members would be disqualified from voting in the nomination.

Sources say these are still uncharted waters and there is no time frame for the completion of the investigation.

Damage to Conservative brand?

This is just the latest instalment of the saga of OakvilleNorth-Burlington Conservative nomination battle, which some say could reflecton the party.

When asked if Adams was worried about the damage such mudslinging would cause to the Conservative brand, she said the constituents of the riding wouldn't get caught in it.

"You know, voters here in OakvilleNorth-Burlington are pretty smart and savvyand they've seen through this. They knowI'm the one that's showing up on their doorsteps to discuss issues with them," she said to Barton.

Soudas, who before getting fired from the party was a close confidantto Prime Minister Stephen Harper, also weighed in.

"The only people who have damaged the party in this process is Ms. Lischyna and her campaign manager, JohnMykytyshyn," he said.

Last month, the Conservative Party warned Adams to behave andto concentrate on her current positionas a member of Parliament and on her role as parliamentary secretary to the minister of health.

Adams isthe MP for theneighbouring Mississauga-Brampton South riding, which is to be split among several newridingsin 2015 when Elections Canada adds another 30 electoral districts to the Canadian map.