Who Is Ellie Light?

Meredith Jessup | January 27, 2010 8:09 AM

As some of you may know, a mystery woman named "Ellie Light" has had letters to the editor published in dozens of newspapers across the country, all with Ms. Light claiming to be from different hometowns. The letters--all similar in messaging--were unmistakably pro-Obama, leading many to speculate the White House or the DNC may have had a role in "planting" them in various papers.

As of this morning, however, it appears that Ms. Light is no Ms. at all. Rather, Ellie Light's true identity is that of a 51-year-old California man named Winston Steward. Politico's Ben Smith reports the weird-but-true story of Mr. Steward:

[Steward] called into a radio show this morning claiming to be a woman named Ellie Light, then claimed in interviews with the [Cleveland] Plain Dealer and with me today to be a woman named Barbara Brooks, and appears in fact to be Brooks' husband.

"Ellie Light" aka Winston Steward (image via Patterico)

On the other hand, conservatives shouldn't be sad that there's no big Alinsky-type connection between the Ellie Light scandal and the White House. Steward noted in one interview,

"When the crazies started looking for pro-Obama letters they thought could be by me, they found so few," the writer said. Conservatives "should be dancing in the streets – [Obama] is completely abandoned. They were looking for pro-Obama letters and couldn’t find any."

Steward's right... that does make me feel a bit better.