During the 2001 Republican Primary, Democratic consultant Kevin Geddings chided the Republicans for “negative” campaigning. In an article in USC’s student, newspaper, The Gamecock, he even referred to “the inevitable negative campaign of the Republicans” when explaining the need for his boss, Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges, to rake in tons of cash by the end of the Republican Primary.
But when a third party attack group took aim at eventual nominee Mark Sanford, Geddings reluctantly conceded he was not only part of the group, but that he helped craft the negative attacks. “Gov. Jim Hodges’ former chief of staff, Kevin Geddings, has admitted he was part of a third-party attack ad aimed at Mark Sanford, Hodges’ opponent,” reported The State newspaper’s Aaron Gould Sheinin.
The loss of Republican Lt. Governor Bob Peeler to Sanford was attributed by many observers to a voter backlash generated by the negative tone of the ads.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
ALEX CASTELLANOS
During the 2000 Bush-Gore race, Alex Castellanos -- sometimes admiringly dubbed the “father of the modern attack ad” – produced an ad for the Republican National Committee which was, of course, critical of Gore-Lieberman and Gore’s prescription drug plan. But the ad gained notoriety because, alongside an image of Al Gore, the letters “r-a-t-s” appeared about a half-second before the rest of the letters in the word “bureauocrats”. (Most psychologists believe that such brief, almost unconscious message can be processed and retained. This is sometimes referred to as subliminal messaging.)
Castellanos chalked the “rats” message up to an oversight.
If the “rats” message was intentional, it may not have been Castellanos’ first foray into subliminal advertising.
In 1990, he helped produce a spot for then U.S. Senator Jesse Helms which has since become known as the “white hands” ad. In the spot, a white male is rejected for employment because the job was given to a minority in accordance with affirmative action laws. (Republican Helms was facing Democrat Harvey Gantt, the Charlotte mayor who many were predicting would upset Helms. Gantt, who is black, had advocated racial hiring quotas.)
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications expert who has authored a book on negative advertising, said the ad features subliminal messages intended to inflame racial fears.
“The evaluation of visual symbols is extremely tricky,” Jamieson told a PBS interviewer for a report on campaign advertisements. “But there are two things about that ad that are worthy of discussion. The first, when you look frame by frame at the ad, there are frames in the ad in which the hands are crushing the head of one of the candidates. And I reproduce those pictures in ‘Dirty Politics’.”Secondly, there is a black mark on the letter that's shown in the ad that is supposedly the rejection letter that a blue collar worker has just gotten telling him that he hasn't gotten the job and the ad's implication is that it was given to someone who was an unqualified minority. Well, when talking to people in focus groups about the ad, first most people didn't recognize that at almost an imperceptible level there was the hand appearing to crush the head of the candidate. But a number of people did see that and when you point it out to people they do see it. Now we don't know what that does to audiences. But it's interesting that it's there. Secondly, there's a black mark on the paper. And when you ask Castellanos how did it get there, he says, 'I don't know it's just a piece of paper we picked up.' But there are some people in some focus groups who see that as a black hand holding a black gun. Different people bring different meanings to different symbols. We don't all respond to the same message in the same way. ”The question becomes for an ad like that, is that ad subtly activating racial fears? Illegitimate fears that are not about the explicit content of the ad, but are about something else. Or were those just production accidents that elicited that unintended response in some members of the audience.”
For his part, Castellanos never shied away from defending the ad. “I'm very proud of it,” he told PBS. “I believe every bit of it. You know, my name is Castellanos. My son is named Castellanos. It may be, you know, one day he could get a job or he could get some deal because he is of a some ethnic minority and all of that. I hope he never does. I think that lessens you when you do that.”
Castellanos is currenty working on the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.
Castellanos chalked the “rats” message up to an oversight.
If the “rats” message was intentional, it may not have been Castellanos’ first foray into subliminal advertising.
In 1990, he helped produce a spot for then U.S. Senator Jesse Helms which has since become known as the “white hands” ad. In the spot, a white male is rejected for employment because the job was given to a minority in accordance with affirmative action laws. (Republican Helms was facing Democrat Harvey Gantt, the Charlotte mayor who many were predicting would upset Helms. Gantt, who is black, had advocated racial hiring quotas.)
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications expert who has authored a book on negative advertising, said the ad features subliminal messages intended to inflame racial fears.
“The evaluation of visual symbols is extremely tricky,” Jamieson told a PBS interviewer for a report on campaign advertisements. “But there are two things about that ad that are worthy of discussion. The first, when you look frame by frame at the ad, there are frames in the ad in which the hands are crushing the head of one of the candidates. And I reproduce those pictures in ‘Dirty Politics’.”Secondly, there is a black mark on the letter that's shown in the ad that is supposedly the rejection letter that a blue collar worker has just gotten telling him that he hasn't gotten the job and the ad's implication is that it was given to someone who was an unqualified minority. Well, when talking to people in focus groups about the ad, first most people didn't recognize that at almost an imperceptible level there was the hand appearing to crush the head of the candidate. But a number of people did see that and when you point it out to people they do see it. Now we don't know what that does to audiences. But it's interesting that it's there. Secondly, there's a black mark on the paper. And when you ask Castellanos how did it get there, he says, 'I don't know it's just a piece of paper we picked up.' But there are some people in some focus groups who see that as a black hand holding a black gun. Different people bring different meanings to different symbols. We don't all respond to the same message in the same way. ”The question becomes for an ad like that, is that ad subtly activating racial fears? Illegitimate fears that are not about the explicit content of the ad, but are about something else. Or were those just production accidents that elicited that unintended response in some members of the audience.”
For his part, Castellanos never shied away from defending the ad. “I'm very proud of it,” he told PBS. “I believe every bit of it. You know, my name is Castellanos. My son is named Castellanos. It may be, you know, one day he could get a job or he could get some deal because he is of a some ethnic minority and all of that. I hope he never does. I think that lessens you when you do that.”
Castellanos is currenty working on the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.
TAD FURTADO
GOP political operative Tad Furtado resigned from his role as a top advisor to New Hampshire Republican Charlie Bass after it was discovered he had posted comments on blogs purportedly in support of Bass’ challenger and eventual winner, Democrat Paul Hodes. Hodes’ supporters and liberal bloggers complain Furtado was pretending (or “sockpuppeting,” as it is known in blogger lingo) to be a Hodes supporter to demoralize the Democrat’s backers. Among his comments were arguments that Bass held such a large lead in the polls that New Hampshire Democrats would be better off going after lower-hanging fruit.
Following is CNN.com’s account:
Bass staffer resigns after blog posts
A top aide to Rep. Charlie Bass resigned yesterday after admitting he used a government computer to post misleading messages on liberal Web sites. Tad Furtado agreed yesterday to resign as policy director, the number-two job in the Republican congressman's office. Bass said he requested Furtado's resignation after Furtado acknowledged he was responsible for the postings. "He came right out and said to me, 'I'm sorry. I'll do whatever you say I should do,'" Bass said yesterday. "Although this is a rather severe way of resolving the problem, in my mind it's the only way to do it." Bloggers at two New Hampshire Web sites, NH-02 Progressive and Blue Granite, say they became suspicious when a writer purporting to support the congressman's Democratic challenger, Paul Hodes, posted messages commending Bass' vote on a minimum wage increase and defending his stance on stem cell research.
Following is CNN.com’s account:
Bass staffer resigns after blog posts
A top aide to Rep. Charlie Bass resigned yesterday after admitting he used a government computer to post misleading messages on liberal Web sites. Tad Furtado agreed yesterday to resign as policy director, the number-two job in the Republican congressman's office. Bass said he requested Furtado's resignation after Furtado acknowledged he was responsible for the postings. "He came right out and said to me, 'I'm sorry. I'll do whatever you say I should do,'" Bass said yesterday. "Although this is a rather severe way of resolving the problem, in my mind it's the only way to do it." Bloggers at two New Hampshire Web sites, NH-02 Progressive and Blue Granite, say they became suspicious when a writer purporting to support the congressman's Democratic challenger, Paul Hodes, posted messages commending Bass' vote on a minimum wage increase and defending his stance on stem cell research.
SAM GAMMICCHIA
Political consultant Sam Gammicchia in August 2006 was sentenced to 30 months in the federal poke for threatening to break the legs of a witness in a federal investigation to help protect Chicago City Hall officials. Gammicchia pleaded guilty to trying to block an investigation of the city clerk, who had admitted taking payoffs. Gammicchia’s $1,400-a-month job included collecting campaign cash from Laski's office staffers, according to the Chicago Sun Times.Following is the Sun-Times story:
Hired Truck consultant sentenced
August 16, 2006
BY MIKE ROBINSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
A political consultant who spoke of breaking a federal witness's leg to help Chicago's former city clerk was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months for obstructing an investigation of corruption at City Hall."This is a very clear case of the defendant doing what he could to get others to lie to the grand jury," U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle said in sentencing Sam Gammicchia. "He is not a truth teller."
Gammicchia, 62, had pleaded guilty to efforts to thwart an investigation of City Clerk James Laski, who has admitted taking payoffs in return for business in the city's scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program.Gammicchia told agents he once promised Laski that he would threaten to break Laski aide Michael Jones's leg and actually did warn Jones that if he talked he would have to go into the witness protection program.
Laski and Jones have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to prison.Gammicchia--besides being a $1,400-a-month consultant whose job included collecting campaign cash from Laski's office staffers--was also an employee at the Cook County Jail and a member of the ironworkers union.At the sentencing, federal prosecutor Manish Shah played a tape of Gammicchia coaching Jones's wife, Tracy, on how to lie to investigators about the money she paid to get a truck into the Hired Truck Program.Tracy Jones has been charged with no wrongdoing.
The city outsources hauling work under the program. The investigation already has shown widespread payoffs to officials by trucking operators."You can't say you gave cash," Gammicchia is heard saying on tape."Even though I did?" Mrs. Jones says."Right," Gammicchia says.Gammicchia, clad in a gray business suit and black T-shirt, probably didn't help his cause much when after pleading guilty to obstruction and listening to the tape he told Norgle he counseled Mrs. Jones not to lie.
Norgle stared at him, apparently dumbfounded for a moment.
"Under oath you're saying you told these people not to lie--that's what you're telling me?" Norgle said.
"Yes, Sir," Gammicchia said.
"I wasn't sure what was going on. I was just trying to keep friendship together."
He said that in a portion of the conversation that Mrs. Jones taped while wearing a hidden wire he urged her to lie, but he advised her to tell the truth in a portion of the conversation that she did not record."I don't believe that as far as I could throw the Dirksen Building," said the judge, referring to the 28-story, block-long federal courthouse.Defense attorney Alexander Salerno told Norgle that his client wouldn't break anyone's leg and didn't mean it when he warned Jones that talking might mean he'd have to go into the witness protection program.Salerno also scoffed at one federal witness's claim that Gammicchia once told him: "I would kill for Laski."
"He wouldn't kill for Laski," Salerno said. "He wouldn't hurt anybody, Judge. He is a gruff guy." But the attorney said Gammicchia is also "a sweet, kind, generous older man" whose bark was worse than his bite.
Hired Truck consultant sentenced
August 16, 2006
BY MIKE ROBINSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
A political consultant who spoke of breaking a federal witness's leg to help Chicago's former city clerk was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months for obstructing an investigation of corruption at City Hall."This is a very clear case of the defendant doing what he could to get others to lie to the grand jury," U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle said in sentencing Sam Gammicchia. "He is not a truth teller."
Gammicchia, 62, had pleaded guilty to efforts to thwart an investigation of City Clerk James Laski, who has admitted taking payoffs in return for business in the city's scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program.Gammicchia told agents he once promised Laski that he would threaten to break Laski aide Michael Jones's leg and actually did warn Jones that if he talked he would have to go into the witness protection program.
Laski and Jones have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced to prison.Gammicchia--besides being a $1,400-a-month consultant whose job included collecting campaign cash from Laski's office staffers--was also an employee at the Cook County Jail and a member of the ironworkers union.At the sentencing, federal prosecutor Manish Shah played a tape of Gammicchia coaching Jones's wife, Tracy, on how to lie to investigators about the money she paid to get a truck into the Hired Truck Program.Tracy Jones has been charged with no wrongdoing.
The city outsources hauling work under the program. The investigation already has shown widespread payoffs to officials by trucking operators."You can't say you gave cash," Gammicchia is heard saying on tape."Even though I did?" Mrs. Jones says."Right," Gammicchia says.Gammicchia, clad in a gray business suit and black T-shirt, probably didn't help his cause much when after pleading guilty to obstruction and listening to the tape he told Norgle he counseled Mrs. Jones not to lie.
Norgle stared at him, apparently dumbfounded for a moment.
"Under oath you're saying you told these people not to lie--that's what you're telling me?" Norgle said.
"Yes, Sir," Gammicchia said.
"I wasn't sure what was going on. I was just trying to keep friendship together."
He said that in a portion of the conversation that Mrs. Jones taped while wearing a hidden wire he urged her to lie, but he advised her to tell the truth in a portion of the conversation that she did not record."I don't believe that as far as I could throw the Dirksen Building," said the judge, referring to the 28-story, block-long federal courthouse.Defense attorney Alexander Salerno told Norgle that his client wouldn't break anyone's leg and didn't mean it when he warned Jones that talking might mean he'd have to go into the witness protection program.Salerno also scoffed at one federal witness's claim that Gammicchia once told him: "I would kill for Laski."
"He wouldn't kill for Laski," Salerno said. "He wouldn't hurt anybody, Judge. He is a gruff guy." But the attorney said Gammicchia is also "a sweet, kind, generous older man" whose bark was worse than his bite.
DON FOWLER
Don Fowler, a Democratic activist, political operative and PR executive, found himself embroiled in the largest fundraising scandal in history in 1996. At the time, he chaired the Democratic National Committee.
Fowler denied allegations he broke the law. But whether or not his actions violated the letter of the law, it appears clear that fundraising abuses occured on his watch... and there were inconsentensies in his accounts of how DNC fundraising was conducted during the Clinton White House.
For instance, some said Fowler used government connections to get Lebanese businessman Roger Tamraz, who had donated nearly $200,000 to Clinton and the Democrats, meetings with President Clinton.
“Fowler may even have called the CIA to help Tamraz,” CNN reporter Brooks Jackson reported on Sept. 9, 1997 in her coverage of the Senate subcommittee hearings on the allged campaign finance abuses. “Last March, Fowler denied it, issuing a statement saying, ‘I am clear and certain. I did not...call or contact the CIA.’ But, under oath, Fowler backed off a bit, testifying, quote, "I have no memory of ever having talked to anybody at the CIA... memory is fallible."
Fowler also changed his story regarding the role of the White House in the alleged fundraising abuses. Fowler initially defended the White House, but later placed the blame at the feet of deputy White House chief of staff Harold Ickes, saying Ickes “was involved in the management of the DNC in a fashion that I didn't appreciate that I didn't agree with.”
Fowler denied allegations he broke the law. But whether or not his actions violated the letter of the law, it appears clear that fundraising abuses occured on his watch... and there were inconsentensies in his accounts of how DNC fundraising was conducted during the Clinton White House.
For instance, some said Fowler used government connections to get Lebanese businessman Roger Tamraz, who had donated nearly $200,000 to Clinton and the Democrats, meetings with President Clinton.
“Fowler may even have called the CIA to help Tamraz,” CNN reporter Brooks Jackson reported on Sept. 9, 1997 in her coverage of the Senate subcommittee hearings on the allged campaign finance abuses. “Last March, Fowler denied it, issuing a statement saying, ‘I am clear and certain. I did not...call or contact the CIA.’ But, under oath, Fowler backed off a bit, testifying, quote, "I have no memory of ever having talked to anybody at the CIA... memory is fallible."
Fowler also changed his story regarding the role of the White House in the alleged fundraising abuses. Fowler initially defended the White House, but later placed the blame at the feet of deputy White House chief of staff Harold Ickes, saying Ickes “was involved in the management of the DNC in a fashion that I didn't appreciate that I didn't agree with.”
JULIE DOOLITTLE
Political consultant Julie Doolittle is facing scrutinity for work she did on the campaign of her husband, Congressman John Doolittle of California. The reason: Congressman Doolittle was among several lawmakers fingered by disgraced former Rep. Duke Cunningham for helping steer federal funds towards defense contractors associated with Cunningham’s bribery case.
Congressman Doolittle headed two key committees in charge of disbursing earmarks to contractors. Those contractors donated heavily to the congressman’s campaign. Julie Doolittle charged her husband’s campaign and his PAC a 15 percent commission on contributions she brought in – which would mean direct financial gain for the Doolittles.
Following is a story from the SignOnSanDiego.com, the Web site of the Union-Tribune.
Congressman Doolittle, wife profited from Cunningham-linked contractor
Commissions taken on campaign cash
By Dean Calbreath
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 19, 2006
A week before former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham was sentenced to prison, he stressed to the court that a number of other lawmakers also helped arrange federal funding for the defense contractors who bribed him.
As a member of two key committees in the House, Rep. John Doolittle, R-Granite Bay, is well-positioned to help contractors gain funding through congressional earmarks.
None of the lawmakers Cunningham mentioned by name – Reps. Katherine Harris of Florida, Virgil Goode of Virginia and John Doolittle from the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay – has been accused of criminal wrongdoing. But each has admitted assisting either Mitchell Wade or Brent Wilkes, co-conspirators in the Cunningham case, at a time when the two businessmen were giving them tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions.
And at least one of the lawmakers, Doolittle, received a direct monetary benefit from those contributions through commissions paid to his wife, Julie.
Acting as her husband's campaign consultant, Julie Doolittle charged his campaign and his Superior California Political Action Committee a 15 percent commission on any contribution she helped bring in.
As a member of two key committees in the House – Appropriations and Administration – Doolittle is well-positioned to help contractors gain funding through congressional earmarks. Between 2002 and 2005, Wilkes and his associates and lobbyists gave Doolittle's campaign and political action committee $118,000, more than they gave any other politician, including Cunningham.
Calculations based on federal and state campaign records suggest that Doolittle's wife received at least $14,400 of that money in commissions. Meanwhile, Doolittle helped Wilkes get at least $37 million in government contracts.
San Diego attorney Stanley Zubel, who heads Californians for a Cleaner Congress, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said Julie Doolittle's commissions raise troubling questions about whether the congressman personally benefited from his support of Wilkes' projects.
“For all practical purposes, when someone's wife earns money, then he earns money, especially in a community-property state like California,” Zubel said. “He can't separate this out and say, 'This is my wife's money.' If she's getting a benefit, he's getting a benefit.”
Doolittle's office defended the arrangement.
In a prepared statement, Richard Robinson, Doolittle's chief of staff, said Julie Doolittle's consulting firm, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, “provides marketing, event planning, fundraising and related services to several clients including Congressman Doolittle's Superior California Leadership PAC.”
Neither Doolittle nor his wife would comment for this story.
Critics question how much fundraising Julie Doolittle needed to do for the campaign.
Advertisement“After several years on the Appropriations Committee, John Doolittle has reached the point in his career where fundraising should be on autopilot,” said Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that monitors campaign fundraising. “He shouldn't have to rely on his wife or anyone else to keep his coffers full.”
A search by The San Diego Union-Tribune yielded only three other clients of Julie Doolittle's firm:
One was Greenberg Traurig, the lobbying firm that employed Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax-evasion charges. The second was Abramoff's Washington restaurant, Signatures. The third was the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, founded by Ed Buckham, one-time chief of staff for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
The Korean group, which lobbied for improved U.S.-Korean relations, was based at the headquarters of Buckham's Alexander Strategy Group, which dissolved in January because of negative publicity over its ties to Abramoff. Wilkes also was an Alexander Strategy client.
Robinson said Julie Doolittle had other clients. But he refused to provide their names “out of respect for the privacy of the clients.”
Prosecutors in the Abramoff investigation have subpoenaed Julie Doolittle for information regarding her work for Abramoff's firm, which included planning fundraising events for his charity, the Capital Athletics Foundation. Records released by the Senate show that Abramoff used the foundation – whose official purpose was to raise money for underprivileged children – to bankroll some of his lobbying efforts.
Julie Doolittle launched Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions in March 2001, two months after her husband was named to the Appropriations Committee.
The business, which is based at the couple's home in Oakton, Va., has no phone listing or Web site. The firm has no known employees other than Julie Doolittle. The congressman's office would not specify what previous fundraising experience she had.
Within months of its opening, the firm was receiving commissions from her husband's campaign. Within the next two years, it was planning fundraising events for Abramoff and handling bookkeeping for the Korean lobbying group in Buckham's office suite, where DeLay's wife, Christine, also was working.
Federal and state campaign records show that Julie Doolittle has received nearly $180,000 in commissions from her husband's political fundraising since late 2001.
A number of other politicians use their spouses as campaign consultants, including Rep. Bob Filner of Chula Vista. The practice is legal as long as the spouse is doing legitimate campaign work at a fair market price.
Zubel, who has publicly criticized Filner's hiring of his wife, Jane, notes that there are significant differences between Jane Filner and Julie Doolittle.
Jane Filner is paid a salary rather than a commission, meaning there is no direct connection between her earnings and the amount of contributions coming in. She also has had previous campaign experience, as executive director of the Democrats' 2000 political action committee.
“The question you have to ask is whether a person has enough fundraising experience, training and skill so that an independent person – not connected through a spousal relationship – would hire them as a fundraiser,” Zubel said. “In those terms, Jane Filner probably has a bit more legitimacy in terms of being a fundraiser.”
Julie Doolittle was working at Buckham's offices in 2002 when Buckham introduced Brent Wilkes to her husband. Federal contracts for his flagship company, ADCS Inc., were drying up, partly because the Pentagon had been telling Congress it had little need for the company's document-scanning technology. So Wilkes was trying to get funding for two new businesses.
One was tied to the 2002 anthrax scare, when tainted letters were sent to Capitol Hill. Wilkes' idea was to have all Capitol Hill mail rerouted to a site in the Midwest, where ADCS employees wearing protective suits would scan it into computers and then e-mail it back to Washington.
He called his proposed solution MailSafe – similar to the names of several anti-anthrax companies launched at that time – and began vying for federal contracts, even though the company had little to its name other than a rudimentary Web site.
The House Administration Committee, on which Doolittle sat, oversees the congressional mail system. Doolittle told his colleagues about MailSafe and introduced them to Wilkes, but the project never got off the ground.
Wilkes had more success with PerfectWave, which offered a technology that could limit the amount of background noise transmitted over electronic communications. Doolittle has publicly admitted that he helped Wilkes get the $37 million in federal contracts for PerfectWave through the “earmark” process, in which legislators pencil in funding for specific projects.
In October 2002, as Doolittle pushed for funding for PerfectWave, Wilkes and his associates donated $7,000 to his campaign and $10,000 to his political action committee. Julie Doolittle made $1,500 from Wilkes' contributions.
Wilkes continued to contribute heavily to Doolittle through 2005, as he pressed the Appropriations Committee for earmarks for three other ventures: Optimum Composite Design, Pure Aqua Technologies and Acoustical Communications Systems. He got some earmarks, but there is no evidence that Doolittle was involved.
In November 2003, Wilkes held a fundraising dinner for Doolittle at ADCS' headquarters in Poway that was catered by Wilkes' wife, Regina, who ran a catering company based in the corporate cafeteria. The 15 guests on Wilkes' invitation were all ADCS employees or partners on projects Wilkes was trying to get funded, together with their spouses.
Over the next four months, members of the group gave a total of $50,000 to Doolittle's political action committee.
Federal and state election records show that Julie Doolittle claimed commissions on most of those contributions, even though there is no evidence that she planned the fundraising dinner or encouraged the contributors to donate to her husband.
No expenses related to the dinner are reflected on John Doolittle's financial records.
Robinson, his chief of staff, refused to answer questions about that particular dinner. But in a prepared statement, he said Julie Doolittle had helped “initiate, plan and perform other administrative duties” for two dinners in the San Diego area, for which she claimed her standard fundraising commission.
Congressman Doolittle headed two key committees in charge of disbursing earmarks to contractors. Those contractors donated heavily to the congressman’s campaign. Julie Doolittle charged her husband’s campaign and his PAC a 15 percent commission on contributions she brought in – which would mean direct financial gain for the Doolittles.
Following is a story from the SignOnSanDiego.com, the Web site of the Union-Tribune.
Congressman Doolittle, wife profited from Cunningham-linked contractor
Commissions taken on campaign cash
By Dean Calbreath
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 19, 2006
A week before former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham was sentenced to prison, he stressed to the court that a number of other lawmakers also helped arrange federal funding for the defense contractors who bribed him.
As a member of two key committees in the House, Rep. John Doolittle, R-Granite Bay, is well-positioned to help contractors gain funding through congressional earmarks.
None of the lawmakers Cunningham mentioned by name – Reps. Katherine Harris of Florida, Virgil Goode of Virginia and John Doolittle from the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay – has been accused of criminal wrongdoing. But each has admitted assisting either Mitchell Wade or Brent Wilkes, co-conspirators in the Cunningham case, at a time when the two businessmen were giving them tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions.
And at least one of the lawmakers, Doolittle, received a direct monetary benefit from those contributions through commissions paid to his wife, Julie.
Acting as her husband's campaign consultant, Julie Doolittle charged his campaign and his Superior California Political Action Committee a 15 percent commission on any contribution she helped bring in.
As a member of two key committees in the House – Appropriations and Administration – Doolittle is well-positioned to help contractors gain funding through congressional earmarks. Between 2002 and 2005, Wilkes and his associates and lobbyists gave Doolittle's campaign and political action committee $118,000, more than they gave any other politician, including Cunningham.
Calculations based on federal and state campaign records suggest that Doolittle's wife received at least $14,400 of that money in commissions. Meanwhile, Doolittle helped Wilkes get at least $37 million in government contracts.
San Diego attorney Stanley Zubel, who heads Californians for a Cleaner Congress, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said Julie Doolittle's commissions raise troubling questions about whether the congressman personally benefited from his support of Wilkes' projects.
“For all practical purposes, when someone's wife earns money, then he earns money, especially in a community-property state like California,” Zubel said. “He can't separate this out and say, 'This is my wife's money.' If she's getting a benefit, he's getting a benefit.”
Doolittle's office defended the arrangement.
In a prepared statement, Richard Robinson, Doolittle's chief of staff, said Julie Doolittle's consulting firm, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, “provides marketing, event planning, fundraising and related services to several clients including Congressman Doolittle's Superior California Leadership PAC.”
Neither Doolittle nor his wife would comment for this story.
Critics question how much fundraising Julie Doolittle needed to do for the campaign.
Advertisement“After several years on the Appropriations Committee, John Doolittle has reached the point in his career where fundraising should be on autopilot,” said Massie Ritsch, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that monitors campaign fundraising. “He shouldn't have to rely on his wife or anyone else to keep his coffers full.”
A search by The San Diego Union-Tribune yielded only three other clients of Julie Doolittle's firm:
One was Greenberg Traurig, the lobbying firm that employed Jack Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax-evasion charges. The second was Abramoff's Washington restaurant, Signatures. The third was the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, founded by Ed Buckham, one-time chief of staff for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
The Korean group, which lobbied for improved U.S.-Korean relations, was based at the headquarters of Buckham's Alexander Strategy Group, which dissolved in January because of negative publicity over its ties to Abramoff. Wilkes also was an Alexander Strategy client.
Robinson said Julie Doolittle had other clients. But he refused to provide their names “out of respect for the privacy of the clients.”
Prosecutors in the Abramoff investigation have subpoenaed Julie Doolittle for information regarding her work for Abramoff's firm, which included planning fundraising events for his charity, the Capital Athletics Foundation. Records released by the Senate show that Abramoff used the foundation – whose official purpose was to raise money for underprivileged children – to bankroll some of his lobbying efforts.
Julie Doolittle launched Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions in March 2001, two months after her husband was named to the Appropriations Committee.
The business, which is based at the couple's home in Oakton, Va., has no phone listing or Web site. The firm has no known employees other than Julie Doolittle. The congressman's office would not specify what previous fundraising experience she had.
Within months of its opening, the firm was receiving commissions from her husband's campaign. Within the next two years, it was planning fundraising events for Abramoff and handling bookkeeping for the Korean lobbying group in Buckham's office suite, where DeLay's wife, Christine, also was working.
Federal and state campaign records show that Julie Doolittle has received nearly $180,000 in commissions from her husband's political fundraising since late 2001.
A number of other politicians use their spouses as campaign consultants, including Rep. Bob Filner of Chula Vista. The practice is legal as long as the spouse is doing legitimate campaign work at a fair market price.
Zubel, who has publicly criticized Filner's hiring of his wife, Jane, notes that there are significant differences between Jane Filner and Julie Doolittle.
Jane Filner is paid a salary rather than a commission, meaning there is no direct connection between her earnings and the amount of contributions coming in. She also has had previous campaign experience, as executive director of the Democrats' 2000 political action committee.
“The question you have to ask is whether a person has enough fundraising experience, training and skill so that an independent person – not connected through a spousal relationship – would hire them as a fundraiser,” Zubel said. “In those terms, Jane Filner probably has a bit more legitimacy in terms of being a fundraiser.”
Julie Doolittle was working at Buckham's offices in 2002 when Buckham introduced Brent Wilkes to her husband. Federal contracts for his flagship company, ADCS Inc., were drying up, partly because the Pentagon had been telling Congress it had little need for the company's document-scanning technology. So Wilkes was trying to get funding for two new businesses.
One was tied to the 2002 anthrax scare, when tainted letters were sent to Capitol Hill. Wilkes' idea was to have all Capitol Hill mail rerouted to a site in the Midwest, where ADCS employees wearing protective suits would scan it into computers and then e-mail it back to Washington.
He called his proposed solution MailSafe – similar to the names of several anti-anthrax companies launched at that time – and began vying for federal contracts, even though the company had little to its name other than a rudimentary Web site.
The House Administration Committee, on which Doolittle sat, oversees the congressional mail system. Doolittle told his colleagues about MailSafe and introduced them to Wilkes, but the project never got off the ground.
Wilkes had more success with PerfectWave, which offered a technology that could limit the amount of background noise transmitted over electronic communications. Doolittle has publicly admitted that he helped Wilkes get the $37 million in federal contracts for PerfectWave through the “earmark” process, in which legislators pencil in funding for specific projects.
In October 2002, as Doolittle pushed for funding for PerfectWave, Wilkes and his associates donated $7,000 to his campaign and $10,000 to his political action committee. Julie Doolittle made $1,500 from Wilkes' contributions.
Wilkes continued to contribute heavily to Doolittle through 2005, as he pressed the Appropriations Committee for earmarks for three other ventures: Optimum Composite Design, Pure Aqua Technologies and Acoustical Communications Systems. He got some earmarks, but there is no evidence that Doolittle was involved.
In November 2003, Wilkes held a fundraising dinner for Doolittle at ADCS' headquarters in Poway that was catered by Wilkes' wife, Regina, who ran a catering company based in the corporate cafeteria. The 15 guests on Wilkes' invitation were all ADCS employees or partners on projects Wilkes was trying to get funded, together with their spouses.
Over the next four months, members of the group gave a total of $50,000 to Doolittle's political action committee.
Federal and state election records show that Julie Doolittle claimed commissions on most of those contributions, even though there is no evidence that she planned the fundraising dinner or encouraged the contributors to donate to her husband.
No expenses related to the dinner are reflected on John Doolittle's financial records.
Robinson, his chief of staff, refused to answer questions about that particular dinner. But in a prepared statement, he said Julie Doolittle had helped “initiate, plan and perform other administrative duties” for two dinners in the San Diego area, for which she claimed her standard fundraising commission.
JOHN SASSO
Democratic political consultant John Sasso worked various Massachusetts races (including for Gerry Studds and Ted Kennedy) before being tapped to run Governor Michael Dukakis’ campaign for governor in 1982. He rose to national prominence when Dukakis asked him to run his 1988 presidential race.
He was fired, however, in the wake of the controversy surrounding Joe Biden’s plagiarism of a speech by Britain’s then-opposition leader, Niel Kinnock. Biden had given a version of the speech many times, usually remembering to give proper attribution to Kinnock. However, when he failed to credit Kinnock during one Iowa stump address, Dukakis’ campaign was ready with a video camera. Sasso is believed to have distributed the footage, and was dismissed by Dukakis. (Immediately following the video’s release, Dukakis denied his campaign had any role in its distribution and vowed to fire any aide caught engaging in negative or dirty campaign tactics.)
Sasso’s departure left the Dukakis campaign in the hands of the untried Susan Estrich.
The notoriously reclusive Sasso worked for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, and more recently for the DNC.
He was fired, however, in the wake of the controversy surrounding Joe Biden’s plagiarism of a speech by Britain’s then-opposition leader, Niel Kinnock. Biden had given a version of the speech many times, usually remembering to give proper attribution to Kinnock. However, when he failed to credit Kinnock during one Iowa stump address, Dukakis’ campaign was ready with a video camera. Sasso is believed to have distributed the footage, and was dismissed by Dukakis. (Immediately following the video’s release, Dukakis denied his campaign had any role in its distribution and vowed to fire any aide caught engaging in negative or dirty campaign tactics.)
Sasso’s departure left the Dukakis campaign in the hands of the untried Susan Estrich.
The notoriously reclusive Sasso worked for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, and more recently for the DNC.
TERRY NELSON
GOP consultant Terry Nelson resigned from his job working PR for Wal-Mart after he came under fire for an ad he allegedly helped produce in an unrelated U.S. Senate race. Critics including Jesse Jackson complained the spot for Republican Bob Corker, who was facing Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr., was racist.
The spot never mentioned race, but showed a white woman saying she had met Ford at a Playboy party. At the end of the commercial, the woman – her bare shoulders showing – whispers, “Harold, call me.” Jackson et. al. said the ad intended to exploit fears about black men and white women.
Jackson and the liberal advocacy group WakeUpWalMart called on Wal-Mart to fire Nelson, and say they threatened to air radio and TV ads demanding his dismissal.
Nelson resigned, but his supporters called on Jackson and other critics to detail exactly how the advertisement was racist.
Nelson has since signed on to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign.
The spot never mentioned race, but showed a white woman saying she had met Ford at a Playboy party. At the end of the commercial, the woman – her bare shoulders showing – whispers, “Harold, call me.” Jackson et. al. said the ad intended to exploit fears about black men and white women.
Jackson and the liberal advocacy group WakeUpWalMart called on Wal-Mart to fire Nelson, and say they threatened to air radio and TV ads demanding his dismissal.
Nelson resigned, but his supporters called on Jackson and other critics to detail exactly how the advertisement was racist.
Nelson has since signed on to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign.
SCOTT HOWELL
Karl Rove protégé Scott Howell is also linked to the anti-Harold Ford ad. Hard-hitting, negative spots that stir controversy have become a Howell trademark. Reported CBS News”
“Howell is no stranger to controversy. He was media consultant for Sen. Saxby Chambliss when his campaign ran an ad showing a picture of then-Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who lost his legs in the Vietnam War, alongside Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. ”He also produced an ad for Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn that accused Democrat Brad Carson of being soft on welfare while showing two black hands counting cash. ”Howell also worked for Republican Jerry Kilgore in last year's Virginia gubernatorial race when Kilgore ran an ad saying that Gov. Tim Kaine wouldn't have used the death penalty against Hitler.”
“Howell is no stranger to controversy. He was media consultant for Sen. Saxby Chambliss when his campaign ran an ad showing a picture of then-Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who lost his legs in the Vietnam War, alongside Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. ”He also produced an ad for Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn that accused Democrat Brad Carson of being soft on welfare while showing two black hands counting cash. ”Howell also worked for Republican Jerry Kilgore in last year's Virginia gubernatorial race when Kilgore ran an ad saying that Gov. Tim Kaine wouldn't have used the death penalty against Hitler.”
ROD SHEALY SR.
Rod Shealy Sr. is widely regarded as South Carolina's most, shall we say, colorful political consultant. He has won some quite improbable races; he also has been convicted and fined $500 for misappropriation of funds for failing to file the necessary paperwork for an unemployed fisherman he recruited to run in the 1990 GOP primary for S.C.’s First Congressional District.
The circumstances surrounding Shealy's case is detailed in the following Harper's article:
Rod Shealy: South Carolina’s shrewdest political consultant?
By Ken Silverstein
Harpers
My piece in the November issue of Harper’s, already on newsstands, takes a look at the Republican presidential race in South Carolina, focusing on the role of Mitt Romney’s handlers in the state. There’s no state where political consultants are more prominent than South Carolina. The two best-known figures currently are Richard Quinn Sr., who is running John McCain’s campaign, and Warren Tompkins, who worked for George W. Bush’s famously dirty South Carolina campaign in 2000 and who is now working for Mitt Romney.
Rod Shealy is less well known but many South Carolina insiders deem him to be the smartest and shrewdest of all. Shealy–who like Tompkins once worked with Lee Atwater, a native South Carolinian — has a record of riding dark horses to victory. In 2004, he scored a huge upset when his candidate for the statehouse, Nathan Ballentine, knocked off House Majority Leader Richard Quinn Jr. In 2006, Shealy ran the Republican primary campaign of Andre Bauer for lieutenant governor. Bauer was given virtually no chance of winning– especially after a traffic stop during the campaign when he was clocked going 110 miles per hour–but prevailed in a runoff election against the son of Carroll Campbell, a revered former governor. “Shealy is diabolically clever and a master of dirty tricks, but very effective,” Will Folks, a political consultant and blogger who has worked with and against Shealy, told me.
Shealy gained a bit of national notoriety in 1990, when he was running the campaign of his sister, Sherry Martschink, a candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Shealy was looking to increase the turnout of racially conservative low-country voters, a group largely sympathetic to Martschink, in the overall Republican primary. To do so, he recruited Benjamin Hunt, Jr., an unemployed black fisherman, to run for congress in the Republican primary against incumbent Arthur Ravenel, Jr., even paying Hunt’s filing fee. When the ploy was revealed, Shealy was convicted and fined for violating campaign laws.
Yet Shealy has worked for numerous African-American political candidates, far more than the other top consultants in the state. Indeed, he told me that in 1954, his father, Ryan Shealy, then a state representative, became one of the first southern politicians to denounce the Ku Klux Klan. In the early 1970s, his sister served in the statehouse and was the only Republican to join with eleven members of the Black Caucus (and one white Democrat) to oppose capital punishment on the grounds that it was racially discriminatory.
One day last June I met Shealy for breakfast at a diner in Columbia, the state capital, called Lizard’s Thicket. A big man with a bushy beard and rugged face softened by baby blue eyes, he wore jeans and a trademark Hawaiian shirt. “This man needs a greasy breakfast,” Shealy told the waitress, a middle-aged woman quite a bit bigger than he.
“We got it,” she replied, and took down his order of bacon, eggs and cheddar cheese, toast, grits and coffee.
Funny, engaging, and frank, Shealy is impossible not to like. As we waited for our food, I asked him where he was from originally. That was an opening for him to play the southern bumpkin, a routine that isn’t entirely a put-on but clearly isn’t wholly genuine either. “I grew up in the area and have lived here all my life,” he replied in a thick drawl. “When I tell people that, they say, ‘Why that’s impossible, you’re so suave and urbane’.”
Shealy and his associates hold court at Lizard’s Thicket every morning and a steady stream of friends and political cronies dropped by our booth to exchange pleasantries. In between visits, Shealy told me about his history as a consultant, including the incident with Hunt Jr. (which he described as “a campaign violation for failing to disclose a candidate I dreamed up”). Following his conviction he dropped out of the consulting business for a few years and focused on developing a chain of small newspapers. “I came back in 1994, when a newspaper competitor ran for state treasurer,” he told me. “I didn’t want him to win so I got someone to run and elected him. The guy was a political novice so I ended up taking a job in the treasurer’s office to help out.”
Shealy had not signed up with a presidential candidate, but he’s had discussions with a few campaigns, including Rudy Giuliani’s, whose people he met with in New York, and Fred Thompson’s. Like most political consultants, Shealy has a fairly jaded and utilitarian view of politics and campaign strategy. When I asked him how Romney’s consultants would brand their candidate in South Carolina, he said, “Tompkins’ strategy will be simple. He’ll go hard to the right on every issue. Immigration is a red-meat issue right now and [Romney has] already switched positions to get to there. To get our base for the primary and mobilize it for November you don’t have to have credibility, you just have to say the right things and have the right spin. Romney is an unknown. When you have $100 million to spend, you can be who you want to be.”
Will Folks had proposed a theory to me that I ran by Shealy. The former’s view is that South Carolina isn’t nearly as conservative as it once was, partly because of a large number of people, including many Northeasterners, moving to Charleston and elsewhere along the coast. As a result, Folks believed that running hard right in the state, especially on issues like abortion and gay marriage, two South Carolina standbys, is longer a sure path to success. “What was once the bedrock of the party is gradually becoming a fringe group,” he said. “The smart strategy is to pay lip service to social issues, but to focus on pocket book issues that appeal to fiscal conservatives.”
Shealy didn’t entirely buy that argument. “It’s true, our entire coast is filled with people who sound more like you than they do like me,” he said. “But it will be a long time before it’s a bad strategy to run to the right in South Carolina. You can combine that with other strategies, but working the social issues is still important.”
I met with Shealy again during a second trip to South Carolina in July, having lunch with him at an old-fashioned soda shop called Gatsbees World Fair, his latest business venture. Shealy was still a free agent and complained that consulting on a presidential campaign was a money-losing proposition. “Having said that, I’m still likely to get engaged,” he told me. I’m a political hack — how do you skip a presidential campaign? I could even work with Tompkins [for Romney] or Quinn [for McCain]. The latter would be harder because I put his kid on the street but it’s politics, the relationship could get good real quick. And McCain is a vintage Rod Shealy candidate — he’s got no expectation of winning and no money.”
The circumstances surrounding Shealy's case is detailed in the following Harper's article:
Rod Shealy: South Carolina’s shrewdest political consultant?
By Ken Silverstein
Harpers
My piece in the November issue of Harper’s, already on newsstands, takes a look at the Republican presidential race in South Carolina, focusing on the role of Mitt Romney’s handlers in the state. There’s no state where political consultants are more prominent than South Carolina. The two best-known figures currently are Richard Quinn Sr., who is running John McCain’s campaign, and Warren Tompkins, who worked for George W. Bush’s famously dirty South Carolina campaign in 2000 and who is now working for Mitt Romney.
Rod Shealy is less well known but many South Carolina insiders deem him to be the smartest and shrewdest of all. Shealy–who like Tompkins once worked with Lee Atwater, a native South Carolinian — has a record of riding dark horses to victory. In 2004, he scored a huge upset when his candidate for the statehouse, Nathan Ballentine, knocked off House Majority Leader Richard Quinn Jr. In 2006, Shealy ran the Republican primary campaign of Andre Bauer for lieutenant governor. Bauer was given virtually no chance of winning– especially after a traffic stop during the campaign when he was clocked going 110 miles per hour–but prevailed in a runoff election against the son of Carroll Campbell, a revered former governor. “Shealy is diabolically clever and a master of dirty tricks, but very effective,” Will Folks, a political consultant and blogger who has worked with and against Shealy, told me.
Shealy gained a bit of national notoriety in 1990, when he was running the campaign of his sister, Sherry Martschink, a candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Shealy was looking to increase the turnout of racially conservative low-country voters, a group largely sympathetic to Martschink, in the overall Republican primary. To do so, he recruited Benjamin Hunt, Jr., an unemployed black fisherman, to run for congress in the Republican primary against incumbent Arthur Ravenel, Jr., even paying Hunt’s filing fee. When the ploy was revealed, Shealy was convicted and fined for violating campaign laws.
Yet Shealy has worked for numerous African-American political candidates, far more than the other top consultants in the state. Indeed, he told me that in 1954, his father, Ryan Shealy, then a state representative, became one of the first southern politicians to denounce the Ku Klux Klan. In the early 1970s, his sister served in the statehouse and was the only Republican to join with eleven members of the Black Caucus (and one white Democrat) to oppose capital punishment on the grounds that it was racially discriminatory.
One day last June I met Shealy for breakfast at a diner in Columbia, the state capital, called Lizard’s Thicket. A big man with a bushy beard and rugged face softened by baby blue eyes, he wore jeans and a trademark Hawaiian shirt. “This man needs a greasy breakfast,” Shealy told the waitress, a middle-aged woman quite a bit bigger than he.
“We got it,” she replied, and took down his order of bacon, eggs and cheddar cheese, toast, grits and coffee.
Funny, engaging, and frank, Shealy is impossible not to like. As we waited for our food, I asked him where he was from originally. That was an opening for him to play the southern bumpkin, a routine that isn’t entirely a put-on but clearly isn’t wholly genuine either. “I grew up in the area and have lived here all my life,” he replied in a thick drawl. “When I tell people that, they say, ‘Why that’s impossible, you’re so suave and urbane’.”
Shealy and his associates hold court at Lizard’s Thicket every morning and a steady stream of friends and political cronies dropped by our booth to exchange pleasantries. In between visits, Shealy told me about his history as a consultant, including the incident with Hunt Jr. (which he described as “a campaign violation for failing to disclose a candidate I dreamed up”). Following his conviction he dropped out of the consulting business for a few years and focused on developing a chain of small newspapers. “I came back in 1994, when a newspaper competitor ran for state treasurer,” he told me. “I didn’t want him to win so I got someone to run and elected him. The guy was a political novice so I ended up taking a job in the treasurer’s office to help out.”
Shealy had not signed up with a presidential candidate, but he’s had discussions with a few campaigns, including Rudy Giuliani’s, whose people he met with in New York, and Fred Thompson’s. Like most political consultants, Shealy has a fairly jaded and utilitarian view of politics and campaign strategy. When I asked him how Romney’s consultants would brand their candidate in South Carolina, he said, “Tompkins’ strategy will be simple. He’ll go hard to the right on every issue. Immigration is a red-meat issue right now and [Romney has] already switched positions to get to there. To get our base for the primary and mobilize it for November you don’t have to have credibility, you just have to say the right things and have the right spin. Romney is an unknown. When you have $100 million to spend, you can be who you want to be.”
Will Folks had proposed a theory to me that I ran by Shealy. The former’s view is that South Carolina isn’t nearly as conservative as it once was, partly because of a large number of people, including many Northeasterners, moving to Charleston and elsewhere along the coast. As a result, Folks believed that running hard right in the state, especially on issues like abortion and gay marriage, two South Carolina standbys, is longer a sure path to success. “What was once the bedrock of the party is gradually becoming a fringe group,” he said. “The smart strategy is to pay lip service to social issues, but to focus on pocket book issues that appeal to fiscal conservatives.”
Shealy didn’t entirely buy that argument. “It’s true, our entire coast is filled with people who sound more like you than they do like me,” he said. “But it will be a long time before it’s a bad strategy to run to the right in South Carolina. You can combine that with other strategies, but working the social issues is still important.”
I met with Shealy again during a second trip to South Carolina in July, having lunch with him at an old-fashioned soda shop called Gatsbees World Fair, his latest business venture. Shealy was still a free agent and complained that consulting on a presidential campaign was a money-losing proposition. “Having said that, I’m still likely to get engaged,” he told me. I’m a political hack — how do you skip a presidential campaign? I could even work with Tompkins [for Romney] or Quinn [for McCain]. The latter would be harder because I put his kid on the street but it’s politics, the relationship could get good real quick. And McCain is a vintage Rod Shealy candidate — he’s got no expectation of winning and no money.”
SAL RUSSO
Republican political consultant Sal Russo is infamous in California political circles for “losing campaigns while lining his pockets,” as one columnist put it. Supply-side economist Arthur Laffer even successfully sued Russo for his alleged mismanagement of a 1996 ballot initiative for which Laffer had hired Russo to campaign. (Under the breach-of-contract judgement against him, Russo was ordered to pay a fine and return about $200,000 he had allegedly bilked from contributors.
Some observers also blame Russo for Republican Bill Simon’s loss to incumbent Governor Gray Davis in 2000. The Simon campaign used photos of Davis accepting a campaign check, purportedly in the Governor’s Office. It was later proven, however, that the location was not the Governor’s Office.
Some observers also blame Russo for Republican Bill Simon’s loss to incumbent Governor Gray Davis in 2000. The Simon campaign used photos of Davis accepting a campaign check, purportedly in the Governor’s Office. It was later proven, however, that the location was not the Governor’s Office.
DOUG GUETZLOE
(NOTE: The charges below have since been dropped, says Guetzloe. "This vendetta has come to its conclusion and a winner has been declared," Guetzloe wrote in an email to this Web site.)
Political consultant Doug Guetzloe was indicted in March for lying to the Florida Election Commission about work he did in a 2003 race for for Daytona Beach City Commission. He maintained he had paid for radio and mailouts in the campaign but prosecutors said “evidence showed that political consultant Robert Lewis paid Guetzloe for the work,” The Orlando Sentinel reported. Following is a story from the Orlando Sentinel:
Guetzloe, Pecora indicted in expressway scandal
Christopher Sherman Sentinel Staff Writer
Mar 28, 2007
Political consultant Doug Guetzloe and public relations consultant Ron Pecora was indicted by an Orange County grand jury in separate cases today.
Guetzloe faces two counts of perjury in connection with testimony he gave to the Florida Elections Commission last year in a case related to his campaign work in a 2003 Daytona Beach city commission race.
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar said that Guetzloe had submitted sworn testimony to the elections commission that he paid for mailers and radio advertisements, but that evidence showed that political consultant Robert Lewis paid Guetzloe for the work.
Pecora was indicted on two counts of bribery for giving $2,600 in theme park tickets to former Orlando-Orange County Expressway Chairman Allan Keen. The charges stemmed from an incident Pecora brought to light last year. Pecora said he gave Keen 12 passes to the Disney theme parks and another 12 to the Universal parks for which Keen never paid him.
Pecora was taken into custody this afternoon and was being held on $5,000 bond on each count. Lamar in an earlier news conference did not reveal the other person indicted, but said about 5 p.m. that Gueztloe was indicted and being taken into custody.
Lamar said the grand jury had targeted "the culture of winning at any cost, while keeping at arm's-length distance the people doing the dirty deeds."
He said the investigation was "like peeling an onion" and would continue when a new grand jury takes over next week.
"This needs to stop in Central Florida, and we intend to do some actions here in Central Florida that will cause that to come to a screeching halt," Lamar said of the greed and corruption.
Pecora was fired in October from his longtime position as marketing consultant at the authority for allegedly charging for work he had not completed. After an internal audit following his firing, the expressway authority claimed that Pecora's firm owed the agency as much as $400,000 for uncompleted, overbilled or undocumented work.
Pecora maintains the expressway always paid him in advance for long-term projects and he has been trying to negotiate a final settlement with the agency.
Pecora also maintains that he advised the agency against hiring consultant Doug Guetzloe for public opinion research, although he agreed to be the agency's liaison with the political consultant. Guetzloe billed Pecora's firm in amounts that totaled $107,500 over two years. Pecora then submitted the subcontractor's bills to the expressway for reimbursement.
Earlier today, former Expressway Authority marketing and communications manager Bryan Douglas appeared before the grand jury investigating the agency for about half an hour today.
Douglas resigned from the authority last fall amid the scandal over management of the contract with Pecora & Blexrud.
Emerging from the grand jury's courtroom at noon, Douglas said he could not comment.
"Time flew," he said. "I just went in and answered questions."
Douglas was the second current or former agency employee known to have appeared before the grand jury. Deputy Executive Director Joe Berenis answered grand jurors' questions in January. He also was not considered a suspect.
The revelation of payments from the expressway authority through its public relations contractor to Guetzloe triggered investigations into the agency's spending.
Political consultant Robert Lewis testified before grand jurors earlier in the morning. Emerging from the chamber at about 10:20 a.m., Lewis said, "I can't divulge what I discussed."
But Lewis earlier said he paid Guetzloe as a political consultant about $80,000 between late 2002 and early 2004 for work in Volusia County. Investigators asked Lewis for copies of those checks and Tuesday told him that is what grand jurors would want to talk to him about.
A portion of that, $10,000 to $15,000, was paid to Guetzloe for work against 2003 Daytona Beach City Commission Candidate Darlene Yordon, Lewis said. Guetzloe's work in that campaign was subject of a Florida Elections Commission case. The rest of the payments were for petition drives aimed at getting a tax rollback on the ballot, Lewis said.
Political consultant Doug Guetzloe was indicted in March for lying to the Florida Election Commission about work he did in a 2003 race for for Daytona Beach City Commission. He maintained he had paid for radio and mailouts in the campaign but prosecutors said “evidence showed that political consultant Robert Lewis paid Guetzloe for the work,” The Orlando Sentinel reported. Following is a story from the Orlando Sentinel:
Guetzloe, Pecora indicted in expressway scandal
Christopher Sherman Sentinel Staff Writer
Mar 28, 2007
Political consultant Doug Guetzloe and public relations consultant Ron Pecora was indicted by an Orange County grand jury in separate cases today.
Guetzloe faces two counts of perjury in connection with testimony he gave to the Florida Elections Commission last year in a case related to his campaign work in a 2003 Daytona Beach city commission race.
Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar said that Guetzloe had submitted sworn testimony to the elections commission that he paid for mailers and radio advertisements, but that evidence showed that political consultant Robert Lewis paid Guetzloe for the work.
Pecora was indicted on two counts of bribery for giving $2,600 in theme park tickets to former Orlando-Orange County Expressway Chairman Allan Keen. The charges stemmed from an incident Pecora brought to light last year. Pecora said he gave Keen 12 passes to the Disney theme parks and another 12 to the Universal parks for which Keen never paid him.
Pecora was taken into custody this afternoon and was being held on $5,000 bond on each count. Lamar in an earlier news conference did not reveal the other person indicted, but said about 5 p.m. that Gueztloe was indicted and being taken into custody.
Lamar said the grand jury had targeted "the culture of winning at any cost, while keeping at arm's-length distance the people doing the dirty deeds."
He said the investigation was "like peeling an onion" and would continue when a new grand jury takes over next week.
"This needs to stop in Central Florida, and we intend to do some actions here in Central Florida that will cause that to come to a screeching halt," Lamar said of the greed and corruption.
Pecora was fired in October from his longtime position as marketing consultant at the authority for allegedly charging for work he had not completed. After an internal audit following his firing, the expressway authority claimed that Pecora's firm owed the agency as much as $400,000 for uncompleted, overbilled or undocumented work.
Pecora maintains the expressway always paid him in advance for long-term projects and he has been trying to negotiate a final settlement with the agency.
Pecora also maintains that he advised the agency against hiring consultant Doug Guetzloe for public opinion research, although he agreed to be the agency's liaison with the political consultant. Guetzloe billed Pecora's firm in amounts that totaled $107,500 over two years. Pecora then submitted the subcontractor's bills to the expressway for reimbursement.
Earlier today, former Expressway Authority marketing and communications manager Bryan Douglas appeared before the grand jury investigating the agency for about half an hour today.
Douglas resigned from the authority last fall amid the scandal over management of the contract with Pecora & Blexrud.
Emerging from the grand jury's courtroom at noon, Douglas said he could not comment.
"Time flew," he said. "I just went in and answered questions."
Douglas was the second current or former agency employee known to have appeared before the grand jury. Deputy Executive Director Joe Berenis answered grand jurors' questions in January. He also was not considered a suspect.
The revelation of payments from the expressway authority through its public relations contractor to Guetzloe triggered investigations into the agency's spending.
Political consultant Robert Lewis testified before grand jurors earlier in the morning. Emerging from the chamber at about 10:20 a.m., Lewis said, "I can't divulge what I discussed."
But Lewis earlier said he paid Guetzloe as a political consultant about $80,000 between late 2002 and early 2004 for work in Volusia County. Investigators asked Lewis for copies of those checks and Tuesday told him that is what grand jurors would want to talk to him about.
A portion of that, $10,000 to $15,000, was paid to Guetzloe for work against 2003 Daytona Beach City Commission Candidate Darlene Yordon, Lewis said. Guetzloe's work in that campaign was subject of a Florida Elections Commission case. The rest of the payments were for petition drives aimed at getting a tax rollback on the ballot, Lewis said.
MARK SANFORD
South Carolina’s popular, maverick governor, Mark Sanford, has been embroiled in public disputes with the State Legislature -- even members in his own party -- practically since taking office in 2003.
In his battle versus the status-quo, he has even gotten involved in campaigns against members of his own party with whom he is often at odds. But in at least two cases, campaign operatives associated with Sanford may have crossed the line.
In the first instance, a Web site run by a former Sanford staffer exulted that “somebody has a Strom Thurmond problem,” a reference to the revelation that the late Thurmond had an illegitimate black daughter.
“While the identities of both the State Senator and his offspring have yet to be disclosed, sources tell FITSNews that the politician hails from the Midlands area of the state, that the child was released earlier this year from a correctional institution in South Carolina, and that the full story could break in wide circulation as early as next week,” reported FITSNews.com, a popular site operated by blogger Will Folks.
The following week, Folks wrote that the info had been linked
In the “comments” section is where the Senator was identified. “Say it aint so jakie,” wrote one anonymous commenter.
“Jakie been playing after hours where he shouldn’t be,” wrote another.
The rumor turned out to be unfounded, and Folks later wrote that the “leak” came from a close Sanford advisor. According to Folks:
“A lot of people have been wondering what S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford was going to do with that wad of nearly $2 million in leftover campaign cash he chose not to return to donors following his 2006 reelection. Well, it turns out one thing could be the political equivalent of a “sting” operation directed against some of his fiercest political opponents. Sources tell FITSNews that one of the governor’s closest advisors has been clandestinely working with at least one private investigator in an effort to collect dirt on ‘problem’ legislators.
“If true, this sort of Watergate methodology would certainly represent a radical departure from the governor’s previous pie chart and bar graph approach to getting things done.
Or not getting things done, actually.”
While it is rumored that the source of the smear was Sanford advisor Chris Drummond, the blogger never disclosed his source. And the anonymous commenters? Those would be the same Sanford advisors, as speculation has it.
Observers also speculate that Sanford aides were behind the “phoney phone calls” directed at GOP House candidate Randy Bates.
According to FITSNews.com, “sources are telling us that a black woman calling herself ‘Shaniqua’ has placed telephone calls to several Republican voters in Beaufort County urging them to vote for Shannon Erickson in today’s GOP State House runoff election. According to individuals who have received them, the calls say, ‘My name is Shaniqua, and I be voting’ for Shannon Erickson ’cause she gonna give me all the money I need sos I don’t hafta work.‘ Another phone caller, alleging to be Erickson herself, tells voters that she will ‘spend money like a drunken sailor’ if elected.”
But while these “sources” were telling the Columbia-based blogger about these calls, no one in Beaufort County -- where the election occurred -- reported getting the calls. Was it a dirty trick aimed at the Bates campaign? Some insiders say yes, and suggested the phoney-phoney phone calls came from the Sanford camp -- specifically, Beaufort native Tom Davis, who is said to be plotting a challenge to GOP Senator Catherine Ceips. (Ceips was an ardent backer of Bates, who was defeated in the primary by Erickson. Sanford openly worked against Ceips in her 2007 primary, and was said to be strongly supporting Erickson’s bid.)
Critics also accuse Sanford of attempting to funnel tax money to aid his ongoing political battle against lawmakers with him he is at odds. Specifically, he directed more than $101,000 in public money -- which was left over from the 2006 National Governors Association conference -- to Carolinians for Reform. Carolinians for Reform is essentially a campaign organization formed by Sanford campaign donors. Sanford had said the organization was created to “educate” South Carolinians about their own government, but critics call it an attack organization.
After Senator Knotts uncovered the taxpayer-funded campaign donation, Sanford requested the organization give the money back, and it did so. Still, the conservative governor’s formerly squeaky clean image had been sullied.
In his battle versus the status-quo, he has even gotten involved in campaigns against members of his own party with whom he is often at odds. But in at least two cases, campaign operatives associated with Sanford may have crossed the line.
In the first instance, a Web site run by a former Sanford staffer exulted that “somebody has a Strom Thurmond problem,” a reference to the revelation that the late Thurmond had an illegitimate black daughter.
“While the identities of both the State Senator and his offspring have yet to be disclosed, sources tell FITSNews that the politician hails from the Midlands area of the state, that the child was released earlier this year from a correctional institution in South Carolina, and that the full story could break in wide circulation as early as next week,” reported FITSNews.com, a popular site operated by blogger Will Folks.
The following week, Folks wrote that the info had been linked
In the “comments” section is where the Senator was identified. “Say it aint so jakie,” wrote one anonymous commenter.
“Jakie been playing after hours where he shouldn’t be,” wrote another.
The rumor turned out to be unfounded, and Folks later wrote that the “leak” came from a close Sanford advisor. According to Folks:
“A lot of people have been wondering what S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford was going to do with that wad of nearly $2 million in leftover campaign cash he chose not to return to donors following his 2006 reelection. Well, it turns out one thing could be the political equivalent of a “sting” operation directed against some of his fiercest political opponents. Sources tell FITSNews that one of the governor’s closest advisors has been clandestinely working with at least one private investigator in an effort to collect dirt on ‘problem’ legislators.
“If true, this sort of Watergate methodology would certainly represent a radical departure from the governor’s previous pie chart and bar graph approach to getting things done.
Or not getting things done, actually.”
While it is rumored that the source of the smear was Sanford advisor Chris Drummond, the blogger never disclosed his source. And the anonymous commenters? Those would be the same Sanford advisors, as speculation has it.
Observers also speculate that Sanford aides were behind the “phoney phone calls” directed at GOP House candidate Randy Bates.
According to FITSNews.com, “sources are telling us that a black woman calling herself ‘Shaniqua’ has placed telephone calls to several Republican voters in Beaufort County urging them to vote for Shannon Erickson in today’s GOP State House runoff election. According to individuals who have received them, the calls say, ‘My name is Shaniqua, and I be voting’ for Shannon Erickson ’cause she gonna give me all the money I need sos I don’t hafta work.‘ Another phone caller, alleging to be Erickson herself, tells voters that she will ‘spend money like a drunken sailor’ if elected.”
But while these “sources” were telling the Columbia-based blogger about these calls, no one in Beaufort County -- where the election occurred -- reported getting the calls. Was it a dirty trick aimed at the Bates campaign? Some insiders say yes, and suggested the phoney-phoney phone calls came from the Sanford camp -- specifically, Beaufort native Tom Davis, who is said to be plotting a challenge to GOP Senator Catherine Ceips. (Ceips was an ardent backer of Bates, who was defeated in the primary by Erickson. Sanford openly worked against Ceips in her 2007 primary, and was said to be strongly supporting Erickson’s bid.)
Critics also accuse Sanford of attempting to funnel tax money to aid his ongoing political battle against lawmakers with him he is at odds. Specifically, he directed more than $101,000 in public money -- which was left over from the 2006 National Governors Association conference -- to Carolinians for Reform. Carolinians for Reform is essentially a campaign organization formed by Sanford campaign donors. Sanford had said the organization was created to “educate” South Carolinians about their own government, but critics call it an attack organization.
After Senator Knotts uncovered the taxpayer-funded campaign donation, Sanford requested the organization give the money back, and it did so. Still, the conservative governor’s formerly squeaky clean image had been sullied.
BUSH LEAGUE
Anonymous blog posts and similar hijinks are hardly rare for partisans... even high-ranking consultants. Still, it can be humiliating to get caught in the act.
That’s the lesson Democratic political consultant Phil Bailey learned when he made anonymous posts on the LaurinLine, a blog popular among politicos. At the time, Bailey served as director of the Senate Democratic Caucus. (He would later run the campaign of Democratic Comptroller General candidate Drew Theodore.) Bailey not only fired anonymous brickbats against Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Frank Willis -- who was running in a primary against Bailey’s preferred candidate, Sen. Tommy Moore -- but he also made disparaging comments about the late Governor Carroll Campbell.
The blog’s administrator, USC law student Laurin Mannning, had taken notice when someone using the alias “That guy” wrote: “You mean Willis hasn’t dropped out yet? I heard Moore is finally starting to raise money like crazy. Can’t wait until campaign finance filing time. We’ll see how much money Willis blew on this video and all those consultants.”
Manning deleted the criticism of Campbell after determining the comments were in poor taste.
Manning tracked the IP address to the state Democratic Party. Democratic officials said Bailey did not work for the party but worked for the caucus, which rents office space from the party.
In a Dec. 15, 2005 story headlined “Democratic official thought he was making anonymous blog postings,” The State newspaper reported that Bailey’s phone and email privileges were revoked.
Bailey and political consultant Lachlan McIntosh, who led the campaign of Lt. Governor candidate Robert Barber, were suspected by many observers of making anonymous blog comments to spread negative information about Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and incumbent Lt. Governor Andre Bauer during the 2006 general elections. No solid evidence ever surfaced that the two were the once responsible for the anonymous aspersions, however.
Letters-to-the-editor are a part of any political campaign, and it’s no secret that the occasional ghost-written letter is sent. Some campaigns even orchestrate letter-writing campaigns consisting of letters written entirely by campaign pros. But rarely do they advertise it like the campaign of GOP Lt. Governor candidate Mike Campbell. In an email to supporters, Campbell’s campaign implored, “Whether you'd like to write a letter on Mike's behalf or even if you'd prefer us to write it for you, let us know.”As Greenville News political reporter Dan Hoover noted in his blog, the Campbell campaign said the email was merely worded poorly. Adam Piper, Campbell’s campaign manager, said the email should have said “we’d give them ideas of what to put in the letter” rather than write it for them.
But, quoth Hoover, “that doesn’t quite square with letting ‘us write it for you.’”
The spreading of negative information about opponents is a staple of political campaigns, and it's a common occurrence for candidates and their managers to try to smear anonymously.
But it can bring embarrassment to their candidates if they're not careful. Take Stephanie Cutter, who in 2004 served as communications director for Sen. John Kerry's presidential bid.
Cutter was outed by NY Times reporter Adam Nagourney after she distributed an anti-Howard Dean email to reporters and insisted it be reported "on background" rather than attributed to Kerry's campaign.
"After the capture of Saddam Hussein, Kerry campaign press secretary Stephanie Cutter listed past Dean statements in arguing that his opposition to the war in Iraq was 'politically driven,' reported the NY Times. "Nagourney, ignoring the not-for-attribution request, wrote that this reflected campaign aides' concern that they not be viewed as politically exploiting a foreign policy victory."
It’s a matter of principle, Nagourney told the Washington Post. “I will not let someone attack someone else anonymously, which is what the Kerry campaign is trying to do." Cutter denied the “background” attack was innapprporiate, adding, “This campaign has no problem going on the record about the facts in this race.
Still, the Kerry camp later sent another "background" e-mail entitled "An Illustrated Guide to Howard Dean's Foreign Policy." Nagourney didn't get one, according to the Post.
GOP operative Jill Hazelbaker had worked communications shops in various Republican races, usually keeping a fairly low profile -- until 2006. That’s when, as communications director for Republican Thomas Kean’s race for U.S. Senate, Kean’s opponent accused Hazelbaker of making anonymous blog posts regarding the race. Sen. Robert Menendez complained that she posed as a liberal Democrat who had become disenchanted with Menendez. The blog’s administrator, which strongly supported Menendez, got suspicious and traced the IP address of the anonymous commenter. The IP address was the same as one used by Hazelbaker.
Hazelbaker now works as Sen. John McCain’s New Hampshire communications director.
Political consultant Patrick Hynes was reportedly hired by John McCain’s PAC, Straight Talk America, in May of 2006. But Hynes, who moonlights as a prominent blogger, did not announce he had been retained by McCain until July 26, according to National Review Online blogger Jim Geraghty. In the period between May and July 26, Hynes reportedly posted several blog entries favorable to McCain and unfavorable to Mitt Romney without disclosing his financial ties. Ironically, Hynes’ criticisim of the Romney campaign was that bloggers posted favorable Romney entries without disclosing their financial ties to the Romney campaign!
According to Geraghty, Hynes sent him the following email: “You are right, Jim. I ought to have disclosed my relationship with Straight Talk America earlier. The reason I didn't do so is because I was not being paid 'to blog'. I have been a political consultant for fifteen years. That's what I was doing for Straight Talk America: providing political consulting.”
That’s the lesson Democratic political consultant Phil Bailey learned when he made anonymous posts on the LaurinLine, a blog popular among politicos. At the time, Bailey served as director of the Senate Democratic Caucus. (He would later run the campaign of Democratic Comptroller General candidate Drew Theodore.) Bailey not only fired anonymous brickbats against Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Frank Willis -- who was running in a primary against Bailey’s preferred candidate, Sen. Tommy Moore -- but he also made disparaging comments about the late Governor Carroll Campbell.
The blog’s administrator, USC law student Laurin Mannning, had taken notice when someone using the alias “That guy” wrote: “You mean Willis hasn’t dropped out yet? I heard Moore is finally starting to raise money like crazy. Can’t wait until campaign finance filing time. We’ll see how much money Willis blew on this video and all those consultants.”
Manning deleted the criticism of Campbell after determining the comments were in poor taste.
Manning tracked the IP address to the state Democratic Party. Democratic officials said Bailey did not work for the party but worked for the caucus, which rents office space from the party.
In a Dec. 15, 2005 story headlined “Democratic official thought he was making anonymous blog postings,” The State newspaper reported that Bailey’s phone and email privileges were revoked.
Bailey and political consultant Lachlan McIntosh, who led the campaign of Lt. Governor candidate Robert Barber, were suspected by many observers of making anonymous blog comments to spread negative information about Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom and incumbent Lt. Governor Andre Bauer during the 2006 general elections. No solid evidence ever surfaced that the two were the once responsible for the anonymous aspersions, however.
Letters-to-the-editor are a part of any political campaign, and it’s no secret that the occasional ghost-written letter is sent. Some campaigns even orchestrate letter-writing campaigns consisting of letters written entirely by campaign pros. But rarely do they advertise it like the campaign of GOP Lt. Governor candidate Mike Campbell. In an email to supporters, Campbell’s campaign implored, “Whether you'd like to write a letter on Mike's behalf or even if you'd prefer us to write it for you, let us know.”As Greenville News political reporter Dan Hoover noted in his blog, the Campbell campaign said the email was merely worded poorly. Adam Piper, Campbell’s campaign manager, said the email should have said “we’d give them ideas of what to put in the letter” rather than write it for them.
But, quoth Hoover, “that doesn’t quite square with letting ‘us write it for you.’”
The spreading of negative information about opponents is a staple of political campaigns, and it's a common occurrence for candidates and their managers to try to smear anonymously.
But it can bring embarrassment to their candidates if they're not careful. Take Stephanie Cutter, who in 2004 served as communications director for Sen. John Kerry's presidential bid.
Cutter was outed by NY Times reporter Adam Nagourney after she distributed an anti-Howard Dean email to reporters and insisted it be reported "on background" rather than attributed to Kerry's campaign.
"After the capture of Saddam Hussein, Kerry campaign press secretary Stephanie Cutter listed past Dean statements in arguing that his opposition to the war in Iraq was 'politically driven,' reported the NY Times. "Nagourney, ignoring the not-for-attribution request, wrote that this reflected campaign aides' concern that they not be viewed as politically exploiting a foreign policy victory."
It’s a matter of principle, Nagourney told the Washington Post. “I will not let someone attack someone else anonymously, which is what the Kerry campaign is trying to do." Cutter denied the “background” attack was innapprporiate, adding, “This campaign has no problem going on the record about the facts in this race.
Still, the Kerry camp later sent another "background" e-mail entitled "An Illustrated Guide to Howard Dean's Foreign Policy." Nagourney didn't get one, according to the Post.
GOP operative Jill Hazelbaker had worked communications shops in various Republican races, usually keeping a fairly low profile -- until 2006. That’s when, as communications director for Republican Thomas Kean’s race for U.S. Senate, Kean’s opponent accused Hazelbaker of making anonymous blog posts regarding the race. Sen. Robert Menendez complained that she posed as a liberal Democrat who had become disenchanted with Menendez. The blog’s administrator, which strongly supported Menendez, got suspicious and traced the IP address of the anonymous commenter. The IP address was the same as one used by Hazelbaker.
Hazelbaker now works as Sen. John McCain’s New Hampshire communications director.
Political consultant Patrick Hynes was reportedly hired by John McCain’s PAC, Straight Talk America, in May of 2006. But Hynes, who moonlights as a prominent blogger, did not announce he had been retained by McCain until July 26, according to National Review Online blogger Jim Geraghty. In the period between May and July 26, Hynes reportedly posted several blog entries favorable to McCain and unfavorable to Mitt Romney without disclosing his financial ties. Ironically, Hynes’ criticisim of the Romney campaign was that bloggers posted favorable Romney entries without disclosing their financial ties to the Romney campaign!
According to Geraghty, Hynes sent him the following email: “You are right, Jim. I ought to have disclosed my relationship with Straight Talk America earlier. The reason I didn't do so is because I was not being paid 'to blog'. I have been a political consultant for fifteen years. That's what I was doing for Straight Talk America: providing political consulting.”
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