The info in the ad is solid, even if the source of the ad is suspect. On Thursday, the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office announced an audit of CUP and two other so-called “Citizens United” groups.
The SOS argues that the group should register and follow reporting requirements dictated by Arizona law.
“Any entity whose primary purpose is to influence elections,” said Bennett via press release, “they must register as a political committee, disclose their contributors and list their expenditures.”
In Citizens, the high court forbade the government from restricting political expenditures by corporations and unions. It did not invalidate requirements on reporting those expenditures. But Hirsch takes another view.
“It is…correct that Citizens United for Progress has not registered or filed expenditure notifications with the Secretary of State,” Hirsch wrote to state elections director Amy Chan on October 21. “We respectfully disagree with your inferred conclusion that this non-profit entity is required to do so.”
CUP’s “primary purpose” seems to be that of influencing the outcome of the LD18 recall race. Formed as a non-profit corporation in August, it has as its “director ” one Justin Tash, an undergrad at Arizona State University. The mailing address given is a UPS mail box on ASU’s Tempe campus.
Though it’s a little difficult to swallow that an ASU student all on his lonesome could form a corporation and raise enough money to send out thousands of fliers and produce a slick TV ad, I guess it’s possible that Tash is a young Barry Goldwater in the making.
Still, one wonders if Tash was recruited to be the “director” by the moneymen (or women) behind the enterprise. A lot of lawyers around town use Cactus Investigation, you see.
The group’s spokesman, Republican political consultant Chase Barrett, denies that Tash was recruited. According to Barrett, the group has “a variety of donors,” and its main purpose is “educating the electorate.”
Sources have indicated to me that GOP consultant Kyle Moyer has had a hand in the creation of CUP. So far, Moyer has not returned my calls asking for comment. Barrett, however, said that Moyer was not involved in CUP
Also, Barrett promised that CUP would not be disappearing after November 8, and that it had “other issues” that it would be advocating for or against.
Barrett was briefly the spokesperson for Pearce-foe Jerry Lewis after Lewis announced his candidacy for state Senate. In 2008, he worked for Republican Kevin Gibbons in the LD18 GOP primary, where Gibbons challenged Pearce.
No doubt the wingnut blogs will attempt to make much of these associations. However, the pool of Republican political consultants in this town is highly incestuous, to say the least. They all know each other, and at one time or another, seem to have worked either with or for each other.
Take Moyer, for instance. Moyer apparently still owns shares in Chad Willems’ Summit Consulting, which is managing Pearce’s re-election campaign. This, at least, is what Summit’s most recent filing with the Arizona Corporation Commission indicates.
Yet, Moyer is a local player in his own right with Kyle Moyer and Company, which appears to be involved with a different Citizens United group, the pro-Wes Gullett “organization”Arizona Citizens United.
ACU also boasts a UPS box as its headquarters, and once again, attorney Steven Hirsch is the non-profit’s statutory agent.
ACU’s director is Rachel Naylor, a young employee of Moyer’s. I’ve contacted both Naylor and Moyer in a variety of ways, asking for them to confirm that she is the same Naylor listed as director. So far, no reply.
Though, politically, I like both the CUP mailers and the TV ad, I wish that the people behind CUP had enough stones to do things by the book and not hide behind these various intrigues and this lame the-Citizens-United-decision-absolves-us-from-all-wrongdoing line.
Jerry Lewis has not been deceptive in his campaign. Nor has the anti-Pearce, pro-recall group Citizens for a Better Arizona. Better if all the deception’s in Pearce’s lap as we head into November 8.
TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — Candidates for Northern District Public Service commissioner strike a stark contrast to each other, with the incumbent vowing to protect consumers and his challenger rallying for economic development.
In the final days leading up to the Nov. 8 general election, both want voters to know the difference.
“I think it’s our job to be 100 percent the guardian for consumers,” said incumbent Democrat Brandon Presley, who seeks a second term. “My record is unparalleled in the history of the Public Service Commission of voting against rate hikes. I’ve stood up to special interests more than anybody ever. That’s the truth.”
Presley said he opposed the biggest rate increase in state history by rejecting Mississippi Power Company’s Kemper County Coal Plant, which would raise its south Mississippi customers’ utility rates a reported 45 percent to cover the cost of the $2.8 billion project.
Republican challenger Boyce Adams said he would have supported the plant had he been in Presley’s seat because of its economic impact and clean coal technologies.
“Energy is the future in Mississippi, and I think the energy economy will lead Mississippi out of this recession,” Adams said. “But we have to make sure we have our doors open for business and cut unnecessary regulation.”
He then chided Presley for rejecting the coal plant against the desires of Mississippi’s top political leaders, and he disputed the company would raise utility fees.
“The 45 percent rate hike is not factual, it’s a scare tactic promoted by the Sierra Club,” Adams said. “There is no rate hike associated with the project.”
But in a document filed by Mississippi Power Company with the Public Service Commission in 2009, the company itself estimated its average residential customer would pay an additional $60 per month from 2014 through 2020 to fund the plant.
MPC said it represents about a 30 percent increase. But the Mississippi Business Journal, which has done a series of stories on the issue, said it’s actually a 45 percent increase based on average residential consumption of 1,200 kilowatt hours per month.
Adams also accused Presley of illegally accepting a campaign contribution four years ago from Mitchell Scruggs and then hiding that fact. According to state election rules, candidates for the Public Service Commission can’t accept campaign donations from people or entities regulated by the PSC.
Until three weeks ago, Scruggs had served as president of the North Lee County Water Association, which has come under fire for a series of allegations involving mismanagement and falsifying water samples.
“The minimum penalty for willfully accepting campaign money from anybody you’d regulate is removal from office,” Adams said. “It’s not legal or ethical.”
Campaign finance records show Presley accepted $1,000 from Mitchell Scruggs Farm on April 27, 2007. The money was returned to Scruggs on Jan. 31, 2008.
“Obviously, I didn’t know he sat on the water board at the time I accepted the donation,” Presley said. “I don’t know every person who sits on every board in the district. But as soon as I realized it, I returned the money. Period.”
Adams said he’s in the same position as Presley, yet he hasn’t accepted a single contribution from anyone associated with a utility.
He has, however, accepted donations from Washington lobbyists who work on behalf of utilities. Matt Wise and Bret Boyles, both of whom lobby for AT&T, each gave Adams $250 this year.
“It’s different, they’re personal friends,” Adams said. “They are not registered lobbyists in Mississippi. There’s nothing legally that prohibits” contributions from lobbyists.
Adams went on to criticize Presley’s handling of the North Lee County Water Association debacle. He said had Presley heeded the early warning signs, he could have avoided the entire situation. Instead, Adams said, his opponent ignored customer complaints about poor water quality until the issue became public through the Daily Journal.
Presley said his investigators handled each of the 77 complaints filed by North Lee customers to the PSC since he took office. But none of them alleged falsified water samples or mismanagement from the supervisor and board of directors.
Presley also questioned how well his opponent would have handled North Lee in light of Adams’ Sept. 26 letter to all water association boards in the district.
“I want you to know that, if elected, I will not overstep my authority as commissioner, like some have done in the past,” Adams wrote. “I vow to work with each water association to assist in their needs – not dictate their performance.”
He also said the “the last thing we need right now is more regulation.”
Adams said he meant the letter as an invitation to collaborate, not as a carte blanche to operate outside the law. He also said that most water associations work well with their customers and the government and he doesn’t want to unnecessarily burden the good boards with rules written for the bad ones.
Presley said he supports more regulation for water associations and wants the entities subject to the state’s Open Records and Open Meetings law.
Rick Perry is the longest-serving governor in Texas history. Supporters and opponents acknowledge that he’s a gifted, disciplined campaigner with an uncanny sense of timing. But his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination has been hampered by a late start, poor debate performances, and a lack of focus. Why has one of most successful politicians in the one of the country’s largest states stumbled so badly on the national stage? In making the jump into the national field, Perry has lost or squandered some of the natural advantages he has enjoyed as the king of Lone Star politics.
Let’s start with the overnight ratings for the Bloomberg debate. Only about 300,000 people watched it on TV. That’s a third of the audience for the 2006 gubernatorial debate in Dallas. Last night might as well only have taken place for political insiders. So let’s dispense with any talk that Rick Perry’s performance last night was his swan song. If anything, last night was the beginning of a long second act.
What happened yesterday?
The conventional wisdom was that Mitt Romney, who still can’t top 25%, was the presumptive front-runner after he landed Gov. Chris Christie’s endorsement. Then Romney proceeded to go out on stage and very smoothly and professionally take a massive crap in his pants. Romney said he would support another bailout to support the currency but not to create jobs. In fact, he said he opposed the auto industry bailout, which has not only saved the auto industry in this country but prevented us from having to sell Michigan to Canada on layaway. Clearly, Romney thinks hewing towards the center means espousing wildly unpopular and wrongheaded ideas. Add to that his condescending “I’m not finished! I’m not finished!” and you have the very model of a modern major frontrunner who can’t finish.
“Rock you like a” Herman Cain had his day in the sun, and the light revealed him to be a black Ross Perot rather than the friendly black man the Tea Party currently imagines him to be. Yes, Cain said nice things about Alan Greenspan. This is heresy to the modern Republican Party, but what do you expect from a former member of the Federal Reserve Board? Even worse was Michele Bachmann pantsing his 9-9-9 plan as a new federal consumption tax that won’t pass muster with the Teavangelical wing. Last night began Cain’s inevitable descent from first place into a paid gig at Fox News.
Then you had Rick Perry. He’s the only one besides Romney with the resources to put together a real ground operation in Iowa, much less in other states as well. And Perry is the only one who can become the anti-Romney. He stayed on message, didn’t give Saturday Night Live any new ammo, and generally escaped without sustaining further damage to his hull. For this, the pundits decreed it a disaster for him. But what drew less notice was Perry feeling his way around a Romneycare-begat-Obamacare attack that now has real legs. Romney’s response was, essentially, that Romneycare is working. This defense won’t work, and eventually Perry will draw real blood, but these are the early rounds of this fight.
Oh, wait. Yeah. Those guys. What can you say? The former governor of Utah told a fart joke. Michele Bachmann told a devil joke. Newt joked about jailing cabinet officials. And Rick Santorum continued to surprise everyone by appearing periodically on screen.
Here’s my blink-and-you-miss it appearance on the local ABC station this evening. While I was giving my interview, I got the idea that last night was a dress rehearsal for the real show to come. Watch for Romney to continue to fail as the fake frontrunner, Cain to prove unable to lead, and Perry to fight his way back into a two-man race. Settle in. This should take a while.