In today's ARIZONA DAILY SUN, in an article about a proposed amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage,
"Domestic partners an early focus of debate about marriage measure" Nathan Sproul is listed as a "Republican political operative only recently hired by the initiative campaign." While this amendment is enough to be concerned about alone, the involvement of Nathan Sproul with his Rove-style behavior and teflon-style staying power is definitely additional cause for alarm.
If you remember, this is the guy who was under investigation last fall for destroying voter registration forms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Oregon, and Nevada. See windycitylefty's blog
here. Another, older but more detailed diary by Bob Johnson is
here. Also see the entry in dKospedia
here
I would like to know how the investigations referenced are going along. The lastest info I could find tonight is an update in June 2005 by "News from Underground" (by Mark Crispin Miller and Jared Irmas) concluding that
In any case, all the payments by the RNC to Sproul add up to a whopping $8,359,161-making it the RNC's eighth biggest expenditure of the 2004 campaign.
Sproul is currently under investigation by the Oregon Attorney General's office, for altering the voter registration forms of several thousand students in that state. Whether the new numbers are in part mistaken, they represent a huge expense for the Republicans. Given Sproul's history of serious electoral mischief, affecting countless Democratic voters in the last election, it is important that we ask some sober questions: Where did all that money come from? Why did the RNC suppress their real expenditures? And what exactly did Sproul do for all that pay? If we're going to get some reasonable answers, the FEC must understake a very thorough audit of the books.
How do we bring attention to these people? I would say "small-time" crooks, but according to Miller above he got the 8th biggest expenditure of the 2004 election from the RNC... And who knows how many registration forms were shredded...
I've written a letter to the editor of the ARIZONA DAILY SUN, and will bring it up at the next opportunity at one of the progressive organizations I'm in... Maybe this diary will help, I'll also duplicate this post on my blog. Somehow the voters have to realize the extent of the fraud of this administration.
And if you are interested in helping prevent this amendment visit Arizona Together: http://www.aztogether.org.