Constant reader, don’t shed too many tears for Howie Rich of New York City. Despite the shellacking he collected from voters who rejected his so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights and all but one of his "regulatory takings" ballot measures, Rich racked up one significant and costly victory at the expense of a veteran judge in Missouri. Yes, it sounds odd to me too, but the trail is there and I’m obliged to share it with you. If you know anyone in the American Bar Association, you may want to forward this one to him or her. And, thanks to an eagle-eyed correspondent in Wisconsin, I have a few more notes to add to our passing glance at Chris Kliesmet, the Rich team’s designated email-reader, and another shared a Wisconsin comparison to what happened to the South Carolina representative targeted by Rich’s disciples down South. Keep those cards and letters coming, friends.
We begin tonight in Cole County, Missouri, home of Jefferson City, the unpretentious capital of the Show Me State. It’s a lovely place with natural resources in abundance. There’s the mighty Missouri River bounding it at the north, the serene Osage River to the east. Apples and peaches are grown here, and tobacco too – likely cultivated first by the Kentuckians and Tennesseans who settled here in the eighteen-teens. Mm, the smell of freshly cured tobacco. And underground, there’s coal – sure enough! – and lead, and iron, and even copper and kaolin, all in picturesque Cole County. The son of Daniel Boone himself laid out the lots of land around the Capitol. There’s good history here.
Good people, too, and healthy politics – at least through most of the twentieth century. Harry Truman from Grandview – two hours west – campaigned here, ol’ give-‘em-hell Harry the haberdasher. (You know, the last car he purchased still sits under the carport of the house where he lived in Independence, outside Kansas City, and he refused Secret Service protection, even refused to let them put up a fence around his little corner lot!) And to the east a couple of hours is Congressman Dick Gephardt’s old district. Remember Dick Gephardt? Unpretentious as they come. Earnest sort. And then there were the Carnahans, the late Governor Mel, dying tragically but whipping John Ashcroft anyway, and former Senator Jean, who did her state proud in the U.S. Senate, and their daughter Robin, who continue to prove the adage that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
It was Robin Carnahan, constant readers may recall, who disqualified Howie Rich’s TABOR from the Missouri ballot when Patrick Tuohey’s and Susan Johnson’s army of paid petition circulators delivered boxfuls of a shoddy mess to Carnahan’s office back in May. State law says what it says about petitions and their delivery for certification, and these strewn pages didn’t comply. Carnahan had a duty, not a choice, and she honored it by barring Rich’s TABOR from ballot consideration.
Well, you’ll recall that Rich and Tuohey spent $2.1 million to get that business on the ballot, so you may imagine they and their "Missourians in Charge" or "in Action" or "on the Ball" – I forget now their Astroturf title – were plumb ticked at Carnahan’s ruling. They appealed it to the Cole County District Court, as I reported here, way back when http://www.dailykos.com/... And as you read in that report, Cole County District Court Judge Richard Callahan heard the facts, applied the law and upheld Carnahan’s ruling.
So Judge Callahan upheld Carnahan’s ruling that barred Rich’s TABOR from the ballot. And this was an election year in Cole County, Missouri. While Judge Callahan was not up for re-election this year, his benchmate was: District Court Judge Tom Brown. Good man, Judge Brown. Served for the past 12 years in that district. That’s all history now, because Judge Brown lost his campaign for re-election this month to a lawyer from Jeff City named Jon Beetem: Yes, Beetem. Brown collected 13,800-some votes, and Beetem got 15,500-some votes. So the margin was less than 2,000 votes.
Now, this might have happened anyway, sure. But Judge Brown’s race and defeat would have completely escaped our attention if not for a single fact, told to us by reporter Rudi Keller here http://www.semissourian.com/... and the editors of Baptist church-sponsored Word and Way magazine here http://www.wordandway.org/... Keller spells it out for us: "In Jefferson City... an outside group poured $175,000 into an intense media and direct mail campaign that defeated 12-year incumbent Judge Thomas J. Brown III. A Chicago-based group called Americans for Limited Government was the only contributor to a campaign committee that attacked Brown for seeking public reimbursement for a Christmas party he threw for courthouse employees and for decisions that the group claimed raised taxes, set utility rates and allowed utilities to be shut off to senior citizens in the winter."
Keller draws a connection to the TABOR petitions, too: "Americans for Limited Government was also the group behind failed initiative campaigns to set stricter limits on state spending and use of eminent domain. Both petitions were rejected for problems after they were submitted, and court challenges in Cole County upheld Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's decision, as did the court of appeals."
But why? What issue does Howie Rich of New York City have with a local district court judge in Cole County, Missouri, that would warrant dumping $175,000 in hate mail against him? Cole County Senior Judge Byron Kinder may have the answer, and it bodes darkly for the judiciary across the land, intrepid readers.
"This is chump change for people with this kind of money," Judge Kinder tells Keller. "They can spend $175,000. If they beat him, they'll be able to brutalize and intimidate anybody who rises up against them, and those of timid heart will fade and go with them rather than be fair and judicious."
So this was a message. To Judge Callahan, do you think? Or to any and all other district court judges who uphold the law, and uphold Secretary of State Carnahan’s rulings the next time a gang of paid petition circulators unload a mess of petitions on her doorstep?
The Baptists of Missouri attribute the defeat to Rich and ALG wholesale. "Some have speculated that an outside infusion of almost $175,000 to conduct a negative campaign against Judge Brown cost him the election," they write. The Baptist Church had a case pending before Judge Brown, which is why they were paying close attention to his election. His defeat upsets their apple cart a little bit.
"In a report filed with the Missouri Ethics Committee on Nov. 7, Jefferson City-based Citizens for Judicial Reform said it had spent $173,195.95 to unseat the longtime judge," they continue. "For a few weeks leading up to Election Day, the organization aired radio and television ads and flooded county voters with direct mail pieces that labeled Brown as an ‘activist judge.’ The money for the effort came from tax-exempt, Chicago-based Americans for Limited Government, which contributed funds to assist referendums in several states, including efforts by Missourians in Charge to get initiatives on the November ballot on eminent domain and stricter state spending limits. Secretary of State Robin Carnahan turned down both requests because the group had not followed state law."
So the Baptists got the connection to Carnahan’s TABOR decision, too. And get this: the committee that paid for all those ads that ran in mid-October? "According to ethics commission records, Citizens for Judicial Reform filed a statement of committee organization on Oct. 6, which the commission recorded on Oct. 10."
So THAT’s why the folks of that stripe withdrew their appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court after Labor Day, as I reported here http://www.dailykos.com/... They had some stamps to buy, and time was running short.
Judge Brown, thank you for your service to Cole County and the people of the Show Me State. As my own Baptist forbears would advise, these men have placed a period where God put a comma, and there’s comfort in knowing which editor has the bigger pencil.
Now, on to Wisconsin.
Last night, I offered a few notes on the connections tying Howie Rich to Laird Maxwell to Chris Kliesmet, in order to consider the mere speculation that Kliesmet’s Citizens for Responsible Government was related in a crazy-cousin sort of way to the South Carolinians for Responsible Governments, the happy band of wingnuts terrorizing the clean air of common sense in the land of the Swamp Fox and the ivory-billed woodpecker. (It’s there, good people, it’s there: http://www.friendsofcongaree.org/...
One faithful reader sent me some links from some October 2005 items that further illustrate the mastermind of Citizens for Responsible Government in Wisconsin – surely he is its mastermind, for that would explain his recent ascension from the periphery of Howie Rich’s orbit to the inner circle, right? – and I have to say I was highly entertained.
Blogger Dave, writing here http://carrickbend.wordpress.com/... 13 months ago, asked "What is CRG’s agenda" and wondered if Kliesmet had a profit motive, as was suggested by a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article. It’s a twisty maze; I recommend you skim it for yourself.
The entertainment comes from Kliesmet himself, who engages Dave on his blog.
"I have been an unpaid volunteer for almost four years now having contributed thousands of hours and dollars to what I believe are just causes without so much as one red cent in return. Where is the evidence that I EVER had a profit motive?" Kliesmet insists. "Yes, it is true I said if someone outside the county where to offer me a fee in the future I would take it."
Heheheheheh. That’s precious.
"Even if it were true that my motive was profit, SO WHAT? Everything is being given to the county FOR FREE! You got a problem with capitalism?" he continues. "There are sincere people out there working their butts off for free trying to pull the county out of the $121 million hole (and counting) that corrupt politicians put us into and you got the Journal Sentinel taking cheap shots. It is the kind of chilling intimidation that keeps good people from coming forward to help. Get involved and the state’s largest newspaper will pillory you."
Mmm-hm. So Kliesmet, like Howie Rich, eschews the free press in America. They also share a penchant for saggy rhetoric like this: "CRG’s agenda is to crusade against corruption and waste. Action over talk is our trademark. We get our hands dirty while others sit and spin. It is the hallmark of cowards who are lazy or afraid to make a mistake to do nothing. Our track record speaks for itself. Instead of just offering advice from behind the curtain why not jump in?"
Why not, indeed?
A little later in their exchange, Kliesmet gets overheated and slips a gear, letting loose some scintillating philosophical bits: "Apparently, it is your way or the highway," he writes to Dave. "Unless I prescribe to 100% of your views you have no use for me or CRG. This is exactly why many grassroots groups are ineffective. They require 100% agreement before they move in solidarity. CRG does not play that self-defeating game."
"If you do not want to work together on the 99% of things we agree on then fine, I will move on. CRG is trying to build a fiscal conservative coalition across the state. We have little time for people who stand the 80/20 rule its head. We are stronger with you than without you but it is, and hopefully always will be, your choice."
"Finally, don’t bother trying to ‘get my goat’ with any further attacks on my or CRG’s intentions or character. Reasonable people can and do disagree, but, I am no longer going to bite. All my replies do is lend credence to your screed and build your blog traffic. I have thoroughly enjoyed the debate but it is abundantly clear this is going nowhere. Sadly, I feel it’s time to find another dueling partner."
To which Dave replies, "I am sorry I hurt your feelings. Let me know when Chris can come out and play again."
And in a newspaper article published a year ago this week, Kliesmet holds forth on leading his CRG to completely take over Wisconsin’s government in 2006, as reporters Reid Epstein and Mike Johnson tell us here http://www.jsonline.com/... "Fresh from its role in recalling Pewaukee Mayor Jeff Nowak, Citizens for Responsible Government is aiming to spread its influence away from its southeastern Wisconsin base to challenge politicians statewide."
"Since its start, CRG spawned or adopted 15 affiliates statewide and has brought to full stops the political careers of Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament, six Milwaukee County supervisors, aldermen in Wauwatosa and Franklin, and now Nowak. The group also claims credit for killing the PabstCity project, a Waukesha school referendum and forcing state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) to quit as Senate assistant majority leader. Now it has its sights set on the biggest political target in the state: Gov. Jim Doyle."
So Kliesmet’s raison d’etre is to drive officeholders out of office? That’s it? No vision for a better Wisconsin, just anarchy? And he’s the mastermind?
"Chris Kliesmet, the CRG Network's Milwaukee-based executive administrator, says the group aims to have ‘boots on the ground’ in all 72 counties and raise a war chest of $1 million from a membership base of 10,000 people. That's a long way to go from the current loose confederation of local operations, mostly in the Milwaukee area, operating with about $5,000 in the bank, according to a campaign finance report," Epstein and Johnson write. "To become the force Kliesmet and his partner, Orville Seymer, envision, they'll need to figure out how to transform people angry over very local issues like lake management districts and the removal of a high school football coach to a united, statewide political machine."
"At times, Kliesmet and Seymer, the CRG Network's field operations director, have acted like traveling salesmen, pitching their brand of fiscally conservative politics from city to town to village in the hope of swelling the network's ranks. They've also been sought out as consultants, helping to launch recalls in Pewaukee, Kewaskum and Madison," they tell us. O, brother. So Kliesmet’s a consultant now.
"The CRG recall formula involves a significant grass-roots effort at the beginning, ample, energetic volunteers, and the ability to generate media coverage of their efforts. But CRG is not always successful. An effort involving CRG to collect signatures to oust state Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) failed, Kliesmet said, because organizers failed to follow the CRG template."
Huh? There’s a template?
"Kliesmet said his group claimed victory in the Holloway and Polk cases, despite incumbents winning the recall elections."
O, this is rich. Even when they lose, they win?
"We don't feel we ever lose a recall," Kliesmet told Epstein and Johnson. "We're about reflecting the will of the people. You have the recall, question asked, question answered."
And look: they intended to bring Howie Rich’s TABOR to Wisconsin, too: "On CRG's signature statewide issue, a proposed constitutional amendment to limit state and local tax revenue, Seymer said he's frustrated that there has been little action this year. CRG claims a significant role in state Sen. Glenn Grothman's (R-West Bend) defeat of Mary Panzer, the former Senate majority leader who never called for a vote on the proposal known as the taxpayer bill of rights. Seymer said if the hearings don't happen soon, ‘somebody will lose their job’."
Bet that had Grothman quaking in his boots. Wonder if he called for that vote as he was told?
"After the holiday season, Kliesmet said, CRG will begin a large-scale membership and affiliate drive, a move that may take some focus away from local issues and toward building the organization in preparation for next November's general election and a push for the taxpayer bill of rights. It's a long haul to raise the $1 million; the most recent campaign finance reports show the CRG Network has $4,863 in its bank account. Kliesmet said the organization counts ‘a couple thousand’ people as members, though there is no dues-paying process and no statewide database of CRG supporters."
Sounds an awful lot like Trevis Butcher talking about Montanans in Action. Lots of members, but no names. Mm-hm.
Kooky stuff. And this is the guy who’ll be reading the thousands of emails between public employees in Oregon and Nebraska and Nevada and who-knows-where else for Rich and Paul Jacob and Leslie (Mrs. Eric O’Keefe) Graves. Maybe they oughta hire some additional help.
But another Wisconsin penpal picked up on my notes about what South Carolinians for Responsible Government did to the anti-voucher Republican Rep. Ken Clark, targeting and defeating him in his party primary earlier this year with a flood of direct mail. A complaint was filed, asking for SCRG to disclose its funding so that state officials could determine whether state laws were broken, but the Republican attorney general refused to pursue the case on behalf of the State Ethics Commission, and the Republican governor and his Star Chamber refused to allow any state resources to be used to launch any investigation otherwise. So that’s that: Damage done, and nobody’s to blame.
My penpal said a Wisconsin group called All Children Matter appears to have done something similar to a state representative, John Lehman, who was running for State Senate this year. And the note came with links, which I’m happy to share.
Reporter Paul Sloth tells us here http://www.journaltimes.com/... "A group of residents and local unions on Friday filed a complaint with the State Elections Board claiming the Michigan-based school choice group All Children Matter violated Wisconsin state law. The complaint alleges the group broke state elections law by advocating against a candidate in a local state Senate race without properly registering with the State Elections Board. The complaint stems from a direct mail flier sent to residents in the 21st Senate District urging them to ‘vote against’ Rep. John Lehman in his campaign for the Senate seat against Racine County Executive Bill McReynolds."
So it sounds fairly straightforward. If you intend to do dirty business in Wisconsin, you have to register ahead of time. An eight-year-old could understand this equation.
"Milwaukee attorney Richard Saks, who represents the group filing the complaint, said All Children Matter registered as a non-resident political committee with the Secretary of State, but did not register with the State Elections Board as a political action committee. The group filing the complaint contends that the ad constitutes express advocacy, which triggers all the state's statutory obligations. Once a political group engages in express advocacy, they have to comply with the state's election laws for political committees requiring disclosure of who they are, where they get their money and how they're spending their money."
Ahh, so since they DIDN’T register as a PAC with the Secretary of State, and conducted business as a PAC, they broke the law. Again, an eight-year-old could get this.
"Michigan billionaire Dick DeVos formed All Children Matter in 2003. DeVos did so to promote private school voucher programs - commonly known as school choice - like the one in Milwaukee, according to the nonpartisan watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, an advocacy group that tracks spending in state elections. All Children Matter works with the Wisconsin pro-(school) choice group known as the Alliance for Choices in Education, headed by George and Susan Mitchell of Milwaukee."
"In a prepared statement, George Mitchell, a state representative for All Children Matter, said the complaint is without merit and his group will demonstrate that in a response to the State Elections Board. ‘All Children Matter will continue to engage in the democratic process while doing so in full compliance with the election laws of the state of Wisconsin,’ Mitchell said."
Heh heh. That Mitchell sounds like Howie Rich himself, communicating with the media through "prepared statements" and whatnot.
"McReynolds campaign manager Jay Risch said he and his candidate had nothing to do with the mailer. ‘We had no knowledge of this getting produced,’ McReynolds' campaign manager Jay Risch said. ‘We found out about it when it came out in the mail’."
So this mailer was another "ugly baby" like the TABOR measure in Nebraska. (See here http://www.dailykos.com/...
The Associated Press had a similar story here http://www.gazetteextra.com/... and reporter Jennie Tunkieicz gave her account here http://www.jsonline.com/... Come to find out, All Children Matter has an organization in Virginia, just as Howie Rich’s Americans for Limited Government does! "A complaint was filed last week with the State Elections Board against All Children Matter in Grand Rapids, Mich., and All Children Matter - VA State Political Action Committee, in Alexandria, Va," she writes.
"Lehman said he was glad to see someone challenging the group. ‘These attack groups hide behind issues, but, in this case, they crossed the line into direct vote advocacy,’ Lehman said."
Mitchell, the prepared-statement-by-email guy, told her, "All Children Matter will continue to engage in the democratic process while doing so in full compliance with the election laws of the state of Wisconsin. This will include the filing of any reports necessitated by its activity."
O, good. So if the State Board of Elections asks for disclosure of his contributors, he’ll pony up. That’s more than a lot of Howie Rich’s Astroturf groups do. They file federal lawsuits to keep their money lists a secret.
Wait! Stop the presses! I just checked out today’s Wisconsin news, and Associated Press reporter Scott Bauer apparently attended the State Board of Elections meeting in Racine!
Scott, what can you tell us here http://hosted.ap.org/...
"Just who cuts the checks for a shadowy national school voucher group operating political action committees in Wisconsin and other states? That's the question Wisconsin's Elections Board members want answered," Bauer writes. "If it turns out a flier circulated by All Children Matter attacking a Democratic state Senate candidate wasn't paid for by the Wisconsin arm of the group, Elections Board chairman John Savage said Wednesday that criminal charges for making a false filing could be pursued. The flier sent in October had a return label showing that it came from All Children Matter, a national organization based in Michigan that promotes private school voucher programs."
Oooh, that’s mail fraud, dude. You can’t go ‘round lying on the U.S. mail.
"A complaint was filed with the Elections Board saying that distribution of the flier required the group to register and meet various reporting requirements, which it hadn't done. After the complaint, a Wisconsin political action committee operating under the All Children Matter name submitted the required paperwork. State law requires political groups to meet the various requirements if they are involved in express advocacy for or against a candidate, rather than simply raising issues. The board agreed in a unanimous vote that the flier constituted an express advocacy."
O, man. So All Children Matter has been judged to have been conducting business as a PAC when it was not registered as a PAC. I wonder if Trevis Butcher reads the Wisconsin newspapers?
"Kevin St. John, the attorney for All Children Matter, said at Wednesday's Elections Board meeting that the mailing was paid for by the Wisconsin PAC, but original plans for its creation came from the national group. He said he had not seen a canceled check paying for the flier. After the meeting, St. John said he would provide the additional information requested by the board before its Jan. 17 meeting. He declined further comment. As board members tried to unravel the weave of different PACs and groups operating under the All Children Matter name, St. John defended the group."
"This is not a secret society," St. John told the board. "This is not a conspiracy."
If it’s not a conspiracy, what is it? Enquiring minds want to know. (I want to know!)
"Richard Saks, the attorney representing a group of residents and local unions that filed the initial complaint, told the Elections Board that his clients want to know who the individuals are that were funding the group."
See, Richard Saks and his clients want to know, too.
Have to stay tuned until January, I guess.
Howie Rich and his friends may have nothing to do with these people, the All Children Matter crowd, but they sure do act similar. Here’s a positive note, though: The hate mail at the end of the campaign didn’t work against John Lehman. He won his race for the State Senate. Congratulations, Senator-elect Lehman. Godspeed.
Thanks much to my correspondents, y’all.
And now, tonight’s credits:
MISSOURI
http://www.semissourian.com/...
Reporter Rudi Keller, "Judge recuses himself from rival's cases"
http://www.wordandway.org/...
Reporter unidentified, "Case will move forward despite judge's loss"
WISCONSIN
http://www.jsonline.com/...
Reporters Reid Epstein and Mike Johnson, "Recall group aims to grow, take on Doyle;
Citizens for Responsible Government broadens its ambitions statewide"
http://www.gazetteextra.com/...
Associated Press, "Complaint: Pro-voucher group's flier attacks Racine candidate"
http://carrickbend.wordpress.com/...
Blogger David, "What is CRG’s agenda?"
http://www.jsonline.com/...
Reporter Jennie Tunkieicz, "Election flier spurs complaint: State to examine whether school voucher group violated law"
http://www.journaltimes.com/...
Reporter Paul Sloth, "Group files complaint about anti-Lehman flier"