Christmas has come early to Spring Street in New York City, and it’s safe to say real estate investor and Libertarian go-to guy Howie Rich didn’t get what he wanted. I’m not talking about the spate of ballot initiative defeats – defeats literally from coast to coast, of his so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights and his bait-and-switch eminent domain/ "regulatory takings" measure. No, I mean the holiday greetings delivered recently from the state of Illinois, essentially giving him the bum’s rush from the entire state. It seems that Rich and his front group, Americans for Limited Government, have been hiding behind their status as a charitable organization under Illinois law while behaving very uncharitably indeed. And, appropriately, the Center for Public Integrity is all over this story. But that’s not all; Rich’s acolytes in Montana and his ideological kin in Maine are enduring all manner of stress and strain for his sake. Seems the only new friend Rich can find is a retired congressman from Georgia. O holy night.
It’s interesting to note that the mainstream media has given the story a collective pass – what with the missing-man-of-the-week taking the leads – but the CPI press releases are popping up everywhere. The story’s beginning basics are familiar to us: Rich and ALG spent millions pushing his ballot initiatives across the land, funding them through a maze of paper entities and ad hoc shell committees, some of which even had state-based front men like Trevis Butcher of Montana, Laird Maxwell of Idaho and Mike Groene of Nebraska. But here’s where the story takes its amazing new turn.
In its release, CPI writes, "On Sept.15, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan notified ALG that its registration under the state's charitable solicitation laws was ‘delinquent and not in good standing’ and would be canceled in 30 days if it failed to file a complete annual report, including an audit by a certified public accountant, as required by law."
Right, I remember reading about this. I seem to recall that the responses from ALG were muddled – one response seemed to suggest it had been an oversight or error, while another suggested that no paperwork was even necessary.
"Madigan sent identical warnings to ALG's affiliate, Americans for Limited Government Foundation, but neither organization responded to the warnings, leading to the Illinois Attorney General's office cancellation of their registrations as charitable organizations." Wonder why there was no response? I know Rich doesn’t respond a lot of media requests – unless they come from bought-and-paid-for media outlets, heh heh – but it looks like he doesn’t respond to correspondence from state government either.
CPI says even sent a letter to Rich, asking about these questionable behaviors. "Rich did not respond to the Center's requests for information about ALG's financial affairs," they write.
But wait! CPI finds that Rich may simply be pulling another bait-and-switch: "ALG had operated from offices in Illinois since 2002, but just after the November 7 elections it quietly changed its address to the Virginia residence of one of its officers. At the same time, ALG created two new tax-exempt groups, the Sam Adams Alliance and the Sam Adams Foundation, which occupy its former Chicago address."
Wow. So ALG gets caught, ahem – not complying with Illinois law, let’s say – and rather than face the music and answer questions like regular Americans, Rich slinks away and changes ALG’s address in the dark of night. Moved ALG on paper to Virginia, as a matter of fact. I wonder if the state of Virginia has noticed? Meanwhile, he leaves two new machines in ALG’s old Illinois digs, still tax-exempt. (You have to admire how these tax-fetishists run for tax-exempt status like water runs downhill.) So while SOME version of Rich’s operation still works in Illinois – under the command of Eric O’Keefe and others, it appears – Rich himself is a persona non grata in Illinois and his beloved ALG is living in an uncle’s Virginia basement for a while.
Lest you think the Illinois Attorney General was looking for information that’s nobody’s business, the Northwest Progressive tells us at its weblog here http://www.nwprogressive.org/... that the AG’s expectations were simple: "charitable organizations that operate in Illinois are required to furnish state regulators with annual financial statements audited by a certified public accountant." What? That’s it? Just audit your books and have your auditor send a clean statement to the government? It’s absurd that ALG can’t comply with such a simple request unless... cue the strings, Ludwig... unless they have SOMEthing to hide.
NW Progressive has an opinion on the matter, which I enjoyed reading and am happy to share: "The ability of nutty, pseudo-libertarian millionaires to create havoc in states by abusing the initiative process is reliant on their ability to hide the actual sources of money used in those initiatives. It's ridiculous that Howie Rich can flaunt the law and then simply move his group, and/or form a new group."
NW Progressive also passes along a link to diligent Kos contributor and researcher Hart Williams, which I offer as well: http://www.dailykos.com/...
Just for everyone’s edification, CPI isn’t some fly-by-night outfit throwing darts at any ol’ passerby. Here’s its tagline, which suggests to me that they know what they’re talking about: "The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit, nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based organization that does investigative reporting and research on significant public issues. Since 1990, the Center has released more than 300 investigative reports and 15 books. It has received the prestigious George Polk Award and more than 20 other journalism awards from national organizations, including PEN USA and Investigative Reporters and Editors. In April 2006, the Society of Professional Journalists recognized the Center with a national award for excellence in online public service journalism for the fifth consecutive year. In October 2006, the Center also was honored with the Online News Association's coveted General Excellence award."
All of which begs this question: Wonder if the Wall Street Journal will pick up on this story? Where is the WSJ’s Chris Cooper when news breaks? Whither John Fund? Remember it was Cooper who published the fawning feature on Rich on Election Day – talk about bad timing – and who called Rich is "a publicity-shy, libertarian-leaning businessman who has become the go-to man for supporters of conservative ballot initiatives."
Mm, what rapt earnestness, what gentle tendresse. One imagines Cooper sharing a bit of yellowtail with Rich in the shadow of the United Nations Plaza – but no, that was Deroy Murdock, as we wrote here http://www.dailykos.com/... Much as Rich has been the go-to guy for wingnuts across the country, he’s not much help to them now.
Witness Trevis Butcher, Rich’s man-on-the-ground in Montana. Butcher is making it plain he wants the state’s initiative process to allow as much fraud and pervasive mischief as District Court Judge Dirk Sandefur found in his ruling against Rich’s initiatives this fall. While Montanan lawmakers are looking at ways to tighten up its initiative laws, Butcher is crying foul.
"Adding more restrictions is certainly something I'm not necessarily in favor of," he tells reporter Gwen Florio here http://www.greatfallstribune.com/...
Perhaps he should spend his energy finding real Montanans to do the heavy lifting, then. The anti-Rich effort is uniting lawmakers the same way Rich’s initiative united real Montanans in opposition: Florio writes that Attorney General Mike McGrath, a Democrat, is working with Secretary of State Brad Johnson, a Republican, to draft the bill keeping Montana’s business in the hands of Montana’s residents. She adds that once the bill is drafted, it will be co-sponsored by Democratic Senator Carol Williams and Republican Representative Alan Olson.
By the way, what has Butcher so exercised? "Among other things, [the McGrath-Johnson proposal] would require that those gathering signatures be Montana residents, and it would forbid paying them per signature," Florio writes. McGrath tells her that paying petition circulators per signature is "an open invitation to fraud."
Butcher tells her that’s "impractical," asking her, "What's to stop someone from moving briefly to Montana, getting a driver's license and registering to vote, and then leaving as soon as the signature drive is done?" See, he’s already begun thinking of how to get around the statutory changes.
Butcher says the ‘Protect Montanans’ Rights from Wealthy New York Ideologues’ proposal would "restrict citizens’ rights to petition," then he falls back on the old Libertarian standby, the elitist legislature. "Do you want citizen involvement or do you want it (the initiative process) to be maintained by an elitist legislature?"
Honestly.
Secretary of State Johnson, the Republican, has an answer. "A lot of anonymous out-of-state money came in. I'm not sure that's what the people of Montana intended."
Witness, too, the champions of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, who drafted and pushed Rich’s TABOR measure in Maine. Led by their executive director, Bill Becker, the handful of staff at MHPC traversed afar through 2006, making sure every Mainer, every tree, every rock and every lobster knew how wonderful the state of life in Maine would be if only voters adopted TABOR on Election Day. Clouds would depart from eternally blue skies in a veritable new Age of Aquarius. It would mean whoopie pies for everyone, two-a-day and fat-free. Becker himself appeared at press conferences, sang its praises on the radio, debated rational thinkers on local television programs.
But, as Mainer Carl Lindemann noted in a complaint in October, Becker and his MHPC, as a non-profit organization, can’t engage in political activity. And they did, as Maine’s Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices has determined. That’s bad news for Becker, writes reporter Susan Cover here http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/...
"State ethics officials have found that the Maine Heritage Policy Center promoted passage of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which requires the group to file a disclosure form if it spent more than $1,500 to influence voters," she writes. "The center, a conservative Portland think tank founded in 2002, wrote the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which became a citizen initiative rejected by voters in November. The center's director, Bill Becker, and its attorney, Dan Billings, contend that the center did not advocate for the bill's passage, but rather served as an educational resource for voters."
This is a Laurel-and-Hardy move if I ever saw one. "Why, no, sir," says MHPC and Becker to the constable, "we certainly did not take the swirly lollipop that we now hold in OUR hands from the hands of that babbling tyke in the stroller, who did until moments ago hold this swirly lollipop in HIS own hands. Instead, we intuited that the tyke was tiring of holding the lolly in his chubby grip and, being gentlemen, we gladly accepted his unspoken offer to let us hold and lick the swirly lollipop until it was consumed. We are innocent of any and all misdeeds, the testimony of these many meddling bystanders notwithstanding."
Well, it comes to this: The commission has asked MHPC whether it spent more than $1,500 to promote its "point of view" on TABOR this year. O, this is easy. The number of hours that Becker alone spent on the public airwaves is easy enough to document, as is a simple detail of his salary, divided into an hourly sum. Same is true of the MHPC’s lesser lights.
If MHPC spent more than $1,500 promoting TABOR, it’s a whole new ballgame in Maine, and I suspect that Commission on Ethics may be inclined to ask Becker’s tricksters to open its books to the public.
Seeing that day coming, Becker’s attorney is fishing for support among the non-profit ranks – warning that such a liberal interpretation will mean others will have to open their books too – and is blaming the ethics commission staff for not giving clear advice to the MHPC on the do’s and don’t’s of non-profit-political-advocacy. See, it’s never the abuser’s fault; the abused MADE the abuser do it.
Editors at the Kennebec Journal don’t need to wait for Becker’s answer regarding that $1,500 threshold. They’re offended at Becker’s "hair-splitting" assertion that he and MHPC didn’t urge voters to vote for TABOR.
"Its staff wrote the legislation that became TABOR. Its executive director, Bill Becker, spent months making speeches praising TABOR, very often in the company of leading TABOR advocate Mary Adams. A senior policy analyst for the center, Roy Lenardson, became the chief spokesman for the TABOR political campaign, while remaining an adviser to the center. And, indeed, while meeting with the editorial board of this newspaper during the fall, Becker -- joined by Mary Adams -- clearly urged us to support passage of TABOR," the editors write here http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.co... "That's why he met with us. If anyone in the state wanted a comment in favor of TABOR, they only needed to go on the center's Web site, or call it directly. The Maine Heritage Policy Center was the TABOR machine."
"Yet, in responses to the ethics commission, center staff and attorneys have steadfastly maintained that they were not directly promoting the passage of TABOR. They were only educating the public, Heritage officials said. Becker said that to us in October. We didn't believe it then. We don't believe it now."
"...there is a larger issue at stake here. And that's the Truth -- with a capital ‘T’. The kind of esoteric hairsplitting that Maine Heritage Policy Center's defenders are engaging in is offensive. Whether they convince the ethics commission or not that they really, truly, absolutely and positively didn't actually advocate for passage of TABOR is irrelevant. We know, and every voter in the state of Maine who didn't turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to current events over the last six months knows, that the center's name was synonymous with TABOR. Their insistence that they didn't really urge people to vote for TABOR is insulting to voters, demeaning to all the work the center actually engaged in, and ultimately, promotes cynicism in a public that is convinced that public figures lie all the time."
If Becker’s looking for clarity, the editors of the Kennebec Journal can give it to him.
So poor Howie Rich’s Christmas may not be what he hoped for, and that’s sad. But in every puddle of oily rainwater standing in the pothole, there’s a sickly rainbow smiling up at the sky – see it for yourself the next time you’re looking down at a puddle of oily rainwater! And in this case, it’s the fact that Rich has won a new convert to the cause.
Associated Press reporter Ben Evans tells us here http://hosted.ap.org/... that former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, one of the very Republicans who led the impeachment of President Bill Clinton despite the dirty, dirty deeds leaking from beneath the door of his own closet, has left the Republican fold and joined the Libertarians. One wonders, which party got the better end of this deal?
"A former Georgia congressman who helped spark President Clinton's impeachment has quit the Republican Party to become a Libertarian, saying he is disillusioned with the GOP on issues such as spending and privacy. Bob Barr, who served eight years as a Republican congressman before losing his seat in 2002, announced Friday that he is now a ‘proud, card-carrying Libertarian.’ And he encouraged others to join him."
O tidings of comfort and joy, y’all.
MAINE
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/...
Reporter Susan Cover, "Portland think tank under scrutiny"
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.co...
Editors, "Despite denials, Heritage center promoted TABOR"
MONTANA
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/...
Reporter Gwen Florio, "State officials push overhaul of initiative process"
NATIONAL
http://www.nwprogressive.org/...
Blog, "Howie Rich's group leaves Illinois"
http://www.commondreams.org/...
Blog
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Blog
http://biz.yahoo.com/...
PR Newswire, "Americans for Limited Government Fails to Meet Illinois Charity Requirements"
http://www.nwprogressive.org/...
Blog
http://www.commondreams.org/...
Press release
http://biz.yahoo.com/...
Press release
http://hosted.ap.org/...
AP Reporter Ben Evans, "Ex-Rep. Barr Quits GOP for Libertarians"