As soon as Iowa Dems found out that Bruce Rastetter, a major player in the ethanol and wind energy industries, was behind Iowa Future Fund, Republican operatives rushed to incorporate Iowa Progress Project last Thursday. They then issued an idiotic press release late Friday to the effect that Iowa Future Fund(IFF) was so successful, it was being replaced by Iowa Progress Project(IPP).
I'm not an Iowan but I am interested in IFF and IPP because they are part of a national Republican program to misuse 501(c)(4)s this election season. IFF and its affiliate, American Future Fund (AFF) are the first Republican 501(c)(4) shams out of the gate this year. IFF and AFF were registered on 8/7/07 by Holtzman Vogel, a Virginia law firm. Alex N. Vogel and his wife, Jill Holtzman Vogel, are among the dirtiest of dirty Republican operatives.
IFF is running ads criticizing Governer Chet Culver in Iowa and AFF is running pro-Norm Coleman ads in Minnesota. The MN Dems have already filed an FEC complaint against AFF.
Read on.
By way of background, I posted a diary on 4/3/08 about American Future Fund and Iowa Future Fund here and in here. I also posted about another sham Republican 501(c)(4)from 2006, the Progressive Policy Council, here and here. I also posted about IFF and IPP at Bleeding Heartland, an Iowan progressive blog.
Why Iowa Progress Project? Because it is similar to Iowa Policy Project, a respectable undertaking. Iowa Future Fund was the name of a lapsed Iowa Democratic PAC. In 2006, Republican operative Roger Stone sent out pro-Rick Santorum campaign mailers to Pennsylvania voters using Progressive Policy Council which was very similar to the left-leaning Progressive Policy Institute.
As I noted above, Bruce Rastetter is involved in IFF and AFF and is probably providing financial backing. His employee, Eric Peterson, is almost certainly the Eric Peterson named as IFF president, secretary and director in a document filed with the Iowa Secretary of State last February.
Nick Ryan, former Rep. Jim Nussle's long time campaign manager, now works for Rastetter. Ryan's p.o. box was listed as AFF's address on a television ad buy. (After losing his bid for the Iowa governorship in 2006, Nussle was appointed WH Director of the Office of Management and Budget.)
In an interview published today in the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, David Kochel, IPP president, was described this way:
Kochel has a long history as a Republican operative in the state, including working for former Gov. Terry Branstad, serving as Iowa GOP executive director in the mid-1990s, and most recently as a senior adviser on Mitt Romney's Iowa presidential campaign
.
Kochel is a past executive director of the Iowa and Michigan Republican parties and was a direct-mail consultant to Romney's 2002 gubernatorial campaign.
In February, Kochel and Iowan Republican fundraiser, Nicole Schlinger, registered Mission Control Partners Inc. Gee, I wonder what the mission is. I'm sure Mission Control Partners will show up as one of the five highest paid professional contractors in the AFF and IFF 2008 990s.
Schlinger is AFF president and president of Capital Resources Inc. dba Campaign Headquarters.
In his press release, Kochel announced that IFF directors are Gary Grant and Kathy Pearson.
Gary Grant is possibly the vice-president of Public Affairs Co.
Kathy Pearson is possibly the former president of the Iowa Federation of Republican Women and the president and sole employee of Kaas Employment Services in Cedar Rapids.
I am looking into who besides Bruce Rastetter is backing AFF and IFF. Likely candidates are fellow investors in Hawkeye Renewables and other Rastetter ventures. One name that has popped up is Russell Stidolph, head of ,AltEnergy LLC. Nick Ryan used an AltEnergy LLC email address in an application for an appointment to an Iowan commission.
As I learn more, I'll keep everyone posted!