The de facto reality is, this cycle, the GOP is reverting to media and robo-calling campaigns produced and implemented by a group of folks with known connections to, among other things: 1.) convicted felons, jailed for implementing dirty campaign tactics, as well as, 2.) serial violators of basic FEC regulations.
Comment from a New Jersey blog on convicted GOP felon, Allen Raymond, author of "How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative."
"As for his three months in a Pennsylvania prison, he wrote: 'After 10 full years inside the GOP, 90 days among honest criminals wasn't really any great ordeal.' "
FRONT MEN
Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer and the other Rethug front men and mouthpieces on Sheldon Adelson's payroll over at Freedom's Watch really won't want you to read this diary.
In fact, Rove's denying that he's even associated with Adelson and Freedom's Watch. This has to be a bit of a spin record, since it's already been reported in a variety of articles--including a widely referenced piece from the New Yorker from last week-- that Rove's receiving a major six-figure stipend from Adelson now; but Karl's claiming he's not on Adelson's payroll. The rest of the population of planet Earth, including James Carville and the DCCC, would beg to differ on this basic fact.
That being said, this diary really isn't so much about Rove, Fleischer and Freedom's Watch as it is about the media thugs doing their wet work this cycle.
JAMESTOWN ASSOCIATES:
I'm talking about, among others, Jamestown Associates of Princeton, New Jersey and Freedom Watch's "agency of record"--as well as those that are known to have associated with this slimey group up until now.
(Much more about these unbelievable scumbags in a moment. But, first, a little update.)
INITIAL DEMOCRATIC TARGETS:
I truly hope that the following Democratic members of the House of Representatives will take some notes on the (not so) new information I'm providing below this list, since it's already being widely reported that these Democrats, in particular, are at the business end of this GOPer effort right now. Current Democratic House campaigns being victimized by grossly distorted robo-calls and targeted media (opposition TV buys this weekend noted with an "+tv" next to the name), so far this cycle and just over the past couple of weeks, up to and including this weekend (local campaign articles of note about this are linked to a few of the names, below, too) :
Jason Altmire (PA-04)
Melissa Bean (IL-08)
Nancy Boyda (KS-02)
Chris Carney (PA-10) (+tv)
Don Cazayoux (LA-06)) (+tv)
Travis Childers (MS-01)) (+tv)
Gabrielle Giffords (AZ-08)
Kirsten Gillibrand (NY-20)
Paul Hodes (NH-02)
Steve Kagen (WI-08)) (+tv)
Paul Kanjorski (PA-11)
Nick Lampson (TX-22)) (+tv)
Tim Mahoney (FL-16)
Jim Marshall (GA-08)
Jerry McNerney (CA-11)
Harry Mitchell (AZ-5)
Dennis Moore (KS-03)
Patrick Murphy (PA-O8)
Ciro Rodriguez (TX-23)) (+tv)
Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01)
Zack Space (OH-18)
John Yarmuth (KY-03)
"+tv"=Stepping On The Gas. Confirmed "opposition" (Freedom's Watch) TV buys also running this weekend.
THE SLIME:
From J.C. Braswell's blog, around January 23rd, 2008, we have multiple stories indicating a history of potential/previous FEC violations with regard to campaign coordination--a big no-no-- between 527's and the GOP, all involving Jamestown Associates.
But, most notable by Braswell, perhaps, are the references to ex-con and former RNC strategist Allen Raymond.
In Raymond's book, as Braswell and company note, Raymond talks about those from whom he learned his craft, such as Freedom's Watch's media agency of record: Jamestown Associates. Braswell continues:
One such character is Tom Blakely, president of Jamestown Associates. Raymond alleges Blakely devised robocalls to play off people's racial prejudices while pretending to be calling on behalf of their opponents' campaigns.
Jamestown is currently being contracted by state Sen. Andy Harris to do campaign media. The Press of Atlantic City wrote yesterday that Jamestown's involvement with a congressional primary in New Jersey's Third Congressional District has become an issue since the book's release.
Raymond went to jail for his involvement in a phone-jamming scandal during the successful - though narrow - re-election of Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire.
And, more excerpts from Braswell's blog concerning Jamestown's work for Tim Walberg (MI-08) in 2006, and potential collusion--and clear FEC violations concerning same--between 527's and the Republican Party:
Schwarz campaign files FEC complaint against Walberg
Associated Press
July 20, 2006
By Ken Thomas
Rep. Joe Schwarz's congressional campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday, alleging Republican challenger Tim Walberg violated campaign finance laws by coordinating with a pro-business group.
Campaign officials with Schwarz, R-Mich., asserted Walberg's team used the same pollster employed by the Washington-based Club for Growth, calling the relationship "in clear violation of FEC regulations prohibiting coordinated expenditures" between a campaign and nonprofit political groups called 527s.
"You have to play by the rules. There are rules and you have to play by them, and they are very clear," Schwarz said in an interview. "And when you're dealing with large sums of money at a campaign at this level, it is paramount that you follow the rules, that you follow the law."
Walberg's campaign manager Joe Wicks called the complaint "ridiculous" and said Schwarz's wrong stances on social and economic issues forced him "to invent an issue."
"The Schwarz campaign has obviously figured out that they are in desperate shape and now they are abusing the legal system in a desperate attempt to save his political career, which is on life support," said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey.
Toomey said there was "not a shred of truth" of any wrongdoing.
Under federal law, the Schwarz campaign would need to show specific evidence of coordination beyond the use of the same vendors by his opponent's campaign and the 527 group. The statute considers whether the outside firm had access to information about the campaign's strategy and activities and used the information to aid the campaign.
The allegations came less than three weeks before the Aug. 8 primary in southern Michigan's 7th District. Walberg, a former state representative from Tipton, has questioned whether Schwarz's moderate stances on some social issues properly represent conservatives in the Republican-leaning district.
Schwarz, of Battle Creek, won the GOP primary in 2004 to succeed former Rep. Nick Smith, R-Addison, with 28 percent of the vote, defeating Walberg and five other conservatives. In a one-on-one matchup, Walberg has tried to unite conservatives against Schwarz while the congressman has received endorsements and help from GOP leaders such as President Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain.
In the complaint, Schwarz's campaign cited a Walberg news release from April indicating the campaign had hired Adam Geller, founder of New Jersey-based National Research Inc. The company conducted a poll by the Club for Growth in the Rhode Island Senate primary, according to a November 2005 news release by the organization.
They also note that Geller is a former president of New Jersey-based Jamestown Associates, a media firm that has served as a paid consultant for Walberg on media strategy and purchasing.
Messages were left with National Research and Jamestown Associates.
Amended campaign finance records filed July 15 show Walberg's campaign paid National Research $17,000 on April 20 for polling, while there was no listing of any payments to Jamestown Associates between April and the end of June.
The original version of the finance records, filed July 14, included the National Research payment but also listed $78,190.20 in disbursements to Jamestown Associates for television, radio and campaign photos and literature.
Schwarz's campaign said in the letter the expenditures were not included "to give a false impression of funds available" in the campaign. Most recent finance records have shown Schwarz and Walberg with nearly the same amount of money available for the final weeks.
Wicks said the campaign would be filing an amended report to reflect the Jamestown expenditures.
Records filed in April show Walberg paid Jamestown Associates $21,860 between early January and mid-March for consulting fees, radio ads and production and mailers. Walberg's campaign did not list any expenditures to National Research during that period.
Walberg's campaign also paid the Club for Growth $575 for poll results on Feb. 7. The Club for Growth paid National Research $27,500 on Nov. 28, 2005, for polling, according to records filed by the organization.
This diarist believes, however, that what sheds the most amount of light on the type of behavior (and media) we should expect from the Rethugs, via Freedom's Watch and Jamestown, during the balance of the year, includes a rare look inside the machinations behind what really happens when GOPers choose to take the lowest of the low roads in their campaign tactics. As is self-evident in the blog quote, below,
21 December 2007
A Must Read Book: How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative
Well, the continuing unfolding scandal of the 2002 New Hampshire phone jamming scandal has provided quite a lot of insight into how Republicans work, and How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative, by Allen Raymond, is one of the products of the scandal.
As a result of his being fingered as the fall guy for the phone jamming, he was guilty as hell (served 3 months), but he was a foot soldier sacrificed in an attempt to protect the higher ups.
First, we have a McClatchy review of an advance copy of the book, which notes that James Tobin, the former regional director for both the RNC and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (convicted and now on appeal), made 22 calls to the White House cough Rove cough in the 24 hours surrounding the phone jamming.
As soon as the investigation started, Tobin and Charles McGee, the executive director of the New Hampshire GOP, denied all knowledge, and basically pretended not to know Raymond. In the days following the election, when Raymond "when he phoned Tobin after Sununu's 19,000-vote election victory to tell him that a Manchester, N.H., police officer was looking into the scheme, Tobin responded, 'I don't know what you're talking about.'"
Also of interest is his story of the related at TPMmuckraker:
To set the scene: Raymond got a call in 2000* from two former colleagues in New Jersey who ran a consulting shop called Jamestown Associates. They were working for Dick Zimmer, who was running against Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), the incumbent, and they were pulling out all the stops. (Ed. Note: This post originally stated that this happened in 2002 -- that was my mistake, not Raymond's.)
They'd already succeeded in getting a Green Party candidate on the ballot to drain liberal votes from Holt (a favorite GOP trick). And they had already put Raymond's firm to work calling Green-oriented households and urging them to support the Green candidate.
But what came next was "even better":
Tom Blakely from Jamestown Associates called me up and asked, "How do you guys find voice talent?"
"Well, I've got a whole catalog of different voices on CDs. I've got 'single Northeastern female,' I've got 'Southern belle' -- what are you looking for?"
"We're targeting Democrats of Eastern European descent using a surname select and geopolitical filter."
"Oh," I said, quickly doing the polarizing-voter math in my head. "How about 'angry black man'?"
"Yeah, that sounds good. What's his voice sound like?"
So I cued up one particular actor's CD on my computer and put the phone to the speaker. The track I played was one in which the actor was deliberately playing up a street gang character.
After listening for a few seconds, Blakely said, "That's the guy!"
So we had the actor record a spot over the telephone saying, "I'm calling as a Democrat, asking you to vote for the Democratic nominee. We need your vote for Holt."
I'm not saying that all Eastern European whites are racists, but, no matter where or when an election is held, there is a always a cultural divide that you can rely on. The message was "I'm ghetto black calling you, racist Ukrainian guy, and scaring the crap out of you because you probably think that if you don't vote for the Democrat I'm going to come to your house and take care of some business."
The calls were extremely highly targeted, household by household, no message ever left on an answering machine. We wanted the message heard only by people whose reaction would be "I'm not voting for Holt because he uses scary black men to call my house."
We made calls to Democratic union households supporting Zimmer, taped by actors putting on thick Spanish accents, figuring union workers were the voters who felt most threatened by immigration. The objective was to get them to throw up their hands and stay home on Election Day. We were just forcing those people to make a decision that was true to who they really were. If you want to question someone's character, look to the people who stayed home because of those calls.
Remember -- they were Democrats; they were supposed to be the tolerant ones.
Zimmer lost the election by 481 votes and the Green Party candidate picked up 2 percent in the polls.Seriously, if it weren't for bigotry the Republicans would barely outpoll the Monster Raving Loony Party.
So, there you have it.
These are the folks "handling" media for the GOP this year, by default, via Freedom's Watch.
IMHO, not exactly the type of folks I'd want running my campaign, if I was running for office! But, then again, I'm not Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer or Sheldon Adelson.
Fasten your seat belts...it's gonna' get real ugly.