Chainsaw Pope
Submitted by James Protzman on Sat, 07/15/2006 - 6:48am
With the State Board of Elections hearings scheduled for the end of August, the next six weeks will be a busy time for Art Pope and his defenders (such as our own troll Sock Rats). There will be lots of technical discussions about what the laws really say, what the laws really mean, and whether the Puppetmaster broke said laws by 'electioneering' in five key NC House of Representative races.
As you may recall, the Puppetmaster owns a 527 organization called Republican Legislative Majority. In the run up to the May primaries, RLM reports spending $188,205 to drop 300,000 direct mail pieces focused on these races:
House District 10 - LaRoque:
The Puppetmaster won this primary, which is under appeal.House District 15 - Grady
The Puppetmaster lost this primary because his Puppet (the opponent) was disqualified.House District 40 - Eddins
Puppetmaster won.House District 52 - Morgan
The Puppetmaster won this primary and Morgan filed the complaint that will be heard at the end of August.House District 79 - Howard
The Puppetmaster lost this primary because his Puppet was disqualified.
The Puppetmaster will not be arguing that he didn't contribute money to RLM. In fact, RLM filings show that 100% of its money comes from Variety Stores, the Puppetmaster's retail empire. Excerpts from the most recent RLM filings are shown below (click to enlarge):
The real question - and the only question as far as I'm concerned - is whether RLM spent this corporate money to influence elections. The Puppetmaster will argue that he was only 'educating' voters with his 'educational' mailings, and that he had no intention of influencing elections. He will point to a statement on his filings that says the purpose of expenditures was to:
produce direct mail pieces and develop websites addressing legislative issues and votes in North Carolina
You can see excerpts from the filings here (click to enlarge):
The lawyers involved will make a shitload of money splitting hairs about the number of mailings that can be dropped at anytime, the exact wording involved on the websites and in the mail pieces, and more.
In the wake of all the lawyering, I hope the SBOE will take the time to represent the interests of We the People in this sleazy affair. Art Pope and his Puppets dropped 300,000 pieces of mail into five NC House districts with the specific purpose of defeating Republican legislators who refused to cower to the Puppetmaster's extremist views. He wanted them defeated and he did everything he could, including breaking the law using the RLM organization, to get his way.
Art Pope's scheme to control the North Carolina State Legislature does great violence to the principles of democracy. He is extending his obsession with free markets to include the buying and selling of elections with corporate money. And for all his talk about the founding fathers, it's hard to imagine this is what they had in mind. Anyone who sees things differently is, to put it simply, just one of Art Pope's Puppets.
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Could the SBOE invalidate the election
because of something like this? I don't think so. Art Pope would just get fined and he has plenty of money to pay that fine. That's why his activity needs to continue seeing the light of day.
I'll find out.
But I don't expect this to end at the SBOE. Whichever way it falls, I don't see either side dropping the issue.
What are these "Variety Stores"?
I was going to ask if someone could someone tell me what businesses constitute Pope's Variety Stores?
Then I found it myself and thought I'd share:
Bargain Town, Maxway, Roses, and Super 10
mark
I'd like to make sure everyone knows
that the Pope's hardware out in Chatham county is NOT owned by the Popetmaster. It's my favorite small-town feeling hardware and I would have hated to give it up.
Moore county is fighting back
Although Joe Boylan, Art Pope's hand-picked candidate was able to receive the Republican nomination in the primaries against Morgan, the fine people of Moore county didn't take this "jerry mandering" sitting down.
Both the Repbulican and the Democrat party Link Textcirculated petitions to get other candidates on the ballot to run against Boylan. Gerald Galloway is the dem candidate, and Manila (Bud) Shaver the Republican candidate.
Both camps received enough signatures and both candidates will now be on the ballot as "Unaffiliated". Moore countians are not happy with Art Pope and his evil puppets, John Hood and now Joe Boylan.
Our local newspaper has invited all three to a debate, all three have accepted. Link Text
Great to hear...
This is wonderful news. I'll follow the links and find out more about the debate. I would love nothing more than to have Art Pope's money wasted by seeing a Democrat elected in Moore County. They'll really have a job ahead of them in getting the word out about their party affiliation, but to see two people stand up against the Pope machine is terrific.
SBOE - then Boyle
The SBOE has a lot of power. They can levy fines and even declare an election void.
But as I've said earlier, the issue won't stop there. It'll move into the courts, and that's a potential problem. Bushbot Terrence Boyle would be the federal judge hearing this, and he's known to have a certain fondness for guys like the Puppetmaster. His ties to the Republican party are deep and loyal, and he doesn't mind ignoring the law to help his friends. Boyle has already had his hand slapped by the SCOTUS for being a partisan hack, and there's no reason to expect he'd behave any differently here.
Given his extreme record of North Carolina partisanship, Judge Boyle should recuse himself from hearing this case should it come his way. But he won't do that willingly.
Looks like it'll be up to us to take him down.