527 organizations

The Republican Governors Association wasted no time setting up an Independent Expenditure Committee called the RGA NC 2008 PAC to receive and spend unlimited amounts of money from individuals to run ads for Pat McCrory in the wake of court rulings and subsequent recent changes to North Carolina election law. A Statement of Organization was filed 5/19/08 and the PAC already has $387,380 on hand from out of state donors ready to spend in support of McCrory

Corporate funds are prohibited for independent expenditures but, according to IRS records, the Republican Governors Association 527 Political Committee received $135,000 from North Carolina corporations in the first half of 2008.

In a little noticed action in 2007 the National Association of Realtors was fined $78,000 by the Federal Election Commission for violations of election law including $282,500 spent on mailings and advertisements expressly advocating the election of Richard Burr for Senate in 2004. The FEC found that the National Association of Realtors 527 Fund failed to register and file disclosure reports as a Federal political committee and accepted contributions in violation of Federal limits and source prohibitions. In total the NAR 527 Fund spent $2.8 million advocating the election of 9 federal candidates in 2004 including Richard Burr, their favorite son Johnny Isakson, a Georgia realtor, and the disgraced Rick Renzi.

The campaigning for Richard Burr spurred the complaint by one North Carolina man, Thomas Strini, of Mint Hill, and subsequent enforcement action by the FEC.

State Senator Fletcher Hartsell and State Representative Jeff Barnhart, both Cabarrus County Republicans, last week set up a non-profit corporation called “Real Debate.org, Inc.”. Only Hartsell’s name appears on the corporate filing but Barnhart is listed on a parallel filing last week with the IRS establishing “Real Debate.org, Inc.” as a 527 Political Committee along with Wilmington millionaire Fred Eshelman.

We have had conversations on BlueNC about branding before. James is pretty much an expert at it.....or darn near close. We've talked about how Republicans built a negative brand around the words "liberal", "Progressive", and "Democrat" and back in 2006 we even discussed how we wanted to work to build our own positive brand around the word "Blue". This is why I"m surprised to see so many here buying into the right wing branding of the term "special interests". If you recall, that's a term they linked to liberal or Democrat to help brand it as bad and some folks here have bought into it hook line and sinker.

 
The picture you see is of yard signs in a garden on my street. The garden is that of neighbor Scott Falmlen, former executive director of the state Democratic Party and one of the organizers of "FairJudges.net" the 527 committee which received and spent over $200,000 in "non-partisan" judicial races on behalf of the three Democratic judges shown and one Republican incumbent (running against late convert Democrat "persona non grata" Rachel Hunter). Scott is a nice guy who always waves when I pass him in the street.

Another 527 committee, the "NC Homeowners Alliance" spent over $70,000 mostly in opposition to State Representative Bonner Stiller, a Brunswick County two-term Republican. Stiller was re-elected. The "NC Homeowners Alliance" is actually an organ of the NC Association of Realtors whose lobbyist Tim Kent is a contact for the group. Tim is a nice guy, a former executive director of the NC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and, former newsman, who has always been helpful and thoughtful in his dealings with me.

          (read more below the fold........)

I wouldn't ordinarily do a cut and paste job but an email I just received is worth sharing on BlueNC for a few reasons. It reinforces that what we do here scratching around in the dirt can have an impact and that we can bring to light issues that would otherwise be overlooked by mainstream media. In recent weeks BlueNC became aware of telemarketing push-polling and misleading robo-calling especially in NC-11. Some of that awareness came via Talkingpointsmemo.com and TPMmuckraker.com. I would like to tip the hat to TPM and to credit Mother Jones for originating the story especially as the original story highlighted the involvement of Texan Bob Perry who also flushed money down the toilet for Charles Taylor:

You might have seen the November 6, 2006 front page story in the New York Times by reporter Christopher Drew ("New Telemarketing Ploy Steers Voters on Republican Path"). It's worth a look, not just because it's an important story, and not just because Mother Jones helped break it about three weeks ago.        (More below the fold......)

The rumor mill is abuzz this morning. Apparently the North Carolina Homeowner's Association (recently established to help builders get rich by electioneering protect American families) has been engaged in what most people would call money laundering.

In this case, the Realtor's PAC apparently "loaned" a shitload of money to the electioneering scheme, which may account for the fact that there are no contributions listed on the organization's filing. All of this, of course, brought to you by the Puppetmaster and the Money Laundering Watchdogs at the State Board of Elections!

Many of my friends couldn't understand why I got so upset when the incompetent State Board of Elections let Art Pope and his personal 527 electioneering machine off the hook this year. "What's the big deal?" they said. "Who cares if Art Pope spends all his money trying to influence elections? This is America. Free speech rules. Right?"

Free indeed, especially if you happen to be a member of the monied elite. In fact, the State Board of Elections has swung the door wide open for rich-guy electioneering on a scale that will soon make democracy a quaint memory in a world gone mad with corporate money. Following in the Puppetmaster's bloody footsteps, a new 527 euphemistically called the North Carolina Homeowner's Alliance has been pouring money into two legislative races to the tune of $71,000.

And who are the people doing this dirty work? NO. ONE. KNOWS. That's because the clowns at the State Board of Elections have allowed corporate money to contaminate our electoral process with not even a hint of oversight. The organization's Form 8872 Report of Contributions and Expenditures shows NO CONTRIBUTORS WHATSOEVER. A filing error? Maybe. But you can bet your sweet ass the IRS and the SBOE are not going to do anything about it in the next two weeks.