Commissioner: Montana Senate leader (R) broke campaign laws

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

The state commissioner of political practices says Senate Majority Leader Art Wittich broke Montana campaign laws by coordinating with and accepting illegal contributions from a conservative group during his 2010 primary election campaign.

Commissioner Jonathan Motl released his findings Tuesday. They are part of an ongoing investigation into the involvement of Western Tradition Partnership in Republican candidates' campaigns over the last two Montana elections.

Motl said in an interview he intends to have a judge weigh the findings and decide whether the Bozeman Republican should be removed from the 2014 ballot.

Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/commissioner-montana-senate-leader-broke-campaign-laws/article_9fa743ac-b9c0-11e3-9902-001a4bcf887a.html

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Once again, Donny Ferguson is involved.

Google DU.

Google the 'net.

[starroute]

3. Oh, a Steve Stockman / Eugene Delgaudio connection

This *is* good stuff.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Yes.

I posted threads mostly in the Montana and Virginia forums and one in the Texas forum, as Donny Ferguson is Steve Stockman's spokesperson.

These things don't happen all by themselves. Always look for the connections. Connect the dots.

[starroute]

6. This is too important to be left scattered among state forums

I've been aware of Stockman because the Breitbart Unmasked website has dug into his background (see, for example, http://www.breitbartunmasked.com/latest-news/steve-stockman-reminds-us-of-old-friends/), but I'd never heard of Ferguson or knew there was a connection to the Montana goings-on.

I've been posting here regularly about a lawyer named Dan Backer, who is Stockman's campaign treasurer (http://www.breitbartunmasked.com/latest-news/steve-stockman-names-dan-backer-as-his-campaign-treasurer/) and is also at the center of the phony IRS scandal as well as the McCutcheon case that is currently before the Supreme Court. I think my most extensive post on Backer was at http://metamorphosis.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3733427

Backer, in turn, is part of a larger Tea Party nexus that extends from the True the Vote troublemakers in Texas to Ginny Thomas and her Groundswell crowd, and it seems like the stuff you've been following is part of it as well. There is clearly something important going on under the radar in terms of trying to mess with elections and it frustrates me that the larger story isn't getting out.

[starroute]

8. And speaking of which -- oh, fuck

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-strikes-down-limits-on-federal-campaign-donations/2014/04/02/54e16c30-ba74-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html?clsrd

A split Supreme Court Wednesday struck down limits on the total amount of money an individual may spend on political candidates, saying it violates free speech rights.

The 5 to 4 decision sparked a sharp dissent from liberal justices, who said the decision will continue to boost the importance of money in politics and follows a hostility to campaign finance laws that the court’s conservatives showed in Citizens United v. FEC , which allowed corporate spending on elections.

“If Citizens United opened a door,” Justice Stephen G. Breyer said in reading his dissent from the bench, “today’s decision we fear will open a floodgate.”

[starroute]

7. Here's a whole new level of complication

I just did a little googling to see if there were any direct ties between Dan Backer and Donny Ferguson and found to my amazement that right-winger Lee Stranahan is now spilling the beans on his former associates in the Tea Party nexus and proclaiming that he's been betrayed by his longtime pal and well-known FBI snitch Brandon Darby.

Stranahan and Darby have been tight for some time. They worked together on a film for the late Andrew Breitbart that was intended to discredit Occupy Wall Street, and as I recall they also had a joint podcast. I haven't been following their antics recently, but it seems that Stranahan has split off and is now blowing the whistle on everyone else.

It's kind of delicious to see them turn on one another -- but beyond that, Stranahan is capable of being a pretty decent researcher and he seems to be connecting some interesting dots.


http://leestranahan.com/staffergate-steve-stockman-donny-ferguson-the-montana-connection/

December 17, 2013

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been writing, tweeting, and talking about #Staffergate; a sweeping scandal that involves dirty, illegal and just plain wrong political shenanigans by key staffers of top name Republican politicians like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Rand Paul Rep. Michele Bachmann, & former Rep. Ron Paul. . . .

Now add another ambitious GOP contender to the #Staffergate scandal roster: Texas Rep. Steve Stockman, who recently announced his primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn.

The #staffergate connection is Danny Ferguson, whose LinkedIn resume lists him as “Media Strategist/Senior Adviser at Congressman Steve Stockman” as well as Campaign Manager for Stockman’s 2012 House run.

Ferguson is currently ensnared is allegations of campaign wrongdoing in Montana. It’s a story whose bizarre details–including boxes of documents found in a “meth house” in Colorado–have attracted both national media attention and the FBI. It also ties directly to other key players in #Staffergate.


http://leestranahan.com/two-podcasts-on-the-betrayal-of-brandon-darby/

March 9, 2014

I recorded two podcasts last night detailing the recent troubles with Brandon Darby, where it’s become clear that he was working behind the scenes with people I’ve been writing about recently like Dan Backer, Donny Ferguson, The TeaParty.net Leadership Fund and Rep. Steve Stockman.

It’s understandable why Backer, Ferguson and Stockman would be upset with my writing.

The shocking betrayal is that Brandon Darby–my supervisor and my supposed friend–has been actively working with this group to destroy my professional reputation and discredit my reporting about Dan Backer and The TeaParty.net Leadership Fund.


http://leestranahan.com/rep-steve-stockman-partied-with-dirty-tricks-operative-dimitri-kesari-at-cpac/

March 21, 2014

Photos taken at a CPAC party with Texas Rep. Steve Stockman drinking near a hot tub actually show another link in the chain that connects self-proclaimed ‘Tea Party Republicans’ like Stockman with election wrongdoing and establishment GOP figures like Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell.

The man standing next to Stockman is Dimitri Kesari and unless you’ve been closely following the #Staffergate story I’ve been reporting for several months, he’s probably nobody you’ve ever heard of.

However, be on notice: there are currently not one but TWO grand juries looking into illegal election activity connected to Dimitri Kesari, so it’s a name you might want to remember.

Here’s a quick rundown of the Washington insiders connected to this:

* Dimitri Kesari: a GOP operative and the man in the photo; established connections to Stockman and McConnell
* Donny Ferguson: Stockman’s right hand man; was also involved in Montana political scandal connected to Kesari
* Eugene Delgaudio: Controversial politician and operative from Virginna, he dropped a big mailer during the Stockman primary campaign but didn’t reveal close ties to Donny Ferguson. Delgaudio is also very close to Kesari.
* Dan Backer : Attorney who was the campaign treasurer for Stockman; he also funneled Tea Party donor money to McConnell campaign.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. Eugene Delgaudio: Controversial politician and operative from Virginna

Eugene Delgaudio: Controversial politician and operative from Virginna, he dropped a big mailer during the Stockman primary campaign but didn’t reveal close ties to Donny Ferguson.

This one:

Eugene Delgaudio Asks 50+ U.S. Senators, Candidates To Take A Stand For the Family

Stockman Campaign Denies It Was Behind Mailer

Over the weekend, some Texas voters received a 16-page campaign mailer made to look like a newspaper titled “The Conservative News.” The publication was from an organization called Center for the American Future, and is also available on the group’s website. Every page of the publication is devoted to criticizing Cornyn or praising Stockman. It includes images that are nearly identical to those posted by Stockman’s campaign in recent weeks.

It's Donny Ferguson's favorite tactic: the fake newspaper. He did that in Montana too:

Mysterious Docs Found in Meth House Reveal Inner Workings of Dark Money Group

The tax code allows nonprofits like {Western Tradition Partnership} to engage in some political activity, but they are supposed to have social welfare as their primary purpose. As reported previously by ProPublica and Frontline, when WTP applied for recognition of its tax-exempt status, it told the IRS under penalty of perjury that it would not directly or indirectly attempt to influence elections — even though it already had.

The group is now locked in an ongoing dispute with Montana authorities, who ruled in October 2010 that the nonprofit should have registered as a political committee and should have to disclose its donors. WTP sued. A hearing is set for March.

In the meantime, the group has changed its name to American Tradition Partnership, reflecting its larger ambitions. This month, it sent Montana voters a mailer in the form of a newspaper called the Montana Statesman that claimed to be the state’s “largest & most trusted news source.”

The front page accused the Democratic gubernatorial candidate of being soft on sex offenders.

Donny Ferguson, American Tradition Partnership’s spokesman and executive director, did not specifically address the documents found in Colorado or allegations of coordination made against WTP.

“American Tradition Partnership always obeys every letter of every applicable law,” he wrote in an emailed response to questions. “ATP does not, and never will, endorse candidates or urge voters to vote for or against candidates. … These false allegations are old hat.”

Virginia link to Frontline story about outside money in Montana

Montana Statesman*

Keeping up with the latest Delgaudio-isms

* It's a dead link now. It was running a while ago. It's probably cached. It looked like this:

Front page of Montana Statesman

Three of those people are registered offenders. The fourth was the Democratic candidate for Montana attorney general. So clever.

[starroute]

2. I remember that case being discussed here

But it's clearer now that it was part of the concerted push to both overturn campaign donation limits and allow non-profits to be used as recipients of the resulting unlimited dark money donations.

Here's a DU thread on it from 2012:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014283362

And here's the PBS article:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/big-sky-big-money/mysterious-docs-found-in-meth-house-reveal-inner-workings-of-dark-money-group/

The boxes landed in the office of Montana investigators in March 2011. Found in a meth house in Colorado, they were somewhat of a mystery, holding files on 23 conservative candidates in state races in Montana. They were filled with candidate surveys and mailers that said they were paid for by campaigns, and fliers and bank records from outside spending groups. One folder was labeled “Montana $ Bomb.” The documents pointed to one outside group pulling the candidates’ strings: a social welfare nonprofit called Western Tradition Partnership, or WTP.

Altogether, the records added up to possible illegal “coordination” between the nonprofit and candidates for office in 2008 and 2010, said a Montana investigator and a former Federal Election Commission chairman who reviewed the material. Outside groups are allowed to spend money on political campaigns, but not to coordinate with candidates. . . .

The boxes were examined by Frontline and ProPublica as part of an investigation into the growing influence on elections of dark money groups, tax-exempt organizations that can accept unlimited contributions and do not have to identify their donors. The documents offer a rare glimpse into the world of dark money, showing how Western Tradition Partnership appealed to donors, interacted with candidates and helped shape their election efforts.

Though WTP’s spending has been at the state level, it’s best-known nationally for bringing a lawsuit that successfully challenged Montana’s ban on corporate spending in elections, extending the provisions of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United decision to all states.

[Timez Squarez]

4. Throw the idiot in prison and let him rot

and throw away the key.

Money is no longer the answer.

Prison time is the answer and he needs to be confined in solitary confinment for the next 25 to life.