GOP consultant in Arizona pulls strings to get Green Party on Texas ballot

[white cloud]

GOP consultant in Arizona pulls strings to get Green Party on Texas ballot

01:11 AM CDT on Sunday, June 6, 2010
By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]
AUSTIN – The liberal Green Party's uphill battle to get on the Texas ballot this fall has been fueled by a surprising benefactor: an out-of-state Republican consultant with a history of helping conservative causes and GOP candidates.

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Blog: Trail Blazers
If the state validates the petitions the consultant arranged for the party – for free – a Green Party slate could drain support from Democrat Bill White in his bid to oust Republican Gov. Rick Perry.


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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/060610dntexballot.243bca8.html

[sonias]

1. Yep I saw that on DU too

The Rs must be scared if they are helping try to pull votes away from the Ds.

What's unknown is who paid for the previously undisclosed arrangement, pieced together by The Dallas Morning News. Green Party officials said they don't know who funded the effort. The Perry campaign denied any involvement. And Arizona Republican operative Tim Mooney, who set up the petition drive, refused to say.

A Perry campaign denial is hardly anything to trust. Just saying. I'm sure their involvement would be many layers removed in order to have plausible deniability.

[sonias]

2. Bid to put a Green in Texas governor race may be illegal, expert says

DMN 6/8/10
Bid to put a Green in Texas governor race may be illegal, expert says

One of the state's leading election experts says a petition drive funded through an out-of-state group to put the Green Party on the ballot this fall might have violated state law.

Party officials say the group, a nonprofit corporation, collected 92,000 signatures and delivered them as "a gift" so that the Green Party could field candidates in the November election. The arrangement for the petitions, set up by an Arizona Republican consultant, was revealed Sunday by The Dallas Morning News.

Analysts say Republican Gov. Rick Perry could be the beneficiary if the liberal Green Party candidate for governor drains votes from Democratic nominee Bill White.

It's unclear who paid for the petition drive, but funding went through Take Initiative America, a Missouri nonprofit corporation. Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer and expert in election law, said Monday that such a transaction is illegal under state law.

"That corporation cannot make contributions to political parties in Texas. And to do so is a felony," he said. "It is also a felony for a political party to accept a corporate contribution."

Whoops - now what is the state going to do? Nothing really - The Greens could face a monetary penalty. The Ds however can sue to keep them off the ballot. We'll see what happens.

[onestepforward]

3. Very disappointing.

I like The Greens and this situation reminds me of when Nader took money from the GOP. I guess things like this will happen as long as campaign money is so critically important. I wish we could take money out of politics or at least limit it. How many truly great candidates never got a chance because they didn't have enough money?

I wish they would have just joined forces with the Dems. We could use more progressive folks.

[sonias]

4. TX Democrats file suit: Who funded Green Party petition drive?

DMN Trailblazers blog 6/10/10
TX Democrats file suit: Who funded Green Party petition drive?

The Texas Democratic Party has gone to court to force the Green Party to identify who funded a petition drive to put them on the November ballot. Democrats say the drive was a disguised effort to help Rick Perry. The Republican governor could be the beneficiary if the liberal Green Party candidate for governor draws votes from Democrat Bill White. The motion for a restraining order was filed this morning in district court in Austin. If granted, it would allow lawyers for the Democratic Party to take depositions of participants under oath to find out who bankrolled the effort.

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie: "Texans need to know the truth about Rick Perry's involvement in the Republican/Green Party petition scam." Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the governor was not involved. The secretary of state on Wednesday cleared the way for the Greens to field candidates for the fall campaign. But questions have arisen about out-of-state Republican interests that collected 92,000 signatures to put the party on the Texas ballot. The drive was spearheaded by a GOP consultant from Arizona with a history of working for conservative causes and Republican candidates. The consultant arranged for a Chicago-based petition-gathering firm with money from a company called Take Initiative America. The signatures were given to the Green Party as an in-kind contribution.

Green Party state coordinator Kat Swift says they believe the petition drive was legal but are awaiting written assurance before moving forward to field candidates. Ritchie said the real question is who paid for it. "For them to depend on the word of shady out-of-state Republican operatives to determine whether this is illegal would be like depending on the word of BP to determine responsibility for the oil spill. If the Green Party is truly concerned that no laws have been broken, they will welcome this judicial review."

:kick:

[sonias]

5. Top Perry Political Consultant Linked to Green Party Petition Scam

Burnt Orange Report 6/11/10
Top Perry Political Consultant Linked to Green Party Petition Scam

The more we hear about the GOP-funded Green Party petition drive, the more it's clear that Republicans are engaging in dirty tricks to try and prevent Democrats from winning in November. I guess they don't think they can win on the merits, and need to cheat. How else would you explain the news that Governor Rick Perry's top political operative is clearly connected with the Republican-funded petition drive benefiting the Green Party of Texas?

Dave Carney, a top Perry political consultant, engaged in identical petition efforts to get Ralph Nader on the ballot in swing states in 2004, working with the same individual behind the 2010 Green Party signature drive here in Texas. Carney was already working for Perry--he's been on board since 2000--when he worked to make Nader a spoiler for Democrats in 2004.

From the Lone Star Project:
Top Perry Operative linked to Head of Green Party/GOP Ballot Scam
Dave Carney worked with Tim Mooney in New Hampshire to get Ralph Nader on the ballot

Documents obtained by the Lone Star Project reveal that Rick Perry's top political adviser Dave Carney has a long and direct link to the manager of the Texas Green Party/GOP ballot scam. In 2004, Carney teamed-up with Texas ballot scam leader Tim Mooney to gather signatures to put Ralph Nader on the ballot in order to assist the George W. Bush Presidential campaign.

Perry's minions up to no good as usual. :grr:

[sonias]

6. GOP lawyer to represent Texas Green Party in Democrats' lawsuit to reveal donor

DMN 6/17/10
GOP lawyer to represent Texas Green Party in Democrats' lawsuit to reveal donor

AUSTIN – A top Republican lawyer has been hired to represent the Texas Green Party against efforts to identify a mystery donor who paid to put the party on the fall ballot.

(snip)
The drive was spearheaded by an out-of-state GOP operative with a history of helping Republican candidates and conservative causes. But whoever provided more than $200,000 to pay signature gatherers remains a secret.

Perry could be a beneficiary if the liberal Green Party candidate for governor takes votes from Democrat Bill White in November.

The Perry campaign denies involvement.

Democratic lawyers were notified Wednesday that Andy Taylor, a Republican redistricting lawyer with ties to Tom DeLay , Sen. John Cornyn and Perry, will represent the Green Party. It's not clear who's paying him.

This gets stinkier and stinkier. :grr:

[sonias]

7. Green Party signatures cost $532,500; were they legal?

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2010/06/23/green_party_signatures_cost_53.html?cxntfid=blogs_postcards?cxtype=rss_texas-politics">Postcards from the Lege 6/23/10
Green Party signatures cost $532,500; were they legal?

A group with ties to Republicans paid $532,500 to gather petition signatures to land the Green Party of Texas on this year’s state ballot.

At least one high-ranking Green Party official thinks that money was a corporate donation.

The Texas Democratic Party, which contends that the money used to gather the signatures came from corporations and is therefore illegal, is suing to find out who put forth the money to gather the signatures.

(snip)
In a June 10 e-mail to other Green Party officials, state party treasurer David Wager said, "I was promised by a representative of Take Initiative America that the organization was not a corporation and that he would comply with all disclosure requests. Today I was informed that the organization is in fact a corporation and they will not disclose their donors. They claim that their collection of signatures and in-kind contribution was not political. I don’t agree. In my opinion, we have no choice but to refuse the signatures."

Whoops! Big problem for Ricky, Chicky, Chicky....

:popcorn:

[sonias]

8. Democrats head to court in effort to stop Greens

AAS 6/23/10
Democrats head to court in effort to stop Greens

Democrats will try today to block the Green Party from fielding candidates for governor and other statewide offices this November.

The Greens appeared to qualify for this year's statewide ballot by submitting 92,000 petition signatures to the secretary of state's office in May. But the Texas Democratic Party will try to persuade a state district judge in Austin to block the Greens from the ballot because, Democrats claim, an outside group illegally paid for the gathering of those signatures.

(snip)
Minor parties are not automatically allowed to put their candidates on the Texas ballot, and it's not clear whether the Greens would have fielded statewide candidates this year had they not received help from Take Initiative America.

Lawyers for the Texas Democratic Party will argue in court today that the Green Party violated several aspects of state election law by accepting the in-kind contribution that paid for the petition drive. For one, Democrats say, state law does not allow a party to gather signatures using corporate money.

They also say that Take Initiative America did not properly register with the state and disclose its donors before making the contribution.

(snip)
Perry's campaign has denied any involvement in the effort to get the Green Party on this year's Texas ballot. But according to a 2004 story in the Morning News, Dave Carney, Perry's chief political strategist, hired temporary workers to help Nader get on the ballot against Kerry and former President George W. Bush. He worked through a group called Choices for America, to which Mooney also has ties. Carney recently told the Morning News he has not worked with Mooney in years.

Good for the TDP. Hope they win. This is no way for the Greens to get on the ballot.

:kick: