So – The Capitol Resource Institute is Gearing Up For Another Referendum? Or is it Another Scam?

 Capitol Resource Institute  No Responses »
Feb 022017
 

Scam, a pretty strong word. What else would you say about an organization that has tried initiatives and referenda several times and failed to qualify any of them?

SB48? The Capitol Resource Institute did not even file a campaign finance report. This is my opinion was done to avoid having to deal with an FPPC complaint as much as it had to do with the complete failure of the effort.

AB1266? Raised lots of money, did not even come close. Here is a post about the FPPC Complaint. Here is part 1 of an expose I did about the fraud that was the AB1266 effort and part 2 of said effort.

To this day, there has been limited, if any accounting for the money raised.

To this day, volunteers involved with both efforts are still surprised at how it seemed the staff of CRI did not care about petitions coming in or their accuracy.

Of course the Coup D’ Etat was the $120,000+ that they pilfered from the Proposition 8 effort.

If the Capitol Resource Institute is consistent with their pattern – you can make bank that their current effort against SB18 is a fundraiser and will die like the rest.

Please don’t think that I write this willy-nilly. I’ve been threatened and an organization I was an officer of at the time was actually sued by their founder twice. The Capitol Resource Institute on the surface is a Conservative Values Group, but beneath the surface, my 15 years of dealing with their employees / directors shows them to be a fraud.

Did the Stop SB48 Campaign Avoid an FPPC Complaint By Refusing to File Paperwork? Where is the SOS Office?

 Capitol Resource Institute  Comments Off on Did the Stop SB48 Campaign Avoid an FPPC Complaint By Refusing to File Paperwork? Where is the SOS Office?
Jan 182014
 

Here on the Right on Daily blog, we have uncovered a disturbing pattern that has repeated itself. Despite thinly veiled attempts to conceal Karen England or the CRI’s involvement in a series of campaigns – they have been exposed.

Equality California was disturbed enough by this apparent corruption that they filed an FPPC complaint.

For the first time – the Right on Daily Blog has obtained documentation that suggests the reason that the FPPC Complaint has never been dealt with. The CRI / Stop SB48 Campaign simply decided to stonewall.

Recently Obtained Documents from the California Secretary of State’s office are sketchy – and there is a reason why.

First – the amended 410 was filed on 7/20/2011 – then the committee was qualified on 7/25/2011, meaning that they deposited their first $1000. Note that Karen England’s name is on the paperwork. The Bank Account was opened at a Wells Fargo Branch on Douglas Blvd in Roseville, not far from her former residence in Roseville. ( She lives in Reno, Nevada now)

Then – equality California lit them up with an FPPC Complaint:

The FPPC complaint charges that Capitol Resource Institute has been financially supporting the ballot initiative campaign. Karen England, executive director of CRI, said that is not the case. “Stop SB 48 leases office space from us,” she said. “They paid CRI up front for office rent and postage. And our employee was taken off the payroll and went on the the Stop SB 48 payroll right at the beginning of the campaign.” England said that she is even an unpaid volunteer for both CRI and the Stop SB 48 campaign.

(The above quote is from an article written that was subsequently pulled down – remind me to start screen-shotting these articles. There seems to be a pattern with anything related to Karen England getting pulled, however, I found another link with even more info that is linked twice in this posting)

Now – imagine for a second that I am the public face, mugging for the camera, making calls to solicit funds for AB1266 and the address for the campaign is in my insurance office. Now, I am trying to say that it and my insurance business are separate concerns and that my insurance business won’t profit off of the campaign?

Evidence suggests that Karen England has done this four times. SB777, Stop SB48, Ripping off $120k from Prop 8 and now the AB1266 campaign which I still believe was originally started as a scam fundraiser then because it got a life of its’ own was belatedly ripped in to legitimacy.

Karen England was pictured in many news articles and quoted many times about the AB1266 referendum, yet the campaign tried to maintain that Karen was simply a volunteer. Riiiiiiiiiiight.

Quoting a previous post on the Stop SB 48 Campaign:

According to volunteers that were present in the Stop SB48 headquarters – the effort was disorganized and there was no serious, coordinated or sustained effort to validate signatures that were being gathered. In addition – it appeared to the same source that the “staff” didn’t really seem to care about what was coming in the mail – and the error rate on the petitions was well over 50%.

Now we know why – the money raised disappeared. There is no accounting for it. The California Secretary of State’s Office did not Investigate. The STOP SB48 committee was forcibly terminated in late 2013 for failure to file.

According to the employees at the Secretary of State’s Office – they did not investigate because the campaign went nowhere. Now is the time for Equality California to SUE the CRI to force disclosure.

Listed on the paperwork of the Stop SB 48 Campaign? Treasurer John Fugatt and Karen England.

… and before you think there was no money, remember this quote from Karen England when Equality California filed their FPPC Complaint:

But England said the campaign has not done anything to violate the campaign laws. “We have gotten thousands of small donations from people all over the state,” England said. “We haven’t hit the $1,000 or $5,000 thresholds for reportable contributions.”

Well there you go – either Karen England Lied (which she is known for, see also her claim of an FBI investigation in to the Placer GOP Central Committee in 2010) or they raised some money and likely funneled it in to the CRI.

Since there has been no transparency, it is easy to assume that the reason is that there is something to hide.

Anyone who donates to any campaign that the CRI or Karen England are remotely a part of needs their head examined.

Why The AB1266 Effort Looks Dubious Part 4 – Capitol Resource Institute Slammed with FPPC Complaint

 Capitol Resource Institute  1 Response »
Dec 302013
 

Originally Posted Oct 06 ,2011:

The Capitol Resource Institute now finds itself embroiled in a politically-motivated FPPC investigation. The CRI is trying to qualify the SB48 referendum…

Leave it to the Organization Equality California to light up Karen England and the Capitol Resource Institute. CalWatchdog covered the story here and I have pulled out some excerpts:

The FPPC complaint charges that Capitol Resource Institute has been financially supporting the ballot initiative campaign. Karen England, executive eirector of CRI, said that is not the case. “Stop SB 48 leases office space from us,” she said. “They paid CRI up front for office rent and postage. And our employee was taken off the payroll and went on the the Stop SB 48 payroll right at the beginning of the campaign.” England said that she is even an unpaid volunteer for both CRI and the Stop SB 48 campaign.

When the Capitol Resource Institute ripped off the Prop 8 Campaign for $120k and I had a look at the campaign finance reports – the same pattern enumerated above repeated then. They used a “popular” issue on the right to raise money with and effectively paid the CRI’s bills with the money raised. (Click here to see my investigative report on the Capitol Resource Institute’s fake Prop 8 website)

But England said the campaign has not done anything to violate the campaign laws. “We have gotten thousands of small donations from people all over the state,” England said. “We haven’t hit the $1,000 or $5,000 thresholds for reportable contributions.”

This means that the CRI’s latest fundraiser is not going so well as they have not collected any substantial donations or those donating are giving checks below the threshold so they aren’t written about…

The CRI / Stop SB48 Campaign is claiming they have enough signatures gathered to qualify the initiative. I have seen little or no campaign activity from them at all, which gives me pause.

The moral to this complaint against the CRI is that their executive director has pointed the self-righteous finger at her political adversaries alleging many of the same complaints that the Capitol Resource Institute is now beset with. What’s worse for the CRI is that Equality California probably has far more evidence for their FPPC complaint than the anonymous blog comment that was the spiritual foundation for the rampage jihad against the Placer County Republican Central Committee.

What comes around goes around – and this is sad, because the SB48 referendum is a righteous cause.

 

Why the AB1266 Referendum Looks Dubious Part III – Look What They Did to Prop 8!

 Capitol Resource Institute  Comments Off on Why the AB1266 Referendum Looks Dubious Part III – Look What They Did to Prop 8!
Dec 282013
 

Enter www.lavendarliberal.com – this is a homosexual activist website designed to attack anyone who supported Prop 8. If you click on the block8 link – it takes you to a searchable database where you can look up anyone who has donated money to most pro-family campaigns across America. The site is replete with vicious comments about the donors as well.

In 2008, the Placer GOP ran a paid Prop 8 walking program. It was designed to protect the identities of those donating and participating. The people involved were all California Republican Assembly officers (remember the group Karen tried to take over?) and officers of the Placer GOP at the same time.

Karen England and it appears her friends in the CRI attacked this program as evidence of money laundering, culminating in an 7/7/2011 front page ABOVE THE FOLD story in the Bee where one of the CRI’s major donors – State Senator Doug LaMalfa (Now a Congressman) attacked the Placer GOP. Her psychotic rampage was listened to by local Tea Party Members and Liberal Anti-8 people like Auburn Council-member Mike Holmes and Lincoln City Council-member Spencer Short who all to this day believe that the people involved broke the law. (Click here for an expose’ on the attacks against the Placer GOP + links to the donations from LaMalfa)

Remember – these same people sued the Conservative Group California Republican Assembly Twice in their attempt to take it over! Holmes, Short and the other liberals on the Placer GOP Central Committee are still trying to this day to “get” the people that Karen targeted in her rampage. The victims / Accused? CRA Officers including George Park, Tom Hudson and Jeff Atteberry. (visit www.californiarepublicanassembly.com they are all listed)

Apparently, the ultimate goal of the Capitol Resource Institute is to eliminate competition in the Prop 8 arena. The pattern of financial motivations by Karen England is well established – and attacking the Placer GOP’s Prop 8 program in an attempt to expose the names of all who participated anonymously would certainly prevent such an effort from happening again.

Karen England registered a domain in 2008 – www.yesonproposition8.com. This was a website that was put together by the Capitol Resource Institute to raise money amongst other things. I was also told that the Capitol Resource Institute refused to participate with the real prop 8 campaign – www.protectmarriage.com and that they sent out numerous fundraising emails actually competing with the real prop 8 campaign!

Lavendar Liberal was kind enough to leave a blog post active with screenshots of the fake prop 8 website. It also proves a direct linkage to the Capitol Resource Institute in the creation and maintenance of the website.

Your intrepid blogger cross-referenced campaign finance reports that show what happened with the money raised by the fake prop 8 website run by Karen England and the Capitol Resource Institute.

Please also note that most all of the money raised by the CRI was from small dollar donors – suggesting that hundreds of people were fooled by this website.

The link to the campaign finance report is here for your reference.

A close look reveals this:

They held back $20,000 which was sent to the Capitol Resource Institute itself after the election was over. This is odd as most campaigns finish in debt – this suggests to me some pre-meditation with regards to the plans for the money all along.

Of the remaining $104,732.36 raised – it was spent as follows:

Around $31,000 in expenses of Capitol Resource Family Impact – a related entity to the Capitol Resource Institute. From looking at the report – it appears that over 40% of the money raised benefited the Capitol Resource Institute directly or indirectly.

In addition – there are several payments to LaTanya Wright, who works for the Capitol Resource Institute. (Side note – Wright was intended to be a alternate from the Seal Beach Republican Assembly in the attempted CRA coup in 2011. Wright lives in Roseville)

Meredith Turney also shows up on the report – at that time, she was employed by the Capitol Resource Institute as well.

The Capitol Resource Institute’s Yes on Prop 8 campaign sent out several emails as well. A 36-page document is linked here with several of the emails that were sent out in competition with the real prop 8 campaign. The comments at the beginning of several of the emails are revealing:

“This is the Capitol Resource Institute trying to skim money off of Prop 8″

“This is very fishy – I almost donated money to this site…”

“It appears Karen England is at it again, read on”

I spoke with a few people off the record and they were adamant that the Capitol Resource Institute refused to be cohesive with any of the other interests behind Prop 8 – and openly competed with the real Prop 8 campaign.

Similar to their behavior with the Prop 8 debacle – they have refused help from sources I have spoken to, preferring instead to control every aspect of the AB1266 referendum themselves. The Pattern Remains.

Given that the link between the CRI and the AB1266 campaign is undeniable, why would anyone reading the above + the two previous posts about their history believe that their AB1266 Campaign was legit?

Why the AB1266 Referendum Looks Dubious Part 2 – View from the Ground

 Capitol Resource Institute  1 Response »
Dec 232013
 

Contrary to what some think, I still have friends and lots of them.

I have talked to people over the years that have volunteered on the “efforts” that the Capitol Resource Institute has conducted. People on the CRI e-mail list for example, seem to magically get the emails for the various referenda (aka fundraisers) that they are running. Quoting an earlier post:

1. CRI employees were apparently taken off the CRI payroll and paid through the campaign.

2. The address of the Stop SB48 campaign and the CRI were the same for all intents and purposes.

3. There was no public accounting of what was done with the money raised – only scrutiny and research in to the fake prop 8 website exposed what was done.

4. According to volunteers that were present in the Stop SB48 headquarters – the effort was disorganized and there was no serious, coordinated or sustained effort to validate signatures that were being gathered. In addition – it appeared to the same source that the “staff” didn’t really seem to care about what was coming in the mail – and the error rate on the petitions was well over 50%.

This would lead one to believe that the Stop SB48 effort was a fundraiser for the Capitol Resource Institute and not a serious effort to do anything.

That was the SB48 effort.

In the stop AB1266 effort – there were similarities, but the petition gathering effort was much more effective. This is likely because when they brought in Frank Schubert after-the-fact and after the clock was ticking wasting valuable time, it appears that they realized that their credibility was on the line.

About the same time Schubert was brought in – mysteriously, Karen England disappeared publicly.

There were numerous mistakes that appear to have been borne out of a desire by CRI to keep total control of the effort. It appears that there were drafting errors and delays in the title and summar.

Inexplicibly, it took a couple weeks to get a petition together after approval. There was no real, coordinated effort to line up assets to have people hitting the ground running once the petitions were ready.

My sources that helped with the AB1266 effort indicated that the Mormons were not involved in this effort and others via hearsay indicated that the petitioner, Gina Gleason, a long-time friend and ally of Karen’s was bad-mouthing Mormons. Anyone that remembers the Prop 8 effort remembers that the LDS Church was huge in that effort.

Where were the mormons? Why did I hear stories that they were shunned (or worse)?

I have an email exchange where I tried to connect the CRA with the effort. I sent the contact info of the CRA President to the campaign – no follow up. Worse, the person we apparently were supposed to call participated in the aforementioned lawsuits against CRA and founded an organization a couple years ago to compete with CRA!

Were they ever serious about engaging the CRA – the largest and most effective Conservative group in the state?

It is not just my opinion – another volunteer on the effort had this to say:

The volunteer effort came up short?

Volunteers collected 400,000 signatures, a huge number for a volunteer effort in the short time afforded for a referendum drive. As one of those volunteers, we did our part.

It was the paid signature gathering that came up woefully short. Those leading this effort are again responsible for wasting thousands and thousands of volunteer hours for nothing.

BTW… Two points.

Most of the local volunteers believed CRI and Karen England were leading Privacy for All Students. CRI and Karen were the only names stated in connection with the referendum. When I mentioned the other persons or groups involved, the universal reaction was, “Who are they?” “Who is Frank Schubert?”

Volunteers in (my area) were told in mid October that the volunteer effort was on track to meet its goal. So what happened in late October/ early November?

In my opinion, Privacy for All Students has been running a face saving campaign to deflect attention away from THEIR epic failure in leadership, organization, and fundraising on the referendum.

Meantime – the CRI er. AB1266 Referendum keeps sending out those emails for more cash.

Next up – the retrospective on where the money went in past efforts.

 Older Entries