Tea Party Ripoff Update: Tea Party Express / Move America Forward PAC / Non-Profit is Getting Sued

 Move America Forward PAC, Tea Party, Xavier Becerra  No Responses »
Jul 242019
 

I have never been a fan of the Tea Party Express. It has always been my opinion that it is a scam and a handful of political consultants and minor Conservative Pundits have gotten rich off of it. Their most memorable political stunt was ginning up thousands of people to descend on Searchlight Nevada when Harry Reid was Senate Majority Leader.

From time to time there have been articles written about PACs and how they spend 90% or more of their funds on Salaries, etc. The Tea Party Express and Move America Forward PAC (pretty much the same group) are two such PACs that have been similarly assailed.

One of the reasons for my disdain of the Tea Party has been the existence of leeches like these and no willingness within the movement to police itself. (See also Antifa and others on the left that arose out of the netroots)

Any simple research will reveal that the Tea Party movement has splintered in to several pieces and a whole lot of people have gotten rich off of it.

It appears that the founders of the The Tea Party Express and Move America Forward PAC’s had a non-profit they were using as a front (my opinion) to make even more money off of “supporting the troops”. Because Xavier Becerra has presidential ambitions like Gavin Newsom – he is looking to make a name for himself. This is why he has been trying to prosecute David Dadelien or James O’Keefe. It makes sense why Xavier would go after MAF PAC.

That said, MAF PAC is a scam (my opinion) and Xavier is right to attack them. However, if Xavier prosecutes rather than sues MAF PAC, then almost every Soros-backed group would be vulnerable to prosecution too. It is the age old question about legally sanctioned unethical behavior.

The Sacramento Bee, being the reliable political harlots for the left broke the story – ostensibly after Xavier’s office made sure they had advanced notice. (This is standard practice for prosecutors)

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against a Sacramento nonprofit that sends care packages to troops, alleging that the organization misled donors and its directors misused charity money for political purposes.

The lawsuit against Move America Forward alleges that the organization violated Internal Revenue Services regulations because its two directors, Sal Russo and Shawn Callahan, managed separate for-profit groups that “charged fees for services” provided to the nonprofit.

Becerra argues that the charity engaged in “deceitful solicitation gimmicks,” which he said included using photographs from other organizations, advertising a veteran’s story without his permission and plagiarizing information from other nonprofit campaigns.

For years – your intrepid blogger has railed on “Tea Party Leech PACS” that send out tons of spam emails or have people posting stuff on social media and/or sending spam texts trying to piggy back on campaigns. While I have no direct proof, it has been put to me several times that Mr. Russo and others have gotten rich off of the Tea Party Express PAC. It appears that similar to so many others living high on the hog in ethically questionable endeavors, they could not stop at just leeching off of the Tea Party. They appear to have created vendors in order to strip-mine even more money out of the Non Profit for themselves.

I’ve seen hundreds of fundraising emails including a US Senate Special election in New Jersey (hopeless for a Republican) which was Cory Booker’s original election. The Tea Party Express / Move America Forward PAC’s would endorse people and then fund raise off of these high-profile campaigns. Some Republican candidates have been quoted over the years expressing their irritation that these PAC’s were creating confusion and hindering their own fundraising!

I can’t wait to see what the legal discovery reveals related to the finances of Move America Forward. And, shame on them for making themselves an easy target for a piece of crap Attorney General looking for campaign material.

Russo, chief strategist for the nonprofit and a Sacramento County resident, allegedly diverted more than $1.8 million to his for-profit companies, according to the lawsuit. Callahan is the executive director. The suits also names Chairman Melanie Morgan and Director Howard Kaloogian as defendants.

Becerra’s office is alleging that the nonprofit also provided free office space for two political action committees called Move America Forward PAC and the Tea Party Express. The suit also claims charity assets were used to support candidates endorsed by the committees.

According to its website, Move America Forward has sent more than 388 tons of packages to troops “directly from American citizens affirming their support and providing some comforts from home.”

I met Howard Kaloogian in 2004. I’ve met Melanie Morgan a couple times, and she did not have time for me or others in the room. She also reminded me of Karen England. (someone whose scams I have written about for years – including diverting a ton of money from the Prop 8 effort) Kaloogian was an also-ran candidate for US Senate and by virtue of my firsthand experience with him, I believe he is a playboy. (Yet another “conservative” who likes to get wasted at CAGOP Conventions and chase girls. And I saw this first hand)

A former Radio Talk Show Host Eric Hogue used to rail on Move America Forward / the Tea Party Express as a rival Talk Show DJ was in on the early days of it. your intrepid blogger has never stopped monitoring their activities even as both of these guys have moved on.

It is the opinion of this blogger that Melanie Morgan, Howard Kaloogian, Sal Russo and others that have been on the take from this Charity and the two PAC’s had better get good attorneys. I’ve maintained that this operation has been dirty from the beginning and how sad it is that Xavier Becerra gets to ride in to clean it up (while ignoring rampant corruption all over California’s Democrat Run Municipalities).

It is truly a case of mixed emotions for me as it has taken 15 years to see any level of accountability for what these people have done, and it comes in the form of Xavier Becerra trying to create a campaign platform for himself.

HAPPY FBI Day!

 David Stafford Reade, Tea Party  No Responses »
Oct 232016
 

Every year around October 20th, I commemorate FBI Day. It is a testament to the power of a lie. The power of lies are relevant today as the American Media and the campaign of Hillary Clinton are on complete tilt to win the election.

A similar dynamic was in play in 2010. A crazed Karen England, a women I have proven to be a fraud and mentally unstable, recruited several members of the local Tea Party to accuse Thomas N Hudson and my brother George of money laundering and embezzlement.

Aided by Doug LaMalfa and Ted Gaines, they created a furor on 7/11/2011 with a front page story in the Sacramento Bee based on the STILL unproven allegations. Both LaMalfa and Gaines were quoted basically repeating the lies of England and her brainwashed Tea Party recruits.

Many of those same people are still on the Placer GOP. In 2012, wealthy donors, Doug LaMalfa’s political consultant, David Stafford Reade, and Ms. England teamed up with a $100,000 independent expenditure some still brag about. Their efforts to gain control through unethical means (aka, a lie) brought about the current chaos on the Placer GOP.

Reade is no stranger to FBI Investigations. In the 1990’s when Rico Oller was running against Reade’s father in law, Bernie Richter, Reade and company leveled the charge that the FBI was investigating Oller. Here it is 2016, no FBI visit to Oller. Since Reade served with the crazed Ken Campbell and Karen England on the board of the Capitol Resource Institute for several years, there is your connection to where England got her idea from.

While Thomas N Hudson has proven to be a scumbag whose God is Money, there has never been any evidence of money laundering or embezzlement (just personal Income Tax Evasion in my opinion). Here 5 years later, some of his then accusers are now working with him as agents of chaos in the local party. They were made for each other.

Karen England? After being exposed as a fraud, she cut and ran to Nevada. She still shows her face in California as the more discerning “swing state” political leaders saw her coming a mile away and she can’t get traction there. Someone has to pay her to do something somewhere.

There are still many in the local tea party, either due to their ideological narcissism (as in never back down, apologize or admit fault) or plain naive stupidity that still believe my brother committed a felony. I won’t change them, but reminding my readers they are morons is therapeutic.

Here it is around 6 years later after the alleged visit a half-drunk Karen England talked about in Jan 2011 (at the organizational meeting of the Placer GOP) by the FBI. No phone call, no visit to Hudson or my brother. Karen England lied. David Stafford Reade ran the media drill in 2011 based on that lie. They both teamed up to get the $100k spent on the county party race in 2012 based on that lie.

They will hear about it constantly until there is a public apology, they die or I die. Yup, means you will hear about it for a long time.

Until next year, Happy FBI Day.

A Bill Passes 72-1 Banning the Sale of Confederate Flags and Guess Who the One No Vote Was?

 Tea Party, Tim Donnelly  1 Response »
May 052014
 

The California Assembly on Monday passed legislation that would ban the state from selling or displaying the Confederate flag, or any similar image, with Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Donnelly casting the sole vote in opposition.

Donnelly, of Twin Peaks near Lake Arrowhead, said the bill violated the 1st Amendment and “would silence free speech.’’

“We shouldn’t be here picking the kind of speech that we like. I abhor racism but the concept that in a country that was founded on the right of free speech … that we are going to ban certain types of speech is antithetical to the 1st Amendment,” Donnelly said on the floor of the Assembly.

“I am not standing here defending the symbol,’’ he said. “I am standing here defending the principle that the 1st Amendment should apply in all state buildings, of all places,’’

The legislation passed 72 to 1 and now heads to  the state Senate for consideration.

Credit: LA Times

Tim Donnelly is a month away from Primary Day and he attempts to earn media by supporting the confederate flag in the name of liberty? #facepalm

If Tim could not support this bill – he should have gone to the bathroom and skipped the vote.

When you add this to the hysteria being promoted by some of his supporters accusing Neel Kashkari (a Hindu) of supporting Sharia Law, and the bombastic statements about the borders included:

“I am a descendant of Jim Bowie, who died at the Alamo,” Donnelly, then a leader in the Minuteman border-patrol group, said at a rally in Temecula that year. “It is rumored that he took a dozen Mexican soldiers to their deaths before they finally killed him. How many of you will rise up and take his place on that wall?”

OMG.

This looks really, really bad on the state stage.

“There is a growing insurgency, right here in Los Angeles,” he said. “…We need to begin to root out the insurgency in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, just as we are doing in Baghdad, Samarra and Tikrit, 9,000 miles away.

And 8 years later, Tim Donnelly votes in favor of the confederate flag.

Jerry Brown has $15 million to spend. I wonder what he would do with some of that money were Donnelly to be the nominee for the GOP?

I support Neel Kashkari because I care about the future of the GOP and what kind of message we will be sending to the soon to be majority of California’s population.

Nothing Sums Up My Experience With The Tea Party Better Than This…

 Tea Party  1 Response »
Apr 292014
 

… I start with a disclaimer. I am personally to the right of many tea partiers and I agree in principle with their mission. What I have seen in practice has been an unmitigated disaster.

Yesterday I wrote about the naivete and gullibility of many tea parties and their succeptibility to believing lies spread by bad operators. I am still hearing some lies that are now over 5 years old.

I hear new lies all the time about myself, the CRA, other CRA officers and the like.

There is a group that calls itself the SPAN Political Action Network. They fancied themselves as a political consulting firm that lists Dave Miller and Tim Core as the two primary officers of the group. They were prime movers behind the failed campaigns of many Tea Party California Caucus members for California Republican Party office.

Tim Core was an also-ran in the 2012 CA03 Congressional Primary. The only thing I know about Core is that he was an assistant manager at a Domino’s Pizza in Yuba City at the time he ran.

During the CA-03 campaign, I wrote in a blog about Rick Tubbs (another failed CA-03 candidate) that his wife Kristy was fodder for the Jerry Springer Show. I admitted that I lost my cool and apologized directly to Rick Tubbs for the quip. (And pulled it from the post)

In the mind of Tim Core – it turned in to the following: (From a comment left on Facebook that was sent to me)

Tim Core Park’s modus operandi is to attack the spouses and children of people he disagrees with. In 2012 he attacked my wife and children as well as the wife and children of another candidate (one of my opponents) in the CD3 race. His comments in support of a different candidate -while at the same time admitting he worked for that other candidate- caused the race to become a farce covered in mud thrown by his own hand… (SNIP)

Tim Core is lying. However, his friends in the Tea Party accept what he says at face value without challenge and repeat the lie.

Here are a few things to consider – I don’t know Tim Core’s Wife’s name, I don’t know how many kids Tim has, I don’t know how many Kids Rick and Kristy Tubbs have, it was publicly disclosed and common knowledge I was on the payroll of another candidate in CA-03.

How in God’s green Earth could I “attack” someone’s wife and kids when I neither know their names or how many kids there are to attack!? I’m sorry – the facts don’t matter here to Mr. Core or those that listen to him.

It appears Mr. Core is bitter because Kim Vann became the GOP Nominee and outperformed many other GOP candidates coming within 7 of Garamendi despite a 10% differential and the Obama wave.

I have discovered that Tim Core has repeated this lie about me attacking his wife and kids (or versions of it) many times.

This is similar to a lie people in the Placer Tea Party accusing me of recruiting Art Moore to run against Tom McClintock. It traveled all over the state, I am sure some still believe it as well…

The double-standard of conduct by Tim Core is underlined in its’ absurdity over the way the SPAN Network fired Rodney Stanhope over his conduct while helping destroy the Congressional Campaign of a Matt Jenkins in Alabama.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Strategic Political Action Network (SPAN) has officially terminated our relationship with Rodney Stanhope. Mr. Stanhope had been working as the Senior Campaigns Coordinator until yesterday. Mr. Stanhope’s actions and statements, made while working with the Matt Jenkins For Congress campaign, were extremely unprofessional and uncalled for. It is unconscionable that Mr. Stanhope took to Social Media and attacked the voters of Alabama’s 7th Congressional District. Though we had no control over Mr. Stanhope’s actions SPAN feels the need to offer our sincerest apologies to all of those that were offended as well as Matt Jenkins, his family, and the rest of his Campaign Staff. Mr. Stanhope’s actions in no way reflect the high level of professionalism that SPAN strives to achieve in all of our dealings. Due to Mr. Stanhope’s actions SPAN has instituted new policies to insure that an instance such as this will never happen again with one of our contracted Campaign Managers.

Dave Miller President

Timothy Core Vice President of Operations

In a perfect world – so-called Tea Party groups would hold themsevles to the same standards of conduct they demand out of candidates. The public reason they used to fire Stanhope was that he posted a video clip on facebook tearing in to “Christian Conservatives” for taking issue with Jenkins’ soft-liberal social stances.

Tim Core I thought people had learned to ignore the man. He is a despicable human being which is why he earned the title : His Royal Douche-Nozzliness, the Crown Prince of Dumbfuckistan, Aaron “I really really want to be Magnum PI” Park.

Then, I got the above comment forwarded to me and realized I may well have wasted my time writing this post. I am sure I will go to my grave with people I have never met or talked to believing stories they either make up or got from third parties.

… but then, it hit me. Someone attacked my wife anonymously in a very long and vicious blog post directed at her and not me. The nature of it suggested someone with a personal vendetta. Even at that an attack like that requires you to have some sort of justification in your own mind. Seeing Tim Core’s comment and fully understanding the lie for the first time – It connected for me.

… and now I realize what electeds go through every day of their life, and I understand a lot better the psychology of some of them.

It is sad, the Tea Party could have been a great thing for America. What I have seen is a movement that appears to crave anarchy and un-vetted candidates that cost the GOP winnable elections time and again.

Yes, I have met many good people in the Tea Party, but they are outnumbered.

The term Tea Party is a big negative in polls, and the Tea Party members (most, anyway, not all) are about the only ones that don’t realize it.

Finally! National Exposure “Tea Party” PAC’s exposed for the frauds they are…

 Tea Party  1 Response »
Apr 282014
 

You’ve heard of them – America Deserves Better PAC, Conservative Campaign Committee, Campaign to defeat Barack Obama, The Tea Party Express, The Tea Party Leadership Fund and the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.

The MSM has finally picked up on it. The story, that I believe is designed to discredit the Tea Party itself, is devastating.

Quoting the story:

Three well-known groups — the Tea Party Patriots, the Tea Party Express and the Madison Project — have spent 5 percent or less of their money directly on election-related activity during this election cycle. Two other prominent tea party groups, the Senate Conservatives Fund and FreedomWorks, have devoted about 40 percent of their money to direct candidate support such as ads and yard signs.

On average, super PACs had spent 64 percent of their funds on directly helping candidates by roughly this stage in the 2012 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission data.

I have long been suspicious of the Tea Party Express and their offshoots – the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama, the Conservative Campaign Committee and America Deserves Better PAC. I have looked through their reports myself and have seen that 60-70% of the money raised is not going in to campaigning.

But of the $7.4 million that the Georgia-based group’s super PAC has spent since the beginning of 2013, just $184,505 has gone to boost candidates, The Post found. Three-quarters of the spending by the Citizens Fund — $5.5 million — has been devoted to fundraising and direct mail.

This was referring to the Tea Party Patriots, and continues on about Jenny Beth Martin.

Jenny Beth Martin, the super PAC’s chairwoman, oversees all its expenditures, according to Broughton, meaning she sets her own $15,000 monthly fee for strategic consulting — payments that have totaled $120,000 since July.

She also draws a salary as president of the Tea Party Patriots’ nonprofit arm — getting more than $272,000 in the 2012 fiscal year, according to the group’s most recent tax filing.

Her twin salaries put her on track to make more than $450,000 this year, a dramatic change in lifestyle for the tea party activist, who had filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and then cleaned homes for a period of time to bring in extra money.

As a State Officer in the California Republican Assembly – I have seen first-hand one of the internal fights within the Tea Party – when they weren’t attacking CRA.

Jenny Beth Martin has been part of the Tea Party California Caucus as well. This is a loosely associated group controlled by a couple political consultants fighting for relevance. They spend most of their time attacking the CRA, the group most closely aligned with their principles because the people attempting to control the Tea Party California Caucus want to keep control of it for themselves. A collaboration with CRA would jeopardize that.

It does not surprise me that two of the founders of the Tea Party – Ginni Rapini and Mark Meckler split away from Jenny Beth Martin, Ken Campbell and the others on the national board a couple years ago. The locus of the fight was the monetization of the Tea Party.

While I have issues with Rapini – they are not issues of integrity. Rappini has chosen to believe things told to her about CRA officers without question that is an issue with Naivete. I’ve still never met her in person.

However, Jenny Beth Martin has proven to me through her actions that she is a charlatan. No true conservative that was a cause conservative would attack CRA or try to wedge the Tea Party against other conservative groups. Only people that crave control engage in that behavior.

The main thrust of article talks about how the “Tea Party” has gone professional.

I have written many times that the Tea Party I have seen wants anarchy in the political process and a small group of slick-talking charlatans prey on the Naivete and Anger of groups of people for power and profit. Ironically, this is the reason why many in the Tea Party joined a local Tea Party, because they felt used.

Worse, when many in the Tea Party find out they have been used or have made an error in judgement, in their self-righteous arrogance, they double down on the failure until they are marginalized. I am witnessing this in my own county and in various places in the North State.

Sometimes this attitude manifests in a plethora of horrific endorsements of candidates that sometimes make national headlines for their stupidity.

It is the dynamic of anarchy, lack of wisdom, lack of discernment and the proliferation of charlatans that has the words “Tea Party” upside down badly in name ID polling.

It is a tragedy – because as a state officer in the CRA, I see it clearly. I joined CRA 17 years ago for almost the exact same reasons many join Tea Parties today. I don’t oppose the Tea Party per ce’, rather I oppose the Tea Party I have seen first hand.

And Jenny Beth Martin is the poster child.

Never Ever Give to a PAC, unless you know the members of the PAC Board of Directors and know the track record of how the money is spent. Give directly to a candidate.

The Tea Party Express, a PAC run out of Sacramento by longtime Republican consultant Sal Russo, has paid Russo’s firm $2.75 million since the beginning of 2013, while donating just $45,000 to candidates and spending less than $162,000 on ads and bus tours supporting their election.

 Older Entries