Americans for Responsible Leadership – a Koch brothers ‘dark money’ front group
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
On Friday, Howard Fischer reported that the "dark money" organization Americans for Responsible Leadership, an Arizona 501(c)(4) that has funneled more than $1.1 million to defeat two Arizona ballot initiatives (Props. 121, 204), was sued Thursday by California authorities to force disclosure of who gave $11 million to fund two separate ballot campaigns in California. Calif. suit targets anti-initiative group:
What's missing, according to the legal papers, is any disclosure of where the group, which listed a Phoenix post office box as its address, is getting its money.
The California commission wants a judge to force the organization to provide that information.
If the lawsuit is successful, it could also provide a peek at who is behind the $750,000 donation to the campaign against Proposition 204, making it the largest single source of money opposing the bid to create a permanent 1-cent-per-dollar surcharge on the state sales tax.
The same organization also gave $415,000 to defeat Proposition 121, which would create an open primary system for all Arizona elections.
Matt Roberts, spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Bennett, said unlike in California, the failure to disclose the donors for Arizona ballot measures does not violate this state's campaign finance laws.
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[A] lawyer for Americans for Responsible Leadership is fighting the move, saying the demand for the information is premature at best. Attorney Brad Benbrook already has succeeded in pushing the court hearing back until Tuesday.
The organization's $11 million went to the Small Business Action Committee PAC two weeks ago.
That group opposes California's Proposition 30, a measure being pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown to impose a temporary income tax hike on those earning more than $250,000 a year along with a quarter-cent sales tax. It also supports Proposition 32 to ban corporate and labor donations to candidates.
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Papers filed with the Arizona Corporation Commission list Robert Graham and Eric Wnuck as incorporators.
Graham owns RG Capital, a Scottsdale-based investment advisory firm. He also is trying to become the new chairman of the Arizona Republican Party.
Wnuck was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress.
State Treasurer Doug Ducey, who is heading the anti-204 effort, said the current board also includes Kirk Adams, the former speaker of the Arizona House and, like Wnuck, an unsuccessful congressional candidate.
Ducey dismissed questions of whether Arizona voters are entitled to know who provided the $750,000 to his campaign. He said all he and the voters need to know is that the cash came from Americans for Responsible Leadership.
"If you want more detailed information beyond that, that really is a question for Americans for Responsible Leadership," Ducey said.
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Reminder: Dr. Richard Carmona events in Baja Arizona this weekend
President Obama interview with Sway Calloway of MTV News
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
On Friday, President Obama sat down for an interview with MTV News' Sway Calloway during MTV's "Ask Obama Live: An Interview With the President":
Sitting down with MTV News' Sway Calloway in the White House, Obama didn't have long to prepare. Within the first minute, he was getting grilled about lowering the cost of higher education — a hot topic among the young voters we've been speaking to on the road with our Power of 12 campaign — and was asked if he had a "game-changing idea" to help out students loaded with debt.
"One thing I want folks to know, right at the onset, is that an investment in a college education still pays off. The unemployment rate for college graduates is half for somebody who didn't go to college," Obama said. "But … the costs have gone up so much faster for a college education that young people are coming out with an average of 23 to 25 thousand dollars' worth of debt. So here's what we've done: We have already put in place an expansion of Pell grants [and] keeping interest rates on student loans where they were; they were scheduled to double.
"What we've also said is, we now have to go directly to the source, the colleges and universities, and say, 'You've got to work on cutting tuitions,' " the president continued. "And we're going to reward those schools who do a good job, providing good value for their students while keeping tuition low, and we'll stop directing federal aid to those colleges and universities that that are loading up their students with debt."
Obama also spoke about rewarding graduates who want to start their own businesses by eliminating the capital gains tax and making it easier for young entrepreneurs to raise money through the Internet. And he touted the successes of the Small Business Administration, pointing out that Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank once got a hand from the SBA and now runs a company with revenues near $1 billion a year.
Carmona campaign ad: ‘Confirmation’
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Dr. Richard Carmona for U.S. Senate campaign is up with a new ad entitled "Confirmation," featuring the glowing endorsements from Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl at Carmona's confirmation hearing for U.S. Surgeon General in 2002. (Video below the fold).
Naturally, Arizona's twin embarrassments are none too happy about their own glowing endorsements of Dr. Carmona being used against their partisan pony in this race, The Flake. The GOP duo pushed back late Thursday with a hard-hitting joint statement in which they called the new Carmona spot "deeply dishonest" and part of a "shameful" effort to try to deceive voters that demonstrates Carmona's lack of credibility. Carmona TV ad provokes McCain, Kyl pushback.
The Carmona campaign has responded to McCain in a press release:
Carmona campaign responds to Sen. McCain
Carmona for Arizona communications director Andy Barr released the following statement in response to Sen. McCain:
"The only thing career politicians like Jeff Flake, John McCain and Jon Kyl care about is whether you have a 'D' or 'R' next to your name, not what you'll do for the people of Arizona."
"Rich Carmona is the same person with the same values Arizona Republicans have praised for decades. When they believed they could exploit Rich Carmona’s life story for partisan gain, they were his biggest supporters. Now, they're trotting out false attacks. Our ad illustrates just how disingenuous and patently false their character attacks have become."
"During Rich's last year as Surgeon General, he was asked to run as a Republican for Congress by Jon Kyl. Now, while Rich Carmona is locked in a hotly contested battle for Arizona’s U.S. Senate seat, Congressman Flake and his allies are trying to re-write history."
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UPDATE: As E.J. Montini of the Arizona Republic says, Only in politics would being completely honest be deemed “deeply dishonest.” McCain, Kyl honestly (or dishonestly?) upset:
Sorry, senators, you said what you said.
And because you’re honorable men, I can only assume you were being … honest.
Video below the fold.
