Minuteman committee aids GOP

Washington Times ^ | 16 October 2006 | Jerry Seper

[Aussie Dasher]

A political action committee created by the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, whose financial accountability has been challenged by MCDC members, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to support Republican candidates -- much of it through private companies with ties to conservative activist Alan Keyes.

Claiming access to 500,000 households nationwide, the Minuteman PAC has pledged to do what it can financially to help elect "committed and principled conservative leaders" -- citing as examples MCDC President Chris Simcox and Mr. Keyes.

"Our intent is to secure our borders, and we are hoping to influence the elections to get that done," said Rick Shafton, a political consultant in Sparta, N.J., who recently signed on as spokesman for the Minuteman PAC. "The Minuteman movement has proven to be very popular across the country, and it is raising a lot of money."

According to the most recent Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, the Minuteman PAC spent $240,000 through the first week of September on eight congressional campaigns, although just $5,000 was direct candidate contributions.

The FEC records also show that about 60 percent of the Minuteman PAC's expenditures through early September went to private companies -- several with ties to a labyrinth of Virginia-based tax-exempt charities and fundraising groups founded or headed by Mr. Keyes. The money was used for direct-mail fundraisers, telemarketing programs, advertising campaigns and disbursement fees for four candidates.

The Minuteman PAC spent nearly $88,000 through early September on its own operations, including fees to many of the Keyes-aligned private firms to collect and disburse donations and do direct-mail fundraising, the FEC records show. Other PAC money went to Web site construction, bank charges, salaries and advertising.

[Interesting Times]

MCDC may be a money making business, but they get the job done.

Be so good as to provide a concrete example.

What are you doing to help? Are you just sitting on your brains and complaining?

Not at all. In fact, I'm working at this very moment to help restore credibility to the conservative nonprofit world by exposing those who feed parasitically on donors while giving little or nothing to the cause.

If so, your opinion doesn't matter.

All you can say with any honesty is that my opinion doesn't matter to you. To which the obvious response is, so what?

This is an opinion board. You can agree with my take on this or not, but you can't shut me up.

[EternalVigilance]

Not at all. In fact, I'm working at this very moment to help restore credibility to the conservative nonprofit world by exposing those who feed parasitically on donors while giving little or nothing to the cause.

Oh puhleeze.

Are you starting at the White House and working your way down to K Street? After you're done there, swing by the RNC...

[Bob J]

According to your rationale, if one didn't deposit directly into a bank robbed by Bonnie and Clyde, that precludes one from holding an opinion on their crime spree much less expressing it.

[Interesting Times]

If that's right, then the PAC distributed just a smidgen over 2% of the funds it received, giving the gravy train a 50-1 ratio over the benefit provided.

[Interesting Times]

Are you starting at the White House and working your way down to K Street? After you're done there, swing by the RNC...

Red Herring #23: "They All Do It..."

[Interesting Times]

The above article and discussion is somewhat off-topic for this ping list, but I think it's important.

Apologies, as they say, in advance...

[Bob J]

"Are you starting at the White House and working your way down to K Street? After you're done there, swing by the RNC..."

Soooo, you're saying financial irregularities" are A-O-K as long as others are doing it as well?

You might want to check with Jesus on that one...

[decal]

"The Washington Times has asked the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) on numerous occasions without success for information about how much money it has raised in donations and on what it has been spent."

Their last deadline to report to the IRS is November 15, yes?

[Bob J]

The rest of the story...

"... Unanswered questions

The committee claims to be a "membership-only" organization, reporting to the FEC through its sponsor, Declaration Alliance, a tax-exempt Virginia-based charity founded by Mr. Keyes. It calls itself the "political counterpart" to MCDC, and the vast majority of those who contributed money listed themselves as "retired."

MCDC is a "project" of the Declaration Alliance, according to its Web page, and donations to it -- the amount of which has never been disclosed publicly or to its own membership -- are routed through the tax-exempt charity.

Few MCDC volunteers know what the Declaration Alliance does or why Minuteman donations are collected by it. Several have questioned the wisdom of ceding control over fundraising to the organization, and others have raised concerns about what happened to hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars in donations collected by MCDC.

Although Mr. Simcox estimated during a July interview that MCDC had collected $1.6 million at that time in donations, his numbers could not be independently verified. The MCDC has not made any financial statements or fundraising records public since its April 2005 creation. It also has not given the Minuteman leadership, its volunteers or donors any official accounting.

Queried about the Minuteman PAC, Mr. Simcox declined to respond to written questions concerning the organization or its involvement with Declaration Alliance. Instead, he challenged The Washington Times' understanding of political action committees."

I'm surprised he didn't respond to the Times with "If you didn't donate to the MCDF or our PAC, you have no right to ask questions or write articles about our activities".

[Interesting Times]

Their last deadline to report to the IRS is November 15, yes?

I'm not sure. There are many "theys," ranging from this PAC to 501(c)(3) educational orgs to 501(c)(4) political nonprofits to for-profit businesses.

It's a good question, and probably merits some investigation.

[EternalVigilance]

Soooo, you're saying financial irregularities" are A-O-K as long as others are doing it as well?

You might try not to dishonestly put words in my mouth.

I'm saying that in political operations, donations get swallowed up in executing those political goals. No matter how much you or I like it, that's just the way it is.

You and your friends are misrepresenting reality, simply because you have a personal grudge against someone. It's quite unbecoming.

[Bob J]

"Their last deadline to report to the IRS is November 15, yes?"

A company executive doesn't need an IRS report to answer a few questions from a reporter. Having been in business for a long time I can assure you each organization is generating a monthly if not weekly financial reports. What can't be answered immediately can be followed up on the next day after a short call to your CFO or accountant.

Also, the reporter understands and is not asking for exact audited numbers, just general ball park figures which any CEO should have in memory or at his fingertips.

The only reason a company exec would sluff questions like this is because they are concerned todays accurate numbers won't jive with the end of year figures, at least after all the book "tweaking" is completed...or...they are not really in control of nor have the authority to give out such information.

If number one, ooops. If number two, the question is who really is in control of the MCMD?

[potlatch]

Thanks IT!!

[Syncro]

Thanks for the heads up IT

[Bob J]

Tom, you're a nice guy but you are also a tool. Some of us have seen these types of non profit organizations, been involved with them. They are set up to funnel a majority of their income to behind the scenes for profit companies companies owned all or in part by the non profits principals, their relatives or their cronies. Here's how it works;

Non Profit A wants to raise some funds so it decides to send out a solicitation letter asking people for donations to build a bridge over the Grand Canyon. Well, you need to mailing list so I guess we'll buy one from Company B. Guess who happens to own company B?

Them you need to print up 500k pieces of mail, guess who owns the Print Company C? Then you need a direct mail firm to handle the label imprinting, bundling and mailing through the post office so you hire Company D. Guess who owns company D?

Of course all of this busy work takes accountants, attorneys, "consultants", etc. etc. who all happen to be affiliated, directly or indirectly, with the non profits executives.

And you end up collecting 240k out of which only 5k ends up going to the "bridge fund" because the rest was spent on quasi legitimate expenses (and will show up as so when the final "report" gets tweaked and sent into the IRS) such as direct mail, telemarketing, "consulting", salaries and other overhead. Of course all these sub companies are fully/partially owned subsidiaries of the non profits execs, their families and cronies.

It's all perfectly legit and perfectly disgusting. People believe their donations are going to help a good cause when all that is happening is non profit money is being laundered through for profit companies...that don't have to comply with IRS rules for non profits.

Of course, I'm not saying either the MCDF or the Keyes organizations are involved in these kinds of activities, only they know. It's nearly impossible to follow the money through the labyrinth of shell companies and holding corporations.

[Bob J]

But you know, if you're cool with that, well, I guess you're cool with it.

[Liberty Valance]

[Registered]

Bob, he knows all that. In fact, he knows the racket so well he's even tried to run little sham fronts for himself to fleece conservatives (without even getting an official non-profit status). EV is not worth our time of day here, especially during the run-up to this important election. People like him deserve pity, because they have become what they espouse to hate.

[Rex Anderson]

I agree with you.
I pity the fool.

[Bob J]

Just some drive by practice.