Tagged: WTP

Posted: April 15, 2013 at 9:38 pm

Meet the ATP Board of Directors

by Cowgirl

A court has demanded that the dark money group American Tradition Partnership must reveal its board members, the Associated Press reported today. Let’s meet them.

Doug Lair

Doug Lair (pictured right), resides in Sweet Grass County.

For some reason, ATP is operating in the county under a different name: Sweetgrass Citizens for Constitutional Integrity. The group hosts an innocuously named website sweetgrassroots.org–and it’s really something to see. On it, Mr. Lair warns his ATP followers that “Progressive programs and indoctrination have found their way into our local government and schools at an alarming rate.”

There is one insidious new influence in Big Timber that Mr. Lair is especially worried about. He fears that a local economic development project of the Northwest Area Foundation may really be a secret “progressive indoctrination boot camp.” Actually, the program gives grants to local communities for projects like sprucing up their business and industrial parks to help get the local economy moving.

When the FRONTLINE documentary exposing ATP’s activities was aired on PBS, Lair posted a tirade against PBS on the Sweetgrass Council/ATP website. He accused the station of everything from “belittling Jesus” to spreading anti-American views, to being part of a government conspiracy to vaccinate kids against diseases.

The site indicates that Sweetgrass County Commissioner Bob Faw is heavily invoved in the group. It also helpfully lists the emails of all the legislators they say have done right by ATP in the legislature, so that you may thank them.

Geoff Goble

Mr. Goble is a commercial property developer who also lives in the Big Timber area. He’s also your garden variety secessionist. He’s been linked with the website SovereignStateProject.com According to this campaign finance complaint filed by former state legislator John Esp, some ATP documents uncovered in a meth house appear to show that Goble helped finance the pro-secession website.

The website proclaims such views as:

“The Project was inspired by Rep. Joel Boniek’s recent legislation in Montana and the clamor for states’ rights that is sweeping the U.S. We are part of a grassroots movement of ordinary citizens who are FED UP with the Federal Government.”

and

“States should seize back the power over their own borders and BOOT the Feds. Let them control ONLY the international borders, and stay out of our Sovereign States.”

The complaint also describes how Oathkeeper-affiliated Joel Boniek, Geoff Goble, and ATP worked together to defeat Esp and support Boniek’s campaign for state legislature. Boniek was the former state legislator who made headlines after a bizarre incident which led to his arrest. Goble has also signed his name to statements declaring that Earth Day is “straightforward paganism,” and a “tool used by those who seek to control individuals and engineer society.”

Peter MacKenzie

Peter Mackenzie is a large land owner and Livingston real estate developer and a major bank-roller of ATP. Here’s how he’s described in ATP’s donor prospecting notes, which were uncovered among the infamous meth house documents:

A Peter G. Mackenzie of Mackenzie Associates LTD from the Livingston zip code has given money to Burns, Daines, Fox, and Brown. His profile appears to match this Peter MacKenzie (pictured) who is described thusly:

“Over the past 25 years, Peter MacKenzie has developed and operated 200 plus nationally-known franchises. In addition to spending a number of years on Wall Street, he continued to raise and manage monies for clients. Peter has developed properties in Big Sky as well as currently owns and operates several retail businesses there.”

Posted: November 11, 2012 at 1:11 pm

American Traditions Partnership: Beyond Thunderdome

After the FRONTLINE documentary that uncovered potentially illegal collusion between a secretive right-wing group and Republican candidates, the attorney for that organization announced that he is leaving his position at the Doney, Crowley, Payne and Bloomquist firm.

Jim Brown, the Attorney for American Traditions Partnership (formerly Western Traditions Partnership or WTP) sent out an email Friday, Nov 9, saying he is leaving the firm effectively immediately. Brown wrote that he will be starting his own law firm and “going into the business of political consulting” but will “continue doing association management work” (otherwise known as lobbying.)

Brown writes that he can now be reached at his new email address: thunderdomelaw@gmail.com

Under state law, third party groups like American Tradition Partnership which spend masses of unregulated, unreported money, are legally barred from coordinating with candidates. But several legislative candidates and the ATP have been caught red handed, working together, in apparent violation of the law.

The FRONTLINE documentary revealed that a secret stash of incriminating documents has been found, showing extensive communications between Republican legislative candidates and the ATP, and showing that the ATP was even preparing campaign material for them.

When asked what ATP was doing with these documents on FRONTLINE (transcript), Brown said:

The answer is, is that I’ve never seen this material before. I don’t know if this was found in WTP materials. I’m not going to comment because I haven’t reviewed any of that material. I mean, I’m not going to, you know, have materials sent— you know, given to me on surprise and then asked to comment on them. I don’t know what they show or what they don’t show. I’m literally not going to comment on that. You can rely on your other sources for those.

Brown’s entire email can be read here:

I am pleased to announce that I started my own law practice, the James Brown Law Firm, PLLC. In addition, I will continue doing association management work, but will be going into the business of political consulting.

If you are associated with me because of my work for the Montana Wool Growers and the Montana Independent Bankers, please take particular note of this contact information change.

Consequently, please take note that my contact information will change. After November 9th, please direct your calls, emails, and correspondence to the following:

Phone: ppp-pppp

Cell: ccc-cccc

Email: thunderdomelaw@gmail.com

My new office will be located at 32 South Ewing Street, Suite 324, Helena, Montana, 59601.

I am excited about this new venture, and I look forward to continuing our working relationship after my big move. Please let me know if you have any questions, and I wish you the best.

Sincerely,

James E. Brown

Attorney

Remember: break a deal, spin the wheel

James E. Brown, LL.M.

Associate Attorney

DONEY | CROWLEY | PAYNE | BLOOMQUIST P.C.

P.O. Box 1185

Helena, MT 59624-1185

Posted: May 21, 2012 at 7:44 am

Shadow Groups Back at Work in GOP Primaries

The shadow group American Traditions Partnership is back working in Republican legislative races in Montana. American Traditions Partnership (ATP) is the group that sued to deregulate elections and turn back MT’s 100 year old ban on corporate funding of elections.

ATP, which doesn’t disclose its donors, sent out a mailer supporting Dee Brown in the Republican primary for the Whitefish/Columbian Falls State Senate Seat, SD 2. Previously they favored TEA Party poster boy Rep. Derek Skees in the HD4 general.

HB 198 was a Republican bill passed by a Republican controlled Legislature. This demagoguing flier was mailed with heavy saturation in Whitefish and Columbia Falls. Here’s the mailer:

The Center for Responsive Politics estimated that Republican secret money groups outspent Democrats across the U.S. last election cycle by a 7-1 margin. Here in Montana, ATP and other Republican-leaning groups spent an estimated $2-3 million attacking Democratic candidates and supporting TEA Party Republicans–but you can’t find the exact amount or who paid for it. This is just one more reason why the Citizens United decision is so bad. The Supreme Court opined that voters could easily go to the internet to find out who paid for the campaign ads. But GOP political operatives simply set up tax-exempt non-profit front groups like ATP to avoid having to disclose their donors. The front groups claimed that they were educating the public on issues rather than campaigning for candidates. Therefore, they argued, the disclosure wasn’t required.

Christ Matthews told Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer on Hardball recently that fewer than 50 wealthy individuals or corporations are spending the bulk of the money to influence elections this cycle. Schweitzer was on the program to talk about his support for a ballot initiative in Montana to overturn Citizens United.

ATP is the lead plaintiff in the legal challenge to Montana’s ban on corporate spending for candidates. The group touts their organization’s secrecy as a benefit of giving them money and have been under fire for corruption in Montana and other states. Montana TEA Party legislator Art Wittich (R-TEA Bozeman) is said to be the new local figurehead for the entity.

Posted: March 8, 2012 at 7:06 am

DOH! Meet the Montana TEA Party’s Keystone Kops

RepTomBurnettOfficialCowgirlBlogHeadshot — Rep. Tom Burnett (R-Bozeman)

The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices rejected a complaint by TEA Party Republicans this week. They claimed that their voting records on public spending and personal largesse were misrepresented by local Democrats.

The TEA Party legislature tried to shut down the state by blocking education and jobs–claiming a fake budget crisis, but the facts shows Tea Party lawmakers grabbing from the government trough.

Rep. Tom Burnett, of Bozeman, and Rep. Cleve Loney, of Great Falls, had filed a complaint against a flyer that exposed the big bump in taxpayer-funded personal compensation they gave themselves–while cutting education, jobs, and food for Montana families. In an attempt to hide their hypocrisy from their base of low information voters, Burnett and Loney tried to claim that the campaign materials were untrue.

Cyndi Baker (left) and Rep. Cleve Loney R-Great Falls (right) — Rep. Cleve Loney (R-Great Falls) with megaphone.

Here’s where the story goes Keystone Kops. It’s a classic case of TEA Party dysfunction and imbecility. The law on which Burnett and Loney had tried to base their complaint–a law against misrepresenting voting records–has already been struck down in a case brought by the Tea Party-aligned Western Tradition Partnership, the OPP ruling shows.

Yeah, that’s the same Western Tradition Partnership that bought the election for idiots like Burnett and Loney. So even if the flyer was wrong (it isn’t), the very group that elected the TEA Partiers got a judge to block the law the OPP would have needed to correct the record.

Posted: January 10, 2012 at 6:47 am

Political Quick Hits

Supreme Court Fundraising

Steve Bullock’s victory in the Western Traditions Partnership v. Montana case is an important reminder of how important the Supreme Court races are in Montana. The latest campaign finance reports for Supreme Court show Elizabeth Best of Great Falls has raised an impressive $62,500 last quarter, with $59,000 cash on hand. Meanwhile, Ed Sheehy Jr of Missoula has raised $5,000 and has $6,500 in the bank.

Oddly Silent

I posted last week about the Big Win for Bullock in Clean Elections Case – and the mainstream media and blogosphere has been all over it. When it comes to the resistance to Citizens United, Montana is now the front line of the battle and people are paying attention.

There have been big stories in the national papers: Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal. Denver radio host and former Montanan David Sirota had our Attorney General on his show. The local editorial boards of the Great Falls Tribune, Helena Independent Record, Havre Daily News and Billings Gazette have all weighed in, giving Bullock some love. Even the editor of the Daily Inter Lake – who is to the right of the John Birch Society – had good things to say.

With the conservative groups that brought the lawsuit appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, the case going to be front and center this election year.

Which brings me to the question: why just crickets from the GOP candidates? Not one of them (how many are there now?) will say one way or the other how they feel about the biggest decision to come out of the Montana Supreme Court in a really long time.

The likely reason is they’re caught between a rock and a hard place. Regular Montanans – and Americans – want less corruption in their politics. But the special interests and the lobbyists don’t see it that way, and the candidates seem all too eager to pander for their donations.

It will be interesting to see what Rick Hill, Jeff Essmann, Corey Stapleton, Ken Miller, Neil Livingstone or any of the rest of these crazies say about where they stand.

Posted: November 14, 2011 at 7:48 am

Return of the Jedi

In 2010, the Empire struck back, hard. The Dark Side destroyed the Democrats, the first piece of sizable revenge exacted by the GOP ever since their Death Star (which had dominated the galaxy for two decades) was destroyed in the span of four years by Schweitzer, Tester, Bullock, McCulloch, Lindeen and Juneau.

The 2010 elections were bought, not won. There were millions of dollars brought in illegally by the GOP’s wealthy friends. Much of it was funnelled in by shell groups from undisclosed sources, and mostly by one particular front group called Western Tradition Partnership. This group is currently being prosecuted civilly in the Montana courts for their dirty 2010 campaign activity. Of the estimated million they brought in, none of it was reported nor the sources disclosed. In other words, we still don’t know who, exactly, owns the GOP-controlled Montana Legislature.

I’m told that the same shady GOP Darth Vaders who operated in 2010 were back at work this cycle, trying to buy themselves victories in city races around the state. They came up empty-handed, humiliated. Like John Sinrud, backed by the Montana Realtors, who wants to build high-rise condos and strip malls on farm land in and around Whitefish. Or Chuck Denowh, who is Rick Hill’s chief advisor but apparently took a hiatus to try to work some of the city races in the Flathead and elsewhere.

They were working hard behind the scenes trying to get victories. It hasn’t been calculated yet how many hundreds of thousands of dollars these losers spent on city commission races around Montana, but not a single Tea party candidate won election in Bozeman, Whitefish, Kalispell, Great Falls, Helena, Billings or Missoula last week.

Posted: July 30, 2011 at 9:29 am

Something’s Rotten

The shadow group Western Traditions Partnership’s defense of Exxon after the Yellowstone River oil spill and its adulation for candidates defending the oil giant are raising eyebrows in Montana.

News reports indicate that WTP, which now calls itself American Traditions Partnership after it came to light that it was based in Washington D.C., rather than the west, appears to be coming very close to stumping for Dan Kennedy–something they shouldn’t be doing.

The national newspaper the Washington Independent is reporting that the executive director of WTP earlier this month:

flew to the site of ExxonMobil’s Yellowstone River pipeline spill to praise the cleanup response by the oil and gas giant and to laud the efforts of state Rep. Dan Kennedy.
“State Rep. Dan Kennedy, whose home is at the center of the incident, should be commended for his efforts to coordinate response with the local community and involve local workers in the ongoing cleanup efforts,” ATP Executive Director Donald Ferguson said in a press release. “I am very impressed with ExxonMobil’s response to this [oil pipeline] release.”

Hmmm. Rep. Dan Kennedy (R-Laurel) comes out for Exxon, and WTP comes in to “laud his efforts.” Maybe Ferguson was aware at some of how bad this looks, because he put this disclaimer at the end of his laudatory remarks:

“Donald Ferguson has paid for this trip out of his own pocket, and did not come at the request of any official or company.”

I wonder if Fergeson intended this disclaimer to distance his actions from Exxon, or from WTP?

Since WTP won’t disclose their donors, we don’t know if Exxon paid WTP with a secret donation rather than an outright contract. WTP claims to work on “education” not getting candidates elected, and as to the question of whether WTP is stumping for Fergeson, how much does it matter if he “paid for it out of his own pocket” when he is the director, spokesperson, and figurehead of WTP, from whence he presumably draws his salary?

WTP is the lead plaintiff in the legal challenge to Montana’s ban on corporate spending for candidates. They tout their organization’s secrecy as a benefit of giving them money and have been under fire for corruption in Montana and other states. Montana TEA Party legislator Art Wittich (R-TEA Bozeman) is said to be the new local figurehead for the entity.

Posted: May 18, 2011 at 12:34 pm

The Fight

Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock is continuing the fight to keep multinational corporate money out of Montana elections –and out of the nation’s elections. Now, national election watch dog groups are stepping up to join Bullock in the fight.

Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock is working on an appeal state Judge Jeffrey Sherlock’s October ruling that Citizens United invalidated Montana’s century old clean elections law. Montana’s law was passed because of the undue influence the copper industry had on Montana politics at the turn of the century. Today, thanks to this decision, corrupt corporate influence has been restored to its place in the political process; Bullock wants to change that. The average state legislative candidate in Montana raises some $10-$15,000 in Montana, meaning that large corporations can easily buy our elections.

The American Independent has the latest update in the fight.

Free Speech for People has filed an Amicus Curiae brief [FSFPAmicusBrief PDF] (a document that an outside party can submit to provide information to a court) with the Montana Supreme Court, which will be hearing Attorney General Bullock’s appeal of Sherlock’s decision.

Western Tradition Partnership (WTP) brought the suit that Bullock is now appealing. WTP is a shadow organization that has has been targeting pro-conservation candidates in both parties for the last few years, and specializes in nasty (and potentially illegal) campaign tactics. Tim Ravndal, the Montana TEA Party leader that was forced to resign over his comments about the hanging of gay people, and His Royal Shadiness John Sinrud have both been affiliated with the shadow group at one time or another.

If WTP wins in the Montana Supreme Court, Steve Bullock can, on our behalf as the state of Montana, take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court; if Bullock and Montana wins, WTP can do the same.