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Majority Of Tea Party Group's Spending Went To GOP Firm That Created It
The political action committee behind the Tea Party Express (TPE) -- which already has been slammed as inauthentic and corporate-controlled by rival factions in the Tea Party movement -- directed almost two thirds of its spending during a recent reporting period back to the Republican consulting firm that created the PAC in the first place.
Our Country Deserves Better (OCDB) spent around $1.33 million from July through November, according to FEC filings examined by TPMmuckraker. Of that sum, a total of $857,122 went to Sacramento-based GOP political consulting firm Russo, Marsh, and Associates, or people associated with it.
OCDB, which built the Tea Party Express, is essentially a Russo, Marsh creation, as we've detailed. The PAC's site was registered in July 2008 by Sal Russo, the firm's founder. That site also lists Russo as the PAC's "chief strategist." Tea Party Express fundraising emails, sent by OCDB and obtained by TPMmuckraker, come from another Russo, Marsh employee, Joe Wierzbicki.
Just for good measure, legendary GOP bamboozler Howard Kaloogian is also on OCDB's board, and has close ties to Russo, Marsh.
From July through November 2009, the firm received $832,403 from OCDB, according to the FEC records. An additional $8,500 went to Russo himself. And Wierzbicki took in $16,219.
The services for which Russo, Marsh was paid appear to be legitimate campaign needs. For instance, it took in several hundred thousand for what OCDB listed in the FEC filings as "PAC Email Newsletter Costs - Generic Fun." That would appear to refer to the numerous fund-raising and activism emails sent to volunteers to promote and build the Tea Party Express -- a nationwide bus tour to build opposition to the Obama agenda -- many of them by Wierzbicki.
But one expert on political action committees told TPMmuckraker it was unusual for a PAC to direct so much spending back to the entity that created it. And the spending details raised hackles among members of the Tea Party Patriots, a rival faction of conservative activists who have denounced TPE as a creature of Republican political professionals that lacks grassroots authenticity. In an email to a Patriots group that was obtained by TPMmuckaker, one TPPer who had examined the filings asked, "What would the true grassroots people think if they knew their money is being spent in this manner?"
A message left in the general mailbox for Russo, Marsh was not immediately returned.
25 Comments so far
Show All"Fools and their money are soon walking around with tea bags on their heads, and nazi swastikas on their arms"- mujeriego
In 1912 Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party set the record for third party votes by pulling in 27% compared to 18% for Republicans. The Democrats won with 42%.
Lets do Teddy Roosevelt proud and not only break that 27% record, but actually elect third party candidates to Congress in 2010 and to the White House in 2012.
Well, now that reminds me, first, of Ralph Nader, and then of the League of Women Voters, of Women's League of Voters, a league which worked to ensure that third parties would be included in federal elections, most definitely including presidential, but which was replaced with a corporatist group in 1987 or 1988, despotically replaced and, of course, for corporate "interests".
To want a real democracy is to want to support third parties equally running! This is what I learned of the League of Women Voters, or whatever the precise name of the league was.
If a third pary looks like it will be elected, it will be soon infinltrated by the corporatist fascists, and co-opted to their agenda.
The same personality traits that make a person a political leader, unfortunately also make them suceptible to flattery and bribes and treachery.
Anyone who wants to "lead the country" should be automatically disqualiied from holding office.
I think the world would be a better place if governments were composed of people selected by lottery, and made to serve like jury duty.
you would still get screwed by the natural greed and acarice of the human species, but at least they would have less time to plan for it.
Kinda' reminds one of tv evangelists.
Also reminds one that Dem. Party supporters shouldn't be naive enough to believe that they're not equally fooled or "played with", for they definitely are.
absolutely
This fool sent money to Obama's campaign. That won't happen again for any campaign. And any future votes I cast will be for third party candidates that I agree with or if I don't agree with them I consider it a vote cast against the two parties who have sold their souls to the super rich.
The obscenely rich have never cared about the poor. I would bet that Charles V considered his execution something akin to bad luck. The rabble conducting the revolution were not really human. How could praise or blame be attributed to them?
I worked very hard teaching middle school for thirty years. Anybody who thought I was passing on middle class values didn't know me very well. We the people have to get rid of these blood sucking parasites.
Too many of you reading this think we can't live without them. Anarchy would result without them right?
The Native Americans had no jails, no courts, no police, and every white person who lived with them refused to return to white civilization of their own volition.
"... future votes I cast will be for third party... "
Me too.
The power of a multi-party system throws fear into both Rs and Ds and their corporate funders, as witness the the treatment of Ralph Nader, the presidential candidate of a recognized (Green) party. The refusal to let him "debate" was not enough. He could not be allowed inside the building.
In addition to pretending Nader didn't exist, the AARP and the Democrats wouldn't let one of their own (Dennis Kucinich) into debates.
Yeah the Native Americans have been fighting terrorism since 1492,but these blood thirsty savages needed to be "saved" as they had no bible, no jails,no police, no courts, no banks, no money,no religion,no pollution, no land ownership, lived in America for at least 10,000 years and took excellent care of the environment, ect.ect.ect. Now that they have been saved, they do have casino's however!
"The obscenely rich have never cared about the poor."
NEVER.
Why would the tea baggers mind being cheated? Isn't that what they are demonstrating for---the right of the rich to do as they please?
In addition to being suckers for the trickle down theory, teabaggers must all be color blind, otherwise they would notice that everything that trickles down from the rich is yellow.
I'd rather wish it was red....
Like the Dem. Party and its supporters.
And Sean Hannity hyped the Tea Party Express on his radio and Fox News show, big-time...
:-)
The establishment co-opts right-wing populists and left-wing populists to insulate itself while the the puppets smash each other. Despite this colossal waste of money, it does reflect how unpopular most of their programs are.
We need a coalition, regardless of partisanship. Or, rather, the partisanship should be drawn on lines of for/against the existing imperial system.
Stephen Gordon's was just on Maddow. These Libertarian guys act like they're sooo anti-establishment.
Luv the Libetarians
They are such rebels.......lol
Methinks a three dollar bill is more creditable than these tea-bagging clowns.
(LOL)
Hey man, what's that shit hanging off your hat?
No wonder that God sent the great flood
I wish I'd have thought of it! I would love to put on a ultra right, absurd front that gave a venue for inane stupidity from the conservative wing of the human race and channel the money back into my own bank account or perhaps use it to make size able donations to the very groups that were being railed against. I guess that would make me something like the CIA.