Month: February 2015

Here’s a good column in Right Wing News about scams on the right:

50 Million Down The Tubes: How 17 Conservative PACs Are Spending Their Money

The worst scam by far is the Draft Ben Carson for President outfit.  They’ve raised over $12 million and spent $500,000 on actually promoting his candidacy  — around 4%.  Then there’s the Madison Project.  What the hell is the Madison Project?  Former Olympic runner and Congressman Jim Ryun fronts for it.  What they have to do with the fourth President is beyond me.  What have they accomplished?  Who knows?  They publish articles on their web site.  They’ll probably be at CPAC in D.C. this week.  Doing what?  Promoting themselves and trying to raise money.  They’ve taken in over $5million, and spent $300,000 of it donating to candidates or spending money on behalf of candidates.  They look like they’ve got a paid staff of four people.  They’re probably all at CPAC, staying in a fancy hotel and schmoozing.  To what end?

Our principal “competitor” is the Convention of States (CoS).  They’ve raised at least two or three million dollars.  They’ve got three states  — low hanging fruit in Georgia, Alaska, and Florida.  They may pick up North Dakota and some other easy states this year.  Let’s say they’re wildly successful and get five, bringing their total to eight.  So they’re spending about $300,000 per victory.

The BBA Task Force has spent, in its entire existence, around $450,000, the vast majority coming from the personal funds of Dave and Susie Biddulph.  So far it’s won in nine states* and is on track to get six more** this year.  That’s $30,000 per victory.

And we’re, essentially, broke.  The Biddulphs continue to fork over money, but they just don’t have the capacity to keep it up.

Le Uhler’s trying to raise money.  His National Tax Limitation Committee has paid for a lot of the activities of the Reagan Project, including the pledge campaign (which yielded us sponsors in Wyoming and Montana) and my recent travel.

So we’re going to try to raise money at the Reagan Project.  In a month or so we should be up and running.  We’ll be too late to have much impact this legislative season.  But the hardest part will be next year, and it could get expensive.  Soros and his crowd are on to us, and were instrumental in beating us in Montana.  As we get closer to 34 we can expect our opposition to start taking us seriously, and fighting back.

I hate raising money, and was never any good at it.  I was outspent two to one when I first ran for the State Senate in Alaska, and was outspent in pretty much every political battle I got into up there.

But sometimes you’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do.

*FL, AL, NH, OH, GA, TN, LA, MI, SD

**ND, WY, UT, WI, WV, SC

According to sponsor Senator Larry Grooms, via John Steinberger, Kasich knocked it out of the park in South Carolina.  A home run.  Smooth sailing in the Palmetto State from here on.  Way to go, John Kasich.  The South Carolina legislature is hard to understand, at least for me.  So this is very gratifying.

He helped in West Virginia as well.  There will be no problem in the House (thank you, Delegate John Overington), and with Ohio being a next door neighbor, Kasich and his people should be able to shepherd it through the Senate, with a lot of help from Scott Rogers, a resident.  I’m counting on Senate President Bill Cole  — a politician’s politician.  (That’s a compliment.)

Let’s hope Dr. Coburn does as well when he speaks to the House and Senate Caucuses in Oklahoma City on Monday.  It’s a tougher sell.  Fruth says Oklahoma is where Birchers are born.  If anybody can do it Coburn can.

Wyoming Senator Larry Hicks has given us some idea of what Senate President Nicholas is concerned about.  Fruth has arranged to talk to him Sunday afternoon.  He’s worried about Congressional control, and the sanctity of one state one vote.  We should be able to satisfy him on both counts.  If we lose Wyoming it’s pretty much game over.  I’ll testify Monday afternoon.  Hopefully he won’t need any convincing by then.  All indications are that we have the votes on the floor.  Rules won’t meet until 3:00 at the earliest, so I’ll have Bill McIlvain guide me around the Capitol all day, trying to talk to Senators, particularly Senator Hicks, who’s carrying the bill.  Majority Leader Eli Bebout is helping as well.

Wyoming is scary.  After getting our ass kicked in Montana, a loss in Wyoming would be devastating, and not just on morale.  If we lose it, we need to sweep all eight of our remaining targets, plus pick up Virginia in 2016  — a very tough nut to crack.  Cutting spending in D.C. is not so popular in northern Virginia.

We can lose everywhere else, and come back again next year.  To do that in Wyoming would require a 2/3 vote in each House.  It’s possible, of course.  We won 44-16 in the House.  But getting 20 of 26 Republican Senators could be a hill too high.  We don’t want to go there.

When I heard the vote In Montana it was like a whack upside the head.  I’m over it.  At least I made a friend.  Matthew Monforton and his family will get together with me and mine in Bozeman this summer.  We’ll have a lot to talk about.  I think Matthew’s got a future in politics.  If he wants it.

All in all I’ve got nothing to complain about.  Life is good.

As long as we get Wyoming.

George Soros may not have impressed Ellie Hill and two other Democrats in Judiciary, but he got to Democratic Governor Bullock, who put out the word:  no Democrats for HJ 4.  To have any real impact, minority Democrats in the Montana Legislature must have a close working relationship with their Governor.  They weren’t going to turn him down.  Everyone knew we needed Democrat votes.  When it became clear we weren’t going to get any, the Republicans stampeded to the exit.  Why piss off the Birchers in a losing cause?  So we lost, big.

Technically we can still get there this year.  But we’d have to win them all. Rep. Christy Perry in Idaho won’t introduce our bill until she’s got the votes to pass it.  She needs 36, and she’s six short.  Oklahoma is going to be a bear.  If Dr. Coburn pulled out all the stops and whipped the bill, he might get it done this year.  We don’t what he’s willing, and able physically, to do. In Arizona we’ve got a Senate President to roll.  Realistically, we could get to 31 this year, with Wyoming, North Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and South Carolina.

31’s a big number, big enough to be taken seriously.  We’ll have the last six months of this year to work on Idaho, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Virginia.

Virginia might be the key.  The entire legislature is up, including all 40 State Senators, on Nov.3, 2015.  If we can somehow inject the BBA, and Article V, into that election, we might be able to help ourselves.  If we have 31 we’d have to be taken seriously.  Primaries are on June 6th.  The filing deadline is in March.  As soon as the list of candidates is available after the filing deadline, the Reagan Project will mail pledge letters to all Republican candidates.  If we get a case of a contested Republican primary, where we have a pledge signer against a non-signer, we’d do what we could for our guy.  If we had money we’d run ads, or something.

It’s an interesting combo, Soros and the Birchers.  Soros is a piece of work.  The D’s get all wigged out about the Kochs, but at least they’re Americans.  Soros is a Hungarian, or something, and I swear to God it seems to me he wants to tear down this country. Wants to destroy it.  He’s a nut.  Back in the 80’s it was Walter Mondale and Phyllis Schlafly.  Now it’s George Soros and the Birchers.

The quality of our opposition is declining.  There’s hope.

Lost in Montana House 23-77.  Something went wrong.

He was 24 when he passed the Wyoming Bar and got a job as a criminal prosecutor with the DA’s office. A great way to get trial experience, on the taxpayer’s dime.  Two years later he hung up a shingle, starting his own law firm in Laramie.  33 years later he’s one of the top litigators in the State of Wyoming, the kind of lawyer a Fortune 500 company would retain if they needed legal work in Wyoming.  He’s a well respected man, deservedly so.  He’s my kind of guy.

Now he’s President of the State Senate, and has reservations about our bill.  I assume it’s concern about a runaway, though I don’t know that.  (Note the first three letters in “assume”).  His vote killed the CoS bill in Rules last week.  I’m pretty sure I’ve got a commitment from Natelson to accompany me to Cheyenne on Monday.  We’re trying to arrange a meeting with Nicholas before the Senate Rules hearing at noon.  Regardless, I’ve got to believe that Nicholas is the kind of lawyer who would give great weight to the testimony of someone with Natelson’s credentials.  It’s our best shot.  I just have a hard time believing someone as intelligent and accomplished as Nicholas would really buy into the Birch nonsense.

Idaho is a mystery state.  Phone calls and emails are unanswered.  I assume (note 1st 3 letters) it ‘s because Speaker Scott Bedke knows what he’s doing and doesn’t want the bother of explaining it to anybody.  It’s Bedke’s show.  We’re on the sidelines, cheering him on.  That’s the way Rep. Joe Harrison, Master Legislator, did it in Louisiana.  All he did was get unanimous approval in both Houses.

Problems in subcommittee in South Carolina. Iron Man Bill Fruth flew from Salt lake to Atlanta, rented a car, and arrived in Columbia at 4:00 a.m.  He got five minutes before the committee.  I’ll check in with John Steinberger tomorrow to see what’s happening.

Haven’t heard much from West Virginia.  Sponsoring Delegate John Overington is another Hal Wick, been at it 30 years.  Except Hal was always in the majority.  John’s been in the minority the whole time, until this year.  Unless you’ve been there, you have no idea how frustrating it is to be in the minority in a legislature.  I did it for eight years.  30?  Now that’s grit.

The only way I saw anybody accomplish anything much in the minority was by whoring out.  If you’re willing to sell your vote you’ll be given some crumbs.  I didn’t kiss anybody’s ring when I was in the minority. I spent my time trying to figure out how to get the Republicans in the majority.  Then I’d repay all the favors the Democrats did for me.  In spades.  One year I bet my wife $1,000 I was the next Speaker of the House.

She’s still waiting to get paid.

With South Dakota in the bag, and North Dakota a lock, all our western targets* line up, north and south.  From Montana and Idaho on the Canadian border, south through Wyoming and Utah to Arizona on the border with old Mexico.  Kind of a coincidence, but not really.  These are places, and people, that revere the rugged individualism of the hard men and strong women who settled them.  Their descendants live there.  These people are conservatives and libertarians.  Sadly, a small minority of them are a little simple minded, and susceptible to the Birch jive.  They’re not bad people, far from it.  They’re patriots.

In their own demented way.

* I don’t count Oklahoma as western.  I don’t know what the hell it is.