Lefer, C

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">from the where are they now file</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2012 allison</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/dark-money-groups-bank-records-suggest-ties-to-campaign-work">https://www.propublica.org/article/dark-money-groups-bank-records-suggest-ties-to-campaign-work</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">video on how to make 501c3</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7GxSOk6vs0"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7GxSOk6vs0</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><header class="entry-header" style="background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252);"><div class="entry-hdr" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><h1 class="entry-title" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0.1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0.1em 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; clear: both;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Remember “American/Western Tradition Partnership” Involved in Montana Elections in Case that Went to SCOTUS? Looks Like the National Right to Work Committee Was Secretly Behind It, Violating Montana Campaign Finance Laws</font></h1></div><div class="entry-meta" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; clear: both;"><div class="meta-info-wrap" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="sep posted-on" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Posted on </span><a href="https://electionlawblog.org/?p=102926" title="9:36 am" rel="bookmark" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><time class="entry-date" datetime="2018-12-19T09:36:09-07:00">December 19, 2018 9:36 am</time></a><span class="by-author" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"> <span class="sep" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;">by </span><span class="author vcard" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a class="url fn n" href="https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3" title="View all posts by Rick Hasen" rel="author" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; font-weight: bold;">Rick Hasen</a></span></span></font></div></div></header><div class="entry-content cf" style="background: rgb(252, 252, 252); border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 1.625em 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word; zoom: 1;"><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/politics/documents-allege-right-to-work-s-involvement-in-montana-elections/article_1aab6fe2-d946-53ee-92c3-50e587440929.html" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Montana Free Press</a>:</font></p><div class="subscriber-preview" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><blockquote style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 3em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Thousands of newly uncovered documents and recently filed court records bolster already mounting evidence tying the anti-union National Right to Work Committee to the political activities of conservative nonprofit groups accused of improperly coordinating Republican legislative primary campaigns in Montana.</font></p></blockquote></div><blockquote style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 3em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="subscriber-preview" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Emails, documents and affidavits recently obtained by Montana’s commissioner of political practices paint a detailed picture of how the national anti-union group oversaw the activities of American Tradition Partnership, the group at the center of allegations of illegal third-party influence in Montana Republican primary campaigns in 2008, 2010 and 2012.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The National Right to Work Committee is a 501©4 “social welfare” group that, according to the IRS, is not supposed to engage in “direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.”</font></p></div><div id="inasset-video-ad" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">…</font></div><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;" /></blockquote><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><blockquote style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 3em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div class="subscriber-preview" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tens of thousands of pages of emails obtained by Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl show a link between top NRTWC officials and political campaign activities in Montana.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A former NRTWC employee said in a sworn affidavit filed in Helena District Court that NRTWC staff members were relocated to Montana to work on the 2010 primary campaign, and their work was overseen by the political director of the national organization, <b>Dimitri Kesari. </b>Emails provided to Motl show that National Right to Work Executive Director <b>Jedd Coburn</b> was in regular communication with the groups doing political work in Montana and provided text for candidates’ campaign materials.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Motl said this latest trove of information is significant because it proves ATP was not acting as an independent issue advocacy organization, as the group claimed, but was instead part of a massive, coordinated campaign machine funded by an out-of state organization with the goal of changing the makeup of the Montana Legislature.</b></font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Christian LeFer was here as a field operative for National Right to Work. Once you get there, then National Right to Work’s central role is more apparent,” Motl said. “I don’t think you can underestimate the significance, or the threat, that a coordinated, funded, centralized corporate-take-over of candidates poses (to elections).”</font></p></div></blockquote><div class="subscriber-only" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><blockquote style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 3em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Motl said that in 2008, when Western Tradition Partnership first entered the scene in Montana, and in 2010 when the group changed its name to American Tradition Partnership, most people, including a previous commissioner of political practices, believed the group was an independent entity.</font></p></blockquote></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LI 7/18</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="">nice sideburns!</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">LI</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Christian LeFer</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Committed to helping others create positive change</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Denver, ColoradoInternet</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Previous<span style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Galvanize.it, YBGR Therapeutic Foster Care Program, GetNonprofitStatus.com</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Education<span style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rutgers University</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Recommendations<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>1 person has recommended Christian LeFer</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Websites<span style="white-space:pre"> </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Personal Website</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">500+</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">connections</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">View Christian LeFer’s full profile. It's free!</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Your colleagues, classmates, and 500 million other professionals are on LinkedIn.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">View Christian’s Full Profile</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian LeFer’s Posts & Activity</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See all 8 posts</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">You're Invited to the...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">October 4, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If you care about business, positive impact or meeting some of the most impressive people in Colorado, dont miss the inaugural CHANGEMAKERS Forum, where you will: Grow your network with some of...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">#United, Culture, and Why...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">April 11, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The United Airlines debacle is something to celebrate, just as was the Comcast hellish customer service call - because of what it means. It means that corporations that used to have the advantage of...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We're Seeking a Customer...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">August 31, 2015</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This position location is flexible post-training; 2 days a week will be in-office near Dry Creek and University, or downtown. We help people start and manage bureaucratic processes for their...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See all activity</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian LeFer shared</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Not to be missed. #dougthorner </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian LeFer liked this</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sign Up Today for THE Startup Party of the Summer in Denver...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I'm attending Startup Grind Denver w/ Summer Party! on July 25</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian LeFer liked this</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Have you ever heard the story of a Young Entrepreneur that...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">El SHOW del Ingeniero Estresado. Episodio 1: La (Pin...) Tubería Imposible</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian LeFer liked this</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tonight meet Brandon Spano Message me if you haven’t been...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I'm attending Startup Grind Denver w/ Brandon Spano, Co-founder and CEO BSN Denver on April 25</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian LeFer shared</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Share and Super this!</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian LeFer liked this</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">LadyCoders Conf needs your help They have 200 women +...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">50% of all women leave tech within 12 years, at 2x the rate of men (Source: NCWIT). Lack of...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See more</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Summary</b></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Since I was a cartoon-watching kid, I’ve been fighting Simon-Bar Sinister, the arch-nemesis who robs peoples’ potential away, takes over their minds, steals their hope, crushes their dreams. It's what I was put on this earth to do.</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now I create solutions to benefit the nonprofit sector.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> My passion has always been to empower others to impact their world: “Unleash your inner hero!”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">My family's involvement in the community and as advocates for foster and adoptive parenting, along with my successful consultancy in founding and fundraising for nonprofits, make my foray into software and solutions for charities a natural.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">From 2004 to 2011, I performed high-dollar fundraising and ran special projects across the U.S. for a national grassroots issue advocacy organization, while serving as Executive Director for two state-level groups. During this time I served as a senior adviser or chief evangelist for numerous marketing, issue advocacy, public policy and public officeholder campaigns.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Having organized successful 1st Amendment litigation in state and federal courts, I am proud to have also become a sought-after adviser on free speech and civil liberties issues.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">My key strengths include vision, copywriting, marketing (direct and online), and sales. I earned a B.A. from Rutgers University in History/Political Science, cum laude.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Experience</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Galvanize.it</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Startup Resident</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Galvanize.it</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">March 2012 – June 2015 (3 years 4 months)Greater Denver Area</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Galvanize Founders Jim Deters, Lawrence Mandes, and Chris Onan, started Galvanize in 2012 with a bold vision: build a community to provide entrepreneurs and learners with life-changing opportunities for growth. Technology has made it possible for anyone with fortitude and resourcefulness to change the world for the better. Galvanize is the fuel to propel anyone to level up.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Galvanize campuses are home to an eclectic mix of entrepreneurs, skilled programmers, expert data scientists, and men and women motivated to make an impact. As different and diverse as we all are, we’re united by common values.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Certified Foster Caregiver</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">YBGR Therapeutic Foster Care Program</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">February 2009 – January 2014 (5 years)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We provide a supportive and stable family for children who cannot live with their birth parents until family problems are resolved. Therapeutic foster children have additional physical, emotional and other needs that requires intensive work with social services staff on a weekly or more frequent basis. The goal of foster care is to reunite the child with birth parents, but this is not always possible. We provided care to many different kids, and adopted one of our foster children.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Product Creator, Founder</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GetNonprofitStatus.com</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">April 2011 – June 2013 (2 years 3 months)Greater Denver Area</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">With over 200,000 YouTube views and hundreds of positive comments from nonprofit founders, I created a process, and ultimately designed software, to help fledgling nonprofit organizations to incorporate and file for 501c3 Tax Exempt Status quickly, easily, and without attorney fees.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Strategist</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Atlas Strategic Consulting</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">2010 – January 2013 (3 years)<b>Livingston, MT</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Boutique marketing and advocacy services.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Marketing Consultant, Online Software Entrepreneur</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WarpDrive Marketing</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">2002 – January 2013 (11 years)Denver & Montana</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Created online funnels, sales processes, content strategy, direct mail, websites, and other communications.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Communications Director</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">NRTWC</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">June 2004 – June 2011 (7 years 1 month)US</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian LeFer is a marketing professional and President of Atlas Strategic Consulting. From 2004 to 2011, Mr. LeFer fundraised and executed special projects on staff for a national issue advocacy organization, while acting as executive staff for state-level affiliates. During this time, he also led and consulted for various non-profit pro-free market and pro-liberty projects, including guiding organizations and individuals through a number of winning legal actions to restore their 1st Amendment rights.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As a strategic consultant, Mr. LeFer has played a key role in many successful issue/policy and candidate campaigns, from local and state legislative to U.S. House and Senate. He is well-versed in all aspects of marketing and communication, especially in the areas of research, copywriting, electorate dynamics, issue trends, and grassroots messaging and issue targeting.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Education</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rutgers University</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rutgers University</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">B.A., (Joint) History/Political Science, Cum Laude</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1995 – 2001</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">With a two-year break taken to tend to a business I started midway through school, I graduated with honors in 2001. My final paper was a 40-page analysis of the proliferation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the former Soviet bloc.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Activities and Societies: National Honor Society</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bo Eason</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Graduate, Performance and Storytelling</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">2013 – 2014</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Studied the crafting and demonstration of storytelling in life and business through masters of the craft, Bo Eason and Jean-Louis Rodrigue (body and movement coach to Leo DiCaprio, Nic Cage, Toby Maguire and others).</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Volunteer Experience & Causes</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Therapeutic Foster Host, Adoptive Parent</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch (YBGR)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">August 2009 – January 2014 (4 years 6 months)Children</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Our family loves YBGR kids, staff and programs! We went through extensive training and certification processes to become Therapeutic Foster Parents. This type of care involved providing a home and specialized care to children who could not enter the traditional foster care system due to high emotional or physical needs, trauma or abuse. We hosted a number of children and at one point adopted a 5-year old girl who was placed with us at 3 years of age, and who has become a beautiful and well-developed child. We loved and benefited from knowing these children, some of whom were placed long-term or adopted, some of whom were reunified with their biological parents.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Causes Christian cares about:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Children</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Civil Rights and Social Action</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Economic Empowerment</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Human Rights</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Social Services</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Skills & Endorsements</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Join LinkedIn to see Christian’s skills, endorsements, and full profile</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Join now</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Certifications</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Certified Therapeutic Foster Parent</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">State of Montana, Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">February 2009 – Present</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Certificate in Campaigns, Youth Leadership, & Direct Mail</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Leadership Institute</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">June 1996 – Present</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Courses</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Independent Coursework</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Brendon Burchard's Experts Academy</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Eben Pagan's Accelerate Marketing Summit</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Eben Pagan's Guru Mastermind</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mike Koenigs & Pam Hendrickson's Make Market Launch Conference</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Traffic and Conversion Summit</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Warrior Week with Garrett J. White</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Honors & Awards</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Graduate, Personal Story Power</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bo Eason Experience</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">April 2014</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Via his immersive Personal Story Power multi-day seminar, Bo Eason is dedicated to helping others tap the power of their personal story and become effective, persuasive communicators. He delivered his keynotes and workshops to groups such as Protective Life Insurance, Dimensional Fund Advisors, Morgan Stanley, and Young Presidents Association. Bo has also appeared as a guest on shows like Bill Maher, Fox Sports Net, ESPN, The Rosie O’Donnell Show and CNN.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Member, National Honor Society</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Alpha Sigma Lambda</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">July 2001</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Certificate in Campaigns, Youth Leadership, & Direct Mail</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Leadership Institute</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">June 1996</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Projects</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Foster and Adoptive Families Foundation</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Starting June 2014</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Foster and Adoptive Families Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of parents and children who are involved in the foster care process, whether of a temporary (respite or traditional non-permanent foster care) or permanent nature (moving toward adoption).</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We do this by providing a platform for discussion and discovery of solutions, collaborative teaching and learning, and for the context of story around the journey experienced by people involved in the foster and adoptive family community.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Team members:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian LeFer, Cody Wood</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Proud Homeschooling Parent</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Starting January 2012</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">My wife and I are part of the local homeschooling network, Classical Conversations, where our children get a solid, well-rounded education and learn to think for themselves (versus "teaching to the test") in both a home and community setting.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Team members:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian LeFer</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Board of Directors, The Ascension Foundation</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ascension Foundation's progenitor Christopher John Stubbs sees a world of more highly enlightened, harmonious, and self-aware people through coaching, experiences, and harmony of the mind, body and spirit. It's a beautiful vision, and one I'm proud to be a part of.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Team members:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian LeFer</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Organizations</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TiE Rockies - Colorado Chapter of National Entrepreneurs and Investors</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Member and Entrepreneur TRIP Funding Program</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Starting February 2015</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TiE is a not-for-profit network of entrepreneurs fostering entrepreneurship, mentoring and education. Members of TiE attend meetings in various chapters, exchange ideas and build partnerships to start new companies or ventures.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://www.tie.org</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://www.linkedin.com/company/tie</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hope Roots (International Nonprofit)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Advisor</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tech4Good Denver</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Board of Directors</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We seek to provide high-quality educational and networking forums to facilitate the effective use of technology across the nonprofit sector.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tech4Good Denver is a volunteer-run organization dedicated to fostering the effective use of technology in nonprofit organizations. Tech4Good is affiliated with the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) and TechSoup, and brings the expertise of these national organizations home to the front range. Our educational forums give you all you need to know to start using technology to advance your cause. Whether you’re an executive director or an administrative professional, you’ll find something useful at Tech4Good’s forums. Tech4Good brings together experts from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to give you what you need to know to start using tomorrow’s technology today. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://t4gdenver.org</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">scrape</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Daniel Freedman</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Co-Founder BurnAlong - We're Hiring</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Matthew Prince</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Co-founder & CEO of Cloudflare</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Scott Britton</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Co-Founder at Troops | Forbes 30 Under 30</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sean Conway</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CEO at Pillow</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Drew Olanoff</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dot Connector + Storyteller / VP of Communications at Scaleworks</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Greg Pietruszynski</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CEO & founder at Growbots (we're hiring!)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Matt Hunckler</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CEO of Powderkeg and Host of Powderkeg: Igniting Startups Podcast</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Matthew Barksdale</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Founder and Managing Director at ZAG FIRST Digital Marketing</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Clément Delangue</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Co-founder & CEO at Hugging Face, the social AI</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Olivia June</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CEO at VINA - Connecting & Empowering Women!</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">2x?  </div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/anti-union-agent-says-he-didnt-coordinate-with-candidates/article_e96313fb-3cd2-5946-b911-4b733960bb1a.html">https://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/anti-union-agent-says-he-didnt-coordinate-with-candidates/article_e96313fb-3cd2-5946-b911-4b733960bb1a.html</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Anti-union agent says he didn't coordinate with candidates</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MATT VOLZ Associated Press Apr 5, 2016 Updated <b>May 13, 2016 </b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1 of 2</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HELENA – A former Right to Work operative whom Montana officials allege ran shadow campaigns for select Republican candidates says in a sworn statement that he never helped candidates in exchange for their support of anti-union policies once they were elected.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Christian LeFer's</b> affidavit was filed as part of a federal lawsuit Monday, three days after a jury found Rep. Art Wittich coordinated with LeFer and the National Right to Work Committee in 2010. Wittich faces possible fines and expulsion from the Montana Legislature, and the case's outcome could affect a pending lawsuit by the state against LeFer, his wife Allison and several Right to Work-affiliated groups.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The Wittich case also could help the state defend itself against a federal lawsuit challenging Montana's low campaign contribution limits</b>. A federal appeals court has said Montana must show the limits are preventing corruption, and Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl points to the Wittich case and others like it as evidence of political corruption.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The statement by LeFer was filed in the lawsuit challenging the contribution limits. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It is the first public response he's made to the allegations that he illegally coordinated with 14 Republican candidates in exchange for their loyalty to Right to Work's cause, and the causes of affiliated pro-gun, pro-resource development, anti-tax and anti-abortion groups.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In his statement, LeFer said he only referred candidates to his wife's print shop, Direct Mail and Communications, and he mailed issue ads to voters from Montana Citizens for Right to Work independent of the candidates. His organization, Montana Citizens for Right to Work, was independent of the National Right to Work Committee, and his wife's print shop operated independently of his organization, he said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"At no time did I make an arrangement, explicit or implied, with a candidate that, in exchange for any efforts to get them elected, they would act in an official government capacity at my or MRTW's direction as a public official," LeFer's affidavit said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The services LeFer and his wife's printing company offered included a direct mail program, campaign consulting, voter data, opposition research and website design, according to Motl. Right to Work-affiliated groups also blanketed voters with letters supporting their chosen candidates and attacking their election opponents.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It is illegal in Montana for candidates to take corporate in-kind contributions and to coordinate their campaigns with corporations. Exchanging those services for a pledge of fealty from the candidates amounts to corruption, Motl alleges.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A former LeFer staffer testified during Wittich's trial that LeFer's campaign operation did just that. Candidates such as Wittich were required to sign a survey showing they backed the group's principles before they were offered the package of services LeFer called "the works" or "Smart Simple Campaigns," former Right to Work staffer Sarah Arnold said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">LeFer disputed that account, saying he didn't recall using the term "the works," and if he did, he probably meant his wife's mail program.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Motl on Tuesday dismissed LeFer's statement, pointing to the jury's verdict finding Wittich took $19,500 worth of unreported corporate contributions from the LeFer-led groups. LeFer's words are meaningless until he appears in Montana where he can be cross-examined, Motl said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"I don't believe a word that Christian LeFer is saying, and I would welcome the opportunity to have him say what he has to say in a forum where the truth can be explored," Motl said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">LeFer has repeatedly declined or not responded to requests for interviews.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tags</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">General News Campaigns Elections Government And Politics Religious Issues Religion Social Affairs Social Issues</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Related to this story</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">+2Montana campaign finance ruling could have 'ramifications nationwide'</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">STATE & REGIONAL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Montana campaign finance ruling could have 'ramifications nationwide'</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Updated Feb 7, 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HELENA – Jurors recently found a Bozeman lawmaker illegally coordinated with and received services from anti-union groups in 2010, but they wo…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">UPDATED: Judge weighs whether low contribution limits are justified</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">STATE & REGIONAL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">UPDATED: Judge weighs whether low contribution limits are justified</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Updated Jun 17, 2016</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HELENA – What Montana officials call evidence of corruption that justifies the state's low campaign contribution limits is really just democra…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jury: Montana lawmaker coordinated with dark-money groups</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">STATE & REGIONAL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jury: Montana lawmaker coordinated with dark-money groups</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Updated Dec 20, 2016</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HELENA – A jury found Friday that a Bozeman lawmaker coordinated with and received services from conservative corporate groups in violation of…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">+2Jury expected to get Montana lawmaker's dark money case</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">STATE & REGIONAL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jury expected to get Montana lawmaker's dark money case</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Updated Dec 20, 2016</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HELENA (AP) — Testimony is wrapping up in the trial of a Montana lawmaker accused of taking illegal corporate contributions from eight organiz…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">+2Montana lawmaker says he did not knowingly take dark money</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">STATE & REGIONAL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Montana lawmaker says he did not knowingly take dark money</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Updated Dec 20, 2016</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HELENA – A Montana legislator testified Thursday that his memory is hazy on the meetings, correspondence and payments from six years ago, but …</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">UPDATED: Prosecutor: Wittich turned campaign over to special interest groups</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">STATE & REGIONAL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">UPDATED: Prosecutor: Wittich turned campaign over to special interest groups</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Updated Dec 20, 2016</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HELENA – A Bozeman Republican illegally took thousands of dollars' worth of unreported campaign contributions from several nonprofit corporati…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Court rejects Montana lawmaker's appeal in dark money case</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">STATE & REGIONAL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Court rejects Montana lawmaker's appeal in dark money case</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Updated Dec 20, 2016</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HELENA – The Montana Supreme Court on Friday rejected a Bozeman legislator's appeal seeking to throw out accusations that he took illegal corp…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">UPDATED: Campaign regulator urges judge to bar lawmaker from office</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">STATE & REGIONAL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">UPDATED: Campaign regulator urges judge to bar lawmaker from office</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Updated Jun 17, 2016</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HELENA – A Montana legislator should be fined about $145,000 and be removed from office for committing the most serious violation of campaign …</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">why is breitbart stranahan covering lefer?!</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://leestranahan.com/sunlightdisinfectant-republican-group-lays-out-case-against-national-right-to-work-committee/">http://leestranahan.com/sunlightdisinfectant-republican-group-lays-out-case-against-national-right-to-work-committee/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">--</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2693100-Complete-File-From-Motl/annotations/273312.html">https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2693100-Complete-File-From-Motl/annotations/273312.html</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, BlinkMacSystemFont, " segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">Allison LeFer, a.k.a. Allie Andrew, ran Direct Mail and Communications, the mail house WTP/ATP used in the 2008, 2010, and 2012 campaigns. In this email to Andrew O'Neill, Allison LeFer inquires into the status of a campaign mailer. O'Neill replies that Christian LeFer "just got done discussing" the mailer with National Right to Work Committee executive director Jedd Coburn.</span>
<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 20px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 20px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">stranahan</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 20px 1em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://leestranahan.com/category/staffergate/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://leestranahan.com/category/staffergate/</font></a></p><h2 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em;"><a href="https://leestranahan.com/sunlightdisinfectant-republican-group-lays-out-case-against-national-right-to-work-committee/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Sunlight=Disinfectant: Republican Group Lays Out Case Against National Right To Work Committee</font></a></h2><p class="post-meta" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px 0px 15px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by <a href="https://leestranahan.com/author/lee/" title="Posts by Lee Stranahan" rel="author" style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Lee Stranahan</a> | <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Apr 23, 2014</span> | <a href="https://leestranahan.com/category/staffergate/" rel="category tag" style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Staffergate</a>, <a href="https://leestranahan.com/category/uncategorized/" rel="category tag" style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Uncategorized</a> | </font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://politicalpractices.mt.gov/2recentdecisions/docket.mcpx" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Two complaints filed this week</a> by a Republican led group in Montana lay out a damning case against lobbying group National Right To Work Committee and affiliated groups and individuals for years of extensive illegal campaign activity.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two complaints were filed on Monday, April 21st with the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices. <a href="http://politicalpractices.mt.gov/content/2recentdecisions/WelchvNationalRighttoWorkandOthers" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">The first was filed against the National Right to Work Committee</a> and people associated with it. The<a href="http://politicalpractices.mt.gov/content/2recentdecisions/WelchvAmericanTraditionPartnershipandothers" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;"> second complaint </a>was against people and organizations including Western Tradition Partnership / American Tradition Partnership and the people behind those groups including <b>Christian and Allison LeFer and Donny Ferguson</b>. Ferguson is currently communications director for Texas Congressman Steve Stockman.</font></p><h3 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; font-weight: 500;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">National Right To Work Committee Allegations</font></h3><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The allegations made against the National Right to Work committee are stark and consistent with the months of reporting I’ve done on the group — it claims that they operated secret printing presses, coordinated illegally with candidates and operated a number of deceptive front groups.</font></p><blockquote style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 20px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 5px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-color: rgb(36, 79, 86); border-image: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This complaint is being filed against National Right to Work Committee and its affiliates, agents, officers, and directors for violations of Montana campaign finance and practices laws. For many years, the National Right to Work Committee has operated a secret political mail operation. The National Right to Work Committee owns its own printing presses and has the ability to produce thousands of mailings</font></p><p style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">in less than a few weeks. During the 2008, 2010, and 2012 election cycles the National Right to Work Committee through its affiliates and agents mailed thousands of pieces of election material to Montana voters. The National Prolife Alliance, National League of Taxpayers, National Association of Gun Rights, National Gun Owners Alliance, and Western Tradition Partnership/American Tradition Partnership are nothing more than front groups/agents of the National Right to Work Committee and act under the direction of the National Right to Work Committee.</font></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Although the National Right to Work Committee has taken various steps to conceal the connection of the front groups/affiliates, there is enough publically available information to suggest a connection between the National Right to Work Committee and entities identified above. The National Right to Work Committee is located at 8001 Braddock Road, Suite 500 in <b>Springfield, VA</b> 22160. The National Prolife Alliance is located at 5211 Port Royal Road, Suite 500, Springfield, VA 22151. It is believed these addresses are for the same office building. The office building where the National Right to Work Committee is located is at the intersection of Braddock Road and Port Royal Road in Springfield, Virginia. An analysis of Google Maps shows the same office building is used for both addresses.</font></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The connection between these entities is more apparent when reviewing other publically available information. According to documents submitted to the Federal Elections Commission, the treasurer for the National Prolife Alliance PAC is Steve Antosh. Mr. Antosh’s personal residence is 3237<b> Fairfax, VA</b>. (Fairfax County Treasurer Records). This is the same address as the National League of Taxpayers. The President of the National Gun Owners Alliance is Dennis Fusaro who was also a prominent member of the National Right to Work Committee. The National Gun Owners Alliance has also used the same mailing address as the National League of Taxpayers.</font></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Christian Lefer is the officer of Montana Citizens for Right to Work. Montana Citizens for Right to Work is financed by the National Right to Work Committee. See National Right to Work IRS Tax Returns. Mr. Lefer has also acted as an agent of Western Tradition Partnership/American Tradition Partnership. On information and belief, the National Right to Work Committee contributed to and/or financed the political operation of Montana Citizens for Right to Work/Western TraditionPartnership/American Tradition Partnership. These entities have never filed any of the necessary paperwork required by Montana law and have never disclosed any contributions and/or expenditures. The complaint filed by Bruce Tutvedt shows a flyer paid for by the National Association for Gun Rights. The bulk mail postage stamp shows the flyer originated from the same mail house as the mailers sent by Western Tradition Partnership. It is believed the mailers were produced by Christian Lefer and/or Direct Mail and Communications.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></blockquote><h3 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lefers, Donny Ferguson May Face Multi-Million Dollar Fines</font></h3><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Both complaints is seeking remedies including hefty fines and other injunctions from the LeFers, Ferguson, National Right to Work President Mark Mix and others because it says they are personally liable under Montana law:</font></p><blockquote style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 20px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 5px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-color: rgb(36, 79, 86); border-image: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The agents, officers, and directors of WTP/ATP/TFL/AAF/MCRW are personally liable for all fines, penalties, and other sanctions resulting from the violations listed above under the following statutes:</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1.  Section 13-35-105, MCA. Under Montana law, a person who aids and abets the conduct of a person who violates a provision of Montana election law is also guilty of a violation of that provision.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2.   Section 28-10-702, MCA. Under Montana law, a person who assumes to act as an agent is responsible to third persons when the agent’s acts are wrongful in their nature.</font></p></blockquote><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The complaint asks for:</font></p><blockquote style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 20px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 5px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-color: rgb(36, 79, 86); border-image: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">  A fine against each party in the amount of three times the amount spent by WTP/ATP/TFL/AAF/MCRW and the other associated entities in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles under § 13-37-128, MCA. It is my understanding WTP/ATP alone spent roughly $500,000 in the 2010 election cycle. Thus, for the 2010 election cycle, I would request a fine against each person or entity who committed violations in the 2010 election cycle for the amount of $1,500,000 just for the WTP/ATP expenditures.  I would request other equivalent fines based upon the amount of spending by the other entities in 2010 and 2012;</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An inspection of documents and reports under § 13-37-121, MCA and issuance of orders of noncompliance as authorized by law;</font></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An injunction pursuant to § 13-35-108, MCA to prohibit WTP/ATP/TFL/AAF/MCRW  and its entities, associates, affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, treasurers, and agents from spending any money or performing any election related activity until WTP/ATP/TFL/AAF/MCRW are in compliance with Montana law;</font></p></blockquote><h3 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Complaints Filed By Republican Group</font></h3><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The complaints were filed by a Republican affiliated group called<b> Business Advocates for Sensible Elections</b>. As Montana TV station <a href="http://www.kxlh.com/news/group-takes-aim-at-dark-money-in-montana-politics/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">KXLH reported</a>:</font></p><blockquote style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 20px 0px 30px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 5px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-color: rgb(36, 79, 86); border-image: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none;"><p style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Dark money” is the term commonly used to refer to money spent to influence an election that does not disclose the source of the funding.</font></p><p style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After MT State Senator Ed Buttrey (R-Great Falls) didn’t vote in a way that satisfied so called “dark money” groups during the session, he says that he was threatened: “It was told to me, ‘You are dead in the next election…we are coming after you.'”</font></p><p style="background: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But despite fear of possible retaliation, Buttrey, along with several Republican lawmakers, are fighting back.</font></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.7em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The group is called Montana Business Advocates for Sensible Elections – abbreviated Montana BASE – and their issue is with 501(c)4 organizations, also known as “dark money” groups.</font></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 20px 1em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Email Shows National Right To Work Committee’s “Gameplan” States For 2010</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by Lee Stranahan | Jan 23, <b>2014</b> | Staffergate | </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A May 2010 email from National Right To Work Employee Jerad Gamble shows staffers and operatives being assigned to Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa and Montana.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The exuberant email was CC’d to Dimitri Kesari and says that Gamble and Kesari think the “dynamics of the team are great.’ Many, if not all, of the people mentioned in the email would go on to play roles in the National Right To Work Committee’s illegal ‘mail program’ that wrote, printed and mailed campaign letters for candidates.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The list of people included in the email includes:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Christian & Allison LeFer would go to Montana. Eventually, they would sue to try and get boxes of documents found in a Colorado meth house related to the National Right to Work ‘mail program’ that they claimed belonged to them. They would lose the case. Big time.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Conservative political consultant Christian LeFer, a former WTP official, and his wife, Allison LeFer, who helped run the couple’s printing shop, sued Montana’s former Commissioner of Political Practices Jim Murry and the state of Montana to recover the documents.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Tuesday, the LeFers lost in almost every way possible. They didn’t get their documents. They didn’t get any money; instead, they’ll have to pay Murry’s fees, which haven’t yet been totaled. They won’t be able to file their complaint against Murry ever again.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And on every page of his ruling, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy seemed to somehow insult them.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At one point in his 34-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy referred to “the procedural morass caused by the LeFers’ posturing.” Since last fall, the LeFers have filed at least five separate complaints in different courts, sometimes with factual errors.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Brenden Boudreau who would go on to head the NRTW operation in Kentucky.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">People like Betsy DeFord & Rocco Moffa would also be mentioned in other emails about the NRTW mail program.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here’s the complete email:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From: Jared Gamble <jaredgamble gmail.com="gmail.com" /></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Date: Wed, May 19, 2010 at 12:32 PM</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Subject: Game Plan</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To: Josh Pearson <josh.j.pearson gmail.com="gmail.com">, Rocco Moffa <moeroffa yahoo.com="yahoo.com">, ryan flowers <pope94 hotmail.com="hotmail.com">, Shaun Bowen <bowen161 gmail.com="gmail.com">, Samuel Haun <zsgh6 goldmail.etsu.edu="goldmail.etsu.edu">, Jennifer Winters <jennybeth5 gmail.com="gmail.com">, caceyariana@gmail.com, Betsy DeFord <betsydeford gmail.com="gmail.com">, Brenden Boudreau <brenden.boudreau gmail.com="gmail.com">, Nick Seligh <nickseligh gmail.com="gmail.com">, gabriel.sukenik@gmail.com, Jeremy Dahl <jeremybdahl gmail.com="gmail.com">, Ross Phar <rlp22 case.edu="case.edu" /></jeremybdahl></nickseligh></brenden.boudreau></betsydeford></jennybeth5></zsgh6></bowen161></pope94></moeroffa></josh.j.pearson></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cc: Dimitri Kesari <dkesari aol.com="aol.com"><b>>, Dennis Fusaro</b> <midamericartw gmail.com="gmail.com">, allison@directmailwins.com, Allison LeFer <allison brownmugs.com="brownmugs.com">, Christian LeFer <christian christianlefer.com="christianlefer.com" /></allison></midamericartw></dkesari></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Congrats Everyone!!!</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What a week of History, and you get to say you were a part of it. Nice job! Dimitri and I feel the dynamics of the team are great and we cannot wait to continue onward to Iowa and Montana.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here’s the Gameplan:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Headed to Kentucky/Indiana: Nick, you are going to stay here and help Rob out.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Headed to Iowa: Josh, Rocco, Ryan, Brenden, Betsy, Gabe, Jeremy, and Ross.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Iowa Address:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1100 North Hickory BLVD</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Suit 104</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pleasant Hill, IA 50327</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Headed to Montana: Jenny, Casey, Shaun, and Sam.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Montana Address: Call Allie Lefer for an address. Allie’s phone: 406-461-6917</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you guys want to hang out down here for a day or two that is fine. You are welcome to make your way up to the state you are going to anytime. For those coming to Iowa, plan on being there by Friday evening, May 21, the latest. For those going to Montana, plan on showing up no later than Saturday evening, May 22.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you need anything from me at all, please call me, as I will be on the road today and tomorrow.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other than that, enjoy what little time we have off and drive safe! Awesome work Everyone!</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thanks,</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jared</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">_{</font></div>}<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jared J. Gamble</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">jaredgamble@gmail.com</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Phone: 401-633-5185</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://leestranahan.com/why-did-allison-lefer-send-500000-to-the-national-right-to-work-committee/</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Why Did Allison LeFer Send $500,000 To The National Right to Work Committee?</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>by Lee Stranahan | Feb 4, <b>2014 </b>| Staffergate | 2 comments</div><div>
</div><div>Try to put yourself in the grand jury’s place. Does what you’re about to see look suspicious?</div><div>I’ve written about Christian LeFer, the National Right to Work Committee lobbyist who worked in Colorado and Montana and was involved in election shenanigans there : read this article</div><div>
</div><div>I’ve also written about the disturbing way so many of the people involved in the NRTW scandal involved their wives, like disgraced former Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson.</div><div>
</div><div>This involvement can lead to legal trouble for the wives, too. Right now up in Montana, Rep. Mike Miller is facing legal trouble and so is his wife, thanks to the involvement of Christian LeFer. LeFer got the Republican and his wife involved in the National Right to Work Committee ‘mail program’ that involved illegal writing, printing and mailing of campaign letters.</div><div>
</div><div>In order to try and hide the illegal activity, Christian LeFer set up a front group called Western Traditions Partnership. He manipulated college students with promises that working with him would be good for their resumes and that he’d handle everything.</div><div>And of course, Christian LeFer used his wife Allison, too.</div><div>
</div><div>Even though Christian LeFer has tried to deny his involvement with Western Traditions Partnership as law enforcement started to look into it, guess who was the signee on the group’s bank account?</div><div>
</div><div>If you guessed Christian LeFer, you’re giving him too much credit for personal responsibility.</div><div>No, it’s Allison LeFer who’s on the hook according to Western Traditions Partnership’ bank records.</div><div>And there were some VERY strange transactions — like the time<b> half a million dollars came into the account from a 501(c)(4) group called Coloradans For Economic Growth</b>…</div><div>And then a couple of days later,<b> $500,000 went out to the National Right to Work Committee.</b></div><div>Right now, a grand jury in Montana is weighing evidence. What would you think?</div><div>See for yourself.</div><div>
</div><div>images of docs]</div><div>
</div><div></div><div><div>=</div><div>
</div><div><b>College Students Used For Illegal Campaign Activity By Right Wing Group</b></div><div>by Lee Stranahan | Jan 23, 2014 | Staffergate |</div><div>
</div><div>Christian LeFer</div><div>The  National Right to Work Committee’s massive illegal campaign activity involved manipulating and using college students in Montana, a report issued in October, 2010 shows. The incidents involved National Right to Work employee Christian LeFer, who set up front groups in Montana in 2008. LeFer and his wife Allie also ran a print shop there.</div><div>I’ve previously written about LeFer and the Montana scheme in my article #StafferGate, Steve Stockman, Donny Ferguson & The Montana Connection. That piece provides a good primer to some of the other activities in states like Iowa.</div><div>NRTW isn’t above ensnaring college students…Part of the NRTW’s pattern of illegal campaign activities involves setting up front groups in order to mask their activities and move money around. LeFer set up two front groups:Western Tradition Partnership (referred to in the report WTP) and the Coalition for Energy and the Environment (referred to as CEE.)</div><div>
</div><div>I’ve phoned Mr. LeFer twice. He declined to speak to me.</div><div>The report’s charges give an indication of illegal campaign activities that the National Right to Work Committee has been involved in other than the candidate letter writing, printing and mailing program I’ve written about.</div><div>The report states that charges were filed in Montana againt :.</div><div>
</div><div>Western Tradition Partnership (WTP) and the <b>Coalition for Energy and the Environment (CEE)</b>, alleging a flyer produced and distributed by one or both of the groups failed to include proper “paid for by. . .” attribution language, in violation of Montana campaign finance and practices laws. The complaint against WTP also alleges that the person responsible for the flyer failed to provide public disclosure by registering and filing campaign finance reports with the office of the Commissioner of Political Practices</div><div>
</div><div>The report says that</div><div>The evidence is overwhelming that CEE was established by WTP as a sham organization to create the illusion that WTP was not directly involved in campaign activities directly opposing candidates for public office. The evidence shows that WTP?s ultimate purpose in Montana in 2008 was not to discuss issues, but to directly influence candidate elections through surreptitious means.</div><div>I’ve written about National Right To Work’s willingness to involve wives and daughters in their illegality. The Montana report shows they aren’t above ensnaring college students, either.</div><div>Fawn Kirkpatrick</div><div>The report says:</div><div>On June 11, 2008, CEE filed a Statement of Organization (Form C-2) with CPP as a political action committee (PAC). Fawn Kirkpatrick, who at the time was a student at Montana State University – Bozeman, was listed as the Treasurer.</div><div>According to her LinkedIn account, Ms. Kirkpatrick is now a law student:</div><div>fawk-li</div><div>The Montana commission-the CPP- was looking into Finance report filed by the CEE.</div><div> The report listed MSU student Fawn Kirkpatrick as Treasurer (see Fact 25), but was not signed. CPP staff members were unable to contact Kirkpatrick – her email and telephone contact information listed on the previously filed Statement of Organization (Form C-2) was found to be incorrect. The report listed a $2,000 contribution from treasurer Fawn Kirkpatrick…</div><div>The idea being that many college students write $2,000 checks to start political groups.</div><div>Ms. Kirkpatrick soon left the group. LeFer was forced to find a replacement.</div><div> </div><div>Brian Witt</div><div>The report shows how LeFer ensnared another MSU student named Brian Witt. Christian LeFer sweet talked Witt.</div><div>Witt stated he was a student at MSU- Bozeman and spoke to a friend about becoming active in politics. The friend introduced Witt to Christian LeFer, who convinced Witt to become Treasurer of CEE.</div><div>According to Witt, LeFer told him it would “look great” on his resume, and he wouldn?t have to do anything – that LeFer would prepare all the necessary reports for Witt?s signature.</div><div>Witt claims he only signed reports and correspondence that were prepared by others and submitted to him. He was not involved in compiling the reports or drafting the correspondence, he said.</div><div>When Witt was interviewed by investigators, he reveal the extent of the LeFer’s actual participation in the groups.</div><div>Witt also provided copies of email exchanges between him and Christian LeFer which establish that LeFer was affiliated with and closely involved in the activities of WTP and CEE.</div><div>An October 5, 2008 email from LeFer directs Witt to contact CPP and “find out what it takes to switch a treasurer . . .”</div><div>An October 6, 2008 email discusses the submission of an amended campaign finance form to CPP.</div><div>An October 22, 2008 email from LeFer to Witt includes as an attachment an attack mailer that was sent out against Brad Hamlett. (See Fact 2, Exhibit 1.)</div><div>A November 26, 2008 email from Allison LeFer (see Fact 62) to Witt states: “I have had the guy who handles PAC filings compile yours. I wanted to get them to you for your signature so you can drop them off in the mail.”</div><div>An email from Christian LeFer to Witt dated December 17, 2008, includes as an attachment a letter to CPP from Witt responding to the complaint filed against WTP and CEE. The email instructed Witt to sign the letter and fax it to CPP, followed with a hard copy to CPP.</div><div>DEVELOPING…</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Y</div><div>Email Shows National Right To Work Committee’s “Gameplan” States For…</div><div>Why Was This Video Linked To By Sen. Rand Paul…</div><div>Is Iowa State Senator Chelgren Telling The Truth About His…</div><div>Leaked Emails Show Disgraced GOP State Senator Involved Wife &…</div><div>Sunlight=Disinfectant: Republican Group Lays Out Case Against National Right To…</div><div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1/2016</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Docs Reveal Brutally Illegal Interference in MT Elections by National Right-to-Work Committee</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Christian Lefer, master of Right-to-Work puppets.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A bevy of newly uncovered documents detail the amount of influence the National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC) had in coordinating the primary elections for state legislature in Montana.  As a 501(c)4 “social welfare” group the NRTWC cannot engage in “direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.”  Yet the uncovered documents, tens of thousands of pages in total, show that the group was deeply and directly involved in primary campaigns.  </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The treasure trove of documents was analyzed by John S. Adams of the Montana Free Press:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Emails, documents, and affidavits recently obtained by Montana’s commissioner of political practices paint a detailed picture of how the national anti-union group oversaw the activities of American Tradition Partnership (ATP), the group at the center of allegations of<b> illegal third-party influence in Montana Republican primary campaigns in 2008, 2010, and 2012.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The documents, obtained by Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl, reveal a direct link between NRTWC officials, the WTP/ATP, and political campaigns.  They show that the ATP was not an independent advocacy organization as it claimed, but part of a massive, well-connected campaign that was fueled by dark money. The mission, of changing the political makeup of the Montana Legislature, was downright unsavory.  Part of the reason the NRTWC was so interested in Montana is because it is one of the few western states that does not have a “Right-to-Work” law.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The smoking gun belongs to Christian <b>LeFer, who was the director of Montana Citizens for Right to Work.</b> He ran two political nonprofits in Montana, including the Western Tradition Partnership (WTP).  In 2010, the WTP changed its name to the American Tradition Partnership (ATP), according to Commissioner Motl:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Christian LeFer was here as a field operative for National Right to Work. Once you get there, then National Right to Work’s central role is more apparent,”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Motl said. “I don’t think you can underestimate the significance, or the threat, that a coordinated, funded, centralized corporate-takeover of candidates poses (to elections</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">).”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The NRTWC spent over $42 million between 1999 and 2016 lobbying the Senate for a national Right-to-work law, according to the U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure Database.  Among the top Washington lobbyists for the NRTWC was Demitri Kesari.  The new documents show that Kesari, acting as political director of the NRTWC, along with the organization’s <b>Executive Director Jedd Coburn,</b> were in direct contact with operatives — including LeFer — and provided materials to assist individual political campaigns.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is not the first time that LeFer and his group have made headlines for their illegal involvement in political campaigns.  In 2012, an investigative report from ProPublica and FRONTLINE found a box of documents in a Colorado meth house detailing illegal coordination between the ATP and conservative candidates.  At the time, investigator Julie Steab of the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices said: “My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that WTP was running a lot of these campaigns.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Commissioner Motl made the documents public to reporters in response to information requests by both the Montana Free Press and the Bozeman Daily-Chronicle.  Some of the documents in the emails that tie NRTWC to WTP/ATP’s activities include:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Emails showing NRTWC’s executive director, Jedd Coburn, wrote the text of “issue letters” on behalf of Montana Republican legislative candidates;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Emails showing Christian and<b> Allison LeFer, a.k.a. Allie Andrews, </b>and their staff were in regular communication with Coburn and other NRTWC staff and officers regarding WTP/ATP campaign activities;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Emails showing that Dimitri Kesari, who was the director of NRTWC’s government affairs department, conducted candidate training seminars in Bozeman for ATP-vetted candidates, and a “Campaign Training School” in a Chicago suburb for NRTWC field staff, which Christian LeFer attended;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Emails showing the LeFers and other WTP/ATP staff worked with Kesari on various projects, including a candidate “target list”;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Written statements indicating that ATP/WTP staffers were paid by NRTWC, and that Kesari “ultimately cuts checks” to LeFer and other ATP staffers;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>A sworn affidavit by former NRTWC employee Dennis Fusaro stating that NRTWC sent four staffers to Montana to work for LeFer in 2010;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>A sworn statement by Fusaro that the NRTWC staff, provided “labor, skilled services (e.g. computer work, copy writing), printing, mail preparation, and equipment usage for the benefit of candidates at reduced costs and even, at times, free.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>A sworn statement by Fusaro that NRTWC ran, and paid for, a direct mail program and conducted phone banking on behalf of candidates;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Emails showing that <b>NRTWC communications director Jeremy Dahl</b> provided “walk lists” and “issue id’d lists” and other valuable voter information to candidates.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The documents are part of an upcoming trial in which <b>Commissioner Motl is suing Rep. Art Wittich in Helena District Court, </b>alleging that Wittich broke Montana campaign finance laws by accepting illegal corporate campaign contributions.  According to Motl, the documents show that the ATP and other groups provided services and coordinated with political campaigns for free or for little cost.  According to Motl:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The significant thing for Montanans is that in the 2010 Montana Republican primary elections, there was a group that consistently sought privacy with the candidates it was working with, and provided those candidates services that were compensated by paid professional staff with the payment being from the National Right to Work Committee to those staff people.  Those paid staff provided sophisticated, targeted voter id lists for the legislative districts that candidates were running in. They provided walking lists for the candidates. They did graphics for the candidates; they built websites. And the candidates didn’t pay for it.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The case will go to jury trial on March 28th. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://wepartypatriots.com/wp/2016/01/29/docs-reveal-brutally-illegal-interference-in-montana-elections-by-national-right-to-work-committee/</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anti-union Group Worked to Influence Elections in 5 States</font></b></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Organization offered candidates a "deadly effective" series of seven custom-written letters</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BY MATT VOLZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS // FEB 17, 2016 // </font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HELENA —</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> It was a tantalizing offer for candidates for state legislative offices, many of whom had never mounted a campaign before.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A national anti-union organization offered candidates in five states a “deadly effective” series of seven custom-written letters that would be signed with their digitally-scanned signatures and mailed to thousands of voters in the final weeks before Election Day.<b> For that personal touch, female National Right to Work Committee field workers would rewrite by hand a “wife letter” — which staffers said was a particularly potent appeal to voters.</b></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The organization offered the mail to candidates in Montana, Iowa, Kentucky, Indiana and Nevada during the 2010 elections, according to thousands of emails, letters, mailers and testimony obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the organization has not been accused of wrongdoing, the documents are being used in civil cases against nine of the 14 Montana candidates who received “the works” package. They are accused of illegally coordinating with and taking unreported contributions from Right to Work and its affiliates.</font></b></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The group’s spokesman, <b>Patrick Semmens</b>, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The documents, more than 14,000 in total, had been subpoenaed by Montana’s elections regulator from the computers of Right to Work’s field operatives, and provide a rare look into the inner workings of so-called “dark money” groups.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Typically registering as social welfare organizations, these groups can raise money and aren’t required to reveal the names of their donors. Those groups are not allowed to have political advocacy as their primary purpose, and Right to Work has said in tax filings that it does not participate in political campaign activities.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Campaign finance advocates fear the wealthy are using the groups to influence candidates out of public view.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Montana, Iowa and Kentucky had bans against direct contributions from corporations such as Right to Work to candidates in 2010, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Indiana had a $2,000 corporate contribution limit to legislative candidates and Nevada’s limit was $5,000.</font></b></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Candidates are required to report all cash and in-kind contributions, but Right to Work either provided candidates its services for free or at cost, according to the documents. Candidates charged in Montana paid below market value for the mailings, the elections regulator alleged. Many candidates did not report their participation in the mail program or any additional candidate programs the group offered.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Montana, that included connecting voters to fundraising resources, website design and what <b>Montana Right to Work staffer Christian LeFer </b>called “the best voter lists in the state,” according to the documents. LeFer offered the full range of services to 14 Montana Republican candidates in 2010.</font></span></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LeFer said in the documents that everything “for invitees” was done for free or at cost.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Montana began to investigate Right to Work’s involvement in past elections when boxes of state candidate files, surveys, mailers and bank statements turned up in 2012 in what authorities described as a Denver “meth house.” LeFer said the documents had been stolen. The files were later featured in a “Frontline” documentary that suggested the Right to Work-affiliated group American Tradition Partnership illegally coordinated with candidates.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last month, Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl released thousands of additional documents that had been subpoenaed by his office. He declined to comment on their content, citing the pending litigation.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>LeFer, who hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing and now runs a Denver company that helps nonprofits with regulatory and fundraising compliance</b>, declined to comment. He asked that questions be submitted in an email to which he never replied.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Virginia-based Right to Work group was created in 1955 and is registered as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization </b>and its mission says that nobody should be forced to join a union to get or keep a job.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The reason Right to Work ran the mail program was to build relationships with the candidates by providing them with things they can’t afford, the group’s<b> former field organizer in Iowa, Dennis Fusaro</b>, said in a deposition in November.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The ability to offer to give someone who doesn’t have two nickels to rub together to run for office the ability to do mailings, and if with a wink and a nod they can give them the mail packages, the printed material, the labor to put it together so they can mail the communications and win an election, is value,” Fusaro said in the deposition.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His testimony came in a case against Montana state Republican Rep. Art Wittich, who is accused of accepting unreported contributions from Right to Work. A trial is scheduled for March. <b>Wittich has denied the charges.</b></font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the voter letters was an introductory letter, the wife letter, various letters on issues important to conservative voters of the district and a final letter mailed just before the election, what Fusaro called the “Hail Mary” letter. “My campaign mail strategy is very late-stage, but deadly effective,” LeFer said in a pitch to Montana legislative candidates in 2008 and 2010.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fusaro agreed to that characterization, according his deposition. Fusaro did not respond to an AP query requesting comment.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The program was overseen by Doug Stafford, a former Right to Work vice president who most recently was chief strategist for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s presidential campaign</b>. Stafford and former Ron Paul presidential campaign staffer, Dimitri Kesari, oversaw field organizers such as LeFer and Fusaro, according to statements by Fusaro that are supported by emails contained in the documents. The letters’ chief copywriter was Jedd Coburn, a former Right to Work staffer who worked on the elder Paul’s 2012 presidential bid.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stafford, Kesari and Coburn did not respond to requests for comment.</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" line-height="line-height" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gov bullock dem appt cooney judge, she recised? 4th judge on case?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/politics/judge-in-political-corruption-lawsuit-is-married-to-newly-appointed</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/politics/commissioner-expands-allegations-against-wittich/</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the works</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">An internal spreadsheet from Western Tradition Partnership lists 13 Republican candidates during Montana’s 2010 election as wanting “the works,” including three sitting lawmakers.</p></div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><b>“The works” was a package of seven campaign services that constitute illegal coordination and banned corporate campaign contributions given in exchange for legislative action,</b> Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jon Motl said in court filings last month.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">Republicans listed as wanting “the works” are Bozeman Rep. Art <b>Wittich,</b> Matt Charlton of Trego, former Rep. Derek Skees of Kalispell, Rep. Alan Doane of Bloomfield, former Rep. James Knox of Billings, former Rep. Dan Kennedy of Billings, Joel Boniek of Livingston, Terry Bannan of Belgrade, Ronald Murray of Belgrade, Rep. Mike Miller of Helmville, Richard Stamey of Victor, Wesley Prouse of Shepherd, and Pat Wagman of Livingston.</p></div><div id="inasset-video-ad" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="blox-ad-position-png_video_ad1" data-tnt-ads="{" vendor="vendor" blox="blox" type="type" position="position" display="display" default="default" region="region" png_video_ad="png_video_ad" fold="fold" above="above" slot="slot" width="width" overline="overline" advertisement="Advertisement" js="js" video="video" http="http" bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com="bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com" bozemandailychronicle.com="bozemandailychronicle.com" shared-content="shared-content" art="art" tncms="tncms" templates="templates" libraries="libraries" flex="flex" components="components" resources="resources" scripts="scripts" video.a29f06e2ab895814c1976b2e38e27635.js="video.a29f06e2ab895814c1976b2e38e27635.js" class="tnt-ads-container " style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 1px;"><div id="tncms-region-article_instory_top" class="tncms-region " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">Two other GOP lawmakers, former <b>Rep. Jerry O’Neil </b>of Columbia Falls and Rep. Lee Randall of Broadus, are also on the WTP list but not for “the works.”</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">Special attorney general Gene Jarussi, who is trying the case against Wittich for Motl, obtained the document in July from WTP staffer Jeremy Hofer. The Chronicle received the document after filing a public records request with the commissioner of political practices.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">The commissioner has already charged many of those on the “works” list with campaign violations. Charlton, O’Neil, Skees, Randall, Doane, Knox, and Stamey, have not been charged.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">Wittich’s attorney, Quentin Rhoades of Missoula, questioned the authenticity of the document, Motl’s interpretation of “the works,” and Motl’s reasons for making them public. Motl is suing Wittich for campaign violations, asking that he be removed from office.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">“Who wants the works? ‘Wants’ could be coming from anyone,” he told the Chronicle, adding that, “we’ve never been supplied with the actual electronic version... this document is open to interpretation even if it is authentic.”</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">Motl declined to comment on the documents.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">“I’m in a position where it’s best for everyone if what I have to say be kept to court documents and the trial,” Motl told the Chronicle on Tuesday.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><b>The allegations are that the list was sent from Christian LeFer to his wife Allison (Andrew) LeFer on May 11, 2010.</b></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the time, Allison LeFer operated a printing shop in Livingston under the name Direct Mail and Communications, incorporated in Colorado, which served political candidates including Wittich. Meanwhile, Christian LeFer was director of strategic programming at the conservative nonprofit Western Tradition Partnership.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">“What’s wildly unfair is that the commissioner does not have a single, solitary email from Art to LeFer, or from LeFer to Art,” Rhoades said. “There’s no email exchanges, no text messages, between these people and that’s true for all of these candidates who he (Motl) has prosecuted.”</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">Motl is using the document to expand his alleged corruption case against Wittich. The civil case is scheduled for a jury trial before Lewis and Clark County District Judge Jeff Sherlock in late March.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Motl contends that Wittich knowingly accepted unreported in-kind contributions from WTP and the national anti-union group Right to Work, and in so doing broke Montana’s <a title="http://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca/13/35/13-35-227.htm" href="http://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca/13/35/13-35-227.htm" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">ban on corporate campaign contributions</a>.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2010, WTP and other affiliated “dark money” groups attacked the opponents of the candidates named in the list. Later that year,<b> Wittich won a seat in the state Senate and served as majority leader.</b></span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Motl has told the courts that this unreported corporate support was traded for promised legislative action. Last year, he issued a sufficiency decision against Wittich and eight other Republicans based on WTP documents found in Colorado</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Despite the allegations and pending court action, the Bozeman attorney was re-elected by voters in 2014 in Belgrade’s heavily Republican House District 68.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>During the 2015 session, Wittich introduced <a title="http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2015/billhtml/HB0462.htm" href="http://leg.mt.gov/bills/2015/billhtml/HB0462.htm" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">right to work legislation</a> that would have eliminated the union membership requirement for public sector jobs in Montana.</b></span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">Several of the GOP candidates have signed negotiated settlements with the commissioner. Joel Boniek, who refused to participate in the lawsuit against himself, was convicted of corruption based on the box of WTP documents from Colorado.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">But Wittich maintains he did not know what WTP and related organizations were doing and that Motl is targeting him for his conservative political beliefs.</p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;">“Motl put it (the documents) in the public record on purpose,” Rhoades said. “So that it would be published in the news media.”</p></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>WTP email dump shows spoofed email accounts, tea party activism and Donald Trump</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By Troy Carter Chronicle Staff Writer  <b>Feb 3, 2016</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Emails released by Montana’s campaign watchdog illustrate how out-of-state political organizations discussed faking candidate emails, advising the local tea party and using Donald Trump to smear Democrats.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Last month, in response to a Chronicle public records request,<b> Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl</b> released more than 1,200 pages of emails from staffers for the<b> anti-union National Right to Work Committee and affiliated political groups working in Montana from 2008 to 2012.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Here are a few of the highlights from those emails:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Right to Work ran “covert ops” on Montana Republicans they didn’t like, mostly online</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Even as they feared “the greens” gaining access to their own email, Right to Work staff in Montana were<b> setting up fake websites for their opponents or hacking their email.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“You’ll know what this means...,” Right to Work staffer Andrew O’Neill wrote in a April 23, 2010, message to his boss, Christian LeFer. <b>The email’s subject line read: “About the covert ops we were talking about earlier.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The message contained a username and password for “llewjoneshd27@gmail.com,” a reference to Republican Llew Jones of Conrad, who was representing House District 27 at the time.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But, said Jones on Monday, he wasn’t using a Gmail account in 2010.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“That sounds like a spoof. They were going to send out fake emails in my name.... They were an effective little bunch,” Jones said. “But I’m glad it’s reached the light of day so it’s more difficult to do these things.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WTP raised outside money and spent it in the 2010 Gallatin County Commission election</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Among the email records released was a fundraising email from Christian LeFer to Dickey Richardson of Miami.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the email, LeFer says his group is involved in more than two dozen Montana’s Legislature races, “plus many county commissioner races that are ripe for the picking.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">LeFer gave the example of former House Speaker Scott Sales who was running for Gallatin County Commissioner. His <b>“pro-freedom record</b> and opportunity for a win in 2010 makes him an ideal candidate for Governor in 2012,” Lefer wrote on April 19, 2010.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Sen. Scott Sales</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sen. Scott Sales, R-Bozeman</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">official photo</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Lefer was working for Sales, and Sales was working for Lefer. </b>In the Montana Right to Work Committee’s election planning document it was noted behind candidate names, “Sales says O’Neil is 100%,” “Call SS” and “Sales to make calls.” The same document also says of Sales: “Need 99 more like this man.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Likewise, Western Tradition Partnership was preparing Sales’ campaign materials using his own signature, which he provided.</b> Sales lost the GOP primary to incumbent Commissioner Joe Skinner, but not before WTP attacked Skinner.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Some Gallatin County Democrats claim they helped defeat Sales by voting for Skinner, making it an example of two equally disliked processes — cross-over voting and outsider-funded attack ads.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bozeman tea party activity</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Emails show LeFer was also an activist in Montana’s tea party circles, trading messages with Bozeman Tea Party leader Henry Kriegel about websites and statewide coordination calls.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">KRIEGEL TO LEFER (p. 1)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Selected portion of a source document hosted by DocumentCloud</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">View entire document with DocumentCloud</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When the Bozeman Tea Party met resistance to its permit application for a Main Street rally in July 2009, LeFer wrote the group suggesting it fire up its base and threaten legal action against City Hall.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Perhaps we should get a legal opinion from <b>Art Wittich</b> about selective handling of applications based upon politics,” Lefer wrote on June 6, 2009. “There may be precedent that supports us, and perhaps if there were even the hint of repercussions, these people might run this a little more fairly.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Donald Trump used to attack Democrats</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Today, billionaire Donald Trump very well could win the Republican nomination for president, but when WTP’s Donald Ferguson wanted to attack a Democrat, he had O’Neill digitally attach their faces onto Trump’s body.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Any chance we can get Trump and safecracker (the John Morse bank robber) photoshops for these guys? These were the best photos I could find,” Ferguson wrote on Oct. 15, 2010, with seven photos of Democrats attached, including former Rep. Julie French, D-Scobey.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">French faced Republican Austin Knudsen, now the Speaker of the House, and lost. On Monday, she couldn’t recall any WTP fliers with her head on Trump’s body, but she did remember the ads portraying her as a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">bank robber.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I do remember the number of fliers. It was staggering. There was a Nancy Pelosi flier at one time. I do not remember Donald Trump,” French laughed.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The emails show that Ferguson also liked to use the<b> digitally manipulated image of “Playboy” founder Hugh Hefner leaning over the Capitol dome in attack ads projecting tropes of unearned wealth and sexuality onto Montana and Colorado candidates.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Troy Carter can be reached at 582-2630 or tcarter@dailychronicle.com. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">case on-going!?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/politics/documents-allege-right-to-work-s-involvement-in-montana-elections">http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/politics/documents-allege-right-to-work-s-involvement-in-montana-elections</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LENA – Thousands of newly uncovered documents and recently filed court records bolster already mounting evidence <b>tying the anti-union National Right to Work Committee to the political activities of conservative nonprofit groups accused of improperly coordinating Republican legislative primary campaigns in Montana.</b></font></p></div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Emails, documents and affidavits recently obtained by Montana’s commissioner of political practices paint a detailed picture of how the national anti-union group oversaw the activities of<b> American Tradition Partnership, the group at the center of allegations of illegal third-party influence in Montana Republican primary campaigns in 2008, 2010 and 2012.</b></font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The National Right to Work Committee is a 501©4 “social welfare” group that, according to the IRS, is not supposed to engage in “direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.”</font></p></div><div id="inasset-video-ad" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="blox-ad-position-png_video_ad1" data-tnt-ads="{" vendor="vendor" blox="blox" type="type" position="position" display="display" default="default" region="region" png_video_ad="png_video_ad" fold="fold" above="above" slot="slot" width="width" overline="overline" advertisement="Advertisement" js="js" video="video" http="http" bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com="bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com" bozemandailychronicle.com="bozemandailychronicle.com" shared-content="shared-content" art="art" tncms="tncms" templates="templates" libraries="libraries" flex="flex" components="components" resources="resources" scripts="scripts" video.a29f06e2ab895814c1976b2e38e27635.js="video.a29f06e2ab895814c1976b2e38e27635.js" class="tnt-ads-container " style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 1px;"><div id="tncms-region-article_instory_top" class="tncms-region " style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tens of thousands of pages of emails obtained by Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl show a link between top NRTWC officials and political campaign activities in Montana.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A former NRTWC employee said in a sworn affidavit filed in Helena District Court that NRTWC staff members were relocated to Montana to work on the 2010 primary campaign, and their work was overseen by the political director of the national organization, Dimitri Kesari. Emails provided to Motl show that National Right to Work Executive Director Jedd Coburn was in regular communication with the groups doing political work in Montana and provided text for candidates’ campaign materials.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Motl said this latest trove of information is significant because it proves ATP was not acting as an independent issue advocacy organization, as the group claimed, but was instead part of a massive, coordinated campaign machine funded by an out-of state organization with the goal of changing the makeup of the Montana Legislature.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>“Christian LeFer </b>was here as a field operative for National Right to Work. Once you get there, then National Right to Work’s central role is more apparent,” Motl said. “I don’t think you can underestimate the significance, or the threat, that a coordinated, funded, centralized corporate-take-over of candidates poses (to elections).”</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Motl said that in 2008, when Western Tradition Partnership first entered the scene in Montana, and in 2010 when the group changed its name to American Tradition Partnership, most people, including a previous commissioner of political practices, believed the group was an independent entity.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You can see from looking at all of these documents that it wasn’t,” Motl said.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A spokesman for the National Right to Work Committee did not return multiple phone calls or emails seeking comment for this story. Christian LeFer, who was the director of Montana Citizens for Right to Work and ran two political nonprofits in Montana, also did not respond to email inquiries.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to a U.S. Senate lobbying disclosure database, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">NRTWC spent more than $42 million between 1999 and 2016 lobbying the Senate to pass a national “Right to Work” bill. Dimitri Kesari was one of the group’s top lobbyists in Washington, D.C., during most of that period. Montana is one of the few Western states without a “right-to-work” law. Such laws prohibit labor unions from requiring employees to join the union or pay dues as a condition of employment.</span></font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LeFer’s Montana nonprofit group Western Tradition Partnership made national headlines in 2012 when “Frontline” and ProPublica <a title="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/big-sky-big-money/" href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/big-sky-big-money/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">reported</a> about boxes of documents that revealed how the organization coordinated with Republican legislative candidates.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>WTP is also the group that successfully sued the state in 2011 and eventually overturned Montana’s 100-year-old ban on corporate spending in elections.</b></font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former staffers and interns who worked for WTP, its successor group American Tradition Partnership, and Christian and Allison LeFer, the Colorado couple who ran those organizations and a host of other political groups, turned over thousands of emails to Motl as part of an investigation leading up to a<b> civil lawsuit.</b></font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Motl is <a title="http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/politics/new-cache-of-wtp-emails-preview-arguments-coming-in-wittich/article_d8ee4df6-272e-5727-959c-e9f547a781f1.html" href="http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/politics/new-cache-of-wtp-emails-preview-arguments-coming-in-wittich/article_d8ee4df6-272e-5727-959c-e9f547a781f1.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">suing Bozeman Republican Rep. Art Wittich</a> in Helena District Court, alleging Wittich broke Montana campaign finance laws by accepting illegal corporate campaign contributions</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Motl alleges WTP/ATP and other groups provided coordinated campaign services to Wittich and other conservative Republican candidates at little or no cost to the candidates.</span></font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wittich has denied the allegations, saying he paid for the services he was provided. He has accused Motl of engaging in a “political witch hunt.”</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That case is scheduled to go to jury trial March 28.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Motl made the email documents available for inspection by reporters in response to a series of public information requests from the Montana Free Press and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some of the documents tying NRTWC to WTP/ATP’s Montana primary campaign activities include:</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Emails showing NRTWC’s executive director, Jedd Coburn, wrote the text of “issue letters” on behalf of Montana Republican legislative candidates{/li}{li}Emails showing Christian and Allison LeFer, aka Allie Andrews, and their staff were in regular communication with Coburn and other NRTWC staff and officers regarding WTP/ATP campaign activities{/li}{li}Emails showing that Dimitri Kesari, who was the director of NRTWC’s government affairs department, conducted candidate training seminars in Bozeman for ATP-vetted candidates, and a “Campaign Training School” in a Chicago suburb for NRTWC field staff, which Christian LeFer attended{/li}{li}Emails showing the LeFers and other WTP/ATP staff worked with Kesari on various projects, including a<b> candidate “target list</b>”{/li}{li}Written statements indicating that ATP/WTP staffers were paid by NRTWC, and that Kesari “ultimately cuts checks” to LeFer and other ATP staffers{/li}{li}A sworn affidavit by former NRTWC employee Dennis Fusaro stating that NRTWC sent four staffers to Montana to work for LeFer in 2010{/li}{li}A sworn statement by Fusaro that the NRTWC staff provided “labor, skilled services (e.g. computer work, copy writing), printing, mail preparation and equipment usage for the benefit of candidates at reduced costs and even, at times, free”{/li}{li}A sworn statement by Fusaro that NRTWC ran, and paid for, a direct mail program and conducted phone banking on behalf of candidates{/li}{li}Emails showing that NRTWC communications director Jeremy Dahl provided “walk lists” and “issue ID’d lists” and other valuable voter information to candidates.{/li}{/ul}</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many of the highlights of the emails come from Andrew O’Neill, a staffer who worked on graphics and website design on behalf of WTP/ATP and the various campaign services corporations run by the LeFers.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A review of the emails indicates O’Neill was deeply involved in the day-to-day operations of the organizations centered on GOP legislative campaigns. The emails indicate O’Neill and other WTP/ATP staffers had regular communication with the LeFers and high-level NRTWC officials surrounding the campaigns of Republican legislative candidates.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In one of the emails, a document details the offerings of a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">turn-key campaign operation called<b> Smart Simple Campaigns</b>,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> which says: “EVERYTHING BELOW WE DO FOR INVITEES IS FREE OR AT COST.”</span></font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In another email, Christian LeFer invited 26 Republican legislative candidates to a candidate training seminar in Bozeman.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Your campaign’s effectiveness and your ability to recruit volunteers, and fundraise will immensely benefit, money-back guaranteed,” the email states, adding, “Please do not forward…”</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Motl said that is the main problem with the operation: The NRTWC-affiliated groups in Montana provided services and labor to certain candidates without disclosing what was done or how much was spent. In some cases, the documents show, those groups gave away those services for free.</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The significant thing for Montanans is that in the 2010 Montana Republican primary elections, there was a group that consistently sought privacy with the candidates it was working with, and provided those candidates services that were compensated by paid professional staff with the payment being from the National Right to Work Committee to those staff people,” Motl said. “Those paid staff provided sophisticated, targeted voter ID lists for the legislative districts that candidates were running in. They provided walking lists for the candidates. They did graphics for the candidates; they built websites. And the candidates didn’t pay for it.”</font></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An annotated version of more than 2,000 pages of emails and Fusaro’s sworn affidavit can be viewed online at<a href="http://bozemandailychronicle.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">bozemandailychronicle.com</a> and <a href="http://montanafreepress.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">montanafreepress.org</a>.</font></em></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 24px; line-height: 27px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Montana Free Press is a statewide, independent, nonprofit source of in-depth news, information, and analysis. Visit<a href="http://montanafreepress.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">montanafreepress.org</a> for more information.</font></em></p></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wow

</font></div>

<h1 class="posttitle" id="post-225" style="outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Featured Crook: Christian Lefer</font></h1>

<p class="postdetails" style="outline: none; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By ATP Editor, on February 13, <b>2013 |</b> </font></p><p class="postdetails" style="outline: none; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p>

<p style=" outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 12px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many people in the least couple of years have asked the question, who runs American Tradition Partnership? While this is a difficult question to answer, all indications point to Livingston/Colorado based consultant Christian Lefer.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lefer was prominently featured in the PBS Frontline special, <a href="http://video.pbs.org/video/2298009584/" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Big Sky Big Money</a>. While Lefer refused to speak on camera, he left a trail of evidence that implicate him in a broad web of PAC’s, 501 (c) 3′s, 501 (c) 4′s, and consulting firms that implicate him in serious campaign finance</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Attached here is a partial report of <a href="http://atpexposed.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/SKMBT_C552D13021214420.pdf" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Christian Lefer’s Domains</a> that he has purchased. They range from the weird (<a href="http://www.hotquail.com/" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">http://www.hotquail.com</a>), to the political, (<a href="http://www.instantfamilyfoundation.com/" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">http://www.instantfamilyfoundation.com</a>), to the just plain ominous (<a href="http://www.culturalsupremacist.com/" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">http://www.culturalsupremacist.com</a>). In addition to these, Lefer used the same IP address to purchase personal websites as well as business websites. Over the next week, ATP Exposed will release additional URL’s that continue to prove that Lefer has a wide web of organizations that he has used to purchase many legislators in our state capital.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fairly unsurprisingly, Lefer has blocked access to many of these websites. I think everyone should wonder, what is Lefer hiding?</font></p>

</div>

</font></div>

<h1 class="posttitle" id="post-279" style="outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Going down Drury Lane: Art Wittich and Christian Lefer ran primary race against Bruce Tutvedt?</font></h1>

<p class="postdetails" style="outline: none; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By ATP Editor, on March 14, 2013 | <span style=" outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Comments Off</span></font></p>

<p style=" outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 12px; padding: 0px;"><b id="internal-source-marker_0.6266415931750089" style=" outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the Extremist Leadership in the Senate continues to fall apart, new allegations of illegal coordination with American Tradition Partnership have come to light.</font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://atpexposed.com/arvis-and-rinopoacher/" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As documented before</a>, the ATP backed Extremists put former President Pro-Tem Bruce Tutvedt in their crosshairs by backing out of state carpetbagger Rolan Roberts II. New details have come to light that show clear coordination between Roberts, ATP, as well as Senate Majority Leader Art Wittich.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://atpexposed.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/drury-lane.pdf" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Roberts paid over $10,000</a> to “Drury Lane Consulting”. Drury Lane Consulting’s address is 7251 South Albion St in Centennial Colorado. This property is also the address for Lefer’s <a href="http://atpexposed.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/nonprofitstat.pdf" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Get Non-Profit Status” consulting firm</a>. So not only did ATP’s shell groups back Roberts on the “independent”, but Lefer also ran Robert’s campaign. This is a clear violation of campaign finance law. Word around the Capital is that Senator Tutvedt will be filing a complaint for this blatant violation of law.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It wasn’t just Lefer running Robert’s campaign. It is widely speculated that Majority Leader Art Wittich is ATP’s lawyer. It seems now that he is also providing political consulting services as well now. Word around the capital is that Senator Wittich not only helped Roberts with his campaign, but he also recruited Roberts to run against Tutvedt in the first place. The reason for this is very obvious self serving. Wittich narrowly beat Tutvedt in the race for Senate Majority Leader. ATP and the Extremist Majority Leadership had bought and paid for 15 members of the State Senate, and they wanted to add Roberts to their team. More details about Wittich’s role in this primary will be coming.</font></p>

</div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">wtpdoc [? i see no doc or text]</font></div>

</font></div>

<div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">23.</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Christian LeFer is the Executive Director of Montana Citizens for</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Right to Work</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a </span></font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">corporation registered with the Montana Secretary of State. The mission statement on </font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">its website states: “To pass legislation which prohibits forcing workers to pay union </font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dues as a condition of employment.”</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">31. On May 18, 2010, the<b> IRS 527 organization known as Coalition for Energy and </b></font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Environment renamed itself Western Tradition Partnership.</b> CEE and WTP both have </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the same federal employment identification number (FEIN). </font></div>

</div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">47. Following an interview with Christian LeFer (see Facts 21 and 23), Karolin Loendorf </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">was offered a job with WTP and began working there on January 7, 2009. Loendorf </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">stated she understood her responsibilities would include <b>getting individuals elected to </b></font></div>

<div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">public office. Loendorf resigned from WTP on February 15, 2009, based on what she </font></b></div>

<div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">described as “underhanded things” going on at WTP.</font></b></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">48. According to Loendorf, some presently serving Montana legislators are affiliated with </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WTP. Loendorf contends that if the legislators fail to support WTP?s favored </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">legislation, WTP will attempt to replace them in the next election.</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">49. Loendorf contends that WTP has formed several 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) affiliated </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">organizations, as well as a political action committee (PAC). According to Loendorf,<b> if </b></font></div>

<div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">donors were uncomfortable contributing money to a PAC, they could donate to the </font></b></div>

<div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">affiliated nonprofit organizations while keeping their contributions confidential.</font></b></div>

</font></b></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">50. <b>Loendorf provided a copy of the “WTP 2010 Election Year Program Executive </b></font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Briefing</b>,” designed as a PowerPoint presentation, which appears to be targeted to </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Montana donors (hereinafter “Montana presentation”). Loendorf also provided a copy </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">of a second PowerPoint presentation entitled “WTP 2010 Election Year Program U.S. </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">House and Senate” (hereinafter “Federal presentation”). According to Loendorf, both </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PowerPoint presentations were intended to be presented by WTP in “private executive </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">briefings” made to potential donors.</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">51. The Montana presentation lists 2008 “target states,” Montana and Colorado, and lists </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“targeted primary races” in Montana. One page of the Montana presentation is entitled </font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“2008 Election Results” and lists the following claims for 2008 Montana elections:</font></div>

</div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_72350f76-85ac-5d7d-917e-d769dd17d05a.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_72350f76-85ac-5d7d-917e-d769dd17d05a.html</font></a></div>

</font></div>

<div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Marlenee, Sinrud form group to stop ‘radical</b></font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>environmentalists'</b></font></div>

</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MAY 03, 2008 12:00 AM • BY CHARLES S. JOHNSON OF THE MISSOULIAN STATE BUREAU</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HELENA -</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Former U. S. Rep. Ron Marlenee and state Rep. John Sinrud have formed an</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">election-year issue advocacy group to promote the use of Montana's natural resources, protect</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">property rights and stop "radical environmentalists."</font></div>

</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The two Bozeman Republicans have launched Western Tradition Partnership and are soliciting</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">money and memberships from industry and business executives.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although the group seeks to provide good-paying mining, logging and other natural resource</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">jobs for blue-collar workers, it also has a tie to Montana's right-to-work movement. Right-to</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">work laws ban the so-called "closed shop," which makes union membership a condition of</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">employment. Unions have successfully fought efforts to pass these laws in Montana for</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">decades.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new group is targeting local and state issues, not national ones.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"The fact is, right now, the anti-development/anti-growth crowd controls the governor's mansion,</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">has a razor-thin majority in the state Senate and is only one seat away from taking control of the</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">state House,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">" they wrote in an April 21 letter. "Not only that, but over the past few elections, the</span></font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">radical environmentalists have been steadily increasing their support on county and city</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">commissions and councils all over Montana as well."</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>That letter, sent to 5,000 business and industry executives,</b> said they should join the partnership</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">because "quite simply, you and I cannot afford to ignore what's going on here in Montana." The</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">letter added:</font></div>

</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"When it comes to frivolous environmental lawsuits, business taxes, licensing requirements,</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">industry and labor regulations, energy development and a host of other issues critical to</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Montana businesses, decisions made at the state and local level can often be more important -</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">and more damaging - than those coming out of Washington, D.C."</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marlenee, 72, was Montana's eastern district congressman from 1977 to 1993. When Montana</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">lost one of its two congressional seats, the conservative Marlenee lost an epic 1992 battle</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">against U.S. Rep. Pat Williams, the liberal Democrat who represented the western district.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After leaving Congress, Marlenee has lobbied for Safari Club International.</b></font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sinrud, 40, a three-term legislator and current chairman of the House Appropriations</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Committee, chose not to seek re-election in 2008. He's been one of the Democratic Gov. Brian</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schweitzer's toughest critics.</font></div>

</font></div>

<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last fall, the state Board of Architecture ordered Sinrud, who owned an architectural design</font></div>

</div>

<div>

<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; line-height: 22px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ast fall, the state Board of Architecture </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ordered Sinrud, who owned an architectural design firm, to quit practicing architecture without a license</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Sinrud, who said he never held himself out as an architect, charged that he was the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> victim of a political witch hunt by the Schweitzer administration because of his criticisms of the governor. Schweitzer dismissed Sinrud's charge as "delusional."</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Sinrud and Marlenee formed what the Internal Revenue Service calls as a 501(c)(4) organization. It can engage in issues advocacy, but not speak out for or against candidates.</b></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These groups typically raise an issue via television or radio ads and urge people to call their senators, representative or governor to urge them to support or oppose an issue or bill.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a 501(c)(4), Sinrud said, "The income coming in is not taxable. It doesn't have to be disclosed."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The partnership plans to advocate on such issues as forest management, energy development, water issues and Montana's lack of coal and coal-bed methane development compared to Wyoming, he said.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's getting back to our roots in the state of Montana this state was created," Sinrud said. "It was created by using the treasures we have to make this state prosperous."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marlenee said the partnership will not be affiliated with any political party, but added:</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Because we've got to move back to the basics in Montana, we've got to also move back to our conservative roots. I and others in the nation are disenfranchised. We can't allow extremists to run the country."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marlenee said the group won't raise its money from political parties.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Been there, done that," he said, predicting the partnership will raise money a new way: "Build it, and they will come."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It seeks to help blue-collar workers get good-paying natural resource industry jobs, Sinrud said, because "not everyone's going to be a Ph.D. or be a doctor or lawyer."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"That's the concept behind it," he said. "We've really got to help these people out. If we help these people out, we can help our state."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, the partnership also has a link to Montana's right-to-work movement.</font>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked in a telephone interview who else was helping with the Western Tradition Partnership, Sinrud mentioned Christian LeFer of Livingston.</font></b>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asked if that was the same Christian LeFer of Livingston who is executive director of Montana Citizens for Right to Work, Sinrud said, "That's a totally separate group. He's not part of the group. I'm just working with him for advice."</font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Montana is surrounded by right-to-work states. With unions leading the opposition, repeated efforts to enact such a law here have failed, even when Republicans have controlled the governor's office and the Legislature.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a later interview, Sinrud said LeFer is just working as a consultant to the partnership, helping with graphics and Web design work.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asked about the connection, LeFer said, "Yeah, I do a little graphic design work for my friends. I volunteer in my community. I do graphics for my church."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LeFer emphasized his issue is right-to-work, and he vowed to pass it in Montana.</font>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On Jan. 16, Sinrud out sent a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> right-to-work</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> mass mailing that included a letter of introduction on LeFer's behalf that asked recipients to join them in fighting "forced unionism."</span></font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Montana Democratic Party spokesman Kevin O'Brien isn't buying the partnership's denial of ties to the right-to-work movement.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This is just another attempt by John Sinrud and Ron Marlenee and their out-of-state big-money backers to push an extreme agenda that is focused on taking rights away from Montana workers," O'Brien said. "This is a wedge issue. What they're trying to do is split environmentalist and labor."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jim Jensen, executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center, a leading environmental group, hadn't heard of the partnership and questioned its need.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It certainly looks backward and not forward," Jensen said. "Montana's environmental laws have resulted in dramatic protection of private property and improved public health for our communities and our families. Montana currently has an environmentally sensitive governor and Legislature, and at the same time, the lowest unemployment it's had, the healthiest economy for many years and a healthy state budget.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"If Sinrud and Marlenee want to take us back to the copper collar and robber barons and the days in Butte where you couldn't see the sun because of smoke and air pollution, they're going to have a tough time convincing Montanans that those days were better than today."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Don Allen is executive director of the Western Environmental Trade Association, a generally pro-development group that includes both industries and some unions.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Allen hadn't heard of the Western Tradition Partnership either.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I'm not against there being other groups," Allen said. "If they want to start another group, that's fine. There's only so much money to go around."</font>

 </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The boxes landed in the office of Montana investigators in March 2011.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Found in a <b>meth house in Colorado</b>,</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> they were somewhat of a mystery, holding</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> files on 23 conservative candidates in state races in Montana.</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> They were filled with candidate surveys and mailers that said they were paid for by campaigns, and fliers and bank records from outside spending groups. One folder was labeled “Montana $ Bomb.”</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The documents pointed to one outside group pulling the candidates’ strings: a social welfare nonprofit called Western Tradition Partnership, or WTP.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Altogether, the records added up to possible illegal “coordination” between the nonprofit and candidates for office in 2008 and 2010, said a Montana investigator and a former Federal Election Commission chairman who reviewed the material. Outside groups are allowed to spend money on political campaigns, but not to coordinate with candidates.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that WTP was running a lot of these campaigns,” said investigator</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Julie Steab of the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, who initially received the boxes from Colorado.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The boxes were examined by Frontline and ProPublica as part of an investigation into the growing influence on elections of <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/how-nonprofits-spend-millions-on-elections-and-call-it-public-welfare" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">dark money groups</a>, tax-exempt organizations that can accept unlimited contributions and do not have to identify their donors. The documents offer a rare glimpse into the world of dark money, showing how Western Tradition Partnership appealed to donors, interacted with candidates and helped shape their election efforts.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Though WTP’s spending has been at the state level, it’s best-known nationally for bringing a lawsuit that successfully challenged <a href="http://www.scotusreport.com/2012/06/28/high-courts-radicals-hold-fast-on-citizens-united/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Montana’s ban on corporate spending</a> in elections, extending the provisions of the U.S. Supreme Court’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html?pagewanted=all" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">landmark Citizens United decision</a> to all states.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The tax code allows nonprofits like WTP to engage in some political activity, but they are supposed to have social welfare as their primary purpose. As reported previously by ProPublica and Frontline, when WTP applied for recognition of its tax-exempt status, it <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/did-the-dark-money-group-that-spurred-a-landmark-ruling-mislead-the-irs" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">told the IRS</a> under penalty of perjury that it would not directly or indirectly attempt to influence elections — even though it already had.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The group is now locked in an ongoing dispute with Montana authorities, who ruled in<a href="http://politicalpractices.mt.gov/content/2recentdecisions/GraybillvWTPandCoalitionforEnergyandEnvironmentDecision" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">October 2010</a> that the nonprofit should have registered as a political committee and should have to disclose its donors. WTP sued. A hearing is set for March.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the meantime, the group has changed its name to American Tradition Partnership, reflecting its larger ambitions. This month, it sent Montana voters a mailer in the form of a newspaper called the <a href="http://montanastatesman.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Montana Statesman</a> that claimed to be the state’s “largest & most trusted news source.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The front page accused the Democratic gubernatorial candidate of being soft on sex offenders.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donny Ferguson, American Tradition Partnership’s spokesman and executive director, did not specifically address the documents found in Colorado or allegations of coordination made against WTP.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“American Tradition Partnership always obeys every letter of every applicable law,” he wrote in an emailed response to questions. “ATP does not, and never will, endorse candidates or urge voters to vote for or against candidates. … These false allegations are old hat.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On its <a href="http://americantradition.org/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">website</a>, the group says its primary purpose is issue advocacy and combating radical environmentalists, whom it sometimes calls “gang green.” It describes itself as a grassroots group backed by a broad membership of small donors.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked about the documents found in Colorado, Jim Brown, a lawyer for the group, said he was unfamiliar with them.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After being shown some of the documents by Frontline, Brown, in a follow up email, said his review indicated that they appeared to belong to a company called Direct Mail. Direct Mail and Communications is a print shop in Livingston, Mont., run by a one-time key player in WTP and his wife.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brown urged Frontline to turn over the documents. “If the documents are purported to be what you say they are, then you may knowingly be in possession of stolen property,” Brown wrote.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The records are in the hands of the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, which considers them public and reviewable upon request.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the anything-goes world of modern campaign finance, outside groups face one major restriction: They are not allowed to coordinate with candidates. That’s because contributions to candidates and parties are still capped to limit donors’ direct influence, while contributions to outside groups are unlimited.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Federal Election Commission has a <a href="http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/indexp.shtml" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">three-pronged test</a> for proving coordination: Did an outside group pay for ads, phone calls or mailers? Did these materials tell people to vote for or against a candidate, or praise or criticize a candidate in the weeks before an election? Finally, did the candidate, or a representative, agree to the expenditure?</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many concerns have been raised about <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/coordination-six-reasons-limits-on-super-pacs-are-barely-limits-at-all" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">coordination in this election</a> because of close ties between outside groups and campaigns. Super PACs supporting <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/08/12/wasserman-schultz-no-idea-about-political-affiliation-priorities-usa/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">President Barack Obama</a>and Republican nominee <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/05/news/la-pn-romney-fundraising-20110705" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mitt Romney</a> are run by their former staffers. Super PACs and campaigns have used the <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/campaign-spending-shows-political-ties-self-dealing#correction" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">same consultants</a>, who insist in interviews that they have firewalls.</font>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Proving coordination is extremely difficult,</b> however. Since 2007, the FEC has investigated 64 complaints of coordination, but found against candidates and groups only three times, fining them a total of $107,000, a review of FEC enforcement actions shows.</font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Montana, which has similar rules, also receives few complaints about such activity, Steab said.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The boxes from Colorado contained a mixture of documents from candidates and outside groups.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Folders labeled with the names of Montana candidates held drafts and final letters of support signed by candidates’ wives and drafts and final copies of mailers marked as being paid for by the campaigns. The folders often appeared to have had an accounting of what had been sent and paid for scrawled on the front.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several folders included copies of the <b>signatures of candidates and their wives. “Use this one,</b>” someone wrote in red pen next to a cut-out rectangle on a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/457813-signaturesupload.html#document/p2/a79383" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">page</a> with five signatures from one candidate.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Steab, the Montana investigator, said she believed these cut-out signatures were then affixed to fliers from the candidates.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Besides material from the campaigns, the boxes also contained mailers on 2008 and 2010 races in Colorado and Montana from Western Tradition Partnership and six other groups. There were bank statements for several groups, including the </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/441925-wtp-bank-statements.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Coalition for Energy and the Environment</a>, the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/441926-wtp-bank-statements-0002.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Alliance of Montana Taxpayers</a> and the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/441927-wtp-bank-statements-0004.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Conservative Victory Fund</a>.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In all the documents, one name repeatedly popped up: Christian LeFer</b><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Even though two </span><a href="http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_72350f76-85ac-5d7d-917e-d769dd17d05a.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Montana Republican politicians</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> founded WTP, investigators determined that LeFer was the man behind the scenes.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">LeFer, who is described as WTP’s </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">director of strategic programming </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">in </span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/426608-03-09-wtp-scheduling-memo-by-christian-lefer.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">memos</a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> in </span><a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/426606-01-09-wtp-strategic-forcasting-memo-by-christian.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">2009</a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, said in </span><a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/490801-christian-lefers-response-to-propublica" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">an email</a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> that the documents “appear to be stolen property” and that, as he’d had no access to them, he couldn’t respond to most of ProPublica’s questions, “which seem to be based on an erroneous and fanciful interpretation of what they mean.”</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LeFer did not address whether WTP had coordinated with candidates. Although former employees and candidates said LeFer helped his wife run Direct Mail and Communications — the printing company that Brown, the lawyer, suggested was the owner of the boxes of documents found in Colorado — LeFer said he did not “run or direct the activities” there.</font>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Direct Mail listed its <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/426685-65.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">principal office address</a> in Montana filings as being the same <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/426425-wtp-incorp-2008-co.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Colorado address</a> WTP initially used.</font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two outside groups with documents in the boxes — the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/457811-ctpu-bank-statements.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Montana Committee to Protect the Unborn</a> and <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/444589-wtp-bank-statements-0036.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Montana Citizens for Right to Work</a> — listed their addresses on bank statements as the same <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/490744-direct-mail-usps-form.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">post-office box</a> in Livingston used by LeFer and Direct Mail. LeFer was also the executive director of <a href="http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_cd4a059c-6eba-11df-aafa-001cc4c002e0.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Montana Citizens for Right to Work</a>, an anti-union group.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former state Rep. Ed Butcher said LeFer and Western Tradition Partnership aided candidates with no experience.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“They’ll come in, if candidates want some help, they’ll come in and help them,” said Butcher, who described LeFer as “</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">a Karl Rove type political strategist” who “stays in the background.”</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Butcher’s file in the Colorado boxes was labeled <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/444646-butcher-primary.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Butcher Primary ’08 mail samples.”</a> It included an email from LeFer to Butcher with a survey about unions. There was a campaign donation form, and drafts of fliers and a letter from Butcher’s campaign.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A “wife questionnaire” for Butcher’s wife Pam said she met her husband “on a blind date arranged by his buddy that neither of us wanted.” The questionnaire listed her children’s names and that she had been taking care of her disabled mother for five years.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A letter on pink paper from <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/449198-butcher-wife-letter-0001.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Pam Butcher</a> was in a file marked “wife letters.” The letter, which contained much of the information in the questionnaire, was marked as being paid for by Butcher’s campaign.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Butcher said his wife might have run her letter past LeFer. “He may have asked, ‘Do you need any help?’ and she said, ‘Yeah, I need to get this family letter out,’” said Butcher, who won the Republican primary in 2008 by <a href="http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/article_cfe1700b-b51b-5a0a-8715-9efab06c20be.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">20 votes</a>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A folder for</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> another successful candidate, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/444641-miller-ward-survey.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mike Miller</a></span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, included a fax cover sheet from Miller to LeFer, forwarding Miller’s filled-out Montana candidate surveys for two outside groups, the National Gun Owners Alliance and the National League of Taxpayers. It also held a candidate survey asking Miller if he had any research about his opponent, including “any recent scandals.”</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Miller confirmed to Frontline that LeFer was an unpaid adviser on his campaign, but would not elaborate further.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trevor Potter, a former federal election commissioner who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group that advocates for more restrictions on money in politics, reviewed the documents found in the boxes.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This is the sort of information that is, in fact, campaign strategy, campaign plans that candidates cannot share with an outside group without making it coordinated,” Potter said.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You need to know more, but certainly if I were back in my FEC days as a commissioner, I would say we had grounds to proceed with an investigation and put people under oath and show them these documents, and ask where they came from and where they were.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After the 2008 election, Montana started investigating whether WTP should have disclosed its donors.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The inquiry progressed slowly until 2010, when a former WTP contractor handed over internal fundraising records, saying she was worried about what the group was doing.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The documents showed that the group raised money specifically by telling people and corporations that they could give unlimited amounts in secret.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The only thing we plan on reporting is our success to contributors like you who can see the benefits of a program like this,” said one document, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/485355-wtp-powerpoint-w-script.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a 2010 election briefing</a> to read to potential donors. “You can just sit back on election night and see what a difference you’ve made.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/426626-perspective-wtp-donor-list.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">target list</a> of potential donors included an executive at a talc mine, the Montana representative of an international mining group and a Colorado executive for a global gold-mining company.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One note about a potential donor advised: “Married rich, hard to get a hold of. Have a beer with him.” Another said: “Owns big ranch, signed a hit piece I wrote on cty cmms’r last year (don’t mention), should give $$ $10,000 ask.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other notes suggested that solicitors “See Christian” or “Talk to Christian,” apparently references to LeFer.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The documents cited the group’s success in 2008, saying in a confidential grassroots membership <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/426610-2009-wtp-confidential-overview.html#document/p4/a79132" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">development proposal</a> that</span><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b> 28 Montana state legislators “rode into office in 100% support of WTP’s responsible development agenda.”</b></font></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By 2010, the partnership was active in state races in Montana and Colorado.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That October, Montana authorities said Western Tradition Partnership had violated campaign-finance law and should be fined. They said the group’s purpose in 2008 was “not to discuss issues, but to directly influence candidate elections through surreptitious means.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/426675-wtp-factsfindings-cpp-10-21-10.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Montana investigation</a> also said the evidence was overwhelming that WTP had established the </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Coalition for Energy and the Environment, known as CEE, as a “sham organization” to act as a front for expenditures actually made by WTP.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the investigation also found that “sufficient evidence has not been disclosed to establish coordination between WTP/CEE and any candidate. Concern and healthy skepticism is warranted, however.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That was before the boxes from Colorado turned up.</font>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A convicted felon named Mark Seibel said he stumbled on them inside a known meth house near Denver at some point in late 2010.</font></span>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s not clear how they got there. Seibel said a friend found them in a stolen car. After reading through some of the documents, he reached out to people he thought might be interested in them — primarily Colorado candidates attacked by Western Tradition Partnership. A lawyer married to one of the candidates shipped the boxes off to Montana investigators.</font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By that time, however, the Montana probe into the group’s activities in the 2008 election was over. Steab also said that there was no way to determine for certain where the documents were from and who owned them. There was no whistleblower, and no information about how the records ended up in Colorado.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite this, Steab said, she found the documents very telling.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It looks to me that there was a lot of coordination—but I don’t know that it’s coordination that everyone is aware of in all cases,” she said. She said she spoke to one candidate who told her he was upset about all the negative mailers against his opponent.</font>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This year, American Tradition Partnership is as active as ever. <b>It’s suing to try to overturn contribution limits in Montana</b>, so far <a href="http://www.kulr8.com/news/local/Montana-Election-Dispute-175484281.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">unsuccessfully</a>. The group sent out mailers attacking candidates before the June primary in Montana, reporting none of them to the state as political expenditures. It later put out <a href="http://americantradition.org/?p=2540" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a press release</a> saying that 12 of the 14 candidates it backed had won.</font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For the general election, the group appears to be targeting Montana’s attorney general, Steve Bullock, the Democratic candidate for governor. As attorney general, Bullock fought the partnership’s lawsuits against the state, including the one that ended up in the Supreme Court.</b></font>

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The first issue of the partnership’s Montana Statesman newspaper, dated Oct. 7, which a group <a href="http://americantradition.org/?p=2784" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">press release</a> said was sent to 180,000 voters, featured four photographs on the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/490262-front-page-of-montana-statesman.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">front page</a>: Three of registered sex offenders, and one of <b>Bullock, accusing him of allowing one in four sex offenders to go unregistered</b>. “Bullock admits failure,” the headline announced. A full-page ad accused Bullock of taking illegal corporate contributions and of “criminal hypocrisy.”</font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Statesman’s editor and publisher is none other than <a href="http://montanastatesman.com/about-2/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ferguson</a></b>, the partnership’s executive director, described as an “award-winning newspaper veteran” who has been “commended by other newspapers for his ‘honest, intelligent and issue-oriented’ approach.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ferguson didn’t respond to a question about his journalism credentials.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Conservative group American Tradition Partnership </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">now one of nation’s biggest media outlets</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">,</span><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">” said a press release on the group’s </font><a href="http://montanastatesman.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">website</a><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, adding that the newspaper would publish “several” editions through Election Day and into 2013.</font></font>

<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/big-sky-big-money/mysterious-docs-found-in-meth-house-reveal-inner-workings-of-dark-money-group/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/big-sky-big-money/mysterious-docs-found-in-meth-house-reveal-inner-workings-of-dark-money-group/</font></a>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A group of protesters <a href="http://www.kaj18.com/news/helena-protest-targets-american-tradition-partnership/#!prettyPhoto/0/" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">rallied</a> against American Tradition Partnership in Helena, Montana, on Wednesday, a day after the airing of <em style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/big-sky-big-money" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Big Sky, Big Money</a>, </em>an investigation by FRONTLINE, ProPublica and <em style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Marketplace</em> that uncovered potentially illegal collusion between the nonprofit group and political candidates.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ATP, in a <a href="http://americantradition.org/?p=2830" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">statement</a> on its website, said such claims were “false,” calling the film and related articles an “unsubstantiated, well-coordinated attack” on the group and its work.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Waving signs and chanting “ATP, go back to D.C.,” Wednesday’s protesters marched to the office of Jim Brown, ATP’s attorney, in the city of Helena, who greeted them with a <a href="https://twitter.com/BoyceDan/status/263716103564451840/photo/1" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">tin of Halloween candy</a>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Later that evening, someone broke into the Montana Commissioner on Political Practices (COPP) office, according to a <a href="http://helenair.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/political-practices-reports-apparent-break-in/article_9d91e38c-2444-11e2-88cf-001a4bcf887a.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">report</a> in the local <em style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Independent Record</em>. Nothing appeared to have been stolen.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The commissioner has been holding <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/big-sky-big-money/mysterious-docs-found-in-meth-house-reveal-inner-workings-of-dark-money-group/" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">documents from Colorado</a> that raised questions about whether ATP had been involved in inappropriate coordination with a number of political candidates. Those documents were “in a secure location and are not missing” after the burglary, the paper said.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Christian LeFer, the director of strategy for Western Tradition Partnership, which later changed its name to ATP, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/big-sky-big-money/more-evidence-key-dark-money-group-may-have-misled-irs" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">told ProPublica</a> that the documents belonged to him and his wife, Allison LeFer, and that the papers had been stolen from her car in Denver. LeFer said in a<a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/492767-christian-lefers-response-re-found-documents" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">statement</a> that he and his wife have “scrupulously endeavored to avoid any possibility of illegal coordination.” Lefer and his wife have <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/496706-lefer-lawsuit-against-copp.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">filed suit</a> against COPP, asking the documents be returned.</font>

<a href="http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/investigations/big-sky-big-money/story/documents-found-meth-house-bare-inner-workings-dar/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/investigations/big-sky-big-money/story/documents-found-meth-house-bare-inner-workings-dar/</font></a>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">lefleur lawyer ltr <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/492818-murry-demand-letter-102912.html">https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/492818-murry-demand-letter-102912.html</a></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">to james w murry (sp) from quentin m <b>rhoades </b> cc mit datsopoulus sp 1821 missoula mt a corp; explains movement of docs? confusing?</font>

<a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/big-sky-big-money/more-evidence-key-dark-money-group-may-have-misled-irs/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/big-sky-big-money/more-evidence-key-dark-money-group-may-have-misled-irs/</font></a>

<h2 style="line-height: 30px; font-weight: normal; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><a href="http://www.montanapublicmedia.org/2012/11/right-to-work-group-gave-montana-nonprofit-300000/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to ‘Right-to-work’ group gave American Tradition Partnership $300,000" style="padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">‘Right-to-work’ group gave American Tradition Partnership $300,000</font></a></h2>

<p style="font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 15px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">  <a href="http://www.montanapublicmedia.org/author/mpmadmin3x/" title="Posts by Admin" rel="author" style="text-decoration: none;">Admin</a> on November 1, 2012</font></p>

<div class="updated" style="margin: 0px; padding: 2px; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: bold; text-align: center; clear: both; width: 180px; background-color: red;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Updated February 15, 2013</font></div>

</div>

<p style="line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Colorado furniture executive shared donor’s views</font></p>

<h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/authors/paul-abowd">Paul Abowd</a></font></h4>

<h4 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Public Integrity</font></em></h4>

<p style="line-height: 1.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A secretive nonprofit group that wants to nullify Montana’s campaign finance laws received a $300,000 donation from an anti-union organization aligned with a Colorado furniture executive, an Internal Revenue Service <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/496372-irs-ltr-wtp-990-sch-b-2008-4.html">document</a> shows.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Tradition Partnership, a pro-energy group known for successfully suing Montana to force it to abide by the U.S. Supreme Court’s <em>Citizens United</em> ruling, has also sued the state to protect the identity of its donors — who have funded the ATP’s attack mailers in state races.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An IRS document obtained by the Center for Public Integrity indicates <b>one of its early donors was a nonprofit 501(c)(4) called Coloradans for Economic Growth, which spent millions of dollars from undisclosed sources to support a failed 2008 ballot initiative that would have made Colorado a “right-to-work” state.</b></font>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Among the initiative’s supporters was </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Jacob Jabs, president and CEO of American Furniture Warehouse. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A 2008 letter to the IRS signed by former ATP employee Athena Dalton said Jabs was the “primary donor” and had promised to give $300,000 to ATP, but only if the IRS expedited its approval of ATP’s application for tax-exempt status.</span></font></b>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jabs has denied knowing anything about the group or giving it any money.</font></b>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The appeal apparently worked. Three days later, the IRS approved the application.</font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ATP’s 2008 donors list shows a $300,000 contribution from Coloradans for Economic Growth, but makes no mention of any donation from Jabs.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dalton did not return numerous calls. According to a report by <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/more-evidence-key-dark-money-group-may-have-misled-irs">ProPublica</a>, a nonprofit investigative news organization, Jabs said he contacted Dalton earlier this October and she told him that ATP officials had instructed her to use Jabs’ name in the letter.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of those officials was Christian LeFer, who was also director of Montana Citizens for Right to Work at the time. LeFer declined to comment on whether he told Dalton to use Jabs’ name or not.</font>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a previous interview with the Center, LeFer said that “ATP and RTW [Right to Work] have nothing to do with each other,” and that “I know of no shared funds” between the groups.</font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Ferguson, ATP’s spokesman, did not respond to a request for comment.</font>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Coloradans for Economic Growth was a major force behind the state’s anti-union ballot initiative, shelling out almost $3.4 million in 2008 to groups that campaigned for the law’s passage.</font></b>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Such laws, which exist in 23 states, allow employees at union shops to forgo paying union dues.</font></b>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jabs appeared in TV commercials as an unofficial spokesman for the cause, and gave at least $20,000 to groups mobilizing support for the ballot issue.</font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jabs did not return calls for comment.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At a 2008 <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjOjl-25RRY">press conference</a>, Jabs announced he would be backing the anti-union referendum to “frankly hurt the pocketbooks of the unions so they don’t have the millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars to spend.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ATP’s other early funders listed on the IRS document include New Leadership Colorado. The nonprofit also contributed to anti-union groups in 2008, and gave $45,000 to ATP.</font>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Coloradans for Economic Growth and New Leadership Colorado are both listed as “delinquent” for failing to file annual reports with the Colorado secretary of state and have faded from public view. They were both registered in 2008 at Hackstaff Law of Denver, Colo. The law firm’s address is the same one listed on ATP’s corporate registration.</font></b>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Hackstaff is the former firm of Colorado Secretary of State </font><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/info_center/biography.html">Scott </a><a href="http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/info_center/biography.html">Gessle</a><a href="http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/info_center/biography.html">r</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> who represented ATP in a lawsuit challenging campaign finance laws in the Colorado city of Longmont in 2009 before he won public office.</span></font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A third nonprofit<b>, Virginia-</b>based Conservative Action League gave $40,000 to ATP, and has given smaller grants to Montana’s right-to-work group, which until recently was headed by ATP’s LeFer.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LeFer said he’s a “consultant” to ATP, but documents obtained by <a href="http://video.pbs.org/video/2283839426/">PBS Frontline</a> show that he wrote fundraising strategy memos to ATP staff under the title of “Director Strategic Programming.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a 2009 memo, LeFer writes that ATP’s fundraising program “was designed by the same people who designed the multimillion-dollar personal-visit style” strategy used by “Club for Growth, the National Right to Work Committee, and other pro-business / limited government interests.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The group garnered support from two corporate executives early on: Montana’s Ray Thompson gave $10,000 and Tulsa millionaire Norm Asbjornson gave $50,000.</font>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thompson is a tea party supporter who lent his corporate jet to a group called Tea Party Patriots in 2010 for their “grassroots” tours, according to Mother Jones. He sold his small manufacturing company for $364 million in 2009, and now runs a diner and grocery store in Kalispell, Mont.</font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Asbjornson is the founder of AAON Inc., a heating and air conditioning company based in Tulsa, Okla. He is from Montana and remains a major donor to Republican candidates in the state this year.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He gave $10,000 to the state Republican Party and $5,000 to Denny<b> Rehberg’s</b> U.S. Senate bid. He gave a smaller amount to Steve Daines’ run for Montana’s lone U.S. House seat.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last summer, he gave $55,000 to the Romney Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that supports GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has also supported the tea party candidacy of Ted Cruz, the GOP’s nominee for U.S. Senate from Texas. In 2010, he gave money to tea party-endorsed Sharron Angle’s unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate in Nevada.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A list of ATP’s targeted donors from 2009 obtained by Frontline includes representatives of oil, gas, and mining interests. It also lists Asbjornson as a “top priority” to return to after his 2008 contribution.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Neither donor could be reached for comment.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This year, ATP has launched mailers attacking Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock’s bid for governor. Bullock has represented the state in court during ATP’s campaign finance challenges in Montana.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He is neck-and-neck in state polls with Republican Rick Hill, who supports right-to-work laws. Bullock says he would veto any such measure passed by the Legislature.</font>

<em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Center for Public Integrity is a non-profit, independent investigative news outlet. For more of its stories on this topic go to <a title="Center for Public Integrity" href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/politics/consider-source" target="_blank">http://www.publicintegrity.org/politics/consider-source</a>.</font></em>

<em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2010 RINO hunting (some kind of protection racket?   use TP as shock troops?</font></em>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font color="#222222" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">HELENA - One week before the June 8 primary election, Republican House candidate Kelly Flynn of Townsend has found himself targeted by an unknown group labeling him an ally o</font><font color="#ff0000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">f</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> "liberal Washington insiders working with a violent left-wing union."</span></font></font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I'm a conservative candidate," he said Wednesday. "But I feel pretty helpless when we get down to the last few days of a campaign and something like this, which is an outright lie, comes out to the voters. It's discouraging."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flynn is not the only Republican legislative candidate in Montana on the receiving end of independent campaign mailers, sent to voters, calling them "liberal" or suggesting they're not supporting conservative issues.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mailers from different groups have shown up in a handful of contested Republican primaries in recent days, questioning one of the candidate's commitment to conservative causes, such as gun rights or low taxes.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Commissioner of Political Practices Dennis Unsworth said the groups appear to be breaking Montana campaign laws by failing to register with his office and disclose how they're raising and spending their money.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The mailers are trying to influence elections and therefore are campaign spending, and state law requires specific disclosure of the donors and spending of campaign funds, Unsworth said.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"These are shady characters trying to dupe voters," he said. "They think they need to hide, for some reason. They are working hard to avoid disclosure."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The mailer attacking Flynn came from a group calle<b>d Assembly Action Fund</b>, with a Lewistown Post Office box. It is not registered with the state as a political committee and doesn't show up as a business registered with the secretary of state.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The mailer says the fund is a "grassroots lobbying group organized under IRS 501(c)4," which is a nonprofit tax code. Under federal law, a 501(c)4 group is organized for educational purposes, and does not have to disclose its financial donors.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flynn, a rancher, is one of two Republicans running for the open seat in House District 68, which includes Townsend and stretches south to suburban Belgrade. His primary opponent is Terry Bannan, a building contractor from Belgrade.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Assembly Action Fund's piece,</strong> which appeared in the mailboxes of HD68 voters this week,<b> played off yet another ad campaign from a different independent group, known as Main Street</b> Advocacy.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Main Street Advocacy, a Republican group headquartered in Washington, D.C., last month ran radio ads and sent campaign mailers in support of a dozen Republicans running in contested primaries. State Sen. John Brueggeman, R-Polson, who helped organize the effort, said last week the group wanted to support "rational conservatives" who might be falsely attacked as liberals.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Assembly Action Fund mailer called Main Street Advocacy "a group of powerful Washington insiders working to defeat the Tea Party's conservative message."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It said the Main Street group is "dedicated to electing anti-gun, anti-tax cut, pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion liberals," and has spent "big bucks on misleading ads praising liberal Kelly Flynn."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flynn said he's "pro-gun and pro-life," and that the Assembly Action piece is painting him as something "totally opposite from my campaign."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I had some calls from people asking me if I really stood for some things that were on the front of that mailer," he said. "But it's out there. I'll have to do what I can do to counteract it."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flynn said he asked Bannan, his primary opponent, if he'd co-sign a letter denouncing the ad.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bannan said Wednesday he doubts he'll do that, unless Flynn publicly denounces the Main Street ads and their backers.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bannan said he's "more of a Tea Party guy," while he considers Flynn an "old guard Republican," who has a considerable advantage in campaign funding. Bannan said he knows nothing about the Assembly Action Fund piece, but doesn't see any reason to assist his primary opponent.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joe Dooling of Helena, a Republican challenging Rep. Mike Miller, R-Helmville, in the primary in HD84, said he's been targeted by mailers from the National League of Taxpayers and National Gun Owners Alliance.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Letters from the group compliment Miller for taking stands for their issues and criticize Dooling for not filling out their issue surveys. Neither group is registered with the state as a political committee.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"You can't trace it; you can't do anything about it," Dooling said Wednesday. "They're challenging my credentials as a Republican because I didn't fill out a survey. ... I used to work for (former U.S. Sen.) Conrad Burns and I was heavily involved in (U.S. Rep. Denny) Rehberg's campaign."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Rep. Gary MacLaren, R-Victor,</strong> said mailers have shown up in his district criticizing him as an ally of organized labor, because he didn't fill out surveys from groups supporting "right- to-work" laws, which prohibit requiring union membership as a condition of employment.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"It's a concern, because what they're putting in these ads isn't true, but you can't find out who they are, so you have no way of challenging them," MacLaren said. "But I've got quite a bit of faith in the voters to see through that sort of stuff and look at my actual record."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Christian LeFer, executive director of Montana Citizens for Right to Work, said his group sent out mailers in several legislative primaries, pointing out which candidate supports right-to-work laws or those who didn't answer the group's surveys.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They're not campaign pieces because they merely inform voters where candidates stand, and don't support or oppose a candidate, he said: "Voters deserve to know where candidates stand on important issues before they go to Helena, and we're simply helping them understand that."</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flynn, the HD68 candidate, said he hopes actions from such groups don't determine who wins or loses, because voters should be judging candidates based on what they truly stand for.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"All I want is a fair contest," he said. "It should be between Terry Bannan and myself."</font></p>

</div>

</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>