webodec3ARCHIVEPreview
Open in TheBrain

Progress for America

up to its ass in swift boat: joined at hip with DCI

---

mp BK SHOCK AND AWE

BRIAN MCCABE B43 JUD NOMS, GANG 14 AGREED T END FILIBUSTER, ADS

---

see Chris LaCivita - Wikipedia

---

bossie claims he could be jailled for violating McC-F but i see only fines:

In December 2006 the FEC entered settlements with three 527 groups the Commission found to have violated federal law by failing to register as "political committees" and abide by contribution limits, source prohibitions and disclosure requirements during the 2004 election cycle. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was fined $299,500; the League of Conservation Voters was fined $180,000; MoveOn.org was fined $150,000. In February 2007, the 527 organization Progress for America Voter Fund [pro-bush]  was likewise fined $750,000 for its failure to abide by federal campaign finance laws during the 2004 election cycle.

==

---

LaCivita's role as political director of NRSC in 2002 places him on the edge of a Republican phone-jamming scandal in which Democratic get-out-the-vote calls in Manchester, N.H., were blocked on election day.[2] In December 2005 James Tobin, who worked under LaCivita as the New England regional director, was convicted of two felony telephone harassment charges but was acquitted of the charge of conspiring against voters rights. He was sentenced in May 2006 to 10 months in prison, AP reported, that he "helped plan the phone jamming." Tobin was convicted in December of two felony telephone harassment charges. He was acquitted of a third, more serious charge, of conspiring against voters rights.[3]

On August 25, 2004 the New York Times reported that LaCivita was working for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth as an adviser on media strategy. According to Federal Election Committee filings by SBVT, LaCivita received $35,700 for his media consulting work.[4] He received $39,897 for providing consulting services to Progress for America.[5]

LaCivita told the New York Times that he worked as a private contractor forDCIand Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and that there was no coordination between the firm and the group. "Obviously, I don't work for the Bush campaign," he said. Mr. LaCivita described his role as providing advice on the news media and placing advertisements.[6]

---

LC head of progress for Am 35m to beat Kerry,

===

Progress for America (PFA) (a 501c4) and its affiliate Progress for America Voter Fund (PFA-VF) (a 527 committee) are national tax-exempt organizations. The PFA was, from the beginning, "closely associated" with the Bush administration, the Republican National Committee and "their consultants." [1]

PFA wasestablished in 2001 to support George W. Bush's "agenda for America." The PFA Voter Fund, which was set up in 2004, raised $38 million in support of Bush's 2004 election bid.

Progress for America, a "friends of the party" organization "operated by Tony Feather, the former political director of Bush-Cheney 2000 and a close friend of White House political adviser Karl Rove, is described by some Republicans as a new group dedicated to corralling outlawed party soft money," Steve Weismann, Associate Director for Policy at The Campaign Finance Institute wrote January 28, 2003.

[Feather clients:

Clients

According to an article in the Washington Post, Feather is a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the peak US drug industry trade association as well as AT&T, General Motors, and the Teamsters Union. [3]

According to Washington Representatives, Feather has lobbyied the following on behalf of DCI Group, LLC:

History

As the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill began working its way toward its eventual passage in Congress in 2002, long-time Republican strategists were already scheming how to get around the law’s ban on soft-money contributions. They found an answer in Progress for America (PFA).

PFA was registered as a 501c4 group in February 2001 by Tony Feather, a political director of the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign and partner at DCI Group as well as at the affiliated telemarketing and fundraising firm of Feather Larson Synhorst-DCI (FLS-DCI). Feather set up PFA as a “grassroots organization that mobilizes the public to contact their members of Congress about pending legislation and to write local newspapers to publicize the White House’s agenda,” the Center for Public Integrity wrote in 2002. During the first part of the George W. Bush administration, it led campaigns to support tax cuts, conservative judicial appointments and energy legislation.

Feather told the Washington Post in August 2002 that PFA was simply a vehicle for building grassroots support for Bush administration policies. "Many other Republicans, however, describe it as the first organization designed to capture some of the soft money that the political parties will be barred from accepting after November 6," wrote the Post’s Thomas B. Edsall.

:{In 2001, Democrats in Montana criticized PFA for running an:{ astroturf campaign in support of energy deregulation}:. An Associated Press story reported how the campaign worked: “A pollster calls you and asks questions about energy issues. Then he asks if he can write a letter summarizing the conversation and mail it to you. A few days later, an envelope arrives containing a letter addressed to Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., on personalized stationery and prepared for your signature. The letter tells Burns you want no price controls and even fewer restrictions placed on electric power companies. You might agree with that, or you might not. . . . No two letters are identical, so there is no immediate indication of a letter campaign orchestrated by distant political operatives. It looks like a grassroots response, but it isn’t.”

When asked in an interview, Tony Feather refused to say who was paying for the letter-writing campaign.}:

Several high-level Bush supporters and advisors have been associated with Progress for America. Ken Adelmanspoke to the Washington Post in 2002 and identified himself as the group’s chairman. However, Adelman claimed he “knows neither the organization’s budget nor its sources of financial support.” The address that Adelman provided to the Post for PFA’s offices turned out to be in the “high-rent Lafayette Center complex in downtown Washington” - the same building where the offices of FLS-DCI are located. [2]

Progress for America and its Voter Fund reveal only as much as legally required about their leadership and membership. The group’s directors, advisors and chairs are not listed on their websites. But the Washington Post has identified a few of the groups’ principal figures. In addition to FLS-DCI’s Tom Synhorst, who is reported to have served as a key strategic adviser to PFA, other figures include James C. Cicconi, AT&T General Counsel; C. Boyden Gray, a prominent figure in many conservative groups, including Citizens for a Sound Economy (now called Freedom Works); and Marilyn Ware, chairman of American Water in Pennsylvania and a Bush Pioneer (meaning that she personally raised at least $100,000 for his campaign).

Attachments