Open in TheBrain

HDMK

=<div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.desmog.com/2019/10/22/empowerment-alliance-dark-money-natural-gas-industry/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.desmog.com/2019/10/22/empowerment-alliance-dark-money-natural-gas-industry/</a></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx many. vids</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The Empowerment Alliance’ and Other New Dark Money Groups Sound a Lot Like the Natural Gas Industry</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By Dana Drugmandon Oct 22, 2019&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Amid the crescendo of calls for climate action and rising rage directed at the fossil fuel industry, petroleum producers and their allies are engaging in an aggressive promotional push focused on natural gas. The same month that the American Petroleum Institute (API) started running ads emphasizing gas’s role in reducing carbon emissions, a new dark money group has launched under the patriotic guise of promoting “America’s energy independence” by promoting, you guessed it, natural gas.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>That group, called The Empowerment Alliance (TEA), is a registered 501(c)4 that does not disclose its donor</b>s (and is not required to under law). TEA launched on September 30 with a news release filled with natural gas industry talking points and a<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ttacks on the Green New Deal. The organization describes natural gas as “essential to our shared prosperity” in terms of jobs, national security, energy costs, and even air quality, while the Green New Deal is labeled as “radical and unachievable” and a “risky tax scheme.”</span>&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This anonymously funded organization, from its leaders to its messaging, is part of a broader chorus of misleading talking points that goes beyond the “natural gas and oil” industry (as the API ads say) to conservative media pundits and top strategists and officials within the Trump administration and the GOP.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Key Players and Plans</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Empowerment Alliance is known to be run by two top figures and lobbyists for the Republican Party.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">James Nathanson, the executive director, is a longtime&nbsp;<b>Republican operative and apparent dark money extraordinaire</b>. Nathanson’s business consulting firm in Dayton, Ohio, James S. Nathanson & Associates, has funded various conservative candidates and Republican Party groups and SuperPACs. But while these donations are transparent, Nathanson has also headed a group called Freedom Vote, Inc. — another 501(c)(4) dark money organization. Freedom Vote (FV) has been accused of failing to report more than $1.1 million spent on political attack ads during the 2016 U.S. Senate race in Ohio.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed official complaints against Freedom Vote to the IRS and Federal Election Commission (FEC), and even filed a lawsuit in June seeking to compel the FEC to take enforcement action against the organization. Nathanson was also a central subject to a 2004 complaint to the FEC for violating campaign finance law in Ohio election campaigns.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Terry Holt, partner at the PR firm HDMK</b>, is TEA’s communications director and spokesman. He was senior communications strategist for the George W. Bush presidential campaigns and has worked for former House Speaker John Boehner. According to his HDMK profile, he has “<b>provided long-term communications and media strategy for several chief executives at leading trade associations and corporations.” Notably, HDMK was hired in 2010 to do communications and PR for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a coal industry lobby group.&nbsp;</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>HDMK boasts on its website about its work to build localized support for expanding big energy infrastructure: “</b>To reset the conversation about the construction of energy infrastructure at the national level, HDMK built a grassroots coalition of workers, small and medium sized businesses, civic leaders, unions, and other local supporters. By activating local supporters and giving them a voice at the national level, we created favorable news coverage during the heated debate about the expansion of America’s energy infrastructure.”&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Empowerment Alliance appears poised to undertake this same<b>&nbsp;industry-funded “grassroots” strategy.</b>&nbsp;Holt told Politico the group plans to “run ads, engage in grassroots work and reach out to the media and&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"><b>may set up a lobbying operation down the road.”</b>&nbsp;The group’s anonymous donors are hoping it will be a “significant factor” in the 2020 election.&nbsp;</span></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The group also revealed that it intends to “mount an aggressive fundraising campaign in the coming months with plans to announce a formal leadership structure and new initiatives before the end of the year.” TEA has started running paid ads on Facebook spending a total of more than $8,000 so far.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Anonymous Donors?</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A parade in Everett, Washington, in 2017 features an anti-dark money sign]</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>TEA says it intends to “engage the American people in an open and honest dialogue” and decries the “billionaire mega donors” and “deep pockets” supporting policies to curb fossil fuel production. Yet&nbsp;</b>the organization is notably opaque about its own funding sources and donors. TEA explicitly states its “policy is to not disclose its donors to the general public.” It also clarifies that there are no limits on donation amounts “by an individual, corporation, union, or trade association.” In other words, unlimited dark money is welcome.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Holt explained to Politico that the group’s donors are kept secret to protect them from opposition and protesters. And as E&E News reported, Holt also claimed donors feared safety risks from&nbsp;<b>anti-fossil fuel activists, or as he called them — “eco-terrorists</b></span><b>”:</b>&nbsp;“Because of<b>&nbsp;violence and trespassing and other criminal behavior,</b>&nbsp;the Empowerment Alliance is going to protect its donors from that kind of risk,” he said. “We are offering donors this protection out of the concern that we would have should they come forward and the scrutiny of some of these eco-terrorists.”</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Oil and gas industry veteran David Blackmon (who was involved in creating petroleum advocacy groups Energy In Depth and the American Natural Gas Alliance) praised TEA for “filling a void” left by the industry itself, but questioned why the industry wasn’t promoting and advocating for itself.</span>&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“However, it remains a wonder why the companies whose bottom lines depend on increasing the use of natural gas in this economy aren’t mounting a well-funded national effort of their own,” said Blackmon. Blackmon noted TEA’s lack of transparency invites skepticism and negative perceptions: “But the desire to hold its list of contributors confidential also opens TEA up to being labeled a ‘dark money’ operation in media reports, with all the attendant negative news coverage and public perceptions that inevitably come along with that designation.”&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Gaslighting and the Green New Deal</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>One of the primary objectives of the Empowerment Alliance is attacking the comprehensive climate policy framework known as the Green New Deal. TEA seems to be pushing natural gas as some kind of Green New Deal alternative, its answer to energy security, economic growth, and climate change concerns.</b>&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This narrative contradicts the scientific reality of the climate crisis — which the United Nations says requires “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.”&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As Bill McKibben recently wrote in the New Yorker, “Many of [the gas defenders] will say that, thanks to natural gas, our ‘emissions’ have declined. But that will be the<b>&nbsp;most literal gaslighting</b>&nbsp;imaginable, a lie of real gravity.”&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Chevron's LinkedIn ad promotes a common industry talking point about natural gas and reducing U.S. carbon emissions.</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A Chevron ad on LinkedIn promotes a common industry talking point about natural gas and reducing U.S. carbon emissions.]</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The fracking boom has led to an explosion in natural gas production over the past decade, contributing to the decline of coal power — as well as a decline in U.S. carbon dioxide emissions — as gas power plants have popped up. While burning natural gas releases fewer pollutants than burning coal, natural gas is comprised almost entirely of the potent greenhouse gas methane, and leaks in gas systems and industry venting and flaring are common.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">&nbsp;After accounting for these leaks, researchers at Cornell University have warned that fracked gas may be even worse for the climate than coal.</span></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>In contrast to TEA and industry messaging, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions actually rose last year by 3.4 percent, which included a nearly 2 percent increase in power-sector emissions.</b>&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to a 2019 report spearheaded by Oil Change International, continued oil and gas exploitation from&nbsp;<b>new reserves&nbsp;</b>could result in new carbon pollution equivalent to building nearly 1,000 coal-fired power plants.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Echoes of Industry</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Nevertheless, conservative media and officials and associates of the Trump administration repeat these kinds of myths early and often. While some right-wing attacks on serious climate plans are clearly hyperbolic, like the false claim that Green New Deal proponents want to ban hamburgers or air travel, others are more cautiously veiled in concerns around economic impacts.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For example, the&nbsp;<b>acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, William Perry Pendley,&nbsp;</b>recently told a room full of environmental journalists that resource extraction is deeply tied to the region’s economy and jobs, calling it a “life or death issue” for communities. While oil and gas does have a heavy economic presence in the region, that framing downplays the ways fracking has also devastated local communities with documented negative health and safety impacts</span>.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[gorgeos BS navajo ideo: farlyle begay ex rep, gowan ex spr, lots of cowboy hats, peterson spox]</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">And Dina Gilio-Whitaker, an Indigenous studies scholar and member of the Colville Confederated Tribes, countered Pendley, pointing to the massive social impact of “man camps” in booming oil and gas fields, which have led to the exploitation and abuse of women.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Pendley also said that a “keep it in the ground” policy for fossil fuels would be “absolutely insane.” But that is in fact a prescription from scientists and experts analyzing the impact of fossil fuel exploitation on the carbon budget, with the goal of avoiding catastrophic climate disruption.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Mandy Gunasekara attacking the Green New Deal on Fox News</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Former Trump EPA official and current pro-Trump dark money group founder, Mandy Gunasekara attacked the Green New Deal resolution on Fox News. Credit: Fox News via Mandy Gunasekara on Facebook</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Speaking at the same conference, former Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official and founder of the pro-Trump 501(c)(4) Energy 45 Fund, Mandy Gunasekara also defended oil and gas, echoing the industry message about natural gas reducing emissions</span>. Gunasekara, who was the aide that handed a snowball to Sen. James Inhofe during his infamous climate science denial speech on the Senate floor, claimed that climate proposals like the Green New Deal or carbon pricing are “premised on making energy more expensive.” This prompted fellow panelist Heather McTeer Toney of Moms Clean Air Force (and a regional EPA administrator under Obama) to push back.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>“That is not true,” Toney said. “It’s information like that that gets put into the sphere of voters all over this country, and they believe rhetori</b>c.” She explained that higher energy costs are the result of energy companies passing along their costs to consumers.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;“It’s that little piece you leave out about what’s really going on and does not connect all the dots,</span>” Toney said.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The key, she added, is figuring out a way to not pass these costs on to ratepayers, “so that people are not paying for it and our children are not paying for it, and we&nbsp;<b>stop lying to the American public.”</b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Like TEA, Gunasekara’s Energy 45 group does not disclose its donors, but the talking points coming from these dark money groups sound like a perfect echo of the oil and gas industry itself.&nbsp;</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
=</font></div><div>
</div><div></div><div><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">OPSEC's&nbsp;</span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-size: 14px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">president is Scott Taylor, a former&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navy_SEAL" class="mw-redirect" title="Navy SEAL" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Navy SEAL</a>&nbsp;who vied for the Republican nomination for&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Virginia,2010#District_2" title="United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia, 2010" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">a Virginia congressional seat in 2010</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Ohlheiser_6-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_OPSEC_Education_Fund#cite_note-Ohlheiser-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[6]</a></sup>&nbsp;Its lead spokesperson and former SEAL, Ben Smith, was also a spokesperson for&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_Express" title="Tea Party Express" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Tea Party Express</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-FP_2012-08-21_3-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_OPSEC_Education_Fund#cite_note-FP_2012-08-21-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[3]</a></sup>&nbsp;Another spokesperson is&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Kolton" title="Chad Kolton" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Chad Kolton</a>, who worked for the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_George_W.Bush" title="Presidency of George W. Bush" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Bush administration</a>&nbsp;as a spokesperson for the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_National_Intelligence" title="Director of National Intelligence" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Director of National Intelligence</a>,<sup id="cite_ref-McConnell_5-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_OPSEC_Education_Fund#cite_note-McConnell-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[5]</a></sup>&nbsp;and who was hired to perform media relations for OPSEC in July 2012 through&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMK" title="HDMK" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">HDMK</a>, a Republican strategic communications firm.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_OPSEC_Education_Fund#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[7]</a></sup>&nbsp;Public records filed with authorities indicate the group's treasurer, lawyer and TV producers also have affiliations with Republican Party organizations.</span><sup id="cite_ref-Reuters_1-1" class="reference" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 11.2px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_OPSEC_Education_Fund#cite_note-Reuters-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background: none rgb(255, 255, 102);">[</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_OPSEC_Education_Fund#cite_note-Reuters-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); outline: none; background: none;">1]</a></sup></div><div>=</div></div>