split tkt 3rd cand

2nd on real danger by rfk2 4/24 see lacivita

belated classic dirty trick

ntbcw 3rd party node (tho i have?)

GREEN PARTY ?

see spindell hoffman fake electors, rally forge

see broken promises florida

aka ghost cand

see kanye (backed by kushner)

see goston broken promises

-=-=

AN 8 26

In one of the most competitive congressional districts in the country, a strange fight is brewing between the Pennsylvania Green Party and a candidate who is petitioning to appear on the ballot under their label.

Andrew Tupone submitted his nomination papers with thousands of signatures to the Department of State last month, seeking a spot on the ballot in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District. He then released a statement appealing to the Green Party’s progressive voter base.

“[Incumbent] Congressman [Ryan] Mackenzie has been in lock step with Trump and he must be stopped,” it read. “After the Democratic National Party put their thumbs on the scale in the primary for Bob Brooks as the nominee, I believe local grassroots voters deserve another choice and that’s why so many are backing my candidacy.”

But the state Green Party is warning voters that the bid may be a ploy to trick voters in a race the Cook Political Report rates as a “toss up.”

On Monday, the party filed an objection to Tupone’s attempt to get on the ballot in Commonwealth Court.

“Tupone and his agents or affiliates … misled voters into signing the Nomination Papers on the mistaken belief that they were helping to place a candidate supported by the Green Party onto the ballot,” the objection reads. “Many of the voters who signed Candidate Tupone’s Nomination Papers would not have done so had they been aware that Candidate Tupone was not actually affiliated with or endorsed by the GPPA.”

The objection notes that Tupone was a registered Republican until mid-February 2026, when he changed his registration to Democrat. He changed it again to Green in April.

“My political beliefs always remained the same. It doesn’t matter what party I was registered to,” Tupone told the Capital-Star. “I am trying to buck the establishment of both parties … I’m running for universal healthcare, ending the genocide in Gaza and standing up to the establishment parties.”

A separate objection to Tupone’s petition to appear on the PA-07 ballot was filed by Democratic voters with ties to the party. They’re alleging issues with many of the 9,460 signatures Tupone collected and, like the Green Party, accusing him of paying out-of-state people to help collect them.

Tupone told the Capital-Star, “I am not aware of any paid operation and just thankful for the volunteers that want change this November and tired of the two party establishment.”

Chris Robinson, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Green Party said the group learned about Tupone from the media after he submitted his nomination papers.

“We had no idea who he was,” Robinson said. “There were records of him running for office in the past as a Republican, and you can look up his voter registration — anybody can do that — and it said he was a Republican up until [February] of this year.”

Robinson also learned Tupone had previously run for election to a Magisterial Judge seat in Northampton County, appearing on the general election ballot as a Republican in 2021. Though Tupone had cross-filed and ran in the Democratic primary as well both times.

Tupone told the Capital-Star that any accusation that he is a Republican acting as a spoiler is “simply not true and a false accusation by political operatives.”

It’s unclear if the Green Party has grounds to challenge Tupone’s place on the ballot. As a minor political party, it is not able to hold primaries the same way Democrats and Republicans can in the state. Instead, hopeful candidates must collect signatures and turn them into the Pennsylvania Department of State to appear on the general election ballot.

“That’s the way the Pennsylvania regulations are written,” Robinson said.

He added that it would take reforms agreed to by Republicans and Democrats in the state House to fix the problem, such as allowing minor parties to hold primaries or implementing what’s called “fusion voting,” which would allow candidates to represent multiple parties.

“There’s a whole bunch of things like that, and every voter you talk to probably has different things they’d like to see,” he said. “But nobody cares about that in Harrisburg. The people who are legislators in Harrisburg would like to keep things the same. It worked for them. Why change it?”

The 7th Congressional District election is expected to be one of the decisive races when it comes to which party controls the U.S. House in 2027.

The contest has been attracting national interest for much of the year.

According to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks spending in American politics, the race has already drawn over $9.5 million in contributions. Just over 75% of that has come from out of state.

-=-=

note doh mebbe 6 26

aipac broliarch back mod dem to cockblock progressive cands? // bogus 3rd cand to split vote eg

Political Activism

Tan’s libertarian and founder-centric ideology extends to his local civic and political activities in San Francisco. [1, 2]

Local Centrist Advocacy: He has aggressively funded and promoted centrist Democratic candidates to challenge the city's left-wing progressive establishment. His involvement stems from a deeply held belief that high taxes, burdensome local regulations, and government overreach threaten Silicon Valley’s position as the global tech hub. [1, 2, 3]

Wealth Protection: Tan has vocally opposed measures that directly tax extreme net worths, characterizing asset-seizure proposals as fundamental threats to founder equity and innovation. ]

---

AN 4 26

A Green Party candidate for governor in Arizona appears to have many Republican financial supporters, observed The Phoenix *New Times*.

A report this week found candidate Risa Lombardo had no real affiliation with the Green Party. She's required to be a Green Party member to run as one, but The New Times hasn't been able to find out when she signed up.

"Instead, Lombardo may be a 'sham' or 'stealth MAGA' candidate who is in fact a member of a local independent conservative group," said the report.

It's an observation that the Green Party noticed as well in December.

“We do not know these candidates and they have never been involved in the AZGP,” the party wrote on X. The party also said that those working to gather signatures for Lombardo's candidacy were calling such candidates "independents.

"There are just more than 5,000 registered Green Party members in the state, according to the Arizona Secretary of State," said the New Times. "But Green Party candidates can draw far more votes than that, albeit not enough to actually win many elections. Two years ago, Eduardo Quintana, the party’s ultimate candidate for the Senate, topped 75,000 votes. Sen. Ruben Gallego won that race by just more than 80,000 votes, and plenty of other recent contests have been much closer."

The other curious candidates are fellow gubernatorial candidate Lisa Castillo, who failed to secure enough signatures to get on the ballot, and Secretary of State candidate Duwayne Collier.

Well-known Green Party candidate William Pounds IV is also listed as a write-in candidate.

There isn't much public information available about Lombardo, the report said. She's shown as being 65 and having lived in the state for 35 years. There's no campaign website and there are no campaign donations. There isn't even a photo provided in the Secretary of State's filing. The phone number listed on the campaign documents goes to an unanswered Google Voice number owned by someone else, the report said.

In a statement of candidacy featured on the Secretary of State's website, Lombardo claims, “I am part of the Green party because my personal values resonate with its mission statement.”

A longtime Green Party member, Gary Swing, called it “about as vague as it can be.”

“It’s just a blanket silhouette of a person,” Swing told New Times.

Arizona Green Party Secretary John Ralston refused to comment.

The report explained that it isn't the first time someone has tried “hijacking the Green Party’s ballot line for their own purposes,” Swing added. He said that the goal is to “try to take votes away from the Democrats of those offices and help to elect Republicans by splitting the vote.”

In 2024, candidates Mike Norton and Arturo Hernandez filed to run for the U.S. Senate. Party members hadn't heard of them either. They alleged that the man were "outside interests of meddling in the party’s primary elections for political gain," said the report.

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an 9 24

Democratic strategists and organizers are hoping that if Vice President Kamala Harris defeats GOP rival Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, there will a down-ballot effect with U.S. House and U.S. Senate races as well as gubernatorial races.

For Democrats, having control of both Houses of Congress would make it easier for Harris to carry out her legislative agenda if she wins. Democrats believe they have a good shot at flipping the U.S. House, although Republicans could recapture the U.S. Senate with a net gain of two seats.

According to Associated Press (AP) reporters Ryan J. Foley and Brian Slodysko, one "shadowy group: that could help Democrats win back the House is the Patriots Run Project."

READ MORE:[Trump has 'reached his final destination' and 'he knows he's going down': George Conway

Far-right Trump devotees who want to punish Republicans for not being MAGA enough typically target them via GOP primaries. But

the Patriots Run Project, Foley and Slodysko report, has "recruited Trump supporters to run as independent candidates in key swing districts where they could siphon votes from Republicans in races that will help determine which party controls the House next year."

"In addition to two races in Iowa," Foley and Slodysko explain, "the group recruited candidates in Nebraska, Montana, Virginia and Minnesota. All six recruits described themselves as retired, disabled — or both."

The AP reporters continue, "The group's operation provides few clues about its management, financing or motivation. But interviews, text messages, e-mails, business filings and other documents reviewed by the AP show that a significant sum has been spent — and some of it traces back to Democratic consulting firms."

Some Democratic operatives, according to Foley and Slodysko, may view Patriots Run Project-backed independent candidates as potential spoilers who could help them flip the U.S. House of Representatives in November.

READ MORE:**Trump's hate is no joke**

"While dirty tricks are as old as American elections," the AP journalists note, "the efforts this year could have profound consequences in the fight to control Congress, which is expected to be decided by a handful of races. It's also not an isolated example: Allies of Trump have been working across the U.S. to get liberal academic Cornel West on the ballot in hopes he could play spoiler in the presidential election."

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) law professor Rick L. Hasen, known for his expertise on U.S. election law, told AP that the Patriots Run Project "looks shady and unethical."

Hasen added, however, "It is hard to say whether any laws have been broken, which would depend not only on the facts, but also, the statutes and precedents under state law."

*Read the Associated Press' full report at this link.

---

'Whole thing is an epic fraud': RFK Jr. official admits goal is to elect Trump - Alternet.org

ny camp off caught on tape

===

---

CORP ROLE

12 22 kpfa

17 (so gop) states pass laws to prot dark $

eg 1

in a state with a reputation for political scandal, Florida’s 2020 elections saw a particularly brazen scheme to swing three state Senate races.A “dark money” group sent out mailers promoting the campaigns of three “sham” candidates—in one case, diverting enough votes to a candidate with thesame last nameas former Democratic Sen. José Javier Rodríguez to defeat him. Rodríguez lost by just 32 votes, and Democratic candidates in the other two districts were defeated as well.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that the group behind the misleading mailers, which has renamed itself as Grow United, received a $1.15 million donation from an organization closely tied to the business trade association Associated Industries of Florida. A Dec. 2 Sentinel investigation detailed the group’s consultants’ close coordination withelectric monopoly Florida Power & Light, as well as the power utility’s ties to state Republican leaders, who control the chamber and can block bills like one that would empower solar electricity generators.

Florida organizations supporting Democrats also donated $700,000 to Grow United to obscure the funding source behind expenses like election mailers,a revelation that led to the resignation of a senior House adviser.

Last month, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs launched an investigation into one of Grow United’s donors. The “sham” candidate in Rodriguez’s race pled guilty last August and is cooperating in testimony against the consultant who allegedly put him up to it, former Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles. Artiles has pled not guilty in the case.

With dark money rampant in the state, especially in state Democratic primaries, a Florida Republican is seeking to make it a crime for public officials to request or release information about the sources of money behind election spending by groups that are not required to reveal their donors.

In January, Republican Florida Rep. Toby Overdorf introduced the Personal Information Protection Act (H.B. 1547), which would prohibit public agencies from requesting that any individual, corporation, or other entity release personal information besides what is already required by campaign finance and other laws, or when they have a lawful warrant to seek the information. The bill would also prohibit agencies from publishing such information they may have in their possession. Florida Senator Joe Gruters introduced a similar bill in the Senate (S.B. 1848) that would do the same thing, but only for personal information of donors and other individuals affiliated with 501(c)(3) organizations, though its sponsor says he’s willing to broaden it to cover other types of groups. Each bill would allow for the right of civil action and violators could face possible prison time of up to 90 days.

The House version would prevent campaign finance regulators from trying to force non-disclosing organizations like (c)(4) nonprofits to reveal their donors when they spend money to influence elections in the state.

The new Florida bill is modeled after a policy propagated by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a nonprofit that brings together corporate lobbyists with conservative lawmakers to advance legislation that favors business interests. Rep. Overdorf is one of about 31 Florida elected officials listed as ALEC members as of April 2021, according to a state public records request from the nonprofit Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). Gruters is the chair of the Florida Republican Party, re-elected to that position last month, and is a close ally of former President Trump, having co-chaired his 2016 state campaign.

In recent years, such bills criminalizing the disclosure of politically-active nonprofits’ donors have spread to a number of states, passing into law in 2021 in Arkansas, Iowa, South Dakota, and Tennessee.

“These types of bills are unnecessary—there are already constitutional protections for donors that would actually face threats, harassment, or reprisal from public identification—and their only true achievement may be to simply impede transparency for politically active nonprofits and make dark money darker,” said Aaron McKean, legal counsel for state and local reform at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, which works to increase transparency in democracy.

“Voters have a right to know which wealthy special interests are spending big money to influence their vote and rig the political system in their favor,” said McKean. “Florida’s legislators should be focused on ensuring voters know the true sources of money used to influence elections.”

A poll commissioned by the Campaign Legal Center previously found strong bipartisan support for “publicly disclosing contributions to organizations involved in elections” so that wealthy special interests cannot operate with impunity and politicians can be held accountable.

florida has led the nation in public corruption convictions for much of the past couple decades. From 1976 to 2018, Florida was among the top 10 states in federal corruption convictions per 10,000 residents, according to a report from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

A longtime state ethics watchdog tells Sludge that the practice of routing funds through dark money groups will proliferate in the state until the Legislature has the political will to stop it.

“I don’t think there will be any reduction in dark money in elections, it’s just going to increase,” said Ben Wilcox, research director of the nonprofit Integrity Florida. “The campaign finance system in Florida is so dysfunctional, it makes this sort of activity so easy to do, and easy to hide the source of campaign donations. There are all sorts of loopholes.”

With the end of Florida’s legislative session coming next month and the bills not gathering co-sponsors, Wilcox thinks that the state’s investigation into the Grow United case has likely chilled their support this year. But Wilcox tells Sludge, “The fact that they filed the bills this year, to further protect the sources of dark money, it tells you whether or not the bills pass this year, they probably will come next year. The powers that be are intent on keeping dark money dark.”

Wilcox also pointed to a loophole in state campaign finance law that allows unlimited donations to state political committees controlled by politicians. “It’s a form of legal corruption,” he said.

“When you look at Florida Power & Light, they give the maximum to various candidates, and then all the big money goes into the political committees, donations of $100,000 and more.” State campaign finance records show that in recent years, the committee Friends of Ron DeSantis has received donations of over $10 million total from Citadel hedge fund manager and GOP megadonor Ken Griffin, $850,000 from investment company Spring Bay Capital, $200,000 from Kane Financial Services, and nearly $125,000 from the Florida Home Builders Association, among many others.

Last May, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law S.B. 1890, a bill sponsored by Republican State Sen. Ray Rodrigues, that would have set a $3,000 cap on contributions to political committees supporting or opposing constitutional amendments until the measure obtains enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. Florida lawmakers left untouched the ability for donors to make unlimited donations to candidates’ political committees. The law was blocked in federal court on July 1, the day it was slated to take effect, and in August Florida’s Attorney General did not appeal, leaving the injunction in place.

The Tampa Bay Times reported last month that lobbyist Jorge Chamizo provided the bill language to staff of Senate sponsor Gruters, working on behalf of two groups: People United for Privacy and Opportunity Solutions Project.According to CMD, which tracks dark money groups, People United for Privacy was formed by the State Policy Network, an umbrella organization of right-wing causes. Opportunity Solutions Project is the advocacy arm of the Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability, a State Policy Network member.

This year, Jorge Chamizo is registered to lobby for a long list of business clients, including Associated Industries of Florida and Duke Energy, which was an ALEC member as recently as 2020. Other clients of Chamizo this year include Peoples Gas System, Tampa Electric Company, health insurer Anthem, health care provider Centene, and Uber.

---

Democrats in New York State are demanding a criminal investigation into United States Congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin's campaign for allegedly leading a "dubious petitioning effort" to add third parties to the August 23rd primary ballot in order to siphon votes away from Democratic incumbent Governor Kathy Hochul.

"The petitioning centered on statewide Republican candidates seeking to run on an additional, key ballot line in the November election by reviving the moribund state Independence Party," *The* *Times Union* reported on Monday. "A spokeswoman for the state Republican Party, Jessica Proud, confirmed to the Times Union that signed Independence Party petitions were later dropped at their party headquarters on State Street in Albany — and bound in volumes at the party office — before submission to the state Board of Elections on the May 31 deadline."

Nearly twenty percent of the 52,000 signatures needed to put "upstart third parties" on the ballot were "xeroxed copies of other, original signatures within those same records," the Times Union explained. "The copied pages were interspersed in a manner leading some election experts to conclude their inclusion may have been intentional, possibly to inflate the number of signatures to surpass the daunting new threshold of 45,000 valid signatures for upstart state parties to gain ballot access."

The issue first came to light in June when the Libertarian Party "flagged the problematic Independence Party petition signatures," the Times Unionnoted.

In July, the paper continued, "the state Board of Elections found that more than 12,800 signatures submitted were invalid, including more than 11,000 that had been photocopied. With about 39,000 remaining, Zeldin and other statewide Republicans fell roughly 6,000 short of gaining an Independence Party ballot line, which in the past has helped sway certain close elections for GOP candidates."

Libertarian Party Secretary Andrew Kolstee said in a statement to*The Hill*at the time that “Republicans talk a lot about election integrity, but the Zeldin campaign attempted to fly under the radar and submit over 11,000 fraudulent signatures in an attempt to get a third line on the ballot, while New York’s oppressive ballot access laws, which were changed in 2020 to prevent third parties from getting on the ballot, prevent voter choice.”

State Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs also told the paper that "Lee Zeldin was one of the many far-right Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election under the guise of election fraud — a dangerous conspiracy theory peddled by Donald Trump and his pawns in Congress,” adding that "Zeldin submitting 11,000 fake signatures just emphasizes his hypocrisy and proves he is willing to sell New Yorkers another ‘Big Lie’ to benefit his failing campaign."

Proud, however, maintained in her interview that the inclusion of copied signatures was "inadvertent" and was merely an unfortunate consequence of last-minute scrambling by staffers.

"Whether for record-keeping or data entry purposes, it is a very common procedure for copies to be made of petitions by campaigns and even individuals who gather signatures," she told the Times Union."The process was chaotic and as a result, copies of the valid signatures were inadvertently included in the filing. The mistake was acknowledged and the [Board of Elections] decision to rule the petitions invalid was accepted with no further action taken."

Proud further insisted that "the GOP could not say for certain whether the volumes containing copies were assembled at GOP headquarters. She did not know where else volumes might have been bound besides that office, however, and confirmed that petition volumes are typically bound in a single location."

Zeldin's campaign offered a nearly identical defense and has accused Hochul of employing "people who hate the Republican Party" who "are working overtime trying to spin this into something it's not to distract from the very real corruption of the pay-to-play scandals that are going on inside her office."

Demands for a criminal probe have since emerged from Democratic lawmakers like State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who represents Brooklyn and chairs the State Senate Elections Committee.

"It is clear the Zeldin campaign perpetrated a fraud. Pages of valid signatures were photocopied. Thereafter, the original sheets were paginated, as were the photocopied pages. These sheets were assigned different page numbers in order to create the appearance that the pages contained separate, valid signatures. All of this was in an attempt to create the appearance that the Petition contained at least the minimum of 45,000 valid signatures. These actions are clear and convincing," Myrie wrote in a nine-count criminal complaint filing to Albany County District Attorney David Soares that was shared exclusively with City & State on August 4th.

"New Yorkers must have confidence that our elections are fair, honest and transparent. In my role as Chair of the Senate Elections Committee, I have not hesitated to defend our system of elections from spurious allegations of fraud. However, when actualelection fraud appears to have occurred, as it does in this case, it is essential for the public trust that potential violations are investigated fully and swiftly," said Myrie. "For that reason, I urge you to use your powers to investigate these apparent violations of public integrity."

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https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2020/12/08/spindell-conspiracies-political-violence/

no lnx many pix

Elections official stands by at rally as speakers spread conspiracies, promote political violence

BY: HENRY REDMAN - DECEMBER 8, 2020

Wisconsin Trump election rally

Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Robert Spindell is seen speaking between two people draped in the flags of right wing movements, the Tea Party and Trumpism. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

One of the six officials charged with administering and protecting Wisconsin’s elections system stood on the steps of the State Capitol Monday afternoon as a group of President Donald Trump’s supporters chanted “stop the steal.”

:{:{}:

Robert Spindell, one of three Republicans on the Wisconsin Elections Commission stood by as speakers spread conspiracy theories about election fraud and COVID-19, compared the 2020 presidential election to Pearl Harbor and advocated for the violent overthrow of the government.

:{:{}:

Spindell, in his short speech to the flag-waving and MAGA hat wearing crowd of Trump voters, said he was attending the rally as a private citizen, not in his capacity as a government official. He said the election fraud committed in the 1950s and 60s by former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley shows election fraud could have been committed this year.

Wisconsin Trump election rally

Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Robert Spindell speaks at the rally. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

While he did not give any specific examples of voter fraud in Wisconsin, Spindell implied, falsely, that it had happened.

“There’s no evidence vote fraud did not occur,” Spindell said, calling for election officials to prove a negative.

Spindell also went through a laundry list of grievances about elections this year.

He complained about pre-election lawsuits filed by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and Democratic National Committee that attempted to change some election rules to make voting easier during a pandemic. Ultimately these changes were struck down by a federal appellate court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

He complained that the Democrats on the elections commission and the body’s non-partisan staff refused to remove from the voter rolls hundreds of thousands of people who may have moved or died — a decision that was made to avoid mistakenly disenfranchising people. The status of Wisconsin’s so-called voter purge is still pending an order from the Wisconsin Supreme Court but there’s no evidence dead people voted and people who have moved can update their registration at the polls on Election Day.

Wisconsin Trump election rally]

Evidence of Wisconsin’s year of political protest with pro-Trump protesters stand near anti-police graffiti from Black Lives Matter protests. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)]

Spindell complained that municipal clerks filled in missing addresses on absentee ballots, a practice allowed under guidance provided by the Wisconsin Elections Commission and which has been in place for previous elections.

Finally, he complained that candidates from the Green Party and Kanye West were not allowed on the presidential ballot because of issues with their paperwork. Emails showed Spindell attempted to assist the Green Party in its efforts to get on the ballot despite failing to properly file nomination papers. Spindell has repeatedly complained that not allowing West on the ballot, even though his campaign missed the deadline to file, was disenfranchisement of Black voters.

Wisconsin Trump election rally

A QAnon flag flies in front of the Wisconsin State Capitol at the Dec. 7 pro-Trump election rally. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)

“How about Kenyon (sic.) West?” Spindell said.

At the start of the rally, the largely un-masked crowd gathered closely together to sing “God Bless America,” “The Star Spangled Banner” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” The group was outside; still, singing is considered by the CDC to be an especially effective vector of COVID-19 spread.

Near the singers, a group of 15 people carrying Trump flags did laps of the Capitol while praying the rosary.

Appearing alongside Spindell was the rally’s headliner, Minnesota native, MyPillow CEO and Trump ally Michael Lindell. Lindell also recently donated to the bail fund of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with killing two people at a racial justice protest in Kenosha in August.

Wisconsin Trump election rally

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell speaks to the crowd. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)]

Even though other Republicans on the elections commission have definitively announced there were no issues with the state’s election machines, Spindell stood by as Lindell claimed Trump lost Wisconsin because of issues with Dominion voting machines — a disproven conspiracy theory.

“I would like to stay officially on the record that I have complete confidence in the voting equipment in use in Wisconsin, that I think there is no evidence of systemic problems of software problems programming problems hacking, there’s no evidence of switched votes,” Republican commissioner Dean Knudson said last week.

Lindell, as he argued for the Electoral College to be bypassed so the selection of the president could go to state congressional delegations, stated that Trump had actually won in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Lindell’s proof that Trump won these states was that on election night, the odds at the sportsbooks said Trump was the 3-1 favorite to win. Betting odds on presidential elections aren’t an adequate predictor of outcome. For example, PredictIt, a popular political prediction site, gave Hillary Clinton a chance at being elected president for most of 2020.

[Wisconsin Trump election rally

A rally attendee sits draped in a “Thin Blue Line” pro-police blanket. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)]

The most prominent speaker was Lindell, but the rally featured a number of other right-wing speakers who spread conspiracy theories and railed against the threats of communism, socialism and Marxism that they believe President-elect Joe Biden represents.

The rally, which was part of a “March for Trump” bus tour, is stopping in 27 cities across the country in an attempt to somehow overturn the results of the election.

“We’re trying to go through all the corrupt states with all the corruption,” one speaker said.

[Wisconsin Trump election rally

Release the Kraken is catchphrase for right wing conspiracies signifying the dubious legal strategy of conservative lawyer Sidney Powell. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)]

But short of any legal remedies, which appear to be dwindling as the president continues to lose in court, the rally speakers said there are other options to fight the election results.

“The Electoral College is going to fear We the People,” said another speaker. “Learn our 2nd Amendment, we need to know how to fire those handguns, fire those rifles.”

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an 5 22

Three Florida Republicans have been charged with multiple counts of election fraud relating to the 2020 cycle.

A dozen charges against "Seminole County Republican Party Chair Ben Paris, political consultant Eric Foglesong, and former independent candidate Jestine Iannotti from Senate District 9 came down through indictments sought by the State Attorney for Florida’s 18th Judicial Circuit after a Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) investigation," *Florida Politics*reported on Tuesday. "The investigation began in July 2021 after JC 18 State Attorney Phil Archer requested the FDLE look into the election."

Prosecutors allege that Iannotti ran as an independent “ghost candidate” to funnel votes away from Democrat Patricia Sigman in favor of Republican Jason Brodeur, who ultimately prevailed with 50.3 percentof the vote over Sigman's 47.5 percent. Iannotti, meanwhile, received 2.1 percent.

“Some NPA candidates, commonly referred to as ‘ghost’ candidates, have been used by political parties as a way to close elections or siphon off votes. While not illegal per se, many have questioned the ethics of the practice. However, when the candidate and the partisan political operatives involved violate election finance laws by illegally funding those races and filing false reports, it is the responsibility of government to act," Archer said in a press release. “Today’s actions represent our commitment to ensuring the integrity of Florida’s election process and holding those who violate state campaign laws accountable.”

FDLE Acting Commissioner Mark Glass's office explained in a statement that "Iannotti ran as an independent candidate for Florida State Senate District 9 in the 2020 election. The investigation showed that Iannotti illegally accepted a $1,200 cash donation from Foglesong in support of her candidacy. Agents found that Iannotti and Foglesong falsely used the names of other individuals as contributors in official campaign finance documents reported to the Florida Department of State to skirt Florida laws on campaign contributions. Agents say that Paris provided the name and address of one of the individuals Iannotti and Foglesong falsely used in their official campaign reporting, even though Paris knew the individual had not contributed to the campaign."

Glass added that "elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and we must do everything we can to ensure they are fair and transparent. Protecting the integrity of our elections is a top priority in Florida, and that includes making sure candidates follow the laws.”

Arrest warrants have been issued for Foglesong and Iannotti, who are out on $4,500 and $10,000 bond, respectively, and have been ordered to surrender by May 25th.

The story continues here.

---

https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/florida-dark-money/

Friday, January 21, Nikki Fried, the commissioner of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, released a statement about the investigation which will determine if the organization, known as Let’s Preserve the American Dream, violated Florida law regarding funding solicitation.

“As always, our department will enforce the law to the fullest extent to protect consumers,” Fried said in a prepared statement. “Our Consumer Services team is currently investigating whether this entity was previously operating in violation of Chapter 496, Florida Statutes, and we are unable to comment further at this time.”

The investigation reportedly centers on LPAD's association with some of the biggest businesses in the state of Florida and how its donations may have been used to fund ghost campaigns to tilt elections in Republicans' favor.

Per the Orlando Sentinel:

"The records show that the nonprofit, 'Let’s Preserve the American Dream,' wired $600,000 on Sept. 29, 2020, to another nonprofit, 'Grow United Inc.' Grow United then used that money to send $550,000 to a pair of political committees that paid for mailers touting independent candidates in three important Senate races, in what authorities say was a ploy to confuse voters and tilt the races to Republicans."

Transcripts of an interview show that Ryan Tyson, a Tallahassee-based Republican strategist and the executive director of LPAD, confirmed he ordered the $600,000 payment to Grow United.

Tyson also indicated that he told the political consultant overseeing Grow United "to expect a request for a donation from Alex Alvarado, another operative who worked for Tyson as a subcontractor to Let’s Preserve the American Dream — and who records show set up the two political committees that paid for the ghost candidate advertising."

However, he insists he had no control over Grow United's transferring the funds to Alvarado’s political committees.

“Did you know when this $600,000 was sent to Grow United... that $550,000 of it was going to go to Alex Alvarado’s two political committees?” Miami-Dade County Assistant State Attorney Tim VanderGiesen asked Tyson.

He responded saying, "I had a hunch they’d help him."

Tyson later added, “I assume they’d probably be supportive if Alex called. but I had no way to know if they actually would. Because once I make a contribution to an entity, I lose control of how they spend that money.”

Investigators are seeking to determine whether or not LPAD violated election and campaign finance laws.

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Records: Tallahassee strategist helped boost ghost candidates with dark money ad buy

Samantha J. Gross, Miami Herald - Tuesday

A longtime political strategist paid for more than half a million dollars in misleading mailers promoting no-party candidates inthree key state Senate races in 2020, according to court records released by the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s office Tuesday as part of a public corruption probe.

The records show that Ryan Tyson’s “Let’s Preserve the American Dream” wired $600,000 to “Grow United Inc” on Sept. 29, 2020. Days later on Oct. 2,Grow United sent $550,000 to two political committees that paid for the misleading mailers — The Truth and Our Florida — which were set up by Tallahassee consultant Alex Alvarado.

Investigators say the ads were meant to confuse voters to benefit the Republican candidates in the races, including two in Miami-Dade and one in Central Florida. The mailers featured messaging on issues that historically appeal to Democrats and promoted no-party candidates who had not actively campaigned. The ads urge voters to “cut the strings” from party-backed candidates.

The candidates in the three races — Senate Districts 37 and 39 in Miami and Senate District 9 in Seminole County — did not campaign themselves and were only advertised to voters via the mailers. All three races were won by Republicans.

Ryan Smith, a GOP consultant who owns Tallahassee firm ‘96 Consulting, Alvarado, the stepson of the printer who brokered the mail-piece project, and Tyson, all received a cut of the $550,000 payment.

Up until 2019, Tyson served as vice president of pro-business lobbying group Associated Industries of Florida, which has denied being involved in the committees.

Prosecutors have zeroed in on Tyson and Alvarado as well as Dan Newman, a prominent Democratic fundraiser, and Richard Alexander, the chairman of the dark money group Grow United. On Dec. 23, 2021, each was sent what is known by prosecutors as a “prior to” letter, which generally precedes criminal charges in a case. As of Tuesday, no charges have been filed.

It is not illegal to mislead voters or pay for misleading mail advertisements.

Records released as part of pretrial discovery in the case of former Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles, who is facing several charges related to the no-party candidate who ran in District 37, were received by the Miami Herald on Tuesday.

Court records show that Tyson, the executive director of Let’s Preserve the American Dream, told investigators that in his role as director, it was his idea to send the money to Grow United for the purpose of helping “left of center” candidates. He said he was originally approached byJeff Pitts, a consultant who controlled Grow United and now runs a Tallahassee-based firm called Canopy Partners LLC.

Miami-Dade County Assistant State Attorney Tim VanderGiesen asked Tyson during a Sept. 30 interview: “Did you know when this $600,000 was sent to Grow United, that $550,000 of it was going to go to Alex Alvarado’s two political committees?”

“I had a hunch they’d help them,” Tyson responded.

During the interview, Tyson also told VanderGiesen that Let’s Preserve the American Dream had reimbursed Alvarado for legal fees since the public corruption investigation began.

““I don’t think a single donor that has ever contributed to Let’s Preserve the American Dream would ever believe that Alex Alvarado was committing a crime,” Tyson said.

An ongoing criminal investigation

The candidate in Senate District 37, who shares a surname with the Democrat incumbent and received more than 6,000 votes in an election decided by 32, was arrested on four felony campaign finance charges last year. Auto-parts dealer Alexis Pedro Rodriguez later took a plea deal in exchange for helping prosecutors build a case against his acquaintance, Artiles. Investigators say Artiles paid Rodriguez $40,000 to run as a no-party candidate to sway the outcome of the election.

Both men were charged with conspiracy to make or accept campaign contributions in excess of legal limits, accepting and making those excess campaign contributions, false swearing in connection to an election and aiding in (and eventually, submitting) false voter information. Under state law, each of those charges carry sentences of up to five years in prison if convicted.

Let’s Preserve the American Dream paid Artiles’ Atlas Consultants more than $125,000 for “South Florida research services” dating back to 2017. The last payment to Artiles’ firm was Nov. 15, 2020, three days after the Democrat incumbent in Senate District 37 lost in a manual recount.

Tyson seeks to block records

Tyson’s lawyers have asked a Miami circuit court judge to block the release of bank records that would disclose its donors, arguing that the release of such information would violate donors’ constitutional rights and could “chill speech across the political spectrum.”

Records released Tuesday also show that Tyson’s lawyers emailed Hancock Whitney bank, asking that it review responsive documents before they are produced to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.

His lawyers have argued that releasing bank records that would show donations and contributions from Let’s Preserve the American Dream, from February 2020 to August 2021, are “irrelevant” to Artiles’ case.

No charges have been brought against Tyson or his dark money organization, and neither have been accused of wrongdoing, his lawyers said. They also said that Tyson voluntarily appeared for an interview with prosecutors to “demonstrate that LPAD complies with all state, federal and local laws.”

Unlike political committees, which are legally required to disclose their donors, dark money groups are not required by law to do so, which makes them useful for funders who don’t want their identities revealed when backing certain campaigns or causes.

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/facebook-pro-trump-groups/

salon no twt

Reporting on Friday revealed that Facebook knowingly allowed a digital marketing firm tied to a pro-Trump group to release a series of ads purporting to be from a fake left-wing organization ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, while election officials failed to investigate the group at the time.

As The Guardian reported, a right-wing marketing firm called Rally Forge ran a $5,000 ad campaign beginning just days before the2018 election, showing ads promoting Green Party candidates in an effort to split the Democratic vote and help Republicans in several close races. The ads were purported to be placed by a group called America Progress Now and expressed support for democratic socialism.

Facebook launched an investigation into the ads just after the election and quickly determined that America Progress Now's official page on the platform was run by the same three men—Jake Hoffman, Connor Clegg, and Colton Duncan—who were administrators for Turning Point USA, the pro-Trump college organization.

To the alarm of a number of Facebook employees, The Guardian reported, the company did not find Rally Forge or Turning Point USA to be in violation of any of its policies.

One product manager at the time said a case could be made for Rally Forge and Turning Point USA having engaged in voter suppression through the ads, and asked, "Can we strengthen our ads transparency policies so that political ads are indeed transparent to the user?"

After the election, Facebook deactivated several other right-wing accounts run by the administrators, but the move did not stop Rally Forge from establishing a "troll farm" out of Phoenix, Arizona in 2020. Working for Turning Point Action, a group linked to Turning Point USA, the firm hired teenagers to post pro-Trump messages on social media, some of which cast doubt on the integrity of the election system.

Sophie Zhang, aformer Facebook employee who participated in the investigation of the fake Green Party ads, wrote on Twitter Friday, "One wonders if [Rally Forge] would have escalated to troll farms, had FB deterred them in 2018." twt]

"This is egregious," tweeted the women's rights group UltraViolet on Friday.

Beyond Facebook's decision to allow the firm to remain on Facebook after determining the ads were fraudulent, the ads "appeared to violate federal laws that require independent expenditures to be filed with the [Federal Election Commission] and include proper disclosures on advertisements," The Guardian reported.

"This is an example of why disclosure is so important in elections: swing state voters who saw 'America Progress Now' ads promoting Green party candidates would've had no idea that they were the handiwork of Republican political operatives," Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform at CLC, told The Guardian.

The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the FEC in 2019 over America Progress Now and the administrators' failure to disclose the true source of the Facebook ads, only to have the case dismissed before the FEC could conduct an investigation.

The election commissioners declined to look further into the complaint after a man named Evan Muhlstein contacted them to take full responsibility to the ads, claiming he alone had failed to file the ad expenditures with the FEC and saying his "inexperience" was to blame.

"The FEC's job is to enforce the transparency laws and protect voters' right to know who is trying to influence them, but the agency here failed to conduct even a minimal investigation," Fischer said.

According to former FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel, who served on the commission from 2013 to 2017, Muhlstein's admission to the FEC appeared to amount to "clear fraud," as he never disclosed to the officials that the ads had been the work of Rally Forge.

At the time, though, Muhlstein's claim was enough to convince at least one FEC commissioner, James "Trey" Trainor, that the CLC had engaged in "wild speculation" by filing a complaint.

"This case wasn't about a 'fake political group … exploit[ing] Facebook rules … and hid[ing] spending from the FEC,'" Trainor wrote. "In fact, APN was established by an unsophisticated individual trying to show his support for several third-party candidates, but he got tripped by the myriad regulations governing online political speech."

Zhang denounced the FEC for failing to contact Facebook regarding Muhlstein's claim to verify that he'd administered the America Progress Now page—a cursory investigation which would have immediately revealed the true owners of the page.

"It's quite possible that FB would have blown the FEC off," Zhang said. "But many employees were upset over this case, and may have come forward if asked. I would likely have if I'd known."

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