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Ferguson, Donny

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poster boy? for?  bnat'l rtw? ATI, proto-trump? stockman syndrome/formula: how early support good proxy for greed/evil likely to implode?

bossie universe telemarket/ superpac dark $ c4

format messed up see bak

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2025

li

# Donny Ferguson

3rd degree connection3rd

Donald E. Ferguson & Associates

Rick BermanRick Berman • 3rd+ • 3rd+President, RBB StrategiesPresident, RBB Strategies2mo • 2 months ago

Purified water: a lifeline in a bottle.

Texas A&M University

Washington DC-Baltimore Area Contact info

donnyferguson

Donald E. Ferguson & AssociatesDonald E. Ferguson & AssociatesMay 2007 - Present · 17 yrs 9 mosMay 2007 to Present · 17 yrs 9 mosAlexandria, VirginiaAlexandria, Virginia

William J. McCarthy & AssociatesWilliam J. McCarthy & AssociatesOct 2016 - Feb 2020 · 3 yrs 5 mosOct 2016 to Feb 2020 · 3 yrs 5 mosAlexandria, VirginiaAlexandria, Virginia

Chief Of Staff/ConsultantChief Of Staff/Consultant

Loudoun County GovernmentLoudoun County GovernmentJun 2002 - Dec 2015 · 13 yrs 7 mosJun 2002 to Dec 2015 · 13 yrs 7 mosLeesburg, VALeesburg, VA

Director of Communications & Senior Policy AdviserDirector of Communications & Senior Policy Adviser

U.S. House of RepresentativesU.S. House of RepresentativesJan 2013 - Jan 2015 · 2 yrs 1 moJan 2013 to Jan 2015 · 2 yrs 1 moWashington D.C. Metro AreaWashington D.C. Metro Area

Director Of CommunicationsDirector Of Communications

Libertarian National CommitteeLibertarian National CommitteeJan 2009 - Aug 2009 · 8 mosJan 2009 to Aug 2009 · 8 mosWashington D.C. Metro AreaWashington D.C. Metro Area

Show all 7 experiences

EducationEducation

Texas A&M UniversityTexas A&M University

* Founding Vice-President, Young Conservatives of Texas, Texas A&M Chapter

* President, Texas A&M Eagle Forum Collegians

XITTER

1879865263451213908?mx=2

newbook ggl:

Donny Ferguson, a political operative for twenty years, resident of Virginia not exactly western) is probably the last Executive Director of ATI, since its cover has been blown [but may just morph again—no one has gone to jail, after all]; he's decamped to Texas to run campaign of Rep. Steve Stockman (no gun free school zones, defund the UN, and most bizarrely, he has sponsored a bill preventing the US from participating in war games with China ) house comm on science; best thing about earth is oil. He put out the fake newspaper Montana Statesman “award-winning newspaper veteran commended by other papers for his honest, intelligent, issue-oriented approach” ATP “now one of the biggest media outlets” (Colorado clone). Went after Bullock (who had challenged Citizens United in Montana) by putting his picture alongside three sex offenders, saying he allowed one in four of going unregistered (this resemble the Willie Horton ploy on prison furlough, overlooking the fact that Reagan instituted such a program as governor and Dukakis actually shut it down?!] Does employ one of the very few issues aside from the military that conservatives still own, tough on crime].

When Judge Lovell ruled for ATP, Ferguson called it a” victory for free speech of all Americans, and a loss for Montana politicians trying to squelch the voices of grassroots citizens challenging their power” deeply cynical because actually------ GOP Tutvedt says “a free pass to misrepresent candidates' records” PowerPoint stated they would solicit money from officers of foreign corporations [why would they say that?] . Claimed PBS committed a felony against him threatened to go Scottish Texan, Calm cool, collected headhunting. I collect ears and skulls. And more importantly I follow the law and rain hellfire (sic) on those who don't” [what was the crime ? LeFer tried to get records back?] ended up working for wackjob Texas congr? STOCKMAN

Grey Wolf invasive species that spreads diseases (tapeworms! Requires ingestion of eggs; dogs, cows, pigs )

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ATI sum

https://www.whitefishpilot.com/hungryhorsenews/article_97f74377-c37e-5a77-b7d5-076ddc6769e9.html

POLITICAL GROUP ACCUSED AGAIN OF VIOLATING ELECTION LAWS

November 03, 2012 at 5:20 pm | By RICHARD HANNERS Hungry Horse News

• Boxes of documents turn up in Colorado meth house

• Office of Commissioner of Political Practices broken into

• State judge says he’ll sanction American Tradition Partnership

For the second time in two years, the office of the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices allegedly has found itself in possession of documents linking a “social welfare nonprofit” organization with coordinated efforts to help Montana candidates win election. And this time the story was told on television.

The “social welfare nonprofit” organization, American Tradition Partnership, formerly known as Western Tradition Partnership, has been quite successful in its effort to de-regulate Montana’s campaign finance regulations.

Founded in May 2009 by former Republican U.S. Representative for Montana Ron Marlenee and former Montana legislator John Sinrud, ATP claims to be a “grassroots organization” that promotes responsible natural resource development, private property rights and multiple use of public lands. Sinrud eventually left ATP and moved to the Flathead Valley, where he became the government affairs director for the Northwest Montana Association of Realtors in 2009. He left the NMAR position in March 2012.

ATP’s big victory came on Oct. 18, 2010, when Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock agreed with ATP that, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling earlier that year, Montana’s 1912 Corrupt Practices Act was unconstitutional.

Like the Citizens United ruling, Sherlock’s ruling opened up Montana elections to unlimited contributions by corporations so long as the money did not go directly to candidates or was coordinated with candidates’ campaigns.

The Montana Supreme Court’s ruling on Dec. 30, 2011, overturning Sherlock would have allowed the century-old law passed by citizens initiative to remain in effect. The high court’s ruling, however, was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25 this year.

ATP, led by Indiana attorney James Bopp, who also worked on the Citizens United case, continued to see success in fighting Montana election regulations, most recently with U.S. District Court Judge Charles Lovell’s Oct. 3 ruling that Montana laws limiting campaign contributions are unconstitutional.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Lovell’s ruling through the 2012 general election. Meanwhile ATP is continuing to fight Montana and the Commissioner of Political Practices over other election regulations — including requirements to disclose the sources of funding for political advertising. But the first blow came from the state.

The 2008 and 2010 elections

Three days after Sherlock’s ruling, then Commissioner of Political PracticesDennis Unsworth issued a 43-page statement charging ATP and the Coalition For Energy and Environment with violating the state’s campaign finance laws on numerous occasions.

Unsworth’s allegations followed a two-year investigation into ATP’s activities in 19 Montana legislative races in 2008, including the House District 3 race in which Mick Holm, D-Columbia Falls, lost to Dee Brown, R-Coram, and the House District 8 race in which Cheryl Steenson, D-Kalispell, defeated Craig Witte, R-Kalispell.

Important information in that investigation came from former Lewis and Clark County Commissioner Karolin Loendorf, who started working with ATP on Jan. 7, 2009. She told Unsworth that she understood her job was to get individuals elected to public office. She said she resigned on Feb. 15, 2009, because of the “underhanded things” she claimed were going on at ATP.

Among the documents Unsworth uncovered was a PowerPoint presentation called “WTP 2010 Election Year Program Executive Briefing” that Unsworth said “appears to be targeted to Montana donors.” The program called for spending $77,000 on primary races, $460,000 in the general election, and $8.2 million on 15 U.S. Senate races and 30 U.S. House races.

Potential donors were encouraged by PowerPoint slogans like “Corporate contributions allowed,” “No contributions limit” and “It’s confidential.” Notes stated “There’s no limit to how much you can give,” “Finally, we’re not required to report the name or the amount of any contribution we receive,” and “You can just sit back on election night and see what a difference you’ve made.”

Unsworth claimed that ATP tried to hide some expenditures by attributing them to the Coalition For Energy and Environment, but he doubted the front group had the financial means to create and mail out “thousands of slick, oversize, full-color, glossy, professionally designed and printed campaign flyers.”

All of this activity took place before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United case, and by coordinating donors with plans to target candidates, and by offering to hide the names of donors, ATP had run afoul of Montana election law.

ATP continued its work in the 2010 election. Locally, it mailed a 6-by-10-inch glossy flyer accusing Whitefish Democrat Will Hammerquist of making “plans to raid school funds” and trying to “create Montana’s own version of Obama’s failed ‘stimulus’.” Hammerquist eventually lost the 2010 race for House District 4 to Kalispell Republican Derek Skees.

ATP also mailed a newsletter to Whitefish area residents signed by the group’s executive director Donald Ferguson claiming Hammerquist “flatly refused” to “repudiate his past support for radical greens.” On the other hand, Ferguson said, “Republican Derek Skees has pledged 100 percent support for high-paying jobs and affordable energy for Montana.”

On Nov. 24, 2010, ATP and Montana Citizens For Right To Work filed a 58-page complaint against Unsworth, Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock and two county attorneys claiming Montana’s election statutes were unconstitutional because they were “impermissibly vague and overbroad” and infringed on free speech rights.

The plaintiffs cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Citizens United case that “independent expenditures and the corporate form pose no threat to the electoral process.” They went on to argue that Unsworth’s labeling of ATP as a “political committee” placed an “onerous burden” on people who wanted to advocate a political opinion.

The Colorado connection

The office of the Commissioner of Political Practices’ case against ATP for its activities in the 2008 and 2010 elections at one point appeared to be heading for settlement. Investigators said they had abundant evidence that the Coalition For Energy and Environment was a sham front group for ATP, but “sufficient evidence has not been disclosed to establish coordination between WTP/CEE and any candidate.” They concluded that henceforth, “Concern and healthy skepticism is warranted.”

Then, about five months later, the state office received several boxes of documents from Colorado. A convicted felon named Mark Siebel had discovered them in late 2010 in a house near Denver used by methamphetamine users. Siebel said a friend found the boxes in a stolen car, and he alerted several Colorado candidates who had been targeted by ATP. A lawyer married to one of those Colorado candidates shipped the boxes to Montana.

The boxes held files on 23 conservative candidates in Montana and included surveys filled out by the candidates and their wives and mailers said to be paid for by the candidates’ campaigns. Several file folders held pages with multiple copies of candidates’ signatures, including signatures that matched ones found on the mailers. Bank statements found in the boxes came from several outside groups, including the Coalition For Energy and Environment, the Alliance of Montana Taxpayers, and the Conservative Victory Fund.

Some of the documents referred to Christian LeFer,who was described in 2009 memos as ATP’s director of strategic programming. LeFer was also registered with the Montana Secretary of State as the executive director of Montana Citizens For Right To Work. He and his wife Allison LeFer owned Direct Mail and Communications, a Bozeman printing company.

When PBS Frontline and ProPublica investigators asked about the box of documents, ATP’s attorney in Colorado, Jim Brown, suggested they belonged to Direct Mail and Communications. Brown also suggested that PBS Frontline hand over the documents because they were “in possession of stolen property.” By that time, however, the boxes were in the hands of the office of the Commissioner of Political Practices.

LeFer said the documents were in his car when it was stolen in Denver in June 2010. He filed a complaint in state district court as the PBS Frontline show was publicized seeking the return of the documents. He claimed their release would harm his business.

His wife later claimed in an e-mail to the Associated Press that the documents found in Colorado were a mix of documents from her business, Direct Mail and Communications, and her husband’s business as an independent political consultant. She said she alone worked with candidates, and perhaps her husband referred clients to her.

When PBS Frontline investigators asked Julie Steab, an investigator for the Commissioner of Political Practices, about the Colorado documents, she responded, “My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that ATP was running a lot of these campaigns.”

PBS Frontline also asked what former federal election commissioner Trevor Potter thought about the documents. “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,” he said. If he was still an FEC commissioner, “I would say we had grounds to proceed with an investigation.”

Office burglarized

The office of the Commissioner of Political Practices does not have the authority to levy fines or penalties, Unsworth said. After it issues a finding, an attempt is made to settle with the offending party. If a settlement cannot be reached, the office might take the case to state district court.

In the case of ATP, Unsworth said, the organization refused to follow the state’s election regulations, and the office felt compelled to take the case to court. ATP filed a counter-claim in state district court, he said, and a hearing is scheduled in the matter in March 2013.

In a new twist to the case, a Capitol security guard in Helena reported a break-in at the office of the Commissioner of Political Practices on Oct. 31 at about 9:47 p.m. — about 24 hours after the PBS Frontline show was aired. The guard said the door was open and the basement light was on.

Mary Baker, who works in the office, said the Colorado documents had been moved to another site earlier and were secure. No documents in the office appeared to be missing, but office staff were still checking. The current Commissioner of Political Practices, Jim Murry, rejected a request by the AP to see the Colorado documents, citing the state lawsuit against ATP.

On Nov. 1, Judge Sherlock said he intends to sanction ATP for failing to produce organizational records in the two-year-old case relating to the 2008 and 2010 elections. He said he would specify what those sanctions would be after he had reviewed additional written arguments from ATP and the state.

The state claims the records ordered by the judge but still missing included a list of the nonprofit organization’s board members, its bylaws, meeting minutes and some communications.

Bopp, ATP’s attorney, argued that disclosure would violate its constitutional rights to free speech and other rights. He also noted that ATP had not appealed prior orders by the court to provide the records because it didn’t expect to win before the Montana Supreme Court.

The Montana Attorney General’s Office has accused ATP of “willful disobedience” and hiding under the cloak of nonprofit status. Assistant Attorney General Andy Huff said he’d never before seen an attorney tell a judge that his client would not obey that judge’s orders.

On Nov. 2, Sherlock ordered the release of ATP files collected by the state over the past two years. The records are not the same as those reported in the PBS Frontline show. The released records from 2008-2010 include hundreds of pages of account transactions and copies of checks to lawyers, consultants, vendors and a Tea Party organizer in Montana, Colorado and Washington, D.C.

Some of the newly released documents indicate that in October 2008, when the group launched as Western Tradition Partnership, it received $515,000. Several days later, ATP gave $500,000 to the anti-union political group National Right To Work Committee.

Other documents allegedly show that Allison LeFerwas intimately involved in ATP’s finances and signed many of their checks. This would seem to contradict her earlier claim that her business, Direct Mail and Communications, was not connected to her husband Christian LeFer’s political consulting work.

ATP responds

American Tradition Partnership executive director Donald Ferguson’s first reaction to learning about PBS Frontline’s upcoming show about the Colorado documents was to say the group had contacted the FBI “regarding the Montana Commission on Political Practices’ admission that they have engaged in the interstate trafficking of stolen property.”

Ferguson followed up the same day by saying, “With days to go until Montanans vote, the activist group ProPublica has decided to release a misleading, sensationalist story built around personal property stolen from a car and delivered by a meth user to ATP’s political opponents.” Ferguson said PBS Frontline’s story “falsely links ATP to individual activities the organization has no connection to.”

“ATP does not, and never will, tell voters which candidate to vote for,” he said. “ATP speaks on the issues, informing voters where candidates stand and of their public records.”

Ferguson said that other than sending a questionnaire to a candidate, “I have never communicated with most of them.” He added that, “I seriously doubt stolen property acquired by a meth user and spread around by political activists are true, accurate, unaltered and complete documents.”

Immediately following the PBS Frontline show’s broadcast on Oct. 30, Ferguson issued another statement in which he questioned how media investigators got access to the Colorado documents. He also wondered why the Commission on Political Practices never acted on documents it held for a year and a half, and he noted that a judge had blocked further release of the documents. Ferguson also commented on the broadcast’s message.

“Aside from wild conspiracy theories and willful misreadings of applicable campaign finance and nonprofit laws, tonight’s Frontline story simply revealed what most Montanans and Americans already knew — that radical anti-growth environmentalists aren’t the only ones who are free to organize, raise money and communicate with the public on important policy topics,” he said.[who/what is referring to? pbs?

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https://www.publicintegrity.org/2017/01/31/20642/meet-true-source-those-viral-donald-trump-tv-ads

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Twitter is abuzz overa pro-President Donald Trump television advertisement that urges viewers to call a toll-free number and “pledge your support to defend Donald Trump.”

“We need every Trump supporter to pick up the phone now!” the ad’sfast-talking narrator says as he also slams “liberals in the Democratic Party” and the “crooked media” for attacking the newly inaugurated president.

The narrator continues: “They think they are going to destroy Trump’s presidency, but they are wrong! … Make your voice heard and help drain the swamp!”

The ad became too much for “@Jess4_RK,” an unverified Twitter user, then with a few hundred followers.

On Saturday, she tweeted a video of herself watching the ad on CNN and included this all-caps commentary: “WHAT IN THE HELL DID I JUST WATCH???????????????????????????WHEN HAS A PRESIDENT EVER DONE THIS???! IM SCREAMING!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Legions of people — including celebrities — began retweeting @Jess4_RK and commenting on her post, which garnered more than 30,000 retweets before she blocked public access to her account.

“WTF?!?!?” tweeted actress Debra Messing.

“This is just pathetic. Sounds like a commercial for aluminum siding you see on AMC in the middle of a Gunsmoke marathon,” snarked musician Mikel Jollett.

Many outraged commenters believe that Trump himself — or those within Trump’s inner circle — were responsible for the ad.

They are mistaken. Not only is there no connection to Trump, the ad is made possible by a group that employs a one-time Trump hater who is making a pretty penny.

Who’s behind it?

As noted in the fine print displayed in the ad’s final few seconds, the ad is sponsored by the “Committee to Defend the President.”

As it described itself in its own fine print, the Committee to Defend the President is a “project of Stop Hillary PAC” and “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.” (On Saturday, Stop Hillary PAC officially changed its name to “The Committee to Defend the President,” according to federal records.)

Stop Hillary PAC, for its part, is a hybrid super PAC that formed on May 16, 2013 —more than two years before Trump announced his presidential run.

[pix]Guy Short, vice president of fundraising for political consulting firm Campaign Solutions, is a Stop Hillary PAC consultant and, according to an advertising disclosure document filed on January 16 with the Federal Communications Commission, “founder.”Campaign Solutions, it so happens, is also Stop Hillary PAC’s top vendor, according to federal records.

Short, who made headlines earlier this decade for his political work with ex-Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is never mentioned in Stop Hillary PAC’s public communications to supporters and potential donors. And he’s no unabashed supporter of Trump.

For example, Short last year served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention — and pledged to back Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican U.S. senator who ran against Trump. Short last year also called Trump a “liar,” telling Reuters in April that he “spent thousands of dollars of my own money campaigning to become a delegate because it's that important to make sure Donald Trump is NOT our nominee."

In an opinion piece published last year in the Colorado Statesman, Short further accused Trump of “spewing his usual fiction” and trafficking in “insults, lies, distortion and vulgarity.” He also lamented: “It’s very worrisome to wonder how a man like Trump would exercise the powers of the presidency.”

In an email Monday, Short noted that he and many other Republicans, including Trump’s general election campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, didn’t support Trump during the party’s primary.

“After the primary was over and my preferred candidate lost the nomination, I worked hard to defeat Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump — just like I have in the past five presidential cycles when my preferred candidate didn’t win,” Short said, adding that he contributed $5,000 to Trump’s transition committee. “The President has my full support. This is about as common in politics as its gets. I fail to see how this is newsworthy.”

Dan Backer— a Virginia-based lawyer and political consultant who serves as Stop Hillary PAC’s treasurer — confirmed Short has worked with Stop Hillary PAC since its inception in 2013.

“Guy regularly talks to media vendors on behalf of [the Committee to Defend the President] to ensure digital and non-digital communications are in sync,” Backer said. “He was tasked with point on this particular project.”

Initially, Stop Hillary PAC made its most notable mark on politics by feuding with the Federal Election Commission over whether it could even use its own name.

Federal law stipulates: “No unauthorized committee shall include the name of any candidate in its name." And while the FEC prodded Stop Hillary PAC to comply, it refused, even after Hillary Clinton in April 2013 announced she’d seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

Then, last year, Stop Hillary PAC raised eyebrows when it emailed fundraising pleas — signed by “Donald and Ted,” sans last names — at a time when Trump and Cruz were still battling to win the Republican presidential nomination.

The PAC later explained to the Center for Public Integrity that “Donald” is Donald Ferguson, the PAC’s political director, and “Ted” is Ted Harvey, its chairman.

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnyferguson

Donny Ferguson

President, Donald E. Ferguson & Associates. Record-breaking fundraiser and government affairs manager.

Alexandria, VirginiaPublic Relations and Communications

Current

William J. McCarthy & Associates, Donald E. Ferguson & Associates

https://www.vpap.org/committees/250638/donor/250657/

am libpac

Previous

Loudoun County Government, U.S. House of Representatives, Sterling District Supervisor - Loudoun County, Virginia

Education

Texas A&M University

Recommendations 3 people have recommended Donny Ferguson

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Summary

- Ferguson’s messaging strategy is one that can “cling tightly to its principle and still fit comfortably in the political mainstream.” – The Kansas City Star

Experience

Director of Content

William J. McCarthy & Associates

October 2016 – Present (1 year 11 months)Alexandria, Virginia

President

Donald E. Ferguson & Associates

May 2007 – Present (11 years 4 months)Alexandria, Virginia

-[ATI} Executive Director of a fast-growing (c)(4.)In 24 months, used direct mail, one-on-one fundraising, effective media management and grassroots lobbying to grow from a one-state group with a negative bank balance to a national lobbying organization based in Washington, D.C. with $500K+ in annual revenues. We also won a landmark 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case.

- Write and edit the housefile mail program for one of D.C.’s oldest and most effective lobbying groups.

Loudoun County Government

Chief Of Staff/Consultant

Loudoun County Government

June 2002 – December 2015 (13 years 7 months)Leesburg, VA

OFFICIAL LEFT OFFICE.[GOT HIS ASS KICKED]

[STOCKMAN]

U.S. House of Representatives

Director of Communications & Senior Policy Adviser

U.S. House of Representatives

January 2013 – January 2015 (2 years 1 month)Washington D.C. Metro Area

CONGRESSMAN DID NOT RUN FOR RE-ELECTION

Campaign Manager/Consultant

Sterling District Supervisor - Loudoun County, Virginia

June 2002 – November 2011 (9 years 6 months)Sterling, VA

Director Of Communications

LNC

January 2009 – August 2009 (8 months)Washington D.C. Metro Area

Education "turns out you have to go to class"

Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University

Activities and Societies: * Award-winning and nationally-published newspaper columnist - The Battalion* Founding Vice-President, Young Conservatives of Texas, Texas A&M Chapter * President, Texas A&M Eagle Forum Collegians

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LI? scrape?

natalie Mytnyk Stewart

Director, Government and Public Affairs @Switch

Randall Thompson

George Arzt

Christina Rae

Katie Trudeau

Press Secretary at Beth for US Senate

Shawn Ferguson

Vice President Government Affairs & Chief of Staff Chairman’s Office at Special Olympics

Corey Hascall

Tanya Churchmuch

President, MuchPR

Jen Wenk, APR

President

Nicole Brookshire

Executive Director at Milwaukee County

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2012 copp affidavit

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/553563-donny:{-ferguson-affidavit.:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:html

p 3 0f 4

...

9.

I am the only WTP stalf at the moment. This is due in part to the fact that

this Court's order allowing the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices

to distribute publicly WTP's financial and other information, which included

the distribution of donor information, has severely harmed WTP's ability to

fundraise and has adversely impacted relationships with prior donors.

10.

Since the Court's order, prior donors and prospective donors are declining to

contribute given their stated concern about having their nanes publicly and

widely distributed, and having their information posted on blogs and

published in newspapers,

11,

uts

transpired after this Court's earlier order.

As stated, wTP has no dedicated full time staff other than me. If I leave this

position it is unlikely wTP will be able to hire a new Executive Director. As

a result, WTP would likely have a hard time complying with the Court,s

order on sanctions in the near future.

t2.

In my opinion, if this Court does not grant WTP

a time extension to comply

with the court's order on Sanctions, the Court will work extreme hardship

on wrP/ATP and will prohibit

wrP from fully defending itself against the

meritless claims of the Montana commissioner of Political Practices.

13.

As I stated in an earlier affidavit, to my knowledge, WTP did not pay for the

flyers at issue in the Graybill Complaint. The flyers were paid for a PAC.

CEE, made up of persons associated with WTP, which the creation of such

PAC was required in order to engage in political speech prior to the United

States Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United.

14.

0003

This Court has already done serious damage to WTP's mission and its ability

Declaration of'Donny Ferguson. - Page 3

«

Page 3 of  4

»

Donny Ferguson Affidavit

Original Document (PDF) »

Contributed by: Emma Schwartz, Frontline

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ATP’s only staff member, executive director Donny Ferguson, resigned this month to take a job as a staff member for newly elected U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas.

stunning how these clowns did so much damage!

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bizzaroworld:

http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/12/nasa-study-concludes-global-warming-is-actually-slowing-sea-level-rise/

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http://rare.us/story/meet-donny-ferguson-king-of-the-drudge-hit/

fluff?

It was a pithy tweet, like a newspaper headline:“Stockman files motion ordering the arrest of Lois Lerner.”

On July 10, Congressman Steve Stockman posted this to his Twitter account. He included seven hashtags and a link to a press release written in clear, journalistic format on his government website.

This was newsworthy. A Republican congressman was pushing the House to arrest an IRS official for covering up nasty doings. The tax collector stands accused of targeting conservatives groups and delaying their applications for tax-exempt status, misdeeds that may have benefited the Democrats and the re-election campaign of the President of the United States. Conservatives would definitely find this interesting.

Stockman’s tweet got picked up by a couple of new organizations, theBlaze and WND, that did a quick rewrite of the press release. Shortly after they posted their stories, links appeared on Drudge.

Following that, the guy who wrote the tweet and had prepared the press release for Stockman, was able to post to his own Twitter account: “Made Drudge again. This might put me over 15 times in 18 months.”

That guy is Donny Ferguson.He’s Stockman’s Senior Communications and Policy Advisor. And what he did, getting his boss’s story out to the media and getting it highlighted on the Drudge Report, the major conservative/libertarian-leaning American news aggregator, if not the biggest news aggregator period, wasn’t an accident.

Ferguson has a method, and obviously he’s had some success. The fact that he’s been able to generate so much publicity for a little known Congressman who won’t be returning to office is admirable. Not only has he been rewarded with links on Drudge, last year Stockman made Roll Call‘s list of “10 Most Quotable Members of Congress,” which, Roll Call acknowledged, was due to Ferguson’s tweets.

New Yorkmagazine ran a story “The 23 Most Trollish Tweets of Steve Stockman, Congress’s Most Underappreciated Tweeter.” They screen-capped stuff like “Gas is getting so expensive Obama now has to carpool to drive the economy into the ground. 1:24 PM – 20 Feb. 2013” and “Liberals love diversity. That’s why they like to punish anyone who doesn’t think, act, eat, drink, drive and speak exactly like them. 7:39 AM – 28 Mar 2013.”

Of course, this was all Ferguson’s doing.

Donny Ferguson hasn’t always been a King of Tweet. Twitter’s only been around since 2006, and Ferguson’s been involved with politics a wee bit longer. He started out with Stockman back in 1996 when Stockman was in his first term as congressman for Texas’s 9th congressional district.

Having grown up on a dairy farm near Beaumont, Texas, Ferguson was living in Stockman’s district at the time.Stockman had made quite a splash because he defeated long time Democratic congressman Jack Brooks in a major upset.

“I just walked in and asked for an internship,” Ferguson says. Stockman served only one term that time, finishing up in 1997.

Ferguson had been attending Texas A&M but things weren’t working out all that well and in 1998 he left. “Turns out I had to go to class,” Ferguson says with a laugh and leaves it at that.

It wasn’t all a total loss. He says he gained some great insight into the workings of the media doing a stint at theA&M student paper the Battalion.

From 2000 to 2001, Ferguson worked for the National Right to Work Committee, which brought him to the DC area. From there he went to work, briefly, for the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.

:{In 2002, Ferguson landed a job as a staff aide to Eugene Delguadio,a position he maintained until 2007. Delguadio is a member of the Loudon County, Virginia Board of Supervisors, who is known for his opposition to anti-growth policies and his social conservatism. In his off hours, as president of the Public Advocate for America non-profit, he is considered to by some to be one of the country’s leading anti-gay activists.

}:

“We disagree on some issues,” Ferguson says of his former boss. Yet he maintains that “Delguadio is 100% conservative on the spending and budget issues we worked on in the county office.”

In 2008 Ferguson moved on to start up theWestern Tradition Partnership (later the American Tradition Partnership), aWashington-based conservative advocacy group. The ATP initially set it sights on environmental extremism, but ended up getting involved in all kinds of campaign finance litigation, including a nasty battle in Montana where the group was accused of breaking state campaign finance laws.

The ATP went after Montana’s attorney general who was then running for governor on the Democratic ticket. Ferguson went so far as to create and print up a newspaper, the Montana Statesman, of which he was the editor and publisher, to attack Montana Democrats.

Ferguson points out that the Statesman never endorsed candidates. He insists that “every story in the paper was 100% factual” and was in fact “more credible than the metropolitan dailies.” With headlines like “1 in 4 sex offenders go unregistered,” it was certainly more exciting.

ATP ended up making quite a splash with lefty legacy media outlets like the Atlantic after a bunch of ATP documents turned up in a “meth house” in Colorado purporting to show how the organization was involved in “possibly illegal ‘coordination’ between nonprofit and candidates for office in 2008 and 2010.”

The Atlantic story appeared on Oct. 30, 2012, just six days before the Presidential election. The writers of the Atlanticstory appear not to appreciate how their story—completely one-sided and packed with insinuation without a trace of skepticism—was exactly the sort of partisan hatchet job that critics accused the Statesman of perpetrating.

In January 2013 Ferguson resigned from the ATP and again went to work for Stockman who was returning to congress for the second time after a 16-year absence. He’s been a tweeting machine since then.

Get him on the phone and Ferguson turns out to be surprisingly generous with his secrets. “The key is just to relate to people in terms of understanding what they are thinking because Twitter and the Internet have really taken away the media’s monopoly on information,” Ferguson says.

He realizes that’s not a very original observation, but it’s one that bears repeating. Following this vein, he created a hashtag a while back #groupofderp, derp being a word that has come to mean a meaningless sound bite, or a d’uh. “Yeah that was mocking the mainstream media,” he says. He says he’s not exactly sure what “derp” means but in his view it could be just a complete failure to communicate with average people.

Ferguson saw something like this on the lefty site Vox the other day. “Vox had a chart that was suppose to explain gun violence but it was actually a chart of gun ownership,” he says with a laugh. This, to him, is derp. “I think that this just speaks to the media’s haughtiness and arrogance.”

Ferguson is willing to lay out the procedure he follows for getting maximum publicity, hopefully landing a link on major site like Drudge. He can’t do this with any event of course. It needs to be newsworthy. “One of the things that annoys me are these candidates and organizations who think they are entitled to attention because what they believe they are doing is interesting,” Ferguson says.

Sure, he notes, there are people who do things that are important and consequential, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that what they are doing is always newsworthy. “What it comes down to is; is it something that the public at large would click on a banner or click on a link to read? If you understand that you can actually craft what you are doing and sell it in such a way that news organizations will see that they have a vested interest in publicizing what you are doing,” he says.

“It’s selling to your customer. Like any business, you have to understand your customer base.”

In Stockman’s case, Ferguson is targeting news organizations that have a conservative/libertarian customer base, to great success.

Once he has his newsworthy event, he crafts a press release. “Basically when we send a press release we try to write the story for them,” he says.

Journalists, he observes, can be very busy people. “It’s like having to write five term papers in one week. They normally don’t have a lot of time to edit things and write out things. So you do as much work as you can for them. Since I learned at a newspaper I write it out in newspaper style,” he says.

From there, it’s just a matter of getting the right tweet out to the right people. Ah, sounds simple, but… in fact it is quite simple. Ferguson’s tweets for his newspaper story-like press releases are just newspaper-like headlines, “Something that really hooks and attracts attention,” he says. If you look at the tweet at the beginning of this story, “Stockman files motion ordering the arrest of Lois Lerner” you will see that is exactly what he’s done.

So who will Ferguson be tweeting for in the future? His boss, Steve Stockman, won’t be returning to office. The congressman gambled and decided to run for a Texan senate seat. He got trounced in the primary. So come January, Ferguson is out of job. And so he’s been dreaming of… chickens. Chickens?

“I’ve actually been thinking about building chicken incubators for a year,” he says. “I used to raise chickens so I’ve been thinking of ways to improve chicken incubators. I stay up nights thinking about this.” He is, he says, fascinated by agriculture policy. Maybe he’ll find something in that line.

As employment for employment prospects, he’s probably considering his own advice to neophytes entering his orbit. “One of the things I always tell our interns is that if they want a job in politics is either learn how to run campaigns or learn how to raise money. And if you know how to raise money you’ll always have a job. As with any business, if you know how to generate revenue, you will always work.”

Ferguson enjoys it in Washington. “We have a really strong conservative community here, all good people.” He’s noticed there’s been a strong growth in the libertarian movement since he arrived in DC 13 years ago. “I think some of that is just the Ron Paul people bringing in good people and the other part is people just being more open about their libertarian beliefs.” He classifies himself as a staunch libertarian who is pro-life.

He’s pretty blunt in expressing the main reason he wants to stay in Washington: “This is where the fight is.”

But doesn’t the fight wear a person down?

“You come to enjoy it after a while,” Ferguson says. “You get nervous if no one is going after you. You wonder, what I have done wrong?”

==

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/06/24/2204811/aide-to-conservative-congressman-fails-to-live-on-food-stamps-for-a-week/

==

LI

Ferguson's messaging strategy is one that can "cling tightly to its principle and still fit comfortably in the political mainstream.” - The Kansas City Star

"Freshman representatives usually aren’t able to single-handedly drive the debate on the issues, but most freshmen aren’t quite so media savvy." - Twitchy, "Rep. Steve Stockman to live-tweet SOTU fact-check, install Obama ‘Failometer’"

"(Ferguson) put together one of the most exhaustive responses to a speech [State of the Union Address] we’ve ever seen." - Twitchy, "Rep. Steve Stockman’s office hammers SOTU in live fact-check"

"(Ferguson) should be commended for running an honest, intelligent and issue-oriented campaign and for challenging an entrenched incumbent to grapple publicly with the many difficulties facing this area, especially growing congestion, increasing taxes and educational funding." - The Reston Times

Specialties: Two decades of success in public relations, media relations, communications, campaign management, association management, government administration and grassroots lobbying.

Experience

President

Americans for a Better Economy

March 2015 – Present (1 year 1 month)Washington D.C. Metro Area

The nation's most effective grassroots-powered opponent of the radical environmentalist lobby.

President

Ferguson & Associates

May 2007 – Present (8 years 11 months)

• Former Executive Director of a 501(c)4 lobbying organization dedicated to rational, pro-growth energy and environmental policies. Have won a U.S. Supreme Court case and multiple federal legislative campaigns. Signed up over 250,000 citizens for a grassroots support campaign for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

1/12 http://americantradition.org/category/fuelingjobs-com/

• Winning political campaign manager, specializing in federal and state-level competitive and "underdog" races.

• Create and lead winning public relations campaigns for national and international associations and organization. Achieve targeted results and effectively sell your cause and in national print, broadcast and online media.

• Create and lead effective social media campaigns for national and international businesses and non-profits that directly market your message to key audiences, prospects and decision makers and achieve targeted results.

• Create and lead profitable direct mail campaigns for national and international businesses and non-profits and major national fundraising agencies that achieve targeted results.

• Create and lead profitable online fundraising campaigns for international and national non-profits and major national fundraising agencies.

• National, state and local grassroots and access-based lobbying.

• Association management consulting for high-profile and effective national non-profits, growing membership and revenue..

3 recommendations, including:

Hon. Eugene Delgaudio scam artist? homophobe Public Advocate’s phone number is (703) 845-1808, its address is 5613 Leesburg Pike, Suite 17 Falls Church, VA 22041, and its website is http://publicadvocateusa.org/.

President at Public Advocate of the United States, Inc.

A man of few words and plenty of action and results. No one person has done as much for Texas, for America and the world in...View

Chris Cupit

Chris Cupit

President, Campaign Marketing Strategies, Inc.

Donny always produces a high-quality product. Very reliable.View

1 more recommendation

Senior Communications & Policy Adviser

U.S. House of Representatives

January 2013 – January 2015 (2 years 1 month)Washington, D.C.

* Responsible for communications, media and messaging strategy.

* The most-covered member of the freshman class.

* Responsible for drafting legislation.

* Responsible for monitoring and managing affairs of:

- U.S. House Committee on Agriculture

- U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce

- U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce

- U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources

* Executive Director, Congressional Property Rights Action Caucus

Campaign Manager

Congressman Steve Stockman

March 2012 – December 2012 (10 months)Houston, Texas

* Despite facing three elections, two of which we were not supposed to win, had the lowest Dollar Per Vote of any federal candidate in 2013.

* Won two upset elections despite not filing or setting up the campaign until ten weeks before the election and being outspent 15-to-1 by two different opponents and barely covered in campaign coverage up until the day of the election.

* Won a primary victory on just $23,000, knocking out the Texas Senate President who was picked to win without a runoff and was already meeting with House transition officials. In the runoff, defeated a favored millionaire who spent $750,000 against us.

Texas A&M University

Political Science with teaching certification

1995 – 1998

Activities and Societies: * Award-winning and nationally-published newspaper columnist - The Battalion * Founding Vice-President, Young Conservatives of Texas, Texas A&M Chapter * President, Texas A&M Eagle Forum Collegians

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/eagle-forum-collegians

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Hon. Eugene Delgaudio

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3/16

==

ati

1/12

“The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) internal watchdog is looking into whether the agency usesseparate internal email accountsto conduct government affairs,” The Hill reports.

“EPA’s inspector general said the audit follows on a congressional request. Some lawmakers have pressed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson for answers on her alleged use of a separate internal email account under the alias ‘Richard Windsor.’”

The bogus email account was uncovered by Chris Horner, American Tradition Institute‘s Director of Litigation.

“Its office of the inspector general wants to know whether the agency’s email practices comply with federal laws. The concern is whether correspondence through internal accounts would show up in a search for federal records.”

==

...

There were too many other oddities to go into: In February, he sued a Cornyn-affiliated group for libel over their mention of a past felony charge for drug possession that he, himself, had admitted. He spent New Year’s Eve in Manhattan helping to open a Bitcoin exchange. A fake newspaper sliming Cornyn, “The Conservative News,” was sent to mailboxes all over Texas with language taken verbatim from Stockman’s campaign website. Stockman said he’d had nothing to do with it—but it was issued by a group, Center for the American Future, whose website was registered by Jason Posey, a Stockman long-timer who was fired in 2013 in the wake ofcampaign finance violations. (The “group’s” website proclaims the newsletters’ independence from any candidate, telling visitors to check back for the “Alaska edition.” We’ll see.)

There’s another part to the question of “seriousness.” Did Stockman’s people believe earnestly in anything they were saying? Or were they, for lack of a better phrase, just fucking around?

We’re unlikely to hear from Stockman on that, but one clue comes from his spokesman, Ferguson. In the early part of the campaign, Ferguson’s Twitter account consisted of a mix of red-meat bumper-sticker slogans, plagiarized Twitter jokes and spin on behalf of his boss. As time went on,things started to go off the railsand the barest pretense that Stockman’s people were trying—or even trying to appear professional—dropped. The bad jokes multiplied. He’d tweet references to the cult British comic character, Alan Partridge, stills from the movie Idiocracy and which schlocky 60’s B-movie he was watching at the current moment. Ultimately it became difficult to tell how much work he was really capable of doing on behalf of his candidate.

With that, plus a number of pivotal state Senate elections won by the Tea Party, the whole chamber, once a check on the legislature’s most stridently conservative measures, appears set to swerve far, far to the right. It would be a shift with consequences for the whole country. Yet much of the national media, on primary night, transfixed by Stockman the clown, wrote that moderates had beaten back their far-right challengers.

Candidates like Stockman are like crack cocaine for the media, which—and I’m certainly including myself here—love a colorful, easy story almost as much as they love eccentric antagonists. But they’re bad for voters too. They’re bad for their party. And they corrode trust and respect in the democratic system. (And we are by no means experiencing a surfeit of either right now.) I hope I never have to write about Steve Stockman again after his congressional term ends in January—God knows what he’ll get up to between now and then, as a lame duck representative with nothing to lose—but I know there’ll be others like him. For some, politics is a racket that’s too good to pass up.

Christopher Hooks is a politics writer for the Texas Observer based in Austin.

:{

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/**2014**/03/steve-stockman-texas-good-riddance-104428.html#ixzz32qn7bSfC}:

For a brief period in February, for reasons known only to God and the Stockman campaign, Ferguson took the rhetorical mud cannon it was firing at Cornyn and directed it, instead, at Slate reporter Dave Weigel. Weigel had emailed Ferguson to ask where Stockman would be campaigning—Ferguson replied that the campaign was “not interested.” Weigel quoted Ferguson, and wrote, accurately, that the campaign wasn’t providing information to reporters. He later released correspondence that confirms his version of the interaction.

Ferguson accused Weigel of lying and misrepresenting his words. He wrote that Slate was less credible than a college newspaper, and accused Weigel of “intentionally faking a quote.” The campaign raised money off the incident, telling supporters Stockman was being mau-maued by the lamestream media, and that Weigel, a pro-Cornyn plant, had gone “berserk.”

Just a day later, I tweeted Ferguson about the incident. His demeanor had changed completely. “I still like Dave Weigel,” he wrote. “The man knows his Simpsons.”

In a way, it foreshadowed the end of Stockman’s pitiful campaign. Early on election night, March 4, media outlets called the race for Cornyn. He had avoided a runoff in an eight-way race.

For three months, Stockman had slimed Cornyn, from dawn till dusk. He lied about the senator’s record and intentions. He Photoshopped himinto uncomfortable positions—into flannel pajamas, and into the arms of the president. He sought not just to defeat him but to destroy him and his reputation. When the race was called, it dissipated instantly. He tweeted: “We wish Senator Cornyn best of luck in November and urge everyone to vote for, volunteer for and support the whole Texas GOP ticket. #family”

So, Stockman wasn’t serious—in any way that a candidate could be serious. He wasn’t a serious contender, he wasn’t a serious campaigner and he wasn’t, it seems likely, honest about his intentions or the authenticity of his public persona. Now, having accumulated donations to his campaign purse (as of Feb. 21, he had more than $56,000 in cash on hand, and he couldn’t have spent much in the last two weeks) a few more FEC complaintsto contend with and a few more enemies, he’ll be leaving Congress again in January—although, it should be said, the last time Stockman left public office he spent the next 16 years trying to get back. Not even being named an unindicted co-conspirator in a prescription pad fraud ring slowed his relentless drive back toward the limelight.

***

Was all of this entertaining?Absolutely. But why must we, as citizens, be constantly beset by figures like Steve Stockman? They seem to be a permanent feature of our elections now—figures like Alan Keyes, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain andDonald Trump, joke quasi-candidates whose mere presence sucks up precious oxygenfrom the democratic process, riding civic institutions to (relative) fortune and (relative) fame. Trump uses the presidential nominating process to feed his unconstrained ego and sense of relevance; Keyes, Gingrich and Cain have all used their failed runs to cash out, selling information about their supporters and trading renown for paid media gigs. Why are we giving these jokers airtime?

The Steve Stockman Show obscured much that was of real importance this cycle. His doomed race drew the lion’s share of national media attention of all the state’s primaries, despite the fact that Texas is in the middle of a critical shift with potentially enormous consequences. For all the talk about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, the most intriguing dynamic is on the Republican side: State Sen. Dan Patrick, a radio talk show host from Houston, appears the favorite to win the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. That office leads the Senate, and Patrick has promised to destroy a number of important Senate conventions that foster bipartisanship if he wins.

:{

...

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/steve-stockman-texas-good-riddance-104428.html#ixzz32qm9r84p}:

===

Ethics Committee investigating Rep. Steve Stockman

===

LI BS (oddly no ATI on resume?

Ferguson's messaging strategy is one that can "cling tightly to its principle and still fit comfortably in the political mainstream.” - The Kansas City Star

"Freshman representatives usually aren’t able to single-handedly drive the debate on the issues, but most freshmen aren’t quite so media savvy." - Twitchy, "Rep. Steve Stockman to live-tweet SOTU fact-check, install Obama ‘Failometer’"

"(Ferguson) put together one of the most exhaustive responses to a speech [State of the Union Address] we’ve ever seen." - Twitchy, "Rep. Steve Stockman’s office hammers SOTU in live fact-check"

"(Ferguson) should be commended for running an honest, intelligent and issue-oriented campaign and for challenging an entrenched incumbent to grapple publicly with the many difficulties facing this area, especially growing congestion, increasing taxes and educational funding." - The Reston Times

Specialties: Two decades of success in public relations, media relations, communications, campaign management, association management, government administration and grassroots lobbying

SrCommunications & Policy Adviser

Congressman Steve Stockman

January 2013 – Present (1 year 5 months)Washington, D.C.

* Responsible for communications, media and messaging strategy.

* The most-covered member of the freshman class.

* Responsible for drafting legislation. 

* Responsible for monitoring and managing affairs of:

* Executive Director, Congressional Property Rights Action Caucus

President
Ferguson & Associates

May 2007 – Present (7 years 1 month)

• Former Executive Director of a 501(c)4 lobbying organization dedicated to rational, pro-growth energy and environmental policies. Have won a U.S. Supreme Court case and multiple federal legislative campaigns. Signed up over 250,000 citizens for a grassroots support campaign for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

• Winning political campaign manager, specializing in federal and state-level competitive and "underdog" races. 

• Create and lead winning public relations campaigns for national and international associations and organization. Achieve targeted results and effectively sell your cause and in national print, broadcast and online media.

• Create and lead effective social media campaigns for national and international businesses and non-profits that directly market your message to key audiences, prospects and decision makers and achieve targeted results.

• Create and lead profitable direct mail campaigns for national and international businesses and non-profits and major national fundraising agencies that achieve targeted results.

• Create and lead profitable online fundraising campaigns for international and national non-profits and major national fundraising agencies.

• National, state and local grassroots and access-based lobbying.

• Association management consulting for high-profile and effective national non-profits, growing membership and revenue..

Campaign Manager
Congressman Steve Stockman

March 2012 – December 2012 (10 months)Houston, Texas

* Despite facing three elections, two of which we were not supposed to win, had the lowest Dollar Per Vote of any federal candidate in 2013.

* Won two upset elections despite not filing or setting up the campaign until ten weeks before the election and being outspent 15-to-1 by two different opponents and barely covered in campaign coverage up until the day of the election. 

* Won a primary victory on just $23,000, knocking out the Texas Senate President who was picked to win without a runoff and was already meeting with House transition officials. In the runoff, defeated a favored millionaire who spent $750,000 against us.

===

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President at The Westerly Group, Inc.

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Director of Federal Affairs at Gun Owners of America

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Adrienne McClellan

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===

GOP Poll: John Cornyn destroys tea party challenger Steve Stockman

December 16, 2013

By Anomaly

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) is going to have the sads. Texas Sen. John Cornyn starts out his 2014 primary fight a whopping 44 points ahead of his most prominent conservative challenger, Rep. Steve Stockman, according to private GOP polling obtained.

44 points is huge. But what’s even more interesting is that Stockman considers Cornyn to be a ‘liberal.’

The survey conducted by the Republican firm Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research, shows Cornyn held a wide advantage over Stockman, leading 50 percent to 6 percent. According to Politico, Other candidates took 5 percent of the vote, and 39 percent of those surveyed were undecided.

Ted Cruz’s name is becoming toxic.

Cornyn was highly critical of Ted Cruzso Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) announced one week ago that he’ll challenge Cornyn, citing the way the senator “treated his fellow congressmen” as his main reason for joining the race.

Stockman said, “We are extremely disappointed in the way [Cornyn] treated his fellow congressmen and broke the 11th commandment and undermined Ted Cruz’s fight to stop Obamacare. We think he needs to be held accountable for his decisions.”

Stockman went a step further and tagged Cornyn as a ‘liberal’ for his opposition go Ted Cruz.

He said in an email last week, “Dear patriot, You are in a foxhole fighting to save our constitutional Republic… …and the last thing you need is a Republican bayonet in your back. But that’s what liberal John Cornyn has been doing to you every day.”

And now, Cornyn is ahead by such a huge margin, even a ‘liberal’ couldn’t catch up to him.

Politico reports:

Stockman spokesman Donny Ferguson said in an email that the poll is “bad news for liberal John Cornyn,” arguing that it proves “Texans aren’t happy with Cornyn’s record.”

“Cornyn has been in office for over a decade, has spent tens of millions of dollars promoting himself and half of the party doesn’t want him back. Cornyn has nowhere to go but down,” Ferguson said.” We have three months to make our case, and then another three months in a runoff.”

Cornyn campaign spokesman Drew Brandewie countered that Cornyn has a solidly conservative record that he will be touting in the campaign.

“One thing Texans respect is a man who says what he means and does what he says. Senator Cornyn is proud of his strong conservative record and will continue to work hard to earn the support of Texans,” Brandewie said.

How is this poll bad news for Cornyn exactly? Stockman had $32,000 in his campaign account at the end of September. Cornyn has some $7 million on hand.

===

This year,American Tradition Partnershipis as active as ever. It’s suing to try to overturn contribution limits in Montana, so far unsuccessfully. 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 press release saying that 12 of the 14 candidates it backed had won.

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.

The first issue of the partnership’s Montana Statesman newspaper, dated Oct. 7, which a group press release said was sent to 180,000 voters, featured four photographs on the front page: Three of registered sex offenders, and one of Bullock, accusing him of allowing one in four sex offenders to go unregistered. “Bullock admits failure,” the headline announced. A full-page ad accused Bullock of taking illegal corporate contributions and of “criminal hypocrisy.”

The Statesman’s editor and publisher is none other than Ferguson, 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.”

Ferguson didn’t respond to a question about his journalism credentials.

“Conservative group American Tradition Partnership now one of nation’s biggest media outlets,” said a press release on the group’s website, adding that the newspaper would publish “several” editions through Election Day and into 2013.

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/

==

WFB?

On the day of Lovell’s ruling, American Tradition Partnership posted an announcement on its website declaring, “ATP wins yet another case against Montana politicians.” The organization has become known for its opposition to Montana’s campaign finance laws and is currently engaged in a high-profile battle with Attorney General Steve Bullock over the state’s century-old ban on corporate spending in political races. 

“This is a victory for the free speech rights of all Americans, and a loss for Montana politicians trying to squelch the voices of grassroots citizens challenging their power,” Donald Ferguson, ATP’s executive director, said of Lovell’s decision in a statement. 

Tutvedt[gop] was discouraged by ATP’s boast that Lovell’s ruling means the state can no longer “prohibit political speech about candidate voting records the state judged ‘false.’” The senator interprets that as a free pass to misrepresent candidates’ records.

Ferguson didn’t return a voice message before the Beacon went to print.

==

Western Tradition Partnership wants corporations from foreign countries to influence Montana’s elections

Posted in Western Tradition Partnership, tagged Dan Fuchs, Dan Kennedy, dirty politics,Donny Ferguson, Western Tradition Partnership on September 30, 2010 |

It comes as no surprise that the shadowy political group, Western Tradition Partnership (WTP), who laughingly touts itself as “grassroots”, wants to corrupt Montana’s elections with their unethical and irresponsible actions. Today in the Billings Gazette, Charles Johnson sheds a little more light on WTP’s intentions, motivations and how they fund their organization. TP is the lead plaintiff in the legal challenge to Montana’s ban on corporate spending for candidates. In addition, they also tout their organization’s secrecy as a benefit of giving them money.Just a clarifying note, WTP’s Executive Director, Donny Ferguson lives in Virginia…not really a bastion of “western traditions.” Donny Ferguson is a D.C. insider, he is not a Montanan A former employee of WTP apparently leaked some materials to the Montana Political Practices Commissioner. WTP believes that a huge benefit to donating to them is that “donations are confidential” and that they don’t have to report names or amounts of any contribution. This comes as no surprise since they make a habit out of secrecy and deception. I personally believe, and I know most Montanans will agree with me, that in a Representative Democracy, there must be openness and accountability for our system to work. I think WTP would feel more comfortable operating in a Communist country.

Here is another gem coming from the presentation ...>This is another standard operating procedure of WTP: Threaten and intimidate candidates if they don’t turn in their poorly written and edited “surveys” that they send out.

I have left the best for last. The investigator for the State also found that WTP“intends to or has tried to solicit donations from officers of several foreign corporations or their affiliations, including some based in Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom.”

So, not only do they want to hide their funders from the public and the voter, they want corporations from foreign countries influencing Montana’s elections. That doesn’t sound very patriotic to me.

One thing that the article did not point out is that WTP is directly connected to convicted criminals. See this article about their connection to Colorado political operative Scott Shires.

==

frontline: ...

Christian LeFer, a strategist for the group in the 2008 and 2010 Montana elections, has denied that the group broke campaign-finance rules, saying he worked “scrupulously” to avoid the possibility of coordination. WTP officials also have said the group does not campaign for particular candidates; instead, they say it educates voters on where candidates stand on certain issues.

WTP, now known as American Tradition Partnership and based out of a post-office box in Washington, D.C., remains locked in an ongoing dispute with Montana campaign-finance regulators, who in October 2010 said the group should disclose its donors. WTP’s lawsuit in that case is scheduled to be heard in March.

In an interview Tuesday, the state’s outgoing governor, Democrat Brian Schweitzer, opined that WTP was a “criminal enterprise.”

“Think about this—you’ve got folks who won’t say who they are, won’t say where they live, run out of a post office box,” Schweitzer said. “Who are these people? They’re clearly violating Montana laws.”

In the 2012 election, much of American Tradition Partnership’s focus in Montana was on the race to replace Schweitzer, who couldn’t run again because of term limits. It funded attacks on Democrat Steve Bullock, the state’s attorney general, sending out two fake newspapersto Montana residents in the final weeks of the race portraying him as soft on child predators.

The Associated Press declared Bullock the winner Wednesday, saying he had eked out a narrow victory over Republican Rich Hill.

As the election unfolded, LeFer and Donny Ferguson, who now runs American Tradition Partnership, posted on Facebook, taking aim at recent coverage of the group.

LeFer posted a message to Ferguson on Facebook on Tuesday night. “‘Sitting back on Election NIght (sic) watching what a difference I’ve made’ – Just paraphrasing from a stolen PowerPoint presentation I’m reading,” LeFer wrote about 8 p.m. Montana time.

Ferguson, whose Facebook page is public, then clicked that he “liked” LeFer’s comment.

Although Ferguson did not reply to requests for comment, his Facebook page showed that on election night he was in Texas celebrating the return of conservative Steve Stockman to Congress, after 16 years out of office. Ferguson, Stockman’s campaign manager, proclaimed, “We’re baaaaaaaaaaack” on his Facebook page and said he autographed a campaign bag next to the signature of Gov. Rick Perry.

Ferguson didn’t mention Bullock, but an earlier post made it clear how Ferguson felt aboutFRONTLINE’s documentary on WTP, which aired Oct. 30 on PBS.

“I don’t think PBS understands who just just (sic) committed a felony against,” Ferguson wrote on Facebook the day after the broadcast. “I’m not one of these pearl-clutching marshmallow Republican squishes who doesn’t like blood. I go Scottish Texan on people. Calm, cool, collected headhunting. I collect ears and skulls. And most importantly I follow the law and rain helllfire (sic) on those who don’t. The name ‘Donald Ferguson’ translated is (sic) itself is practically a Scottish declaration of war.”

==

Secretive group that challenged Montana election laws might vanish

HELENA – After four years spent dumping candidate attack ads on Montana elections and leading high-profile challenges to state campaign laws, a secretive conservative organization looks like it may simply vanish.

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linked in Bs

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Donny Ferguson's Summary

*Ferguson's messaging strategy is one that can "cling tightly to its principle and still fit comfortably in the political mainstream.” - The Kansas City Star

"Freshman representatives usually aren’t able to single-handedly drive the debate on the issues, but most freshmen aren’t quite so media savvy." - Twitchy, "Rep. Steve Stockman to live-tweet SOTU fact-check, install Obama ‘Failometer’"

"(Ferguson) put together one of the most exhaustive responses to a speech [State of the Union Address] we’ve ever seen." - Twitchy, "Rep. Steve Stockman’s office hammers SOTU in live fact-check"

"(Ferguson) should be commended for running an honest, intelligent and issue-oriented campaign and for challenging an entrenched incumbent to grapple publicly with the many difficulties facing this area, especially growing congestion, increasing taxes and educational funding." - The Reston Times

Specialties: Two decades of success in public relations, media relations, communications, campaign management, association management, government administration and grassroots lobbying.*

Donny Ferguson's Experience

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:{:(style="padding:0px;margin:0px"):}::{}::{}::{}::{}::{:{}:}::{Media Strategist/Senior Adviser}:

Congressman Steve Stockman

January 2013 – Present (8 months) Washington, D.C.

** Responsible for communications, media and messaging strategy.

* The most-covered member of the freshman class, despite granting only two interviews.

* Responsible for drafting legislation. 

* Responsible for all activity relating to:

- Environment

* Executive Director, Congressional Property Rights Action Caucus*

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Congressman Steve Stockman

March 2012 – Present (1 year 6 months) Houston, Texas

** Despite facing three elections, two of which we were not supposed to win, had the lowest Dollar Per Vote of any federal candidate in 2013.

* Won two upset elections despite not filing or setting up the campaign until ten weeks before the election and being outspent 15-to-1 by two different opponents and barely covered in campaign coverage up until the day of the election. 

* Won a primary victory on just $23,000, knocking out the Texas Senate President who was picked to win without a runoffand was already meeting with House transition officials. In the runoff, defeated a favored millionaire who spent $750,000 against us.*

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Ferguson & Associates

May 2007 – Present (6 years 4 months)

*• Former Executive Director of a 501(c)4 lobbying organization[ATP] dedicated to rational, pro-growth energy and environmental policies. Have won a U.S. Supreme Court case and multiple federal legislative campaigns. Signed up over 250,000 citizens for a grassroots support campaign for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

• Winning political campaign manager, specializing in federal and state-level competitive and "underdog" races. 

• Create and lead winning public relations campaigns for national and international associations and organization. Achieve targeted results and effectively sell your cause and in national print, broadcast and online media.

• Create and lead effective social media campaigns for national and international businesses and non-profits that directly market your message to key audiences, prospects and decision makers and achieve targeted results.

• Create and lead profitable direct mail campaigns for national and international businesses and non-profits and major national fundraising agencies that achieve targeted results.

• Create and lead profitable online fundraising campaigns for international and national non-profits and major national fundraising agencies.

• National, state and local grassroots and access-based lobbying.

• Association management consulting for high-profile and effective national non-profits, growing membership and revenue..*

===

Profile: Donald Ferguson

Related Entities:

Donald Ferguson was a participant or observer in the following events:

December 30, 2011 and After: Montana Supreme Court Rules that State Campaign Finance Ban Stands in Spite of ‘Citizens United’ Decision

The Montana Supreme Court rules 5-2 in the case of Western Tradition Partnership v. Bullock that a century-old law prohibits corporate spending in state and federal elections conducted within the state. The ruling seems to challenge the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling (see January 21, 2010). The case stems from a challenge by a “social welfare organization,” Western Tradition Partnership (WTP, which changed its name to American Tradition Partnership after the original lawsuit was filed), joined by two other corporate entities, to Montana’s 1912 Corrupt Practices Act (CPA). The law banned corporate spending in elections, after two out-of-state copper industry magnates attempted to “buy” the Montana legislature by pouring money into the 1894 state elections. The law declares that “corporations may not make… an expenditure in connection with a candidate or a political committee that supports or opposes a candidate or a political party.”

The Montana Supreme Court finds that the CPA is needed to ensure the integrity of Montana’s elections, and to make sure that citizens and not corporations are running the state. However, the Court acknowledges that its ruling conflicts with the Citizens United decision, though it says that the Citizens United decision allows for restrictions on corporate political speech if the government can demonstrate that the restrictions are as minimal as possible to achieve a compelling governmental interest. The Montana Court rules that because of Montana’s history of corporate vote-buying and the narrow restrictions of the CPA, the law should stand. It also notes that Western Tradition Partnership argued in its original suit that disclosure laws, as opposed to outright bans, would serve the public interest and guard against corruption; however, the organization is currently involved in another lawsuit in which it argues that those same disclosure laws are unconstitutional restrictions of the freedom of speech.

[WESTERN TRADITION PARTNERSHIP V. BULLOCK ET AL, 12/30/2011 ; LOS ANGELES TIMES, 1/4/2012; REUTERS, 6/25/2012; OMB WATCH, 6/25/2012; WASHINGTON POST, 6/25/2012;OMB WATCH, 7/10/2012]

Even one of the dissenters, Justice James C. Nelson, disagrees with the Citizens United characterizations that corporations are legally people, writing: “Corporations are not persons. Human beings are persons, and it is an affront to the inviolable dignity of our species that courts have created a legal fiction which forces people—human beings—to share fundamental, natural rights with soulless creatures of government. Worse still, while corporations and human beings share many of the same rights under the law, they clearly are not bound equally to the same codes of good conduct, decency, and morality, and they are not held equally accountable for their sins. Indeed, it is truly ironic that the death penalty and hell are reserved only to natural persons.” WTP’s director Donald Ferguson says after the decision that the case hinges on freedom of speech (see January 21, 2010): “The current state law says that if you own a business and you would like to use the resources of the business to speak out about how you see the law, you essentially have to ask prior permission from the state. Under the current regime, the state regulatory agencies and the newspapers basically have a monopoly on information. We’re simply trying to put more free speech in motion.”

*[LOS ANGELES TIMES, 1/4/2012; HUFFINGTON POST, 1/4/2012] 

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Legal Scholars Anticipate Montana Ruling to be Overturned - Paul Ryan of the Campaign Legal Center calls the Montana high court’s ruling “an antidote to the crabbed view of corruption” displayed in Citizens United. Ryan, like many others, anticipates the US Supreme Court will overturn today’s ruling. [HUFFINGTON POST, 1/4/2012] One of those others is law professor Richard Hasen, who writes: “[I]f the Court were being honest in Citizens United, it would have said something like: ‘We don’t care whether or not independent spending can or cannot corrupt; the First Amendment trumps this risk of corruption.’ But the Court didn’t say that, because it would have faced even greater criticism than it already has. So it dressed up its value judgment (no corruption ‘implied in law’) as a factual statement. The Montana Supreme Court called SCOTUS [the US Supreme Court] on this. And when SCOTUS reverses, the disingenuousness of this aspect of CU will be on full display for all.” Hasen is referring to the Court’s finding in Citizens United that independent spending in elections does not legally imply corruption. [RICK HASEN, 1/1/2012]

Appeal to Supreme Court - Attorneys for WTP and the other corporate plaintiffs will appeal to the US Supreme Court on the grounds that Montana is bound by theCitizens United decision and that the decision applies to state as well as federal elections. Attorney James Bopp, in filing the appeal, will say: “If Montana can ban core political speech because of Montana’s unique characteristics, free speech will be seriously harmed. Speakers will be silenced because of corruption by others over a century ago.” The US Supreme Court will quickly issue a stay of that decision. [REUTERS, 6/25/2012; OMB WATCH, 6/25/2012] When the case reaches the US Supreme Court, the name of the plaintiff will change into “American Tradition Partnership,” and the Court’s documentation will reflect that change. The Court will overrule the Montana decision (see June 25, 2012). After the decision, American Tradition Partnership’s Web site will disappear, but the liberal accountability organization SourceWatch will describe the organization’s parent, the American Tradition Institute, as described in the group’s mission statement: “a public policy research and educational foundation… founded in 2009 to help lead the national discussion about environmental issues, including air and water quality and regulation, responsible land use, natural resource management, energy development, property rights, and free-market principles of stewardship.” ATI and its affiliates are pro-development and against expanded environmental regulation, according to SourceWatch’s documentation, made up of “a broader network of groups with close ties to energy interests that have long fought greenhouse gas regulation.” [SOURCEWATCH, 2012]

Entity Tags: American Tradition Institute, American Tradition Partnership, Donald Ferguson, James C. Nelson, 1912 Corrupt Practices Act (Montana), SourceWatch, US Supreme Court, Paul S. Ryan, Montana Supreme Court, James Bopp, Jr, Richard L. Hasen

Timeline Tags: Civil Liberties

==

bs  January 22, 2013?

*ATP, ATI file federal suit to throw out :{Expensive Energy Mandate

}:Two citizens’ groups, Morrison resident file suit against Hickenlooper, officials*

DENVER – Two citizens’ groups and a Morrison resident filed a federal lawsuit suit Monday in Denver’s United States District Court seeking to have the state’s Expensive Energy Mandatedeclared unconstitutional.

“The Expensive Energy Mandate doesn’t just kill jobs and drive up prices, it wrongfully interferes with interstate commerce by disrupting the interstate power grid,” said American Tradition Partnership Executive Director Donald Ferguson.  “Families and consumers, along with Constitution, are wronged by the Expensive Energy Mandate.”

“Environmentalism demands policies that actually improve the environment in a manner compatible with a healthy economy.  The hard facts show that wind energy is not affordable and is not clean,” said Dr. David Schnare, Director the Environmental Law Center of the American Tradition Institute.  “As such, wind energy deserves to be put on trial.”

The suit names Governor John Hickenlooper, Regulatory Agencies Department Director Barbara J. Kelley, Public Utilities Commission Chairman Ron Binz, Public Utilities Commissioners James Tarpey and Matt Baker and Public Utilities Commission Director Doug Dean as defendants.

The suit filed by American Tradition Partnership, American Tradition Institute and tech entrepreneur Rod Lueck seeks to overturn the law on the grounds it wrongfully interferes with interstate commerce, violating Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution, a clause previous courts have ruled also applies to state legislatures.  The suit also argue Expensive Energy Mandates hurt consumers by raising prices for food, energy and goods and destroy jobs.

Commonly called a “renewable energy standard,” Colorado’s law mandates that 30 percent of its electricity come from renewable sources by the year 2020.By mandating the purchase and use of renewables, the Colorado statutediscriminates against other less costly, less polluting, safer and more reliable in-state and out-of-state sources of electricity. The Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution does not permit a state to impose burdens on the interstate market for electricity, especially when doing so means higher costs and more pollution as is the case under the Colorado law.

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Thegray wolf not only spreads diseases like echinococcosis that can infect humans, inflicts a heavy predation toll on struggling ranchers and has all but wiped out ecologically vulnerable game herds like moose and elk, they have been “introduced” to areas of the United States that are not part of their natural range, disrupting and damaging environment.

That’s why ranchers, farmers and real conservationists around the country are applaudingATP’s victory in our fight to have the invasive, foreign gray wolf removed from the Endangered Species List. Congress voted last week to kick the wolf off the List, the first time a species has been removed through a vote of Congress.

But one Boulder, Colo. newspaper with a history of making up stories to attack ATP didn’t take it so well.  In the print equivalent of a temper tantrum in a grocery store aisle, the paper rants:

“Help fight Gang Green!” these forward-thinking individuals proclaim on their websites, calling themselves “a no-compromise grassroots organization dedicated to fighting the radical environmentalist agenda.”

Their latest press release lauds the recent removal of the gray wolf from the endangered species list.

Donny Ferguson, who was WTP’s director of public relations in 2009 and is now listed as ATP’s executive director, acknowledges in the release thathis group seeks “the eventual total repeal of the Endangered Species Act. … Thanks to meddling by East Coast environmentalists, wolves are now a fast-spreading predator that kills livestock, spreads disease and is wiping out sensitive natural game herds like elk and moose.”

Their websites also warn that “dozens of radical eco-organizations whose stated purpose is to dismantle the free enterprise system — and our Constitutionally protected rights — through so-called environmental protection have set their sights on robbing Americans of the right to exist, achieve and produce.”

Sorry to have you so rabid. We’ll be sure to send you a nice new rug. Annoy the liberal media.  Chip in $10 to...

jimbeeconf spkrrs7@earthlink.net

Retired US Fish & Wildlife Service

Wildlife Biolgist / Refuge Manager/ Law Enforcement Agent

Jim Beers retired from the US Fish and Wildlife Service after 30 years. He served as a wildlife biologist, wetlands biologist, special agent, and refuge manager. After working for the Utah Fish & Game and spending four years as a Reserve Officer in the US Navy, he joined the US Fish & Wildlife Service and was stationed in Devils Lake, North Dakota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Grand Island, Nebraska; New York City; and Washington, DC.

While in Washington Jim was a Congressional Fellow, the Chief of Operations for the National Wildlife Refuge System, the Program Coordinator for the Animal Damage Control Program, and for his final seven years he was the wildlife biologist in the Central Office who served as Project Officer on nearly all national wildlife projects funded with Pittman-Robertson money. Retired in 1999, Jim Beers holds a Bachelors in Wildlife Resources from Utah State University and aMasters in Public Administration from the University of Northern Colorado. ] crypto http://iwmc.org/home/index.php/IWMC-Information/sharks.html

==

*OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, May 4, 2012*

:{:{:{:{American Tradition Partnership Members Hold Off Colorado Utility Rate Hike}:

“Green” Energy Plan Would Have Hiked Rates by $50 to $100 Million}:}:}:

Denver, CO – With just hours until the General Assembly’s “crossover deadline” when legislation must pass through at least one house of the legislature or be declared dead, American Tradition Partnership (ATP) members lit up Colorado Senate phones and effectively stopped passage of S.B. 178.

If passed, S.B. 178 would force Colorado consumers to purchase an even greater percentage of renewable energy despite studies that show adding wind and solar to the utility grid actually cause more pollution.

Since renewable energy is much more expensive than traditional energy sources like coal and natural gas, S.B. 178 could have raised utility rates across Colorado by an estimated $50-$100 million or 25%.

Donald Ferguson, Executive Director of American Tradition Partnership – a grassroots organization dedicated to protecting property rights and battling environmental overreach stated, “Today’s defeat of S.B. 178 was a huge victory for hardworking Coloradans.”

“S.B. 178 was a last-ditch effort to salvage Colorado’s ‘renewable energy mandate.’ The Colorado Attorney General’s Office testified the current standard likely violates the U.S. Constitution.

ATP is currently a plaintiff in the lawsuit seeking to overturn Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard in federal court for violating the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.    S.B. 178 was designed to overcome the legal complaints brought by ATP.

Currently, 30 states have some sort of renewable energy mandate and Ferguson is hopeful Colorado could be the linchpin in unraveling these schemes across the country, saying “S.B. 178 would have only made the current situation worse.”

Ferguson explained why these green schemes are a bad deal for consumers saying, “Just like the Solyndra scandal, so-called ‘renewable energy’ mandates are just another example of radical environmentalists using government force to line their own pockets at the expense of everyday Americans.

“And perhaps the most maddening thing is that renewable energy mandates do nothing to improve the environment!  Even President Obama’s EPA noted that the manufacturing process to create ‘green’ energy installations causes a jaw-dropping amount of pollution.  And studies show adding renewables to the grid results in more pollution than running coal or natural gas as baseload power sources.”

“The answer to America’s energy problems is the free market.  Government – and especially these schemes pushed by the radical environmentalists are getting us nowhere fast.  Just take a look at the price at the pump next time you get gas.”

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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For the court case, seeWestern Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of Montana.

American Tradition Partnership (ATP), formerly known as Western Tradition Partnership, is a conservative 501(c)4 advocacy group in the United States targeting what it describes as "environmental extremism."[1] ATP has also initiated litigation targeting campaign finance regulations.

The organization's mission, in its own words, is a dedication "to fighting environmental extremism and promoting responsible development and management of land, water, and natural resources in the Rocky Mountain West and across the United States." ATP promotes what it describes as voluntary, free-market solutions to environmental problems as the means to protect both the economy and the environment. It works to achieve its organizational goals through lobbying, public education, and grassroots mobilization.[1]

The group was first registered as Western Tradition Partnership as a 501(c)(4) in 2008.[2][3] In 2009, the group spun off a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Western Tradition Institute, which also does business as the American Tradition Institute.[2]

Donald Ferguson, the former executive director of ATP and manager of their Washington, D.C. office, resigned on January 3, 2013, as it continued to suffer adverse rulings in Montana courts over alleged campaign finance violations.[4][5]

Contents  [hide] 

Issues

Some prominent issues in which ATP has become involved include:

National monuments

In 2010, WTP filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents related to President Barack Obama's potential use of the Antiquities Act to establish as many as fourteen new national monuments, one of which may include the Vermillion Basin in Colorado, which has significant natural gas and other mineral resources. Republican Congressmen Doug Lamborn and Mike Coffman, both of Colorado, have concurrently introduced legislation to prevent any additional national monuments from being established in their state.[6]

Emissions trading

ATP has strongly opposed legislation creating an emissions trading system in the United States, referring to such proposals as a "cap and tax." An online petition sponsored by ATP states that its position on emissions trading results from skepticism about global warming evidence and fears that such a system would lead to higher energy prices, higher government spending, lost jobs, and other economic costs.[7]

Utility alternative energy regulation

ATP has vehemently opposed Colorado House Bill 1001 which would require public utilities to use alternative energy sources. The group says the proposed law would create job losses and higher utility bills. "The renewable energy standard forces utility companies to buy more expensive utilities, so then they have to cut back on hiring and lay people off," according to ATP executive director Ferguson.[8] American Tradition said the standards were being implemented for the benefit of “politically-connected, higher-priced ‘green’ speculators.” ATP initially planned to overturn the law via ballot initiative but soon turned away from that effort. The group says it will lobby to have the law changed in 2011.[9]

Litigation

Montana Commissioner of Political Practices

In 2010, the Montana Commission of Political Practices ruled that ATP had broken state campaign laws by failing to register as a political committee or properly report its donors and spending. The commission investigation's revealed that the group had solicited unlimited contributions to support pro-mining, pro-logging and pro-development candidates in Montana and avoided disclosing the contributions.[2]

The opinion issued by CommissionerDennis Unsworth in October 2010 followed investigation of a complaint filed in 2008 by an attorney from Great Falls. The complaint accused ATP of not properly disclosing financial information related to fliers it released that criticized a state senator. The opinion examined connections between ATP, a small group of political action committees, candidates for public office, and discrepancies in the campaign finance disclosures.[10][11]

In response, ATF filed suit challenging the ruling. The lawsuit alleged a violation of ATP's federal constitutional right to free speech and a state constitutional right to privacy. The suit demanded that all complaints against ATP be dismissed. Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Dennis Unsworth (who issued the contested ruling), the state attorney general, and prosecutors in Cascade and Lewis and Clark counties were named as defendants in the action.[10][12]

ATP criticized Unsworth for exceeding his authority by including names of organizations and individuals in his ruling without presenting any evidence of wrongdoing on their part. "Indeed, the commissioner's opinion itself finds no evidence of coordination," ATP wrote. "Yet, the opinion drags the names of ATP's counsel, the Republican Party, numerous political candidates, persons associated with different organizations, and lawful businesses into the mix and alleges that there is."[10][11]

John Sinrud, a former Bozeman lawmaker who worked with ATP in 2008, accused Unsworth of using a double standard, saying ATP's behavior was legal and that several union and conservation groups heavily involved in Montana politics used similar tactics. "Commissioner Unsworth is selectively going after organizations that do not meet his political muster," he said. "He should just stick to the facts and that's not what he's doing. He's violated his oath of office of being nonpartisan."[10][11]

Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of Montana

Main article: Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of Montana

In October 2010, District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock ruled that the Montana Corrupt Practices Act of 1912, which prohibited independent expenditures to influence political campaigns by corporations, is unconstitutional. ATP had challenged the law after the United States Supreme Court's Citizens Unitedruling.[13] WTP was joined in its suit by Champion Painting and the Montana Shooting Sports Association.[14] Ruling Judge Sherlock said he agreed with U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, who overturned a similar ban in Minnesota. Magnuson wrote that Citizens United "is unequivocal: The government may not prohibit independent and indirect corporate expenditures on political speech."[15]

In Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of Montana, 2011 MT 328, the Montana Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the broad protections given to corporations in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission do not apply to Montana’s campaign finance laws.[16] The US Supreme Court June 25 summarily reversed the Montana Supreme Court ruling.[17]

Longmont

In 2009, ATP sued the city of Longmont, Colorado, seeking to prevent enforcement of the Longmont Fair Campaign Practices Act (LFCPA). An injunction suspending enforcement of the regulations was granted in October 2009, after as Senior U.S. District Judge Walker Miller held that ATP and its co-plaintiffs would likely prevail.[18] The LFCPA was revised in 2009 after a 2008 special election where a city council member received a $5,000 contribution from the Longmont Association of Realtors.The 2009 changes mandated that contributors' identities, contribution amounts, and other information must be disclosed in campaign advertisements.[18]

The suit was settled out of court in December 2009 with the town paying the plaintiffs $68,500. As part of the settlement, the city agreed to propose changing the contested portions of the LFCPA, which were subsequently repealed by the city council.[19]

Funding

In Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of Montana, the Montana Supreme Court concluded that the organization's primary purpose is to allow donors to make unlimited contributions in complete secrecy, though the Office of Political Practices admitted they had no evidence to back up that claim. During the case, Western Tradition Partnershiprefused to provide information to the court as to its organizations, funding, activities or intent, citing its 501(c)4 status under federal tax law. The court concluded that the group represents "a threat to the political marketplace" and it has operated in complete disregard of the laws of Montana.[20] That ruling was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Stolen documents

In 2011, documents allegedly stolen from a car and found in a Colorado meth house revealed the inner workings of WTP/ATC, including possible illegal coordination with Republican candidates. The organization contacted the FBI after Colorado Democrats trafficked the stolen materials across state lines to Montana Democrats. After the FBI was contacted the Montana Commission on Political Practices restricted access to the materials, under which restriction the materials remain "public and reviewable upon request." [21]

References

  1. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-mission_1-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-mission_1-1) Mission, Western Tradition Partnership
  2. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-special_2-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-special_2-1) c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-special_2-2) Sue Sturgis (2011-10-31). "SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Who's behind the 'information attacks' on climate scientists?". Free Range Longmont. Retrieved 2011-11-20.
  3. ^ "History and Documents (Corporations)". Colorado Secretary of State -. Retrieved 2011-11-20. "20081173078"
  4. ^ American Tradition Partnership
  5. ^ 'Director of shadowy political group ATP resigns; group faces more legal troubles', Billings Gazette, By Mike Dennison, 4 January 2013
  6. ^ Western Tradition Partnership targets Salazar on alleged monument memo, by David O. Williams, The Colorado Independent, 31 March 2010
  7. ^ Petition Opposing Cap-and-Trade, Western Tradition Partnership
  8. ^ Attack mailer labels Snowmass senator 'The Appropriator', by Troy Hooper, Real Aspen, 8 October 2010
  9. ^ Sen. Schwartz Targeted In Mailing For Her Utility Vote, State Bill Colorado, 4 October 2010
  10. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-spokesman_10-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-spokesman_10-1) c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-spokesman_10-2) d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-spokesman_10-3) Battle intensifies over Montana law, by Matt Gouras, The Spokesman Review, 31 October 2010
  11. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-Bozeman2_11-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-Bozeman2_11-1) c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-Bozeman2_11-2) Opinion meant to "score political points," WTP says, by Daniel Person, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 22 October 2010
  12. ^ Conservative groups sue over campaign finance law, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, 23 November 2010
  13. ^ Court tosses ban on corporate donations, by Andy Malby, Belgrade News, 19 October 2010
  14. ^ Montana Politics 2010: Corporate Spending, by Marnee Bank, KXLH, 18 October 2010
  15. ^ Judge overturns Montana's 1912 ban on corporate campaign contributions, by Charles S. Johnson, Ravalli Republic, 18 October 2010
  16. *^ http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/MT-expenditures-decision.pdf*
  17. *^ http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/american-tradition-partnership-inc-v-bullock/*
  18. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-Boulder_18-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tradition_Partnership#cite_ref-Boulder_18-1) Montana-based org. pours cash into conservative coffers in Longmont City Council race, by Jefferson Dodge, The Boulder Weekly, 29 October 2010
  19. ^ Longmont campaign finance suit over, by Rachel Carter, The Longmont Times-Call, 6 January 2010
  20.  Western Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Attorney General of Montana e="">Organizations of environmentalism skeptics and critics