Am Rising Bak

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-family: utopia-std, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">Power The Future Works With The Same Public Relations Firm That That</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Had To Drop A No-Bid Contract With The EPA After Its Ties To A Controversial Group That Harassed EPA Staff</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-family: utopia-std, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;">Power The Future’s Website Uses A Web Domain Registered By Defitecn Public Affairs. </span>“In other examples, environmental causes have been attacked by astroturf websites, linked to </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Definers Public Affairs</span><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);"> by common Google analytics codes. The They Cap You Pay website attacked proposed cap and trade (climate change-related) legislation in Oregon.  Meanwhile, the Power the Future website – which again shares the same tracking code and was also registered using a Definers email address – claims that ‘We are the voice of energy workers pushing back on radical green groups and the ideologues who fund them.’” [Global Witness, </span><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/behind-trumps-border-wall-political-operatives-a-controversial-pr-firm-and-an-alleged-fake-news-site/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 600; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); outline: none; background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.35s ease 0s; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif;"><span class="te" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -0.225em; padding: 0px 0.15em; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; position: relative; display: inline-block; z-index: 9;">06/11/19</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">]</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-family: utopia-std, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">Definers Public Affairs Had To Drop Its No-Bid EPA Contract After Its Ties To A</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Republican Group That Sought To Identify EPA Staff Critical Of Donald Trump.</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> “</span><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">A consulting firm has pulled out of a federal contract to provide media monitoring services to the Environmental Protection Agency after it was disclosed that a lawyer among its top executives had been investigating agency employees critical of the Trump administration. Joe Pounder, the president of Definers Public Affairs, said in a statement on Twitter that his company’s $120,000 contract with the E.P.A., which it was awarded this month, had become a ‘distraction.’ The contract came under scrutiny because of the company’s links to<b> America Rising, a Virginia-based corporation and Republican political operation</b> with several offshoots that have investigated E.P.A. officials. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">One lawyer on the company’s staff, Allan Blutstein, sent a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to the E.P.A. asking for email correspondence by employees who had been publicly critical of the Trump administration’s management of the agency.<b>[FREEEEEEEDDDDOOOOOMMMMM!] </b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">[…] But agency employees — particularly those who had been targeted by America Rising after they raised questions about the management of Mr. Trump’s E.P.A. — said they were fearful the new contract might translate into increased surveillance of agency staff.” [</span><i style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">New York Times</i><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">, </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/climate/epa-definers-public-affairs-contract.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 600; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); outline: none; background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.35s ease 0s; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif;"><span class="te" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -0.225em; padding: 0px 0.15em; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; position: relative; display: inline-block; z-index: 9;">12/19/17</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">]</span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx many pix twt</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/behind-trumps-border-wall-political-operatives-a-controversial-pr-firm-and-an-alleged-fake-news-site/">https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/behind-trumps-border-wall-political-operatives-a-controversial-pr-firm-and-an-alleged-fake-news-site/</a></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Global Witness exposes the link between a controversial right-leaning public affairs firm and President Trump’s reportedly favored company to build the southern border wall.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Summary</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">President Trump is boosting a particular firm, Fisher Sand & Gravel, whose owner is a donor to the Republican party, to build the border wall, which seems to go against the spirit of US federal procurement rules;</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Fisher Sand & Gravel have a previously unreported link with Definers Public Affairs, a DC communications firm which employs controversial tactics such as setting up anonymous attack websites on behalf of their commercial and political clients;</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Definers Public Affairs shares offices and staff with America Rising Corp and the America Rising PAC, Republican attack vehicles;</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Definers Public Affairs are known for paid-for attacks on environmentalists and commercial opponents of their clients – which led to Facebook severing its contract with them;   </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Individuals in<b> Definers Public Affairs have recently launched a new company, Crier Media Group, active in ‘media monitoring’ in both the US and the UK.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">United States President Donald Trump is accused of attempting to influence the procurement process for building the controversial border wall between Mexico and the US. According to the Washington Post, Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have repeatedly pushed the option of awarding the contract to Fisher Sand & Gravel, a family-owned construction firm from North Dakota that has a checkered past. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">WaPo_Fisher_headline_cropped.png</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The story of how Fisher Sand & Gravel Co, and its subsidiary, Fisher Industries, grabbed the President’s attention is partly a very modern one of publicity stunts and media frenzies, and partly an old tale of money and politics. Recent reporting has revealed Fisher Sand & Gravel’s past environmental violations and legal problems – although the company points out that these matters were resolved years ago.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Global Witness exposes a previously unreported link between Fisher Sand & Gravel and Definers Public Affairs, a controversial communications firm linked to Republican political operatives. From alleged smear campaigns to attack ads, Definers has been accused of devious and questionable methods to support their clients and negatively influence public opinion.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The best way to reach the President</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Tommy Fisher, the CEO of Fisher Industries,</b> has repeatedly appeared on Fox News, trumpeting his plans for a wall that he claims is faster and cheaper to build than rival designs by other companies. When interviewed by the Washington Post for his thoughts on why Trump supports the Fisher bid, the Republican Senator for North Dakota, Kevin Cramer, said of Tommy Fisher “He’s been very aggressive on TV,” and then asked “You know who else watches Fox News?”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It may come as no surprise that both Tommy Fisher and his wife donated money to Senator Cramer’s Senate election campaign. The Senator has also boosted Fisher Industries on social media.  CNN reported that:</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>“According to an administration official familiar with the situation, Cramer sent information about Fisher to the President's son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner</b>, who then passed it along to the Army Corps of Engineers for their consideration. The source tells CNN that Kushner was not familiar with the company prior to getting information about them from Cramer.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Senator Cramer denied in his interview with the Washington Post that the donation has influenced his actions,</b> stating that his support had occurred before any donation and was because Tommy Fisher is “a constituent of mine”. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Other publicity grabbing moves have included Fisher Sand & Gravel building part of the border wall on private land, crowdfunded by a GoFundMe campaign for We Build The Wall, a non-profit organization that features well-known conservative personalities like Steve Bannon and Erik Prince on its advisory board.  </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Kyle Ehmke Tweet]</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Tommy Fisher seems a capable self-publicist.  But it is possible that Fishers also worked with a controversial communications firm based in Washington, D.C., Definers Public Affairs to grab the President’s attention.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The link between the two was spotted by Kyle Ehmke, a ‘threat intelligence researcher’ with ThreatConnect, a cybersecurity company.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">When an individual or company sets up or is involved with several different websites, they sometimes use a common Google analytics account to monitor web traffic of the various sites.  Each Google analytics account has a unique ID number which can be found in the coding of the website.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In this case, the person who set up and monitors web traffic at Definers Public Affairs also appears to have set up the website analytics for Fishers Sand & Gravel. Google analytics codes are unique – there cannot be two separate Google accounts that use the same code – nor can codes be added to a website by an outsider with no access to the source code of the website.  </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Therefore, since both sites use the same analytics code, it’s evident that, at a minimum, both the website analytics for the Definers’ website and the Fishers Sand & Gravel website were set up by the same person.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It is also possible that the relationship between the two companies went further than just website monitoring. As we will see below, the same tracking code was used for numerous other websites set up on behalf of Definers clients. These included an anonymous website attacking Qatar and another supporting the point of view of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[Trump_Fisher_meeting.png</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SOURCE: TWITTER, @SENKEVINCRAMER]</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Foreign Agent Registration Act disclosures reveal that Definers staff members provided strategic communications guidance to the UAE, including one-on-one interactions with American news media</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. It is likely that the Qatar-related websites were part of the same package. While it is probable that Definers played some role in the new Fisher website, it is also possible that Definers provided a wider set of services to Fisher Sand & Gravel also.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Global Witness repeatedly approached both Fishers Sand & Gravel and its media representatives and Definers Public Affairs for comment on the extent of any relationship but did not receive a reply from either firm.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Fisher Industries already had an existing website at www.fisherind.com, but a new, professional looking website – specifically focused on the border wall (www.fishersandandgravel.com) was registered on January 4, 2018, around the same time that a new Twitter account was set up. Events then moved quickly. A new Facebook account was set up on January 5, the same day that Tommy Fisher was interviewed on Fox and Friends, a Fox News program known to be watched by President Trump.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By March 13, 2018 Tommy Fisher had met President Trump in person. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The controversy surrounding Definers Public Affairs</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Definers Public Affairs is best known for having its contract cancelled by Facebook in late 2018 after revelations in the New York Times about its aggressive tactics.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The communications firm is closely related to America Rising Corp, a Republican opposition research </b>and attack firm which provides services to political clients, which has also set up America Rising PAC. America Rising PAC happily quotes a description of itself as “<b>The rabid pit bull of the Republican Party.”</b> Operatives associated with the groups follow Democratic Presidential candidates, filming all their public appearances. They also conduct background research on opponents. For example, their specialist lawyer, A<b>llan Blutstein, submitted freedom of information (FOIA) requests for the military and NASA discharge papers for Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and potential candidate in the 2020 Arizona Senate elections.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Both Definers and America Rising are closely linked to <b>NTK (Need to Know) Network,</b> which claims to be a news website “without the liberal bias”.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>All three entities share staff and office space in Arlington, Virginia.</b> Joe Pounder, Chief Executive of America Rising Corp, also describes himself as a co-founder of Definers Corp, and NTK Network lists him as their Editor-in-Chief; while Allan Blutstein has submitted FOIA requests for Definers, America Rising, America Rising Squared, and the NTK Network.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Newly filed corporate documents in the United Kingdom show that Definers staff, including the CEO Joe Pounder, and the Definers’ Chief Financial Officer, have set up a new entity – Crier Media Group - in both the UK and the US. Similar to Definers</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Crier Media provides media monitoring services.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (Definers have also set up UK Policy Group in the UK - claiming it was “bringing campaign-style research to corporate clients”.)  According to LinkedIn records several Definers and UK Policy Group staff moved simultaneously to Crier Media Group.  </span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">So, what’s the problem?</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">First, their working methods raise eyebrows, particularly in an era when Americans and others must wade through “fake news” infiltrating their social media feeds and news consumption on a daily basis. Starting with revelations of the Internet Research Agency, a Kremlin-affiliated troll farm and fake news network, sowing discord and undermining faith in American democratic institutions in the 2016 elections, Americans, big tech, and US officials are now constantly battling the influx of misinformation campaigns.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[NTK_Network_Apple.png </font><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">SOURCE: FACEBOOK, NEED TO KNOW NETWORK]</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">NTK Network purports to be a conservative news website. However, one former employee interviewed by NBC News described NTK as an “in-house fake news shop”.  One pitch given to a potential client and leaked to the New York Times described NTK News as “a Digital Platform Echo Chamber.” </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>NTK also has articles written by America Rising and Definers staff, according a former employee interviewed by the New York Time</b>s. Articles attacking the commercial rivals of Definers’ clients appear on the NTK website without any declarations of potential conflicts of interest. For example, NTK News published dozens of articles attacking Apple, without declaring that a closely related party, <b>Definers, reportedly had a contract with chipmaker Qualcomm, with whom Apple was engaged in a legal battle.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>NTK also ran an extensive series of adverts on Facebook, </b>without declaring whether commercial clients were behind them. This demonstrates a loophole in Facebook’s advert disclosure program, whereby intermediaries can potentially declare themselves, and not their end clients, as the funder of the advertisement.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Common Google analytics tracking codes suggest that Definers are linked to a series of astro-turf websites for their client</b>s, sometimes without declaring who had set them up or was funding them. In one example, common Google analytics codes suggest that Definers had set up www.qatarcrisisnews.com and www.partnershipforpeace.org. The funder was later identified by K. Louise Neufeld, when Joe Pounder and other Definers staff registered as Foreign Agents to represent the United Arab Emirates, focusing in particular on “issues relating to client's termination of relations with Qatar and accuracy and transparency of Qatar government-owned media.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In other examples, environmental causes have been attacked by astro-turf websites, linked to Definers Public Affairs by common Google analytics codes. The They Cap You Pay website attacked proposed cap and trade (climate change-related) legislation in Oregon.  </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Meanwhile, the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Power the Future website –</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> which again shares the same tracking code and was also registered using a Definers email address  – claims that “We are the voice of energy workers pushing back on radical green groups and the ideologues who fund them.” Power the Future is led by Daniel Turner, who hasn’t worked in the energy industry, but rather was a former Director of Strategic Communications at the Koch Institute.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The second problem is that the shift from political mud-slinging to widely reported attacks on commercial targets and environmentalists raises questions about both propriety and the transparency of funding of those seeking to shape the public debate.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[Draft_Tim_Cook.jpg </font><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">SOURCE: DRAFTTIMCOOK.ORG]</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The aggressive political methods of the self-declared ‘rabid pit bulls’ of America Rising PAC are applied not only to declared candidates for public office. America Rising Squared, a not-for-profit entity, also apparently conducts media monitoring and attacks liberal and environmental causes. They followed<b> Bill McKibben</b>, a prominent environmentalist, for months, filming his every move. They aim to “hold the Environmentalist Left accountable by highlighting their hypocrisy and exposing their extreme rhetoric and agenda.” </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>During the attacks on Apple, which featured frequently on NTK network in late 2017, a website appeared suggesting that Apple’s CEO Tim Cook should be drafted as a Presidential candidate for 2020</b>.  The website gave no clue as to who was behind the initiative. This was covered, albeit somewhat skeptically, in the Free Beacon, a conservative leaning news outlet. Kyle Ehmke, of the ThreatConnect cybersecurity firm, spotted that the website shared the same Google analytics code as that for Definers Public Affairs. Reporters guess that the purpose is to make Tim Cook appear like a potential rival to President Trump and thus, presumably, lessen Apple’s political influence with the White House. If true, this can only be described as a tactic which is both inspired – but also devious. As mentioned previously, Definers reportedly had a contract with chipmaker Qualcomm, a competitor of Apple with whom they were also engaged in a legal battle.  There is no suggestion that Qualcomm knew of such methods being used on their behalf.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Definers also gained an apparent no-bid contract with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide media monitoring – or ‘news analysis’ – service. This came during a period of intense controversy after Scott Pruitt, who still describes himself as “a leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda”, was appointed by President Trump as EPA Administrator. However, <b>Allan Blutstein,</b> the Definers Public Affair’s FOIA specialist, seems to have gone further than ‘news analysis</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">’.  He began submitting FOIA requests about EPA employees suspected of being critical of Scott Pruitt and President Trump, requesting copies of emails which mentioned Pruitt or Trump. These FOIA requests were denounced by EPA staff as intimidation.  <b>When interviewed by the New York Times, Mr Blutstein said that the purpose of the FOIA requests were simply to find out if any of the EPA employees had used agency email inappropriately, or had violated agency rules in some other way.</b></span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>When criticized in the past in relation to their work for Facebook, Definers have denied being partisan, and stated that they only do communications not lobbyin</b>g.  They also clarified that the nature of work for commercial clients is usually media monitoring services and that their opposition research forms a small part of work. Definers also state that, in any case, opposition research for commercial clients is entirely legitimate, usually drawing from public records. They vehemently deny smearing commercial opponents of their clients, and specifically say that it is wrong to suggest that NTK Network is used to attack commercial opponents.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Opacity</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As both Definers and Fisher Sand & Gravel failed to respond to repeated requests to comment, it is impossible to determine the precise extent of their relationship. It could be that that they have an extensive relationship; including DC based communication and media booking services to get Tommy Fisher on conservative broadcast outlets like Fox and Friends.  Or it could be that they have a minimal relationship – perhaps even just having had a shared Google analytics tracking account set up for them by a third party.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[NTK_wall_ad_cropped.png </font><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">SOURCE: FACEBOOK: NEED TO KNOW NETWORK]</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>This opacity, however, is a problem. Take this Facebook advert ran by NTK Network in April 2019. Its main message chimes perfectly with the Fisher Sand & Gravel messaging that its proposed wall design is quicker and cheaper than its rival</b>s.  However, we don’t know whether it was run by NTK Network on behalf of a commercial client, or had nothing to do with Fisher and simply tapped into current conservative media priorities in order to drive traffic into its own website.  The distinction is important if we’re to untangle the role of money in shaping the public sphere. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The activities of Definers and associated entities illustrate a wider challenge. The current blend of money, politics, ideology, the fragmentation of public discourse by social media, and the deliberate shaping of national debates through alleged fakes or shills is toxic to democracy. We do not pretend to know all of the answers, but a first step is greater transparency over who is paying who to publish what. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Disclosure:</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Definers Public Affairs also faced criticism over an attempt to discredit campaigners asking for Facebook reforms by linking these campaigners to George Soros. </b>A Definers consultant said that “Definers shared a narrow document about an anti-Facebook group's funding. It was entirely factual...” and clarified the nature of the work carried out for Facebook. Global Witness is an independent, non-partisan organization that works to expose corruption to protect human rights and the environment. No donor —large or small— has editorial control over our work or the choices we make regarding the subjects of our investigations or campaigns. <b>George Soros does not fund Global Witness directly. Global Witness receives funding from the Open Society Foundation for our general funds. </b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Author </font><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">Nick Donovan </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">Campaign Director</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;"><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p><p><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/06/25/america-rising-squared-report-bashes-evs-using-same-rare-earth-metals-gas-powered-cars"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/06/25/america-rising-squared-report-bashes-evs-using-same-rare-earth-metals-gas-powered-cars</font></a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no link</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A GOP-tied group devoted to promoting alleged hypocrisy among climate action advocates just released a new report that “exposes the horrible human and environmental costs” of solar panels and electric vehicles.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The grou<b>p, America Rising Squared (AR2</b>), as DeSmog has previously reported, launched last year and pays activists to follow and film climate advocates in their everyday lives. The newly published white paper, the group’s first such formal report, attempts to paint a dirty picture of “clean energy,” claiming that the “environmentalist left” ignores the downsides of rare earth minerals that are used in solar panels and electric vehicles.</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Here’s what the white paper doesn’t mention: </b>many of the very same rare earth minerals that the AR2 report bashes are critical components of cell phones, computers, cameras, military and defense equipment, and even traditional gas-powered vehicles. What’s more, the petroleum refining process is critically dependent on some of the same rare earths that AR2 lambasts in this white paper.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rare earths are plagued with problems…but that’s an economy-wide issue, not unique to clean energy</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To be sure, the mining and production of rare earth minerals has some serious human rights and environmental problems. Few, if any, solar or electric vehicle advocates would argue that. Environmentalists have been raising red flags about rare earths for at least a decade now, as they have become such an integral part of the digital economy, like the computers that the AR2 white paper was created on. In 2013, Yale Environment 360 ran a deeply reported article on the environmental challenges posed by rare earths mining. Last year, Amnesty International published an even more startling report about cobalt mining, which coincided with a Washington Post investigation on the same issue, to feed lithium-ion battery demand. Technically, cobalt isn’t a rare earth mineral—a distinction the AR2 report fails to make (see chart below)—but criticisms of its production are still valid. This isn’t a problem that is – or can be – ignored by environmentalists and clean energy advocates.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But to claim that these problems track to electric vehicles and solar panels alone is just plain deceptive.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As even Kenneth Green of the conservative and fossil fuel-friendly American Enterprise Institute put it:</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Rare earths are critical components in many applications. Fighter jet engines, satellite communication systems and underwater mine detection equipment all require rare earth elements. So do medical devices, hybrid-vehicle engines and wind turbines.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And yet you don’t find AR2 calling out the “horrible human costs” of fighter jet engines or satellite communication systems or medical devices or underwater mine detection equipment.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gas-powered cars rely on rare earths too</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Much of the white paper is devoted to the particular rare earths and other materials that electric vehicle batteries depend on. And it’s true that the lithium-ion batteries that power many EVs are dependent on some troublesome materials, including graphite, which is not a rare earth metal but has some particularly troubling health impacts in the areas it is produced, as illustrated in this Washington Post article that AR2 cites. (Note the article’s headline, though: “In your phone, In their air.” Or the web-heading: “China pollution caused by graphite mining for smartphone batteries.” Again, this isn’t just an EV problem.)</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>It’s also true, however, that traditional internal combustion engine vehicles—those that run on gas and diesel—also rely on rare earths, both in the vehicles themselves, and through the very production of the gasoline and diesel that power them.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the Chemical Economics Handbook published by IHS Markit, the largest market for rare earths are for magnets, mostly using the so-called “technology metals,” which are used in everything from electric motors to lasers to cancer treatment to nuclear reactors to commercial lighting.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The second largest market by volume for rare earth minerals is for cerium oxide compounds used in polishing powders for steel production. It’s also dusted onto every catalytic converter fitted into an internal combustion vehicle. In other words, every gas-powered vehicle relies on cerium, one of the rare earths singled out in the AR2 report as being a “dirty” feature of electric vehicles.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The next largest use of rare earth minerals is for a product used in petroleum refining, known as “fluid cracking catalysts (FCC).” According to researchers with Grace Davison Refining Technologies, “rare earth metals are a key component in fluid cracking catalyst,” a chemical process that was pioneered by Socony Mobil Oil in the 1960s. In fact, roughly 11 percent of all rare earth materials produced are used in oil refining processes, according to the Rare Earth Tech Alliance.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The refining of crude oil into gasoline and diesel requires the rare earth lanthanum, which AR2 takes to task:</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Grace refineries experts warned in 2010 that “despite the tightening of supply, rare earth metals remain key components of the FCC catalyst and certain FCC additives, and there are no easy substitutes…The recent price escalation is impacting FCC catalyst suppliers and their customers globally.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AR2 tells half the story on resource dependence</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clearly, oil-powered transportation is also dependent on rare earths, both through the catalytic converters installed in internal combustion engines and in the very process of refining crude oil into the products powering those engines.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet, the AR2 report employs deceptive “energy independence” messaging that purposefully confuses and conflates the resource needs of gas-powered cars and electric vehicles. To whit, this graphic:</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">First, because all gas-powered cars also depend on rare earths, this graphic presents a false choice. Second, if we were to compare fuel to fuel, then the 85 percent of petroleum produced in North America would be contrasted with the fuels used to generate the electricity that power electric vehicles, nearly all of which comes from North America. (The small imports would be some uranium for nuclear generators and a very tiny bit of oil burned for electric generation.)</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What’s more, in the spirit of inconsistent comparison (as illustrated in this graphic), we might as well factor in some other aspects of petroleum production dependent on foreign imports. Barite, for example, is used widely in oil and gas drilling. It’s also a mineral commodity that is produced in a limited number of countries, and only twenty percent of what the oil and gas industry needs is produced in the U.S. The bulk of our barite imports come from—you guessed it!—China. According to a 2014 report by the U.S. Geological Survey, 70 percent of the barite used in oil and gas drilling was imported from China. Another 14 percent came from India, with the rest coming from Morocco and Mexico.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To review:</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All vehicles—electric and internal combustion—rely on rare earth metals.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nearly all of the energy resources (gas, coal, nuclear, hydro, solar, wind) that power the grid to charge American EVs are from the U.S. and Canada.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Refining oil into gasoline and diesel requires rare earth metals.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Oil and gas drilling require minerals like barite, the bulk of which are imported from China.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The false choice between “China’s Rare Earth, or America’s Energy” is a marketing ploy.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There are already (some) solutions to rare earth dependence</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finally, researchers are finding ways to reduce dependence on rare earths, especially in electric cars. Two researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) recently developed a method for extracting rare earths from the batteries and motors of electric and hybrid cars, meaning that they could be recycled for use in new EVs. Meanwhile, another team at the University of Pennsylvania has pioneered a process of separating two particularly popular rare earths from the magnets that inhabit so many digital devices and electric vehicle motors.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Others see a day when electric cars and storage batteries don’t require rare earths at all. Honda, the Japanese automaker that has said that two-thirds of its new car sales will be hybrid or all-electric by 2030, has recently produced the world’s first magnet for EVs that requires no heavy rare earth materials at all. Stripping heavy rare earths out of the manufacturing process is a step in the right direction, though eliminating all rare earth metals is still farther out on the horizon.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As it is for all industries. Everything we do has some environmental impact. To claim that any clean energy or EV advocate calls these technologies perfectly pure energy resources is a straw man argument.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The fundamental question for solar photovoltaics or wind turbines or EVs is not whether they have any environmental impact, but rather whether or not they’re better—cleaner, healthier, more climate-compatable—than the traditional fossil fuel resources that they could displace.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s no innocent oversight that the AR2 report doesn’t compare EVs to gas-powered cars or solar and wind to coal-fired electricity. Because any such comparisons, even while factoring rare earth materials, will reveal how much dirtier and more dangerous the fossil fuels actually are.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Check out DeSmog's research trove to learn more about the PR motivations of America Rising Squared and its partner organizations.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see Rhoades am rising</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tim miller is Berman (pbs newshour 7/17 on trump russia scandal)

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<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs</font></a>

<h1 style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 1.2em; margin-top: 0.75em; margin-bottom: 0.75em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">America Rising</font></h1>

<li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#America Rising and Affiliated Entities" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="4">America Rising and Affiliated Entities</font></a></li>

<li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#Background on America Rising" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font color="#000000">Background on America Rising</font></a>

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<li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#Hiding Donors and Running Attack Ads" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="4">Hiding Donors and Running Attack Ads: The Various Corporate Entities of America Rising</font></a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#America Rising Advanced Research Staff" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="4">America Rising Advanced Research (aka, America Rising Squared, aka <span class="caps">AR2</span>)</font></a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#Definers Public Affairs Staff" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="4">Definers, the corporation-serving, for-profit venture of America Rising</font></a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#America Rising in Action" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font color="#000000">America Rising in Action</font></a>

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<li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#Grill" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="4">Grill, the America Rising Crowdsourcing “Tracker” App</font></a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#Who Funds America Rising?" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="4">Who Funds America Rising?</font></a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#Network Map of the America Rising Family" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="4">Network Map of the America Rising Family</font></a></li>

<li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#Staff of America Rising's Entities" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font color="#000000">Staff of America Rising's Entities</font></a>

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<li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#America Rising LLC" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="4">America Rising <span class="caps">LLC</span></font></a></li>

<li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#America Rising PAC Staff" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="4">America Rising <span class="caps">PAC</span> Staff</font></a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#Resources" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" size="4">Resources</font></a></li>

</ul>

<h2 style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" font-weight: normal;">America Rising and Affiliated Entities<a id="America Rising and Affiliated Entities" name="America Rising and Affiliated Entities"> </a></font></h2>

<li><a id="America Rising and Affiliated Entities" name="America Rising and Affiliated Entities"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">America Rising <span class="caps">LLC</span>: The original for-profit opposition research company. </font></a></li>

<li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a id="America Rising and Affiliated Entities" name="America Rising and Affiliated Entities"> </a><a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">America Rising <span class="caps">PAC</span></a>: The political action committee.</font></li>

<li><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.arsquared.org/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">America Rising Squared</a> (aka, America Rising Advanced Research; aka, <span class="caps">AR2</span> or <span class="caps">AR</span><span style=" line-height: 0; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; top: -0.5em;">2</span>): The nonprofit 501(c)4. </font></li>

<li><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://corenews.org/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Core News</a>: A media platform published by America Rising Squared.</font></li>

<li><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="http://www.definersdc.com/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Definers Public Affairs</a>: A public affairs agency launched by America Rising founders.  </font></li>

</ul>

<h2 style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" font-weight: normal;">Background on America Rising<a id="Background on America Rising" name="Background on America Rising"> </a></font></font></h2>

<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a id="Background on America Rising" name="Background on America Rising"><b>America Rising <span class="caps">LLC</span> and </b></a><b><a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">America Rising <span class="caps">PAC</span></a> were <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gop-dirt-diggers-dog-clinton/article/2563108" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">founded in Spring of 2013</a>, in response to perceived Democratic superiority in the field of opposition research.</b> <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s1" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[1]</a> The related but distinct corporate entities are both commonly referred to as America Rising, and the entities are often confused. Most popular mentions in the media and public refer to the activities of the <span class="caps">PAC</span>. As <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/03/21/romney-campaign-chief-to-lead-new-gop-research-group/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="caps">CNN</span> described when the enterprises first launched</a>: <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s2" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></font></p>

<p style=" margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As a super <span class="caps">PAC</span>, [America Rising] will focus on digital campaigns and placing negative stories about Democrats in the news media. It does not plan to run television ads.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A separate wing of the group will incorporate as a limited liability company (<span class="caps">LLC</span>), which can coordinate directly with campaigns and political committees by sharing video and resources. [To avoid making illegal in-kind corporate contributions, the <span class="caps">LLC</span> needs to charge for access to the videos and resources.]</font></p>

</blockquote>

<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The America Rising joint enterprise was founded as an opposition research shop described by the <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/political-operatives-find-demand-for-their-skills-in-business-world-1462136874" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Wall Street Journal</a> as “the unofficial research arm of the Republican Party.” <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s3" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a> America Rising <span class="caps">PAC</span> <a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/about/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">describes itself</a> as “an organization on the right for the sole purpose of exposing the truth about Democrats through video tracking, research, and communications,” and spends its time attacking democrats, progressives and environmentalists. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s4" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[4]</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">America Rising co-founder Matt Rhoades previously worked for <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/dci-group" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="caps">DCI</span> Group</a> and was Mitt Romney's campaign manager for the Republican nominee's failed 2012 presidential bid. America Rising's other co-founder Joe Pounder is a long-time Republican strategist and opposition researcher, and a former research director at the Republican National Committee. Pounder resigned from America Rising to work on Marco Rubio's campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. After Rubio suspended his campaign, Pounder returned to the America Rising family as president of Definers Public Affairs. (More on Definers below.) </font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In early 2014, America Rising <span class="caps">PAC</span>'s website AmericaRisingPAC.org <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/02/america-rising-pac-relaunches-as-news-site-183542" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">relaunched as a “news site,”</a> in order to easily publish and spread attack videos and blog posts about opposition targets. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s5" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[5]</a></font></p>

<h3 style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hiding Donors and Running Attack Ads: The Various Corporate Entities of America Rising<span style=" font-weight: normal;"><a id="Hiding Donors and Running Attack Ads" name="Hiding Donors and Running Attack Ads"> </a></span></font></h3>

<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a id="Hiding Donors and Running Attack Ads" name="Hiding Donors and Running Attack Ads">The various entities under the America Rising umbrella give the enterprise a flexible structure that can serve different purposes. The <span class="caps">PAC</span> can purchase research from the <span class="caps">LLC</span> and can sell or disseminate it to other organizations.<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span> </span>The 501(c)4 nonprofit, <span class="caps">AR2</span>, doesn't have to declare its donors. (More on <span class="caps">AR2</span> below.) All told, America Rising had a budget of $8 million for the 2014 elections and is seeking to </span></a><a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article24783463.html" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">nearly double this</a>. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s6" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[6]</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The organization <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gop-dirt-diggers-dog-clinton/article/2563108" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">reportedly</a> has more than 100 staff, including a large number of “trackers” who follow the group’s targets around the country and record their actions. Presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is the group's biggest target, but America Rising also undertakes a wide range of opposition research on Democrats and progressives, including prominent environmentalists, before disseminating it to other right-wing organizations and on social media.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">America Rising is located in the <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2013/11/conservative-research-group-america.html" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">same building</a> as <a href="http://www.definersdc.com/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Definers</a>, a public affairs agency “launched by” America Rising, which hosts many former <span class="caps">AR</span> staff and which undertakes similar research work for <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/political-operatives-find-demand-for-their-skills-in-business-world-1462136874" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">corporate clients</a>, and which has <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/expends/vendor.php?year=2016&vendor=Definers+Corp" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">received money</a> from America Rising.</span> <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s7" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[7]</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s8" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></font></p>

<h3 style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" font-weight: normal;">America Rising Advanced Research (aka, America Rising Squared, aka <span class="caps">AR2</span>)<a id="America Rising Advanced Research" name="America Rising Advanced Research"> </a></font></font></h3>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As a nonprofit 501(c)4, <span class="caps">AR2</span> doesn't have to disclose its donors, like the parent <span class="caps">PAC</span> does. The nonprofit is limited from running political attack ads, but can publish videos and news and advertise about issues themselves. <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/america-rising-launches-nonprofit-affiliate/article/2568199" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">The Washington Examiner explains</a></span>: <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s10" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[10]</a></font></p>

<p style=" margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The issues-based 501(c)4 won't be able to run ads directly attacking political foes the way America Rising does. But the group is permitted to spend roughly half of what it raises on political persuasion, and can run critical spots urging someone like Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to take positions on particular issues.</font></font></p>

</blockquote>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/america-rising-squared-brian-rogers_us_5727a97de4b0f309baf18848" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Brian Rogers</a>, the executive director of America Rising Advanced Research, was briefly the research director for Al Gore’s <a href="https://www.climaterealityproject.org/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Alliance for Climate Protection</a>,</b><span> </span>where he worked on a campaign “to pass comprehensive energy and climate change legislation.” Rogers was also a longtime senior adviser to Republican Senator John McCain and held key roles in McCain's run for the <span class="caps">US</span> presidency in 2008</span>. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s11" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[11]</a></font></p>

<h3 style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" font-weight: normal;">Definers, the corporation-serving, for-profit venture of America Rising<a id="Definers, the corporation-serving" name="Definers, the corporation-serving"> </a></font></font></h3>

<p style=" margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The formation of Definers actually began with the founding of America Rising <span class="caps">LLC</span> by Matt Rhoades and myself in 2013. I’ve known Rhoades since 2004 when I was his intern at Bush-Cheney ’04. We’ve worked together on and off for the next decade. After 2012 when he was the campaign manager for Mitt Romney and I was the research director at the Republican National Committee, we decided to start America Rising to focus on opposition research, rapid response communications, and video tracking for political clients.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">As we built America Rising into a 60-person operation with employees across the country, we were actually turning away corporate clients so we could focus exclusively on our political mission. In 2015, we changed that and formed Definers. </font></p>

</blockquote>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">According to the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org database, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/expends/vendor.php?year=2016&vendor=Definers+Corp" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">two groups reported payments to Definers during the 2016 election cycle</a>: Marco Rubio for President made five payments totalling $52,200; America Rising <span class="caps">PAC</span> made 6 payments totaling $42,500. The first of these payments was on 06-08-2015. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s8" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In June, 2016, Definers <a href="https://www.recode.net/2017/6/7/15746928/republicans-political-opposition-tech-silicon-valley-trump" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">expanded its reach to<span> </span><b>Silicone Valley</b></a> in Oakland, working with former Jeb Bush communications director Tim Miller. </span><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s36" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[36]</a></font></p>

<p style=" margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Silicon Valley is a natural target for their so-called 'oppo' efforts,” <em>Recode</em> reported. In in interview, Miller told <em>Recode</em>, that the “spotlight that is on their industry,” meaning more investment is needed to ensure “you have positive content pushed out about your company and negative content that’s being pushed out about your competitor, or regulator, or activist groups or activist investors, that are challenging you.” <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s36" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[36]</a></font></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="dquo" style=" margin-left: 0px;">“</span>There might be some companies that are more willing to engage in that,” Miller said, but “increasingly, as [Silicon Valley] companies mature, I think they may recognize the need to do that.”</span> <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s36" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[36]</a></font></p>

</blockquote>

<h2 style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" font-weight: normal;">America Rising in Action<a id="America Rising in Action" name="America Rising in Action"> </a></font></font></h2>

<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a id="America Rising in Action" name="America Rising in Action"> America Rising and <span class="caps">AR2</span> send “trackers” – staff members with video cameras tasked with recording their targets – to follow top tier Democratic candidates on the campaign trails and key environmentalists and other opposition research targets<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. At the Conservative Political Action Conference (<span class="caps">CPAC</span>) Activism Boot Camp, America Rising hosted a </span></a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/02/27/today-in-politics-105/#post-mb-5" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">seminar</a> titled “We’re Watching You: How to Video Track 24/7.</span>” <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s14" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[14]</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In August, 2015: <span class="caps">AR2</span> launched <a href="http://www.arsquared.org/states/mo/morising/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Missouri Rising</a>, a regional affiliate to “[promote] conservative issues and [shape] the debate in Missouri.”</font></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">America Rising <span class="caps">LLC</span> runs a website called <a href="http://www.americarisingimages.com/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">AmericaRisingImages.com</a>, from which they sell photos that have been taken at the hundreds of campaign events attended by the trackers. <a href="http://www.americarisingimages.com/Site-Content/ABOUT-US/n-BZm2pD" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">America Rising <span class="caps">LLC</span> describes</a>: <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s15" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[15]</a></font></p>

<p style=" margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">We have no control over the lighting at the events we film, often have less than cooperative subjects, and make no claim to being professional photographers. We offer them to you as a cost-competitive alternative to meet your digital and direct mail needs.</font></p>

</blockquote>

<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Ameria Rising Advanced Research (<span class="caps">AR2</span>) runs a website called <a href="http://corenews.org/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Core News</a>, which features attacks on prominent environmentalists including Tom Steyer, Bill McKibben and Leonardo DiCaprio, and <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/danvergano/core-news-news?bffbnews&utm_term=4ldqpho#4ldqpho" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">was described by Buzzfeed</a> as a “secretly funded propaganda site … [that] is publishing stories attacking environmentalists, scientists, and politicians who warn about climate change.” Stories range from “aggressively opinionated, to sort-of true, to demonstrably false,” according to Buzzfeed. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s16" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[16]</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">America Rising has attacked Democrats who opposed the Keystone <span class="caps">XL</span> pipeline, and has a particular focus on billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer, hosting articles titled “Steyer Watch” and <a href="http://www.arsquared.org/campaign-cash-for-bad-energy-policy/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">criticizing</a> Steyer for spending more than $65 million on his super <span class="caps">PAC</span> races in the 2014 election. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s17" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[17]</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T73DVZg824&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">February 2016</a>, America Rising Squared released an attack ad on Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton which showed footage of Sanders agreeing with a statement that the greatest threat to national security is climate change while showing images of terrorists side-by-side with the melting Arctic. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s18" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[18]</a></font></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">America Rising Advanced Research has announced that the group will conduct in-depth research on potential Supreme Court nominees. “Rogers said the group was using around 10 researchers to search the Internet, law libraries around the country and other sources t<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">o probe the backgrounds of several possible selections to replace the late Antonin Scalia,”</span><span> </span>the Associated Press <a href="http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/2215604a40a747929a569a500c0824c2/capitol-hill-buzz-tampons-pads-free-shelters" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a>. A later report by the Associated Press <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1eb9e6bfd61042ada9600ae15dc1042d/rnc-launches-campaign-oppose-obamas-supreme-court-pick" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">stated</a> the <span class="caps">RNC</span> contracted with <span class="caps">AR2</span> to help with research on a potential Supreme Court nominee. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s19" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[19]</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s20" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[20]</a></font></p>

<h3 style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Anti-<span class="caps">EV</span> White Paper</font></font></h3>

<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In June, 2017, America Rising (<span class="caps">AR</span> Squared) wrote<a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/350735554/The-Human-Environmental-Costs-Of-Clean-Energy" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"> a white paper </a>that was <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/09/report-green-energy-products-produced-under-worst-environmental-rights-violations/" rel="nofollow" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">picked up by <em>The Daily Caller</em> </a>as evidence that “the materials required to build electric vehicles and solar panels are produced under some of the most worst environmental and labor conditions on Earth.” <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s34" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[34]</a></font></font></p>

<p style=" margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span class="dquo" style=" margin-left: 0px;">“</span>The inconvenient truth is that these ‘clean’ sources of energy are produced under the worst of labor and environmental rights violations,” the report, titled <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/350735554/The-Human-Environmental-Costs-Of-Clean-Energy" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">“The Human <span class="amp">&</span> Environmental Costs of 'Clean Energy'</a>“ claim</span>s.<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s35" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[35]</a></font></p>

</blockquote>

<h3 style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Grill, the America Rising Crowdsourcing “Tracker” App<a id="Grill" name="Grill"> </a></font></font></h3>

<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; margin: 1em 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a id="Grill" name="Grill"> </a><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a id="Grill" name="Grill">In May 2016, </a><a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/america-rising-launches-video-tracking-app-grill/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">America Rising <span class="caps">PAC</span> released an app</a> that “arms users attending political events with adversarial questions to ask Democratic candidates.” Called “<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi-tPTN7YTOAhXDDj4KHXeQDZ8QFggjMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fgrill-by-america-rising%2Fid1105056995%3Fmt%3D8&usg=AFQjCNE9ladUClIkmTk31GdPkh9vq_14oA&sig2=K7jrmdIElWUUJ7RIjkXSlA" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Grill</a>,” the app also allows users to record video, which is uploaded to a private channel that can be accessed by America Rising employees, who evaluate and screen the footage for promotion. The app also lists candidate events for users based on geographical location. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s21" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[21]</a></font></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="dquo" style=" margin-left: 0px;">“</span>Never before have attendees of political events had at their fingertips a set of pointed, incisive questions guaranteed to make news,” America Rising <span class="caps">PAC</span> communications director <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/meganapper/gop-opposition-research-firm-launches-video-tracking-app-for?utm_term=.tqpbWVEM1b#.nw70nMa9b0" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Jeff Bechdel told BuzzFeed News</a>. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s22" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[22]</a></font></p>

<h2 style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Who Funds America Rising?<span style=" font-weight: normal;"><a id="Who Funds America Rising?" name="Who Funds America Rising?"> </a></span></font></h2>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a id="Who Funds America Rising?" name="Who Funds America Rising?">America Rising <span class="caps">LLC</span> is a business that can sell its services with no disclosures necessary. According to </a><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2016&cmte=C00542902" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">OpenSecrets.org</a>, the Republican National Committee spent at least $183,900 on America Rising in the 2016 election cycle, with an additional $45,000 from the National Republican Congressional Committee.<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s32" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"> [32]</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">OpenSecrets also breaks down individual <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2016&cmte=C00542902" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">payments</a> to the America Rising <span class="caps">PAC</span> for the 2016 election cycle: <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs#s23" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">[23]</a></font></p>

<table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; width: 500px;"><tbody><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Paul Singer</b></font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$250,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Miguel Fernandez</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$100,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ronald Weiser</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$50,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">End Spending Action Fund</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$50,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Michael Vlock</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$50,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Keller Investment Properties</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$25,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Harol Brierley</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$25,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="caps">JJ</span> Matthews</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$25,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="caps">LE</span> Simmons</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$25,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="caps">CBI</span> Ventures <span class="caps">LLC</span></font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$15,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Roger Enrico</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$15,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Allen <span class="amp">&</span> Kelli Questrom</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$15,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Brian France</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$15,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Edward Schutter</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Allen <span class="amp">&</span> Kelli Questrom</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Gregory Ciongoli</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Scott Sperling</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="caps">SJZ</span>, <span class="caps">LLC</span></font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Keller Investment Properties</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Keller Investment Properties</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">William Kunkler</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Paul Dickson</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,472</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Jerry Langer</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Andrew Puzder</b></font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Andrew Puzder</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Jonathan Bullen</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Louis Chiavacci</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">James Tozer</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Walter Schlaepfer</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Scott Keller</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$3,442</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="caps">LE</span> Simmons</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$2,102</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="caps">LE</span> Simmons</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$2,101</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Peter Huizenga</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$2,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Robert Beyer</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$1,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Michaelon Wright</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$1,000</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="caps">EPAY</span> Business Solutions</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$854</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Robert Davis</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$500</font></td></tr><tr><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Allan Blutstein</font></td><td><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$250</font></td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2 style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" font-weight: normal;">Network Map of the America Rising Family</font></font></h2>

<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[live graph web]</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Staff of America Rising's Entities</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Note that America Rising LLC and America Rising PAC share many staff members. Staff are listed below by how staffers describe themselves on LinkedIn, or how they have been described in news articles. </font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matt Rhoades, Co-founder, America Rising LLC, America Rising PAC, America Rising Advanced Research, Definers Public Affairs</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“He founded America Rising in response to a recommendation contained in an autopsy of Romney’s failed presidential run that was ordered by the Republican National Committee. The group’s original goal was to compete with American Bridge, the Democratic opposition research group, but its focus under Mr. Rhoades has been to subject Mrs. Clinton to an ordeal similar to Mr. Romney’s.” [New York Times] - [24]</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joe Pounder, Co-founder, America Rising LLC, America Rising PAC, America Rising Advanced Research; Co-founder and President, Definers Public Affairs</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One Republican who worked closely with Pounder credits him with revolutionizing the way the party does opposition research, ushering in an age where opposition research and rapid response are living, breathing things that move with the news cycle and social media. More importantly, a number of Republicans said, Pounder is more than a one-trick pony. He is a master of opposition research, but he also understands how best to put that information to use in other parts of a campaign, making sure that research and communications teams work in sync with each other. [National Review] - [25]</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America Rising LLC</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Raj Shah, Co-founder, Director, and Deputy Communications Director</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shah is now Research Director, GOP</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Raj Shah most recently served as Co-Founding Partner and Managing Director of America Rising LLC, where he developed the organization’s Hillary Clinton opposition research book. He previously served as a Deputy Research Director at the RNC during the 2012 presidential election cycle. A graduate of Cornell, he has also worked on Senate and presidential campaigns and served in the Office of Presidential Personnel during the administration of President George W. Bush. [GOP.com]</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Byron Koay, Managing Director, Co-founder</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter </font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Allan Blutstein, Vice President of Freedom of Information Act Operations</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Allan Blutstein has joined the firm as vice president of Freedom of Information Act operations, placing him in charge of public records requests. Blutstein, who joined the firm after working at the government accountability firm Cause of Action, is a lawyer and public records expert. He previously worked as a principal legal adviser to the FOIA staff at the Treasury Department's Office of Financial Stability, as well as in the Department of Justice's Office of Information and Privacy. [Roll Call] - [26]</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alexandra Angel, Vice President</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Angel has one of the toughest jobs on the right: Finding new oppo research on Hillary Clinton, one of the most known-commodity candidates in U.S. history. Leading a team of eight analysts, Angel directs day-to-day research and rapid response operations focused specifically on the 2016 presidential race. Before going to America Rising, Angel spent two years as an account executive at DCI Group, where she tracked federal legislation. She’s also done a couple stints at the RNC and worked as deputy operations director on Steve Poizner’s 2010 gubernatorial run in California. She’s also put her research and analytical skills to use as an instructor for the Close Up Foundation, a group that promotes civic participation. [Campaigns and Elections] - [27]</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dan Knight, Vice President of House Research</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter </font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dan Knight, who was a senior research analyst in the 2014 cycle, will now serve as vice president of House research for the 2016 cycle.  [Roll Call]</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daniel Knight is Vice President of House Research at America Rising LLC, where he manages a team of analysts engaged in research and rapid response on Democratic House candidates in the 2016 election. Prior to his work at America Rising, which he joined in 2014 as a senior research analyst, Dan worked at the National Republican Congressional Committee and at a DC-area conservative non-profit. [Red Alert Politics]</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Baer, Vice President of Tracking and Video</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cooper Reves, Digital Director</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Francis Brennan, Deputy War Room Director</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We’re the eyes and ears,” said Francis Brennan, 25, war room director at the conservative political action committee America Rising. “We try to just pump out as many facts as we can. Everything we do is fact-based. It’s not scrutinized or opinion-based. It’s all facts. We have to prove what we are saying. We can’t just say things.” [McClatchy] - [6]</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matt Vollenweider, Deputy Team Leader</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kyle Sisenstein, Deputy Senate Team Leader</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Domenick Cocchiara, Research Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rocco Cavalluzzi, Research Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jillian Davidson, Research Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Julia Hoy, Senate Research Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carter Reese, Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael Berg, Research Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ari Schaffer, Presidential Research Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sam Montgomery, Office Manager</font></div>

</font></div>

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</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott Sloofman, Tracker</font></div>

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</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ryan Powers, Research Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charles Lehman, Research Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charles Lehman</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Google+</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Garrett Fulce, Director of Full-Time Tracking</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Garrett Fulce</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Travis Cady</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Travis Cady</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kevin Brinegar, Tracker/Field Analyst</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kevin Brinegar</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chris Malloy, Field Research Analyst / Tracker</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chris Malloy</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tim Wigginton, Tracker/Field Researcher</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tim Wigginton</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Robert Rose, Tracker/Field Research Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Robert Rose</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Patrick Peterson, Tracker/Field Research Analyst</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Patrick Peterson</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grace Nowak, Field Research Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grace Nowak</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nicholas Goeden, Tracker/Field Researcher</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nicholas Goeden</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nick Bolger, War Room Analyst</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nick Bolger</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America Rising PAC Staff</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Colin Reed, Executive Director</font></div>

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</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Reed brings his recent experience as Sen. Scott Brown’s 2014 campaign manager… Previously, Reed served as deputy communications director for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, communications director for Scott Brown’s 2012 Senate race, and press secretary in Brown’s Senate office. Reed also has experience at the NRSC, and on the 2008 presidential campaigns of Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain.” [America Rising PAC] - [28]</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jeff Bechdel, Communications Director</font></div>

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</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Amelia Chassé, Press Secretary</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those who have worked alongside Chassé describe her as savvy and relentless—she “never gets outworked,” according to longtime McCain adviser Brian Jones. As vice president at Hynes Communications, Chassé manages the firm’s Washington, D.C. office and devises online strategy for many of the firm’s top clients, including American Crossroads. At the start of the 2012 cycle, Chassé helped Crossroads cultivate its relationship with online conservatives. Chassé also counts herself among the cadre of young GOP consultants pushing her party to more fully embrace the digital age. [Campaigns and Elections Magazine] - [29]</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joe Chaudoin, Research Analyst</font></div>

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</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America Rising Advanced Research Staff</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brian Rogers, Executive Director</font></div>

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</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brian Rogers is Executive Director of America Rising Squared (AR2). Prior to joining AR2, Rogers served as Communications Director to U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and previously served as Deputy Communications Director and Research Director for McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, and held senior communications and opposition research roles on multiple statewide campaigns across the country, at the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. [ARSquared] - [30]</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Rogers is best known as the long-time spokesman for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He was also McCain’s spokesman during the senator’s 2008 presidential campaign, during which Rogers made headlines for arguing that Obama, too, lived in “a frickin’ mansion“ and was an “arugula-eating, pointy-headed professor type….But Rogers was also, for a short time, the research director for former Vice President Al Gore’sAlliance for Climate Protection. Upon taking that job in May 2009, he said he would be “working on the Repower America campaign to pass comprehensive energy and climate change legislation.” [Huffington Post] - [11]</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jeremy Adler, Communications Director (previously, Research Analyst, America Rising LLC)</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jeremy Adler is Communications Director of America Rising Squared (AR2). He previously served as a regional press secretary for Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign. Before that, he worked as a member of America Rising’s Senate research team and also was a part of Scott Brown’s 2014 New Hampshire Senate campaign. [ARSquared] - [30]</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Definers Public Affairs Staff</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matt Rhoades and Joe Pounder, below described above, are respectively Founder and President of Definers. </font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jim Barnett, Chief Operating Officer</font></div>

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</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jim Barnett’s experience spreads presidential, statewide, local, corporate and issue campaigns. Prior to joining Definers, Barnett served as Vice President for Political Affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform. Barnett is a veteran of Republican politics having managed Sen. John McCain’s comeback victory in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary and U.S. Senator Scott Brown’s $45 million 2012 campaign. He is a past chairman of the Vermont Republican Party and served as deputy campaign manager and communications director for Governor Jim Douglas’s 2002 upset victory. [Definers] - [31]</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brian Rogers, Senior Vice President</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tim Miller, Partner</font></div>

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</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tim Miller, former spokesman for Jeb Bush, joined Definers Public Affairs in September. Miller said the firm is going to go “more aggressively…directly after threats to our clients” and Definers will build digital platforms for the Washington fights. [33]</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Julia Cotrone, Special Assistant</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael Chenderlin, Chief Digital Officer</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Christy Paavola, Vice President</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Geoff Embler, Senior Vice President</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tim Killeen, Senior Vice President</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Andrew Lautz, Research Associate</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn, Twitter</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sara Pietsch, Art Director</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mike Presutti, Research Associate</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Will Schenkel, War Room Associate</font></div>

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</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Todd Scher, Research Associate</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jasmine Sossa, Graphic Designer</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nick Zanetti, Research Associate</font></div>

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</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LinkedIn</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Resources</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David M. Drucker. “GOP dirt diggers dog Clinton,” Washington Examiner, April 15, 2015. Archived July 23, 2016. Backup archive url: http://archive.is/sZkWI</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Peter Hamby. “Romney campaign chief to lead new GOP research group,” PoliticalTicker, March 21, 2013. Archived July 23, 2015. Backup archive URL: https://archive.is/fMEgo</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Patrick O'Connor. ”Political Operatives Find Demand for Their Skills in Business World,” The Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2016. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“About,” America Rising. Archived July 25, 2016. Backup archive URL: https://archive.is/QXjMc</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dylan Byers. “America Rising PAC relaunches as news site,” Politico, February 18, 2014. Archived July 24, 2016. Backup archive url: https://archive.is/YVJUa</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Anita Kumar. “Step into war rooms planning Hillary Clinton’s defeat,” McClatchyDC, April 22, 2015. Archived July 25, 2016. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Danial J. Sernovitz. “Conservative research group America Rising lands in Rosslyn,” Washington Business Journal, November 11, 2014. Archived July 25, 2016.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Vendor/Recipient: Definers Corp,” OpenSecrets.org. Accessed July 24, 2016.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Vendor/Recipient: Ar2 Inc,” OpenSecrets.org. Accessed July 25, 2016.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">David M. Drucker. “America Rising launches nonprofit affiliate,” Washington Examiner, July 14, 2015. Archived July 25, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/2FM1Z</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kate Sheppard. “One-Time Gore Staffer Leads Plan To Track The ‘Environmentalist Left’,” The Huffington Post, May 2, 2016. Archived July 25, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/AlGsx</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joe Pounder. “Welcome To Definers,” Definers Public Affairs, July 5, 2016. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Brian Rogers: Senior Vice President,” Definers Public Affairs. Accessed July 25, 2016. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Today in Politics,” The New York Times, February 26, 2015. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“About Us,” America Rising Images. Archived July 25, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/gMjnw</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dan Vergano. “New Site For Climate “News” Shows The Future Of Oppo Research,” BuzzFeed News, June 7, 2016. Archived July 25, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/LkdLZ</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Campaign Cash for Bad Energy Policy?” America Rising Squared. Archived July 25, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/wRrpU</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Democratic Socialist Party,” YouTube video uploaded by user America Rising Squared, February 11, 2016.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alan Fram. “Capitol Hill Buzz: GOP research group targets court nominees,” The Big Story, March 1, 2016. Archived July 25, 2016.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Josh Lederman. “GOP prepares to fight Obama nominee, no matter whom he picks,” The Big Story, March 14, 2016. Archived July 25, 2016.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“America Rising Launches Video Tracking App, 'Grill',” AmericaRisingPAC. Archived July 25, 2016. Archive.is url: https://archive.is/q0UKD</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Megan Apper. “GOP Opposition Research Firm Launches Candidate Tracking App,” BuzzFeed News. Archived July 25, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/Ogb4f</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“America Rising PAC: Contributors, 2016 cycle,” OpenSecrets.org. Accessed July 25, 2016.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ashley Parker and Nick Corasaniti. “The Right Baits the Left to Turn Against Hillary Clinton,” The New York Times, May 16, 2016. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alexis Levinson. “Oppo-Research Ace Joe Pounder Joins Rubio Campaign,” National Review, November 6, 2015. Archived July 25, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/8lISG</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Emily Cahn. “America Rising Hires Three for 2016,” Roll Call, June 4, 2015. Archived July 25, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/Ix9cB</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“2016 RISING STARS,” Campaigns & Elections, June 8, 2016. Archived July 25, 2016. Arhchive.is URL: https://archive.is/SF2fb</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“America Rising PAC Announces New Executive Director Colin Reed,” America Rising. Archived July 25, 2016. Archive.IS URL: https://archive.is/jNexd</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“2013 Rising Stars,” Campaign & Elections Magazine, June 11, 2013. Archived February 7, 2014. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“AR2 About Us,” America Rising Squared. Archived July 25, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/FX5m2</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Jim Barnett: Chief Operating Officer,” Definers Public Affairs. Accessed July 25, 2016. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.</font></div>

</font></div>

<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Vendor/Recipient: America Rising,” OpenSecrets.org. Accessed July 27, 2016.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jake Sherman. “Former Jeb Bush spokesman Tim Miller joining Definers Public Affairs,” Politico, September 6, 2016. Archived September 9, 2016. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/dMcw3</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Report: Green Energy Products Produced Under ‘Worst’ Environmental Rights Violations,” The Daily Caller, June 9, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/hVAz3</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Human & Environmental Costs of 'Clean Energy',” Scribd document uploaded by AR Squared on June 8, 2017. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tony Romm. “Republican political operatives want to sell the dark arts of opposition research to tech companies,” Recode, June 7, 2017. Archived July 12, 2017. Archive.is URL: https://archive.is/xxk3s</font></div>

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<div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TAGS: america rising squareddefiners public affairsamerica risingamerica rising llcar2America Rising PACdenierorgs</font></div>

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<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/koch-brothers-electric-cars-2456866524.html"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">https://www.ecowatch.com/koch-brothers-electric-cars-2456866524.html</font></a></p>

<h1 class="headline h1" style=" margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" font-weight: normal;">Koch Brothers Launch Attack to Kill Electric Cars</font></h1>

</div>

<p style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By Ben Jervey</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fueling-us-forward" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Fueling U.S. Forward</a>, the Koch-funded campaign to "rebrand" fossil fuels as "positive" and "sustainable," has released a new <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_WscmJSB2c" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">video</a> attacking the <em>Dirty Secrets of Electric Cars</em>, signaling a possible strategic pivot from straightforward fossil fuel cheerleading to electric vehicle (<span style=" background-color: initial;">EV</span>) and clean energy bashing.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The video and accompanying <a href="https://fuelingusforward.com/dirty-secrets-electric-cars/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Dirty Secrets of Electric Cars web page</a> feature blatant factual errors, misleading statements and glaring omissions (all of which will be debunked thoroughly below), while essentially attacking <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">electric cars</a> for using the same materials needed to manufacture cell phones, laptops, defense equipment and gas-powered cars, and which are even a critical component of the very oil refining processes that form the foundation of the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/koch-brothers" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Koch</a> fortunes.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" text-align: center;">When Fueling U.S. Forward launched last August, the organization's president </span><a href="http://www.kochvsclean.com/charles-drevna/" target="blank" style=" text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Charles Drevna</a><span style=" text-align: center;"> described the campaign as an effort to rebrand fossil fuels by focusing on the "positive" aspects of coal, oil and gas. This </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_WscmJSB2c" target="blank" style=" text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">newly released video</a><span style=" text-align: center;"> seems to further confirm investigative journalist </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/koch-electric-vehicles_us_56c4d63ce4b0b40245c8cbf6" target="_blank" style=" text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Peter Stone's reporting from last spring</a><span style=" text-align: center;">that the Kochs were "plotting a multimillion dollar assault on electric vehicles."</span></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">How do we know that Fueling U.S. Forward is this Koch-funded campaign? First, Charles Drevna, who is leading the effort, developed the concept while serving as a distinguished senior fellow at the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/institute-energy-research" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Institute for Energy Research</a>, a pro-fossil fuel think tank that was partially founded by Charles Koch and that is run by a <a href="http://www.kochvsclean.com/thomas-pyle/" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">longtime lobbyist for Koch Industries</a>. Second, and more concretely, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/08/14/new-koch-back-campaign-rolled-out-red-state-gathering-aims-promote-positives-fossil-fuels" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Drevna told DeSmog's Sharon Kelly</a> that he was working with <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/koch-industries-inc" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Koch Industries</a>' board member (and longtime Koch brothers' confidant) <a href="http://www.kochvsclean.com/james-mahoney/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">James Mahoney</a> on the campaign and that it was funded by "one of the brothers."</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Echoes of America Rising Squared</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fueling-us-forward" target="blank" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Fueling U.S. Forward</a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">America Rising Squared (or AR2)</a> have no public affiliation. Yet within a few weeks in June, both groups launched attacks on electric vehicles using the same misleading arguments and nearly identical language. While the former group is a known Koch-funded campaign to promote fossil fuels, the latter has <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/08/06/how-america-rising-ties-gop-establishment-stalkers-harassing-bill-mckibben-and-tom-steyer" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">close ties to the GOP establishment</a>, and has <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/america-rising-llc-pac-america-rising-squared-definers-public-affairs" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">invested heavily in promoting alleged hypocrisy among climate action advocates</a>, even paying "trackers" to follow around the likes of Tom Steyer and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/community/bill_mckibben/" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Bill McKibben</a>.</span></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In June, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/06/25/america-rising-squared-report-bashes-evs-using-same-rare-earth-metals-gas-powered-cars" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">as DeSmog reported</a>, AR2 published a white paper that purports to reveal the "human and environmental costs of 'clean energy,'" taking electric vehicles and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">solar</a> panels to task for their reliance on rare Earth metals. As we wrote at the time:</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Here's what the white paper doesn't mention: many of the very same rare Earth minerals that the AR2 report bashes are critical components of cell phones, computers, cameras, military and defense equipment, and even traditional gas-powered vehicles. What's more, the petroleum refining process is critically dependent on some of the same rare Earths that AR2 lambasts in this white paper.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The new video from Fueling U.S. Forward echoes the AR2 talking points, almost to the word. (For a closer analysis of the AR2 report, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/06/25/america-rising-squared-report-bashes-evs-using-same-rare-earth-metals-gas-powered-cars" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">see the original DeSmog article</a>).</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Debunking the New Fueling U.S. Forward Electric Car Attack Video</font></p>

</font></div>

<p style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Fueling U.S. Forward video (which is still unlisted on Youtube, but available to be shared and viewed by anyone with the link) is short enough that we can walk through it line by line.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">"This is an electric car/ Car companies say it's a clean alternative/ But electric cars are more toxic to humans than average cars."</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">This depends on an exceedingly narrow definition of "toxic." If you only consider the materials that go into the batteries of electric cars versus the batteries of "average" cars, then this is maybe defensible. But if you consider the materials that go into the entire vehicle, as well as the fuel used to power the vehicle, than EVs are far cleaner and less toxic.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">First, there's the fact that gas-powered vehicles require some of the same "toxic" rare Earth metals that the video criticizes. (More on that below). Then there's the even bigger issue that tailpipe emissions—including ozone, particulate matter and other smog-forming chemicals—are the dominant source of ground level air pollution, and nearly one half of all Americans live in areas that <a href="https://www.epa.gov/learn-issues/air-resources#air-pollution" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">don't meet federal minimum air quality standards</a>. In fact, emissions from road transportation cause roughly 53,000 premature deaths every year in the U.S., <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2013/study-air-pollution-causes-200000-early-deaths-each-year-in-the-us-0829" target="blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">according to MIT researchers</a>....</font></p>

</div>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/whos-behind-billionaire-pac-targeting-elizabeth-warren</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">America Rising, a billionaire-backed conservative group, is targeting Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as she tours the country in support of her new book, according to a memo obtained by <a href="http://www.politico.com/states/massachusetts/story/2017/04/conservative-pac-training-firepower-on-warren-111273" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Politico</a>.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“We view (the) book launch as the soft launch of her presidential campaign,” said executive director Colin Reed. “We’ll do the same to her as we did with Hillary Clinton in 2014,” Reed added.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">America Rising’s backers would stand to lose some cushy tax breaks and regulatory favors if the progressive policies advocated by Sen. Warren were enacted. For her part, Warren denies that she’s running for the presidency and notes that this is her 11th book.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">America Rising is tracking a number of potential contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, including Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, and Sen. Kamala Harris of California.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The group appears to be taking special interest in Warren, however. Reed’s memo cites her “enormous sway” over the party and describes her – inaccurately – as its “titular head.” (Reed does not appear to know what the word “titular” means.)</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Rise of America Rising</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">America Rising was formed in 2013 by Matt Rhoades, the director of Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 presidential campaign, and it represents the worst of what our current political system offers. Its goal is not to debate the issues or offer solutions to the nation’s problems. Instead, the PAC gets cash from big-money donors and spends it trying to tear down its political opponents.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Republican National Committee’s “autopsy” of its 2012 presidential loss reportedly <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/04/24/bye-bye-bernie-the-self-appointed-captain-of-the-democratic-ship-needs-to-stop-chasing-the-great-white-male/" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">concluded</a> that the party needed an organization that would “do nothing but post inappropriate Democratic utterances and act as a clearinghouse for information on Democrats.”</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the time-honored Washington tradition of “failing up,” the leader of the party’s most recent failure was chosen to head up the new operation. But, to be fair, Rhoades was not an entirely inappropriate choice. One of his early career highlights, if you can call it that, involved <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/04/24/bye-bye-bernie-the-self-appointed-captain-of-the-democratic-ship-needs-to-stop-chasing-the-great-white-male/" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">funneling “oppo” information</a> to a seedy but popular website called “The Drudge Report” on behalf of George W. Bush.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The group made a splash the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/04/24/bye-bye-bernie-the-self-appointed-captain-of-the-democratic-ship-needs-to-stop-chasing-the-great-white-male/" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">following year</a> when it sent “trackers” to record everything key Democratic candidates did and said on the campaign trail. The goal was to record a “blooper” that could be played over and over on news and social media to embarrass the candidate.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Big-Money Backers</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The group’s <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00542902" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">million-dollar-plus budget</a> is funded by a bevy of high-dollar backers. The list of donors during the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?sort=A&cmte=C00542902&cycle=2014&Page=1" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">2014</a> and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cmte=C00542902&cycle=2016" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">2016</a> election cycles includes:</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer specializes in “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2011/nov/15/vulture-funds-key-players?intcmp=122" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">vulture capitalism</a>” – purchasing distressed assets and squeezing every last dollar out of them. Singer’s fund earned the “<a href="http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1586&context=lcp" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">vulture</a>” label by purchasing the debts of distressed governments like Panama and Peru, and then pressuring the authorities to force repayment. In Argentina’s case, the fund’s tactics including <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2012/10/05/the-real-story-behind-the-argentine-vessel-in-ghana-and-how-hedge-funds-tried-to-seize-the-presidential-plane/#2cab0e9625aa" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">seizing an Argentine vessel</a> docked in an African port.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Singer, a major Republican donor, is the founder of a hedge fund called Elliott Management Corporation. He <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/zephyr-teachout-paul-singer-debate_us_57b21d62e4b0718404126567" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">flooded</a> New York’s 19th Congressional district with money last year in order to successfully defeat reform Democrat Zephyr Teachout. Teachout offered to debate Singer, whom she labeled “the actual voice” of her opposition, but he declined to respond. Singer was America Rising’s largest reported donor.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wrestling magnate Linda McMahon, who ran <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/with-wrestling-hire-trump_b_13523884.html" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">the World Wrestling Entertainment empire</a> with husband Vince McMahon and is now Donald Trump’s head of the Small Business Administration. McMahon gave <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/10/16/wwe-co-founder-linda-mcmahon-gave-6-million-to-pro-trump-super-pac/" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">$6 million to Trump’s campaign</a> – money Trump has reportedly used in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-used-258000-from-his-charity-to-settle-legal-problems/2016/09/20/adc88f9c-7d11-11e6-ac8e-cf8e0dd91dc7_story.html?utm_term=.e7ef45fe9e7d" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">ethically dubious ways</a>.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hilcorp Energy Corporation, a Texas-based fossil fuels company that has been sued for <a href="https://www.law360.com/articles/886472/hilcorp-can-t-beat-la-fishermen-s-clean-water-act-claims" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">violating the Clean Water Act</a> in Louisiana. Hilcorp allegedly damaged oyster beds by dredging canals without the proper permission, using a destructive technique known as “<a href="http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2016/07/oyster_growers_sue_hilcorp_for.html" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">prop washing</a>.”</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The company was recently ordered to clean up a 4,200-gallon oil spill in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, and last month oil was <a href="http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2017/03/oil_gas_leaking_from_abandoned.html" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">reportedly leaking</a> from an abandoned Hilcorp well head on the lower Mississippi. Also in March, regulators <a href="https://www.adn.com/business-economy/energy/2017/03/06/federal-agency-says-leaking-cook-inlet-gas-line-is-a-hazard-and-must-be-repaired/" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> that a Hilcorp gas line in Alaska’s Cook Inlet was leaking 225,000 to 335,000 cubic feet of gas per day and demanded that it be repaired or shut down.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Hedge-fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin, a self-described “<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2015/05/15/king-ken-recovered-citadel-chief-takes-the-hedge-fund-throne.html" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Reagan Republican</a>” who once <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2015/05/15/king-ken-recovered-citadel-chief-takes-the-hedge-fund-throne.html" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">testified</a> before the U.S. Senate that U.S. stock markets are the “fairest, most transparent, resilient and competitive markets anywhere in the world” – a claim that would surprise hundreds of thousands of documented victims of Wall Street investor and borrower fraud.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Health insurance executive Mike Fernandez, who became a <a href="http://www.floridatrend.com/article/15414/on-the-other-side-of-a-billion" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">billionaire</a> in the HMO business before becoming a major Republican donor. Fernandez, who <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/elections-2016/article48067815.html" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">supported</a> Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, initially opposed Trump in 2016 and supported Hillary Clinton. In December 2015 Fernandez declared Trump “<a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article48067815.html" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">unelectable</a>.”</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Real estate tycoon Ronald Weiser. <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/05/michigan_republican_ron_weiser.html" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Weiser</a>, a former chair of the Michigan Republican Party who also acted as the Republican National Committee’s national finance chairman, was a member of Donald Trump’s fundraising committee in 2016.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Money for Nothing</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">What are these big-money interests getting for their money? America Rising’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AmericaRisingPAC/" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Facebook page</a> is an oddly listless affair. Its <a href="https://twitter.com/AmericaRising?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Twitter feed</a> still features unflattering and now outdated photos of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, the candidates on last year’s Democratic presidential ticket.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The real “value proposition” for efforts like America Rising lies in their ability to plant destructive stories about their opponents in respected news outlets (a category that does not include Drudge). These efforts are more difficult to trace.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The group’s current anti-Warren efforts include sending trackers to videotape the senator’s book tour, in hopes of catching her saying something embarrassing, and a somewhat sophomoric “<a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/candidate/elizabeth-warren/" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">candidate page</a>” attacking the Massachusetts Democrat. It has posted similar pages for Sanders, Booker, and other Democratic presidential prospects.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">All in all, America Rising’s efforts have an oddly dated feel to them. Its social media effects feel perfunctory, and its “gotcha” approach to tracking seems like a relic of past campaigns. Politicians like Warren and Sanders have so far proven resilient against the politics of negativity. America Rising’s billionaire patrons could find more constructive uses for their money.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Cross-posted from <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/04/13237/who-is-behind-billionaire-pac-targeting-elizabeth-warren" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">PRWatch</a></font></p>

<p style=" margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Richard (RJ) Eskow is a blogger and writer, a former Wall Street executive, a consultant, and a former musician.</font></p>

</div>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">mckibben steyer</font>

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/opinion/sunday/embarrassing-photos-of-me-thanks-to-my-right-wing-stalkers.html"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000">http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/07/opinion/sunday/embarrassing-photos-of-me-thanks-to-my-right-wing-stalkers.html</font></a>

 </font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">America Rising PAC was set up in Spring 2013 to serve as an organization on the right for the sole purpose of exposing the truth about Democrats through video tracking, research, and communications. By cataloguing every Democrat utterance we have the data to ensure they are held accountable for their words and actions.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Our work influenced the 2014 elections. Bloomberg <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-05/democrats-are-even-losing-the-rewrite-of-the-2014-election?hootPostID=4a603ee35d08ee1fc3d267c743b4f1b9" target="blank">said</a> we “rattled Democrats who were not used to losing the media’s story lines” in 2014. Politico <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/democrats-lose-2014-midterms-112581_Page4.html" target="blank">referenced</a> our video of Iowa Democrat Bruce Braley calling Senator Chuck Grassley “a farmer from Iowa who never went to law school” as “a definitive moment in the race, virtually everyone agrees.” The Washington Post’s “The Fix” <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/11/04/winners-and-losers-of-the-2014-election-early-edition/" target="_blank">named</a> us a winner of 2014, saying America Rising “proved its value this cycle.”</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">We’re also looking forward to influencing the 2016 elections. The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/03/24/gop-rising-the-oppo-battle-is-joined/" target="blank">Washington Post </a>and <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/20/first-on-cnn-stop-hillary-effort-launches/" target="blank">CNN</a> have called America Rising the leading group on the right preparing for a Hillary Clinton candidacy and the earliest sustained effort to begin defining future Democratic presidential contenders. Follow our Hillary Clinton coverage <a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/candidate/hillary-clinton/" target="_blank">here</a>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You can see the candidates we’re tracking and visit their profile pages <a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/candidates/" target="blank">here</a>.  <a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/bruce-braleys-farmer-attack-fallout/" target="blank">

</a> </font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">With your support we can add to the list of Democrats we are tracking. Please help our work by contributing <a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/donations/donate/" target="blank">here</a>. If you have any feedback or tips that can help us hold Democrats accountable, <a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/tips/" target="blank">write us anytime.</a> You can also contact us<span> </span><a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/contact/">here</a>. If you’re interested in career and internship opportunities,<span> </span><a href="https://www.americarisingpac.org/jobs/">click here</a>.</font>

<h2><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" font-weight: normal;">America Rising In The News</font></h2>

<address><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A few articles about our organization</font></address>

<p class="selectionShareable"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Washington Post: <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2014/11/11/inside-the-republican-oppo-research-operation/" target="_blank">Inside the Republican ‘oppo’ research operation</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Bloomberg: <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-17/hatewatching-hillary" target="_blank">Inside the Republican machine scrutinizing Clinton’s every word.</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">National Journal: <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/the-conservative-playbook-against-hillary-clinton-20140610" target="_blank">The Conservative Playbook Against Hillary Clinton</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CNN: America Rising PAC’s Tim Miller Joins Crossfire To Talk About “Failed Choices” (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdzkCdrK96Q" target="blank">Part 1</a>) (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEd8QudWrD8" target="blank">Part 2</a>)</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Free Beacon: <a href="http://freebeacon.com/national-security/america-rising-report-criticizes-hillary-clintons-state-dept-over-benghazi/" target="_blank">America Rising: Report Criticizes Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. Over Benghazi</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Slate: <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/01/america_rising_the_republican_pac_that_s_filming_every_vulnerable_democratic.html" target="_blank">Every Step You Take, Every Move You Make – The Republican PAC that’s filming every single thing that key Democratic candidates do or say.</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Weekly Standard: <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/hillary-speeches-cost-san-francisco-police-21000_819731.html" target="_blank">Hillary Speeches Cost San Francisco Police $21,000</a></font></p>

<address><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“A number of public records requests by the GOP opposition research firm America Rising reveal the San Francisco police department incurred extra expenses directly related to speeches given by Clinton in 2014.”</font></address>

</blockquote>

<p class="selectionShareable"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MSNBC: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-ID-Y5m9ko" target="_blank">America Rising PAC Releases eBook As Clinton Memoir Hits Stores</a></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">National Review: <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/390232/clinton-charges-university-225000-speech-high-cost-tuition-jim-geraghty" target="_blank">Clinton Charges University $225,000 for Speech on High Cost of Tuition</a></font>

<h2><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" font-weight: normal;">Also, take a look at some of what we accomplished in the 2014 cycle:</font></h2>

<p data-wc="69"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==

 </font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">uses epay sic vender</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/expenditures.php?cmte=C00542902&cycle=2016#topvendors</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" line-height: 24px;">Official PAC Name:</span><br style=" line-height: 24px;" />

<span style=" line-height: 24px;">AMERICARISINGPAC.ORG </span><br style=" line-height: 24px;" />

<span style=" line-height: 24px;">Location:<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span> </span>ARLINGTON,<span> </span></span>VA 22210<span> </span></span><br style=" line-height: 24px;" />

<span style=" line-height: 24px;">Industry: </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/industry.php?txt=Q01&cycle=2016" style=" text-decoration: none; line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Republican/Conservative</a><span style=" line-height: 24px;"><span> </span></span><br style=" line-height: 24px;" />

<span style=" line-height: 24px;">Treasurer:<span> </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">MATT RHOADES </span></span><br style=" line-height: 24px;" />

<span style=" line-height: 24px;">FEC Committee ID: C00542902<span> </span></span><br style=" line-height: 24px;" />

<span style=" line-height: 24px;">(Look up </span><a href="http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?C00542902" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">actual documents filed</a><span style=" line-height: 24px;"> at the FEC)</span></font></p>

<table class="datadisplay" style=" font-weight: bold; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px; margin: 0.5em 0px 1em; padding: 0px; width: 630px; line-height: 24px; background: rgb(224, 230, 236);"><tbody><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>SINGER, PAUL ELLIOTT MR</b>

NEW YORK, NY 10019</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">INVESTMENTS</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">04/20/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$250,000</font></b></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">FERNANDEZ, MIGUEL MR

CORAL GABLES, FL 33134</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MBF HEALTHCARE</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">10/09/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$100,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">WEISER, RONALD

ANN ARBOR, MI 48104</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>MCKINLEY ASSOCIATES</b>, INC.</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">03/09/16</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$50,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">END SPENDING ACTION FUND

TAMPA, FL 33606</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

 </font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">03/07/16</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$50,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">VLOCK, MICHAEL

BRANFORD, CT 06405</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">INVESTOR</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">06/29/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$50,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">KELLER INVESTMENT PROPERTIES

CENTERVILLE, UT 84014</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

 </font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">02/02/16</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$25,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BRIERLEY, HAROL

DALLAS, TX 75205</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">THE BRIERLEY GROUP</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">06/29/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$25,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MATTHEWS, JJ MRS

ABILENE, TX 79604</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">INVESTOR</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">07/02/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$25,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SIMMONS, LE MR

HOUSTON, TX 77002</font></b></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SCF PARTNERS</font></b></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">11/13/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$25,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CBI VENTURES LLC

COLUMBIA, MO 65201</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

 </font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">02/11/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$15,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ENRICO, ROGER

DALLAS, TX 75201</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">RETIRED</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">06/29/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$15,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">QUESTROM, ALLEN & KELLI MR

DALLAS, TX 75225</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">RETIRED</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">11/21/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$15,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">FRANCE, BRIAN

DAYTONA BEACH, FL 90071</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">NASCAR</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">04/27/16</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$15,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SCHUTTER, EDWARD

MARIETTA, GA 30067</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ARBOR PHARMACEUTICALS</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">02/25/16</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">QUESTROM, ALLEN & KELLI MR

DALLAS, TX 75225</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">RETIRED</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">07/11/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CIONGOLI, GREGORY

WELLESLEY HILLS, MA 02481</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BAUPOST GROUP</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">03/07/16</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SJZ LLC

BOSTON, MA 02116</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

 </font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">09/15/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">KELLER INVESTMENT PROPERTIES

CENTERVILLE, UT 84014</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

 </font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">01/04/16</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">FORST, EDWARD C

BRONXVILLE, NY 10708</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">RETIRED</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">11/17/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CBI VENTURES LLC

COLUMBIA, MO 65201</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

 </font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">07/06/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">DICKSON, PAUL

SHREVEPORT, LA 71135</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MORRIS DICKSON</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">08/21/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">KELLER INVESTMENT PROPERTIES

CENTERVILLE, UT 84014</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

 </font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">10/02/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">KELLER INVESTMENT PROPERTIES

CENTERVILLE, UT 84014</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

 </font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">12/07/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">KUNKLER, WILLIAM

CHICAGO, IL 60601</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CC INDUSTRIES, INC.</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">10/20/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$10,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">DICKSON, PAUL

SHREVEPORT, LA 71135</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MORRIS DICKSON</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">07/03/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,472</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">LANGER, JERRY

MONTVILLE, NJ 07045</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">LANGER TRANSPORT CORPORATION</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">12/19/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">PUZDER, ANDREW

SANTA BARBARA, CA 93108</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CKE RESTAURANT HOLDINGS, INC.</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">08/04/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">PUZDER, ANDREW

SANTA BARBARA, CA 93108</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CKE RESTAURANT HOLDINGS, INC.</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">10/19/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BULLEN, JONATHAN

SALT LAKE CITY, UT 84111</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">COMENA GROUP</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">02/10/16</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">TOZER, JAMES MR

NEW YORK, NY 10065</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">VECTRA MANAGEMENT</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">06/05/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CHIAVACCI, LOUIS

CORAL GABLES, FL 33156</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MERRILL LYNCH</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">03/08/16</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SCHLAEPFER, WALTER

BELLEVUE, WA 98009</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">MERRILL LYNCH</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">03/22/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$5,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">KELLER, SCOTT

CENTERVILLE, UT 89037</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CEO/PRESIDENT</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">07/29/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$3,442</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SIMMONS, LE MR

HOUSTON, TX 77002</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SCF PARTNERS</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">10/27/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$2,102</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SIMMONS, LE MR

HOUSTON, TX 77002</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SCF PARTNERS</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">10/27/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$2,101</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">HUIZENGA, PETER H

OAK BROOK, IL 60523</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">HUIZENGA CAPITAL MANAGEMENT</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">02/09/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$2,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BEYER, ROBERT

LOS ANGELES, CA 90067</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CHAPRAL INVESTMENTS</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">06/17/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$1,000</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">WRIGHT, MICHAELON

TROY, MI 48084</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">TMW ENTERPRISES, INC</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">03/27/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$1,000</font></td></tr><tr><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">DAVIS, ROBERT

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA 90266</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">RETIRED</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">07/08/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$500</font></td></tr><tr style=" background-color: rgb(240, 243, 246);"><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BLUTSTEIN, ALLAN MR

WASHINGTON, DC 20001</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">RETIRED</font></td><td style=" padding: 5px; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">04/07/15</font></td><td class="number" style=" padding: 5px; text-align: right; vertical-align: top;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">$250</font></td></tr></tbody></table>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/opposition-research/

 </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>==

</b> </font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2013/03/21/america-rising-mitt-romney-staffer-starting-opposition-research-group/</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>America Rising: Mitt Romney staffer starting<span> </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">opposition research<span> </span></span>group</b></font>

</b>By Rachel Weiner March 21, 2013

Mitt Romney's campaign manager is joining with two Republican National Committee staffers to form a new conservative opposition research group, America Rising.

Matt Rhoades, Mitt Romney's campaign manager and the research director for George W. Bush's 2004 campaign, will reportedly lead the effort, first reported by CNN. He will be joined by RNC research director Joe Pounder and spokesman Tim Miller.<span> </span>

In its 98-page autopsy of the current Republican party, the RNC called for "an outside group ... that focuses solely on research of Democrats," one that will "establish a private archive and public website that does nothing but post inappropriate Democrat utterances and act as a clearinghouse for information."

Democrats already have a group like this: American Bridge 21st Century. Founded by David Brock, the former conservative behind the liberal media watchdog Media Matters, American Bridge tracked Republican candidates in the field and scoured their public appearances for embarrassing quotes. The group spotted and circulated Rep. Todd Akin's comments on "legitimate rape" and Rep. Steve King's comparison of immigrants to dogs. The group sent mailers to voters highlighting Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock's controversial statement on pregnancy and rape.

"We plan to start this enterprise because so many Republicans seem to agree that there is a need on our side of the aisle for an entity that is focused on solely holding Democrats accountable for their actions and records using research, candidate tracking, rapid response and digital tools," Rhoades said in a statement.

On top of its research on potential Democratic 2016 contenders, the group plans to test different dissemination methods for maximum impact. Campaigns will include social media, digital advertising and PR aimed at earned media coverage. The group does not plan to air television ads.

"It doesn't surprise me that Republicans would want to replicate this," American Bridge President Rodell Mollineau said, warning that "it's not as easy as it looks."

America Rising will be divided into a super PAC and a limited liability company with clients; the latter would be legally capable of working with campaigns and committees. American Bridge is divided into a super PAC and a nonprofit 501(c)(4) foundation that does not have to disclose its donors.

Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said the group was "excited about the efforts of groups like America Rises that will further strengthen the future of the Republican Party." The RNC is also expanding its research operation going into the 2014 elections

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>==

</b> </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/01/america_rising_the_republican_pac_that_s_filming_every_vulnerable_democratic.html">http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/01/america_rising_the_republican_pac_that_s_filming_every_vulnerable_democratic.html</a>

 </font>

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<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmillergop</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Communications Director at Jeb Bush 2016

    Washington D.C. Metro Area

    Public Relations and Communications

Current   <span> </span>

    Jeb Bush 2016

Previous   <span> </span>

    America Rising PAC, America Rising LLC, Republican National Committee

Education   <span> </span>

    The George Washington University

500+

connections

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Experience

    Communications Director

    Jeb Bush 2016

    February 2015 – Present (1 year 4 months)Miami/Fort Lauderdale Area

    Executive Director

    America Rising PAC

    March 2013 – February 2015 (2 years)

    Co Founder

    America Rising LLC

    March 2013 – February 2015 (2 years)Washington D.C. Metro Area

    Republican National Committee

    Deputy Communications Director

    Republican National Committee

    March 2012 – March 2013 (1 year 1 month)

    Oversaw a 16 person regional/state-based communications team. Liason with Romney for President on regional communications and rapid response.

    National Press Secretary

    Jon Huntsman for President

    June 2011 – February 2012 (9 months)

    The Glover Park Group

    Director

    The Glover Park Group

    July 2009 – February 2011 (1 year 8 months)

    Lead digital communications strategist in the Public Affairs division.

    Communications Strategist

    Berman and Company

    August 2007 – July 2009 (2 years)

    Managed communications campaigns for conservative non-profit organizations.

    Iowa Communications Director

    John McCain

    2006 – 2007 (1 year)

    Political Director

    Bill Dix for Congress

    November 2005 – June 2006 (8 months)

    Communications Director

    Jeff Lamberti for Congress

    2006 – 2006 (less than a year)

    Field Director

    Jerry Kilgore for Governor

    2005 – 2005 (less than a year)

    Travel Aide

    Bill Lee for Governor

    2004 – 2004 (less than a year)

    Intern/Various

    Bill Owens

    1998 – 2002 (4 years)

---

scrape

    Jesse Hunt

    New Hampshire Communications Director at Jeb 2016

    Jeb Bush

    2016 Presidential Candidate

    Kristy Campbell

    Deputy Communications Director at Romney for President

    Nathan S. Lamb

    Campaign Manager at Ted Gatsas for Governor

    Danny Diaz

    Partner, FP1 Strategies

    Sally Bradshaw

    Independent Political Organization Professional

    Emily Benavides

    Press Secretary at U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH)

    David Kochel

    Owner at Red Wave Communications

    Matt Gorman

    Director of Rapid Response at Jeb 2016

    Joe Pounder

    President at Definers Public Affairs

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<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span class="color_23">Jim Barnett’s experience spreads presidential, statewide, local, corporate and issue campaigns. Prior to joining Definers, Barnett served as Vice President for Political Affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform. Barnett is a veteran of Republican politics having managed Sen. John McCain’s comeback victory in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary and<span> </span><b>U.S. Senator Scott Brown</b>’s $45 million 2012 campaign. He is a past chairman of the Vermont Republican Party and served as deputy campaign manager and communications director for Governor Jim Douglas’s 2002 upset victory.</span></font>

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<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>He showed me a tiny video camera that had been hidden inside an Aquafina water bottle, and others embedded in a wristwatch and in an iPod Shuffle. A device in his shirt button, which used Bluetooth technology, could relay live audio to his control room. He argued, “What I do is the truest form of journalism there is. We hit the record button and show people what we found.”</b></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The political left also outsources much of its dirty work to privately funded super PACs and dark-money groups. After the Democrats were eviscerated in the 2010 midterm elections—the first congressional campaigns after the Citizens United decision—an independently funded group named<b><span> </span>American Bridge 21st Century began supplying opposition research to Democratic groups and candidates. The network was founded by David Brock,<span> </span></b>a self-described former “conservative hit man” who became notorious in the early nineties for having described Anita Hill as “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty.” In the aughts, Brock, who is gay, joined the Democratic Party—in part because he found the Republican Party homophobic—bringing with him an insider’s expertise in cutthroat politics. He describes American Bridge, which employs a hundred and fifty people, as a political “utility” for progressives.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The American Bridge network includes Media Matters, a watchdog operation that identifies what it sees as distortions by the right-wing press, and<b><span> </span>Correct the Record, a rapid-response unit that focusses on defending Hillary Clinton.</b><span> </span>Brock’s group also oversees political action committees, dark-money nonprofit organizations, and at least fifty video “trackers,” who hound Republican candidates in the hope of recording politically damaging moments.<b><span> </span>Video trackers<span> </span></b>have been mainstays of campaigns since 2006, when a Democratic volunteer upended George Allen, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, by releasing a video of him uttering a racist slur. In 2012, one of the trackers with Brock’s organization captured Todd Akin, a Missouri Republican running for the Senate, defending “legitimate rape.” With American Bridge’s success has come funding, largely from labor unions and wealthy liberals. One of the biggest contributors this year is George Soros—which may help explain why he was the object of an O’Keefe sting.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>After Mitt Romney lost the 2012 Presidential election, conservative operatives concluded that they needed their own putatively independent negative-campaign machine. Out of this partisan arms race grew America Rising—the unofficial oppo-research affiliate of the Republican Party—which was founded in 2013 by Matt Rhoades, the former head of Romney’s campaign. Based in Arlington, Virginia</b>, it diverges from Brock’s network in one crucial respect: It is a limited-liability corporation. Instead of relying on charitable and political donations, America Rising serves as a for-profit vender to conservative clients, who pay it to conduct customized negative research.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Rhoades and others declined to respond to interview requests, but when I stopped by America Rising’s headquarters, on May 18th, the office was filled with young researchers bent over their laptops. The walls were decorated with photographs of conservative icons (though Trump’s portrait seemed to be missing). An office door was covered with bull’s-eye targets, and a sign reminded staffers of the<span> </span><b>“Research Checklist: Nexis, Google Alerts, Facebook, Twitter.”</b></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Brock told me that his group had rejected the vender model. “We didn’t want to be under clients’ thumbs,” he said. “If you work for them, you’re subservient. We wanted to build an independent progressive infrastructure.” Recently, some donors wanted video trackers to trail the Koch brothers, but Brock turned them down. American Bridge does a huge amount of oppo research on the Kochs, but Brock says he believes that tracking private citizens is unethical. He claims that he has also rejected the use of subterfuge. “We’re not in that game,” he says.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>By contrast, in late April the dark-money arm of Rhoades’s group, America Rising Squared, announced the creation of a negative campaign to target leading<span> </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">environmentalists</span><span> </span>as well as prominent donors to environmental causes and candidates.</b><span> </span>The campaign’s initial budget was a hundred thousand dollars, which, among other things, would cover the extensive use of video trackers. According to the political tip sheet<span> </span><em>The Hill</em>, the campaign would subject environmentalists to “the same level of scrutiny . . . that opposition research firms apply to presidential candidates.” America Rising Squared’s executive director,<b><span> </span>Brian Rogers, told<span> </span><em>The Hill</em><span> </span>that his group planned to hold “the Environmentalist Left accountable for their epic hypocrisy and extreme positions which threaten America’s future prosperity.”</b></font></p>

</font><p data-wc="90" style=" font-weight: bold;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a id="/5" class="tny-page" name="/5" data-total-words="3892"> </a><a id="/5" class="tny-page" name="/5" data-total-words="3892"> </a><a id="/5" class="tny-page" name="/5" data-total-words="3892">   <b>Almost simultaneously, in early May, the organization announced the launch of an<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span> </span>affiliated venture, run by many of the same operatives, called Definers Public Affairs. Definers offers to wage political-style negative campaigns, for profit, on behalf of undisclosed private clients, including corporations</span></b><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. According to its Web site, Definers will “create dossiers” on opponents, monitor them from a “full-service war room,” and build both “grassroots” alliances and “a paid online presence.” This raises the possibility that undisclosed business interests are paying to choose the targets they want Republican operatives to attack.</span></a></font></p>

</font><p data-wc="117"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" style=" font-weight: bold;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a id="/5" class="tny-page" name="/5" data-total-words="3892">Soon after the campaign against environmentalists was announced,<span> </span><b>Bill McKibben,</b><span> </span>who teaches environmental studies at Middlebury College, in Vermont, got an alarming phone call from a librarian at Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, who supervises a literary archive to which McKibben had contributed his research papers. McKibben has been an outspoken activist against the Keystone XL pipeline, and in 2008 he co-founded 350.org, a “global grassroots climate movement.” For many years, he was a staff writer for this magazine. (He is now a regular contributor to the<em><span> </span>New York Review of Books</em>, where he recently reviewed a book of mine.) He is a political thinker, but not a candidate, a major political donor, or a paid campaign operative.</a></span></font></font></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Texas librarian, Diane Warner, told McKibben that a man had shown up at the archive and requested copies of all his papers—fifty-four boxes of documents. The man identified himself as Aaron Goss, and said that he worked for Definers Public Affairs. Goss spent a week copying pages from McKibben’s archive. Meanwhile, as McKibben was getting ready to speak about the environment at a church in Durham, New Hampshire, an unfamiliar man aimed a video camera at him. The next day, a wordless two-second snippet of footage appeared online, showing McKibben looking at the camera and then turning away uncomfortably, to the accompaniment of the song “Show Me That Smile.” The video, which was titled “Bill McKibben: Ready for His Closeup,” was posted to the Twitter account of Corenews.org.</span></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The site is another recent creation of America Rising Squared, as is an app called Grill, which enables users to track the location of ideological enemies, including Hillary Clinton, and lists hostile questions to ask at public events</b>, such as “Will you drop out of the Presidential race if you are indicted?” Within days, another contentless video snippet of McKibben popped up, this time showing him in Australia. The threat was clear: wherever he went, his enemies would be recording him.</span></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Who paid for a professional oppo-research team to mock an environmental activist? The answer is secret. One could argue that the campaign isn’t substantially different from that of a corporate lobbyist, but, unlike registered lobbyists, America Rising Squared doesn’t have to file public disclosures or pay taxes, because it purports to be a social-welfare organization.</span></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">McKibben told me, “I have no fear of debating these people on the issues, but this is just intimidation.” He added, “It’s bad enough to do this to anyone who runs for office. But to do it to anyone who dares protest?”</span></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Tom Steyer,<span> </span></b>the retired hedge-fund billionaire who runs the environmental-action group NextGen Climate and has been one of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, is another target of America Rising Squared. Corenews.org has featured posts calling Steyer hypocritical, because he made a fortune investing in fossil fuels. America Rising Squared has accused him of self-interest in supporting green energy, as he has substantial investments in solar power. Steyer says that this is “complete and utter nonsense,” because his investments are held by trusts and structured in a way that any profits are transferred to charity. “They have to know they’re lying,” Steyer said. “It’s completely dishonest, unethical, and pitiful. And it’s creepy.” He says that the anonymously funded attacks won’t stop him, but he worries that such campaigns may deter others from engaging in activism. As he puts it, they “are another reason people are reluctant to get involved in politics.”</span></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It may be that the shock value of such exposés is diminishing. A recent series of sting videos against Planned Parenthood, created by a group called the Center for Medical Progress, involved deceptions so devious—including an attempt by undercover operatives to buy fetal tissue—that the campaign backfired. Pro-choice activists united in anger at the sting’s perpetrators, and a Texas grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing and indicted the C.M.P. In Presidential politics, gaffes may be less damaging. As Brock notes, “In the year of Trump, people are more inured to the outrageous.”</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">O’Keefe promises that his covert documentary of the Hillary Clinton campaign will command attention. But on May 19th he publicly conceded defeat in the Open Society Foundations investigation. In an interview posted on Breitbart News, he confessed that he had “been forced to abandon an ambitious undercover investigation into billionaire left-wing financier George Soros.” O’Keefe acknowledged that he “forgot to hang up” the phone, but declined to be more specific about the operation, saying, “I don’t like to reveal the tactics of what we do.” He apologized to his supporters and promised that his many other investigations had not been compromised. “Unfortunately, I’m burned on this particular investigation,” he said, adding that he was “very disappointed,” because he believes that the influence of billionaires such as Soros is “<em>the</em>most important topic undermining democracy.” But he concluded, “If I wanted to be perfect, I would give up.” <span class="dingbat">♦</span></font>

<h1 class="entry-title"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">AR2 About Us</font></h1>

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<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">AR2, an issues-based 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to promoting conservative issues through cutting-edge research, aims to help shape the public policy debate across the country.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">AR2 is a unique platform for in-depth research, targeted communications of points of view not now heard in the issues debate, and long-term projects that can impact public policy. At AR2, we combine issues research, field research, investigative research, rapid response to key developments in the issues debate, a “war room” to keep tabs on developments in that debate, and targeted communications to explain positions often ignored in the national discussion over key public policies.</font></p>

<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><strong>Brian Rogers, Executive Director:<span> </span></strong>Brian Rogers is Executive Director of America Rising Squared (AR2). Prior to joining AR2, Rogers served as Communications Director to U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and previously served as Deputy Communications Director and Research Director for McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, and held senior communications and opposition research roles on multiple statewide campaigns across the country, at the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><strong>Jeremy Adler, Communications Director: </strong>Jeremy Adler is Communications Director of America Rising Squared (AR2). He previously served as a regional press secretary for Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign. Before that, he worked as a member of America Rising’s Senate research team and also was a part of Scott Brown’s 2014 New Hampshire Senate campaign.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.arsquared.org/issues/scotus/</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.arsquared.org/issues/liberal-groups/  labor, min wage</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.arsquared.org/issues/domestic-policy/ min wage ACA

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.arsquared.org/issues/foreign-policy/  iran bit of syria

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<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">koster hit</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.arsquared.org/states/mo/morising/

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 Rhoades brings his comprehensive knowledge of research and communications to all of our clients and staff. Rhoades served as the Campaign Manager for Governor Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. Along with Matt's long history in national politics he was a<span> </span><b>Vice President at DCI Group</b>.  In his role at DCI Group, he managed corporate client teams assigned to provide advice on media, public relations, legislative and regulatory strategies.  His clients included major players in the private equity, telecommunications and health care industries

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.definerscorporation.com/</font>

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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As President of Definers Corp., Pounder brings a wealth of experience in communications, rapid response, and research. He most recently served as a Senior Adviser for Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign, founded America Rising<span> </span></b>LLC, and...

Joe Pounder

President

Todd Scher

Research Associate

Todd conducts research services for Definers clients. Prior to joining Definers, he worked as an analyst in the<span> </span><b>Republican National Committee's research department.<span> </span></b>Todd was born and raised in New York...

Brian Rogers

Senior Vice President

Brian Rogers brings a wealth of communications and research experience in high-stakes political campaigns and government. He previously served as Communications Director to U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Deputy...

Brian Rogers

Mike conducts research and war room services. Before joining Definers, he was a War Room Analyst at America Rising, LLC. Prior to that, he worked in the War Room at the Republican National Committee....

Mike Presutti

Research Associate

Sam’s excellent organization skills and positive attitude keep things running smoothly at Definers Corp. Sam graduated from The University of Arkansas-Monticello and quickly joined America Rising LLC...

Sam Montgomery

Office Manager

Andrew conducts research services for Definers Before joining Definers, Andrew was a War Room Analyst for Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign and a War Room Analyst for America Rising LLC...

Sam Montgomery

Andrew Lautz

Research Associate

Michael Chenderlin

Chief Digital Officer

Michael Chenderlin is a veteran digital strategist most recently playing a key role within Sen. Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign where he developed digital campaigns for grassroots activation, voter turnout and volunteer...

Mike Chenderlin

The team at Definers Public Affairs is comprised of leading communications, political and research professionals. Founded by former Romney-Ryan 2012 campaign manager Matt Rhoades and former RNC Research Director Joe Pounder, Definers helps corporations, trade associations, political campaigns and issue-based clients run smarter campaigns using cutting-edge research and communications strategies and tactics.

WHO WE ARE

Jim Barnett’s experience spreads presidential, statewide, local, corporate and issue campaigns. Prior to joining Definers, Barnett served as<span> </span><b>Vice President for Political Affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s.</b>..

Jim Barnett

Chief Operating Officer

Jim Barnett

Julia Cotrone

As a special assistant at Definers Corp, Julia makes sure the trains are running on time and the team is firing on all cylinders. After graduating from The Catholic University of America, she went right to work for Governor Romney's...

Julia Cotrone

Special Assistant

Geoff Embler is a proud military brat born in Japan and raised in South Carolina. Geoff has worked in politics at all levels as a researcher and communicator, from state legislative campaigns, to congressional and Senate...

Geoff Embler

Senior Vice President

Geoff Embler

OUR TEAM

Tim Killeen

Senior Vice President

Tim Killeen has a background in research and communications. Previously, he worked for America Rising, the Republican National Committee, high-profile political campaigns, the Washington Free Beacon, and the national...

Will Schenkel

War Room Associate

Will provides war room research services to Definers clients. Prior to joining Definers, he fulfilled a similar capacity for other firms and political offices, as well as on numerous campaigns in his native northeast...

Christy Paavola

Vice President

Christy Paavola possesses a diverse set of experiences in research and communications. Prior to joining Definers Corp., Christy was the Research Director for CARLY for America, the Super PAC supporting Carly Fiorina’s presidential bid...

Christy Paavola

Sara started her career as a graphic designer working with political and corporate clients in the DC area straight out of art school. She has used her unique perspective as an in-house creative to help her clients stand out against...

Sara Pietsch

Art Director

Sara Pietsch

Jasmine Sossa

Graphic Designer

Jasmine Sossa is a graphic designer with a heart that beats for creative and clean aesthetics. She attended Art School and finished with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Graphic and Web Design. Her love of craft beer landed her...

Nick Zanetti

Research Associate

Nick conducts research and war room services for Definers clients. Before joining Definers, he was Deputy War Room Director at America Rising LLC. Prior to that, he worked in the war room of Ken Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial...

Matt Rhoades

Founder

Matt Rhoades brings his comprehensive knowledge of research and communications to all of our clients and staff.

Rhoades served as the Campaign Manager for Governor Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

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