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Gillespie, E BGR

see 2 and redmap

running for gov va

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Former Sen. Mark Kirk and old flame retroactively register as lobbyists

Posted by Keturah Hetrick on Sept. 28, 2020

Ex-Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and his one-time girlfriend quietly registered as first-time lobbyists for work they began a year ago.

Kirk and Dodie McCracken started work last October on behalf of MP Materials. The rare-earth-materials mining company hired the pair to lobby on "rare earth materials supply chain and critical supply chain issues," according to a disclosure filed last week. The filing does not indicate whether or not the contract is still active.

McCracken made headlines in 2012, when the senator's ex-wife accused Kirk of hiding $143,000 in campaign payments to McCracken, then his girlfriend. The FEC later decided that the payments did not run afoul of the law, according to the Chicago Tribune. In addition to her apparent campaign work, McCracken served as district director and press secretary to then-Rep. Kirk from 2001-2003.

She and the senator are working through Kirk Global Advisors, which Kirk established after losing his 2016 reelection bid. McCracken's role with the firm, as well as her current relationship to Kirk, are unclear.

mma 2 23

cNN’s State of the Unionand host Dana Bash held a Sunday roundtable discussion about the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment featuring CNN political commentator David Urban, who said that “there's plenty of blame to go around on this” and pivoted to criticizing the Biden administration. CNN never disclosed or asked Urban about his  work for Norfolk Southern, which paid him and his then-lobbying firm over a million dollars.

Urban was until 2020 the president of the lobbying firm American Continental Group,where he lobbied for Norfolk Southern on “transportation issues related to railways” starting in 2009, according to federal disclosure forms. He and his firm collected at least $1,140,000, according to a calculation of federal data by ProPublica. 

The Republican commentator is now the managing director for BGR Group, a leadinglobbying firm that presents countless conflicts of interestfor his on-air work. In its most recent lobbying quarter, BGR has continued to lobby on transportation issues. Its website also states: “Our clients in the aviation, automotive, rail, shipping and mass transit industries rely on BGR to educate political leaders about how vital these industries are to domestic and international commerce.” 

Urban also played a key role in the election of former President Donald Trump, who weakened safety regulations in the rail industry.

He appeared on the February 26 edition of CNN’s State of the Union,where he participated in a panel discussion about East Palestine. CNN identified him on screen as a CNN political commentator and former Trump campaign adviser.

During the segment, Bash said that the Trump administration rolled back regulations, to which Urban replied: “There's plenty of blame to go around on this, on these kind -- when these kinds of things happen. But what's important is what we do moving forward, right, to take care of the people in these towns and communities.” He then went on to criticize the Biden administration for allegedly “sloughing off” the crisis.

CNN and Bash didn’t disclose Urban’s work for Norfolk Southern and BGR’s connections to the railroad industry. And Bash didn’t challenge him on whether any of the “blame” should go to Norfolk Southern or about his own work for the company. Norfolk Southern, specifically, lobbied against safety regulations.

CNN has continued to employ Urban despite a dizzying array of ethical problems. For example:

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/12/sean-duffy-k-street-069854

of course he did

no lnx

CONGRESS

Sean Duffy heads to K Street after resigning from Congress

The former Wisconsin congressman and Trump defender is joining BGR Group.

Former Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy

By THEODORIC MEYER

11/12/2019

Sean Duffy, the former Republican congressman who has aggressively defended President Donald Trump, is heading to K Street after resigning from Congress in September.

Duffy will become a senior counsel at BGR Group, a Republican-leaning lobbying firm that’s also home to former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. The firm’s lobbyists represent corporate clients such as Comcast and Pfizer, as well as the governments of Bahrain, Bangladesh, India and South Korea, according to disclosure filings.

Duffy, the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee’s housing subcommittee, will head up BGR’s financial services practice. BGR lobbies for Credit Suisse and MassMutual,among other financial clients. He plans to register as a lobbyist, according to the firm.

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The Wisconsin Republican became famous starring on the MTV reality series “The Real World” in 1997. He later became a district attorney in northern Wisconsin and was elected to Congress in 2010 as part of the Republican wave. He left office on Sept. 23, saying that he and his wife were expecting a child in October who “will need even more love, time and attention due to complications, including a heart condition.”

After resigning, he joined CNN as a paid contributor, where he attracted criticism last month for suggesting there’s a missing Democratic National Committee server in Ukraine — an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that’s been pushed by Trump.

He also questioned on CNN’s “New Day” whether Alexander Vindman, a decorated Army officer and National Security Council staffer who’s become a critical witness in the House impeachment inquiry, might be more sympathetic to Ukrainian interests than American ones.

“It seems very clear that he is incredibly concerned about Ukrainian defense,” Duffy said, referring to Vindman, who immigrated from Ukraine as a child. “I don’t know that he’s concerned about American policy.”

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Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s chief legal analyst, described Duffy’s remarks as “insanity and, frankly, anti-immigrant bigotry.” Rebecca Kutler, a CNN executive, defended Duffy’s remarks at the time, saying that it was important to have contributors who reflected Trump supporters’ point of view.

Under House ethics rules, Duffy is banned from lobbying Congress for a year after leaving, but he’s allowed to lobby the Trump administration immediately — including former House colleagues such as Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

In a statement, Duffy said he was “eager to grow a financial services practice built on my experience working on behalf of the people with the Administration and federal regulators” as well as Republican and Democrats in Congress. He plans to advise financial services companies, trade associations and their members, he said.

Duffy didn’t start discussions with BGR until after he resigned, according to the firm.

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FILED UNDER: SEAN DUFFY, K STREET, JEFFREY TOOBIN, BGR GROUP,

Huddle

A play-by-play preview of the day's congressional news

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 Gillespie has a plan for battling sea-level rise – but he doesn't mention climate change

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N beat gillespie

https://pilotonline.com/news/government/politics/virginia/article_9dd026f2-39af-557b-bbe6-8cbc980fe32b.html

e cover of Republican gubernatorial hopeful Ed Gillespie’s plan to combat sea level rise features a familiar scene: flooding around the Hague in Norfolk.

The Hague routinely floods during high tide and strong storms, and it is frequently featured in national news stories that demonstrate the real-world effects of climate change as sea levels rise and roads more frequently become impassable. Scientists say Hampton Roads is the community most vulnerable to sea level rise on the East Coast, and second in the nation only to New Orleans.

“This area flooded last October, and it’ll flood again this October and every October after that until we take action,” Gillespie says in a campaign video shot in front of the Hague with the Chrysler Museum of Art in the background.

But while Gillespie’s seven-page proposal seeks to address problems associated with sea level rise, it doesn’t mention what the scientific community has long considered the underlying cause: climate change.

The absence of the words “climate change,” “global warming” and “carbon emissions” from Gillespie’s plans to address flooding provides one of the starkest contrasts yet between him and his Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.

Northam, a doctor who lives in Norfolk, says his plan to combat sea level rise starts with addressing global warming by reducing carbon emissions that scientists say are responsible for trapping heat in the atmosphere. Gillespie’s proposal primarily seeks to prevent flooding by providing low-interest loans to local governments to improve their infrastructure.

“This is like a doctor acknowledging a patient may have lung cancer, recognizing cigarette smoking may have caused it, but refusing to suggest that the patient quit smoking. When Ed finally acknowledges what scientists, including Dr. Northam, agree almost universally on the reality of climate change, perhaps he can come up with a plan that’s not just lip service,” Northam spokeswoman Ofirah Yheskel said in a statemen

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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/08/the-republican-running-for-governor-in-virginia-is-a-big-fan-of-keeping-confederate-monuments/

Who Is Ed Gillespie, Virginia's G.O.P. Nominee for Governor? - The ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/us/politics/ed-gillespie-facts-bio.html?mcubz=0

Jun 14, 2017 - Ed Gillespie, the Republican nominee for governor of Virginia, at a campaign event in Richmond, Va., on Tuesday night. Credit Steve ...

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ARLINGTON, Va. — Ed Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a Washington lobbyist, barely claimed the Republican nomination for governor of Virginia on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.

A top aide in President George W. Bush’s administration, Mr. Gillespie, 55, is very much a creature of the pre-Trump, establishment wing of his party. He will face a stiff test in the general election against the Democrat Ralph S. Northam, as he seeks to retain the support of conservatives who are enthusiastic backers of President Trump while not turning off the state’s often pivotal moderates, a decidedly anti-Trump voter bloc.

If at First You Don’t Succeed

This is Mr. Gillespie’s second bid for statewide office. In 2014, he ran unsuccessfully against Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat. It was not expected to be one of the marquee Senate races that year, but Mr. Gillespie gave Mr. Warner a scare, losing by less than a single point.

Running such an unexpectedly strong race gave Mr. Gillespie a leg up this year as a host of other high-profile Virginia Republicans deferred to him. If they had known how vulnerable he was on the right, some of those other would-be candidates may not have opted out of the race.

A Model for Success

A New Jersey-raised congressional aide-turned-Washington insider may not sound like the typical profile of a statewide candidate in a tradition-bound state like Virginia. But Mr. Gillespie has a model of sorts in the governor’s mansion today: Terry McAuliffe.

Continue reading the main story

RELATED COVERAGE

Who Is Ralph Northam, Virginia’s Democratic Nominee for Governor? JUNE 14, 2017

Ed Gillespie and Ralph Northam Beat Upstarts in Virginia Governor Primaries JUNE 13, 2017

Continue reading the main story

Mr. McAuliffe was raised in Syracuse before making a name for himself in national politics as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The governor and the would-be governor, who have a friendly relationship born of the greenroom circuit, have something else in common: Both came to the nation’s capital to attend college at the Catholic University of America.

Donald Who?

Mr. Gillespie, a firm devotee of Mr. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism,” is not generally fond of Mr. Trump’s hard-edge nationalism. In fact, it can be difficult to even hear him say the name of the president.

Mr. Gillespie often refers to supporting “the ticket” of his party in 2016, and he appears more comfortable around Vice President Mike Pence, a more conventional conservative. But given that Virginia is likely to be the most competitive race in the country this fall, Mr. Trump will probably take notice if Mr. Gillespie shuns him entirely during the campaign.

Connections Pay

Mr. Gillespie has already raised just shy of $5 million for the governor’s race and, with the help of the well-funded Republican Governors Association, he will not lack for financial resources this fall. He has a nationwide fund-raising network thanks to his time at the helm of the party in the Bush years, his Senate bid and his work with a group of third-party conservative organizations that have helped Republicans win congressional and statehouse races.

There are no limits on fund-raising in Virginia. Mr. Gillespie may be the best-connected Republican to seek the Virginia governorship in the state’s history.

Focused Like a Laser Beam on the Economy

Even as the two Democrats running for governor, Mr. Northam and Tom Perriello, veered to the left, Mr. Gillespie largely resisted targeting them on the sort of social issues that used to be staples of conservative attacks in Virginia. He has instead kept a focus on economic growth and cutting taxes, ignoring his Republican rivals.

This strategy imperiled him in his primary, but Mr. Gillespie feared getting pulled too far right and driving away more centrist general electorate voters. But Mr. Gillespie’s approach reveals the degree to which Virginia has shifted away from Republicans: His overarching message is indistinguishable from that of most mainstream Republican candidates running in blue states.

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Ed Gillespie flirts with toxic ideas at his own risk - The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../ed-gillespie.../506608b4-9405-11e7-89fa-bb822a4...

Sep 8, 2017 - IF ED GILLESPIE wrote a memoir about his current campaign as Virginia's Republicangubernatorial candidate, he might call it “The Art of the ...

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bs

http://freebeacon.com/issues/gun-control-activists-pour-another-million-dollars-virginia-state-elections/

One of the nation's leading gun-control advocacy groups announced plans on Friday to spend upwards of $1 million in the upcoming Virginia gubernatorial and attorney general races even though a similar spending effort failed to flip control of the state senate in 2015.

The Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, a New York-based gun-control group founded in large part by Michael Bloomberg, is donating $450,000 to Democrat Ralph Northam in his race against Republican Ed Gillespie. They're spending another $250,000 on mailers supporting Northam. The gun-control group is putting another $300,000 into Democrat Attorney General Mark Herring's reelection bid.

Northam and Herring contrast with their Republican opponents on gun policy. Northam supports an assault weapons ban, magazine size limits, universal background checks, and a return to the one-gun-a-month rule—all distinctions from Gillespie. Herring also supports universal background checks and the one-gun-a-month rule, and his campaign website touts his record as one of standing up to the "gun lobby and a legislature that is beholden to it." Herring's opponent, Republican John Adams, has promised to "vigorously defend the Second Amendment."

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bigwig in BGR with Barbour

Quinn Gillespie with 

ed gillespie rove acolyte 232  boss?

this town: starte pk cars; pals in grn room w/ jack quinn

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nick c nyt 1/14

Their combined work has helped remake the nation’s political landscape. Republicans or Democrats control both the legislature and the governor’s office in 36 states, the most in 60 years. Twenty-three states are now solely controlled by Republicans, and 13 solely by Democrats. In two others — New York and Washington — one chamber is jointly controlled.

In some states, the shifts are largely organic, the product of Latino immigration, economic transformation and other demographic forces. But elsewhere, the strategic deployment of campaign cash has helped consultants and donors accelerate or arrest states’ natural drift toward one party or the other, defying national election trends or voter registration advantages.

“People who want to see policies enacted, and see things tried, are moving their activity to the states, and away from Washington,” said Ed Gillespie, a longtime Republican strategist who has played a central role in efforts to swing state legislatures to Republican control. “There is a sense that you can get things done.”

Their party’s success has empowered Republican lawmakers in dozens of states to redraw legislative districts on both the state and federal levels, potentially ensuring their party’s control of the United States House of Representatives for the rest of the decade.

But those successes are also paving the way for what amounts to a vast, real-world experiment in lawmaking: At a time when Washington appears hopelessly divided and gridlocked, elected officials in one-party states have aggressively reshaped government policy, whether legalizing same-sex marriage and marijuana, abolishing taxes and regulations, or restricting guns or labor unions.

In early 2010, a little-known group called the Republican State Leadership Committee approached Mr. Gillespie, the party strategist.

Once part of the Republican National Committee, the group was forced by McCain-Feingold to reorganize as an independent organization, and had built up a respectable record of electing Republican state officials. But with furor growing over President Obama’s health care law, officials at the leadership committee believed they had a rare opportunity to topple Democratic majorities around the country.

Mr. Gillespie had a sterling résumé in Republican politics, with stints as head of the Republican National Committee and as chairman of the Virginia Republican Party. He was also a founder of one of Washington’s top lobbying firms, with an enviable Rolodex and deep ties to the Beltway’s trade associations.

Mr. Gillespie came on as chairman and chief rainmaker. Armed with PowerPoint slides showing long lists of likely pickup opportunities, he took his pitch to Wall Street investors in New York, energy executives in Dallas and dozens of corporate government relations offices in Washington.

Republicans could do more than just flip a few state legislatures, he told them. They could use their new statehouse majorities to build a firewall in the United States House of Representatives: congressional districts so favorably drawn for Republicans that the party’s House majority would endure for a decade.

“It was three yards and a cloud of dust,” Mr. Gillespie said of his hunt for dollars. “It was a constant working, and working, and working until it broke through.” (Mr. Gillespie is now talking about making his own bid for elected office, a run for the United States Senate in Virginia.)

April 05, 2010
Categories:

Shadow RNC seeks $50 million

Chris Cillizza reports this morning that Ed Gillespie's new operation, American Crossroads, says it aims to raise $50 million, setting it up as a direct competitor to the embattled Republican National Committee.

The RNC has been relying increasingly more heavily on a hypermotivated base of small donors, via the mail and the Internet, and to a lesser degree — until recent scandals — a new generation of "Young Eagle" donors to replace an older, wealthy generation of RNC stalwarts who don't trust Michael Steele.

The new group is positioned to capture that money, including as it does former Chairman Mike Duncan and the brain trust of the pre-Steele RNC. Jake Tapper called it a "shadow RNC" yesterday and a threat to Steele's leadership. Actually, it may take some pressure off Steele in a certain way, offering donors an outlet other than simply agitating for his unlikely ouster.

While Steele said this morning that he has a "slimmer" margin for error because he's black, Jonathan Martin made a pretty convincing case a few months ago that, in some sense, the reverse is true within a Republican Party that's almost entirely without prominent African-American officials.

UPDATE: The group's Jim Dyke says Gillespie is just an outside advisor and that the core players are Mike Duncan, Jo Ann Davidson and Dyke, as well as president and CEO Steven Law.

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j leopold:

    In a televised speech to California residents on April 5, 2001, Davis resisted Cheney's and Hebert's calls to increase electricity rates for average consumers to keep the state's public utilities afloat, opting instead to increase electricity rates of the state's largest power customers such as manufacturing plants. The next morning PG&E filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

    Davis publicly railed against the Bush administration's refusal to launch an investigation into wholesale energy companies trading practices, and its position on price caps. Davis's rhetoric started to impact the Bush administration's approval ratings. Rove, working closely with Cheney, entered into discussions on how the White House would respond to criticism by Davis that the Bush administration was turning its back on California.

    "Karl [Rove] started to talk about using the resources of former Republican National Committee staffers to put together an attack campaign against Davis, and pin the power problems on the governor and his administration," according to one former high-level Energy Department official who was privy to the conversation between Rove and Cheney.

    Rove enlisted the help of former RNC staffers Ed Gillespie, then a lobbyist who was working for Enron and other energy companies, and Scott Reed, who used to work for the RNC and was the former manager of Robert Dole's presidential campaign, to start devising a strategy to attack Davis and lead people to believe that the energy crisis was entirely his fault. Gillespie was recently tapped by President Bush to replace Dan Bartlett as White House counselor.

    Reed and Gillespie, who was doing double duty advising Cheney's energy task force on behalf of Enron, advised Rove and the vice president that the PG&E bankruptcy left Davis vulnerable and the best course of action for the White House was to take advantage of Davis's vulnerability by stating that Davis single-handedly, in refusing to raise electricity rates, caused one of the largest bankruptcies in American history. Gillespie went a step further, according to Energy Department officials familiar with his conversations with Rove and Cheney, by suggesting that the White House start courting Republican gubernatorial candidates to replace Davis in the 2002 election.

    At the White House in April 2001, Rove met with Brad Freeman, President Bush's California finance chairman during the 2000 presidential campaign, and Gerald Parsky, an investment banker, who was Bush's top adviser in California. The discussion centered on Parsky and Freeman's interest in courting actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to discuss his bid for governor in 2002.

    "That would be nice," Rove said about the possibility of Schwarzenegger, a Republican, to replace Davis as governor, according to people who were briefed about the meeting. "That would be really, really nice."

    Davis said he could see now see how the energy crisis created a political opportunity for the White House in California.

    "In retrospect I could see how that happened," Davis said. "There's no question that the energy companies saw me as an adversary when I wouldn't buckle under their demands. I was vulnerable and the [energy companies and the White House] took advantage of it. This crisis took place in the early days of the Bush administration. I figured these guys are too busy picking out furniture for their offices. I didn't think they [the Bush administration] were spending their days in office involved in some full-scale conspiracy. But it turns out they were."

    Cheney Takes Aim at Davis

    Meanwhile, Cheney continued to meet with energy company officials who were instrumental in drafting key aspects of the National Energy Policy. At the same time, the usually reclusive vice president was granting interviews to numerous reporters discussing his take on the California energy crisis which continued to spiral out of control.

    In May 2001, the PBS news program "Frontline" interviewed Cheney who was asked by a correspondent whether energy companies were acting like a cartel and using manipulative tactics to cause electricity prices to spike in California.

    "No," Cheney said during the "Frontline" interview, even though he was personally briefed about energy companies manipulating the state. "The problem you had in California was caused by a combination of things - an unwise regulatory scheme, because they didn't really deregulate. Now they’re trapped from unwise regulatory schemes, plus, not having addressed the supply side of the issue. They've obviously created major problems for themselves and bankrupted PG&E in the process."

In the November election, a million more Americans voted for Democrats seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives than Republicans. But that popular vote advantage did not result in control of the chamber. Instead, despite getting fewer votes, Republicans have maintained a commanding control of the House. Such a disparity has happened only three times in the last century.

(Here’s a chart comparing 2010 and 2012.)

Analysts and others have identified redistricting as a key to the disparity. Republicans had a years-long strategy of winning state houses in order to control each state's once-a-decade redistricting process. (Confused about redistricting? Check out our song.)

Republican strategist Karl Rove laid out the approach in a Wall Street Journal column in early 2010 headlined "He who controls redistricting can control Congress."

The approach paid off. In 2010 state races, Republicans picked up 675 legislative seats, gaining complete control of 12 state legislatures. As a result, the GOP oversaw redrawing of lines for four times as many congressional districts as Democrats.

How did they dominate redistricting? A ProPublica investigation has found that the GOP relied on opaque nonprofits funded by dark money, supposedly nonpartisan campaign outfits, and millions in corporate donations to achieve Republican-friendly maps throughout the country. Two tobacco giants, Altria and Reynolds, each**pitched in**more than $1 million to the main Republican redistricting group, as did Rove's super PAC, American Crossroads; Walmart and the pharmaceutical industry also contributed. Other donors, who gave to the nonprofits Republicans created, may**never have to be disclosed**.

While many observers have noted that mega-donors like Sheldon Adelson backed losing candidates, a close look at the Republicans' effort on redistricting suggests something else: The hundreds of millions spent this year on presidential TV ads may not have hit the mark, but the relatively modest sums funneled to redistricting paid off handsomely.

Where Democrats were in control, they drew gerrymandered maps just like Republicans. They also had their own secretive redistricting funding. (Last year, we detailed how Democrats in California worked to undermine the state's attempt at non-partisan redistricting.) But Democrats got outspent 3-to-1 and did not prioritize winning state legislatures. They also faced a Republican surge in 2010.

Exactly how the Republican effort worked has been shrouded in mystery until now. But depositions and other documents in a little-noticed lawsuit in North Carolina offer an exceptionally detailed picture of Republicans' tactics.

Documents show that national Republican operatives, funded by dark money groups, drew the crucial lines which packed as many Democrats as possible into three congressional districts. The result: the state's congressional delegation flipped from 7-6 Democratic to 9-4 in favor of Republicans. The combination of party operatives, cash and secrecy also existed in other states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan.

Redistricting is supposed to protect the fundamental principle of one-person-one-vote. As demographics change, lines are shifted to make sure everyone is equally represented and to give communities a voice. In order for Republicans to win in North Carolina, they undermined the votes of Democrats, especially African-Americans. (Party leaders in North Carolina say they were simply complying with federal voting laws.)

The strategy began in the run-up to the 2010 elections. Republicans poured money into local races in North Carolina and elsewhere. It was an efficient approach. While congressional races routinely cost millions, a few thousand dollars can swing a campaign for a seat in the state legislature

The Republican effort to influence redistricting overall was spearheaded by a group called the Republican State Leadership Committee, which has existed since 2002. For most of that time, it was primarily a vehicle for donors like health care and tobacco companies to influence state legislatures, key battlegrounds for regulations that affect corporate America. Its focus changed in 2010 whe,n Ed Gillespie former counselor to President George W. Bush, was named chairman. His main project: redistricting.

Soon after Gillespie took over, the RSLC announced an effort to influence state races throughout the country, the Redistricting Majority Project, or REDMAP. Fundraising soared. The group raised $30 million in 2010, by far its best year. (Its Democratic counterpart raised roughly $10 million.)

The RSLC is organized as a type of political group that can take in unlimited corporate donations. It must disclose its contributors. But that doesn't mean it's always possible to trace the origins of the money.

Along with Walmart and tobacco companies, the RSLC's largest funders in 2010 were the Chamber of Commerce and American Justice Partnership, which gave a combined $6.5 million. Those two groups raise money from corporations and others but don't have to disclose their donors.

As the 2010 North Carolina legislative elections heated up, the RSLC jumped into local races. But the way they made contributions kept their involvement away from the attention of state voters. Rather than running campaign ads under its own name, the RSLC distributed money to a newly formed local nonprofit. The RSLC declined to comment.

The RSLC gave $1.25 million to its vehicle of choice Real Jobs NC. The group calls itself a "non-partisan organization that believes we need to return to a reliance on the free enterprise system that made our country great for real answers." It was started in 2010 and got a hefty $200,000 boost from dollar store magnate and Republican supporter Art Pope, although Pope denies his donation was related to redistricting or REDMAP.

Real Jobs NC produced ads and mailers slamming more than 20 state Democrats.

"Steve Goss … nice guy," intoned the voiceover inone such ad in North Carolina, attacking then-Democratic State Senator Goss. "Too bad he's voting with the Raleigh liberals over hometown conservatives."

Goss lost, and Democrats lost control of North Carolina's General Assembly for the first time in a century. The pattern repeated itself across the country.

"Twenty legislative bodies which were previously split or under Democratic control are now under Republican control," said a triumphant RSLC REDMAP post-election analysis, highlighting its spending in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, among other states.

The next step for Republicans was to draw district maps, which can be expensive. The maps require expertise, extensive data and sophisticated software. Skillful map drawers can make even the most partisan gerrymander look reasonable.

To fund the work, the Republican State Leadership Committee used its previously dormant nonprofit arm, the State Government Leadership Foundation. Such dark money groups are increasingly popular because they are allowed to keep secret the identity of their donors. Federal tax law permits them to do this as long as they pledge that politics is not their primary focus.

Flush with anonymous donors' cash, the Foundation paid $166,000 to hire the GOP's pre-eminent redistricting experts, according to tax documents. The team leader was Tom Hofeller, architect of Republican-friendly maps going back decades.

"Our team would be happy to assist in drawing proposed maps, interpreting data, or providing advice," wrote Chris Jankowski, the head of both the RSLC and State Government Leadership Foundation, in a of introduction to North Carolina legislators. The letter was disclosed as part of the North Carolina lawsuit.

"We are engaged in a number of states and believe we are playing a meaningful role in helping draw fair and legal lines that will allow us to run competitive elections in 2012 and in future cycles," Jankowski added.

The same letter emphasized that the Republican redistricting push was being funded through its dark money nonprofit: "The entirety of this effort will be paid for using non-federal dollars through our 501c(4) organization."

Jankowski, representing both the RSLC and the Foundation, declined to comment.

Because Hofeller's team was paid with dark money and the redistricting process is so secretive, it is hard to know the full extent of its activities. In Wisconsin, the team provided technical assistance to an aide to Rep. Paul Ryan as he drew new districts that favored Republicans. In Missouri, Hofeller was the sole witness called by attorneys representing the Republican legislators who drew the maps there.

In the case of North Carolina, Hofeller made his first trip to Raleigh on Feb. 1, 2011, even before final state Census data had been released, the first of 10 trips that year.

From then on, two parallel redistricting processes unfolded in the state.

Through the spring and summer, legislators in charge of redistricting traveled the state holding public meetings at local colleges, soliciting comment and proposed maps from citizens — though the Republicans on the committee would not produce draft maps themselves.

"We are not here to answer questions. We are not here drawing maps," state Senate redistricting committee chairman Bob Rucho told the crowd at a hearing in Durham. "What we are here for is to basically hear your thoughts and dreams about redistricting."

But that input had little influence on the districts that were eventually drawn.

Instead, the real maps were being produced behind the scenes by a team that based its operations at Republican Party headquarters on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. Armed with advanced mapping software, Hofeller and others crafted districts that would virtually guarantee big gains for the party.

Hofeller did not attend or read transcripts of any of the public meetings, according to his deposition. Hofeller did not respond to requests for comment.

A mysterious state dark money nonprofit that sprung up just in time for the process, called Fair and Legal Redistricting for North Carolina, hired a technician to operate the mapping workstation day-to-day, and another Republican mapping expert. The group did not respond to our requests for comment.

State-based nonprofits have been a vehicle for Republicans to funnel anonymous money into their map-drawing operations in a number of states, including self-proclaimed nonpartisan groups in Michigan and Minnesota.

Republican state legislators tasked with redistricting frequently visited and consulted with the mapping team, according to depositions. Even Art Pope, the most influential conservative donor in the state, was appointed "co-counsel" to the legislative leadership and allowed in the room to give direct instructions to the technician.

"We worked together at the workstation," said Joel Raupe, the technical expert paid by Fair and Legal Redistricting, in a deposition. "He sat next to me."

Pope, who is a lawyer but does not actively practice, was made co-counsel to the state legislature, offering his services pro bono. Now, because he was technically a legal adviser to the state, he says any information about his involvement in the redistricting is privileged.

(The New Yorker had a sweeping profile of Pope last year, detailing how he has used his fortune to dominate North Carolina politics.)

North Carolina's Republican incumbents in Congress pushed for a so-called "10-3 map," the majority they hoped to win in the state's delegation.

Hofeller, the mapping expert, delivered. His maps kept most of the districts from being competitive — or even remotely winnable — for Democratic candidates.

A key part of the redistricting strategy was to push minority voters into three districts. Republicans insisted their maps were "fair and legal," necessary to conform to laws protecting minority voting rights, although according to a well-known voting rights attorney, the opposite is true.

But federal voting rights law "doesn't require a jurisdiction to pack blacks in districts," said Laughlin McDonald, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project. "If you tried to pack minority voters into a district, that would arguably be a violation."

In two of those districts, African-American incumbents been already been winning by large margins for years. Republicans' maps added yet more African-Americans to the districts, what's known in redistricting parlance as "packing." As Hofeller wrote in an email about one of the districts, the plan was to "incorporate all the significant concentrations of minority voters in the northeast into the first district."

A third district was 120-mile long, and sea monkey-shaped, connecting pockets of African-Americans from three different, distant cities. Republicans justified it on the basis of a common media market

The maps were designed to "segregate African-American voters in three districts and concede those districts to the Democrats," says Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina, a nonpartisan public interest group that joined the lawsuit against the new maps.

In 2012, Democrats won the three districts by more than 70 percent of the vote. Another effect: the surrounding districts were much more Republican.

Rucho and other Republican legislators had presented the maps as advantageous to Democrats. Indeed, registered Democrats actually outnumbered registered Republicans in seven additional districts beyond those that were clearly slated to be Democratic.

Emails show Republicans decided to make that fact a major talking point.

But the stat was misleading, as the Republicans' own data indicates. An internal analysis of one of Hofeller's later drafts (code name "Blue Horizon 3") obtained by ProPublica shows that those seven allegedly "competitive" districts would have been landslide wins for John McCain in 2008, and for Republican Senator Richard Burr in 2010.

The carefully drawn maps worked. In this year's elections, Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives in North Carolina won 50.6 percent of the total vote. But the state's House delegation now has nine Republicans and just four Democrats. One of the Democrats won by just a few hundred voters, despite the fact that his newly drawn district skewed heavily Republican and that his own home had been drawn out of it. North Carolina's delegation before the election had seven Democrats and six Republicans

In addition to his pay from national Republican groups, invoices show Hofeller billed North Carolina taxpayers $77,000 for his services.

The Republican maps are still under threat by suits filed by Democrats and the NAACP. The lawsuits are headed to the state Supreme Court. But a flood of contributions tied to the RSLC have lowered the risk of the maps' being overturned.

While judicial elections in North Carolina are nominally nonpartisan, it was common knowledge that Republicans held a 4-3 majority on the court. One of those Republican incumbents was facing a tough challenge in 2012, potentially throwing the whole redistricting result in jeopardy.

Justice Paul Newby was running for re-election against appellate judge Sam Ervin IV, grandson of the famous North Carolina senator who investigated Watergate. With a few weeks left until the November election, Newby was trailing Ervin.

But then, in the final stretch, Newby was the beneficiary of a flood of late spending that can be traced back to the Republican State Leadership Committee.

Once again the contributions were funneled through homegrown groups. With only a few weeks to go, the RSLC gave more than $1.1 million to a group called Justice for All NC. Campaign finance filings show Justice for All NC in turn gave nearly $1.5 million to a super PAC running pro-Newby ads, the NC Judicial Coalition.

Most of the money spent by the super PAC went to pay for hundreds of airings of ajingle ad featuring lines like, "Paul Newby / Justice tough but fair / Paul Newby / Criminals best beware" set to infectious banjo music.

The spending didn't end there: and Pope's fingerprints were also on the race. Two dark money groups affiliated with Pope — the state-based Civitas Action and Americans for Prosperity — spent another $300,000 on radio ads and mailers supporting Newby. Pope's company also gave to the RSLC in the run-up to this fall's elections.

Pope says he gave money to Americans for Prosperity for years before the judicial race even came up, and that he was not involved in the decision to run pro-Newby ads.

"I'm Republican, I support Republican groups," Pope said. "But just because you support something doesn't mean you're responsible for all they do."

It was an unusually large amount of outside spending for a judicial race. The outside pro-Newby groups had spent more on the race than the two campaigns combined.

In the end, Newby eked out a 52-48 victory, preserving the court's Republican majority.

When the groups contesting the maps called for Newby to recuse himself from redistricting litigation, lawyers for Republican legislators argued that because the campaign ads were paid for by "independent" groups, they did not jeopardize Newby's impartiality.

On Monday, the state Supreme Court rejected the motion for Newby to recuse himself.

"I've got no control over who contributes to an ad. I have no control over who endorses me," Newby — who did not respond to a request for comment — told a local TV station on the eve of the election. "You've got to put your blinders on like lady justice."

And, on Tuesday, The BRAD BLOG has learned, Gonzalez sent similar letters to Karl Rove [PDF] and former RNC Chair Ed Gillespie [PDF] seeking their explanation for the nearly one million dollars which American Crossroads, the nation’s second largest Super PAC, co-founded by the pair, paid to Sproul’s companies during this election cycle.

The letter to Gillespie, who left American Crossroads to become a senior adviser to the Mitt Romney 2012 Presidential Campaign, spells out Gonzalez’ concerns, and hopes that the powerful former RNC Chair might be able “to reassure the American public by helping to explain the story behind these contracts.”

 enron ed, played during CA ripoff:

Holy Cow *2000*: The Strange Election of George W. *Bush* - Google Books Result

books.google.com/books?isbn=1937853004...Kenneth O'Reilly

career graph

http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=16466

top 50:

  1. Edward Gillespie, Quinn Gillespie & Associates. The Democrats may have won Congress, but the White House is still in Republican hands, and this former RNC chair has turned his relationship with President Bush into an $18-million business. A onetime aide to Republican House majority leader Richard Armey, Gillespie helped draft the “Contract With America” that accompanied the GOP victory in 1994.

When the White House needed help pushing the Supreme Court nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito through Congress, Gillespie was happy to step in with free advice. Gillespie partners with Democratic powerhouse Jack Quinn to make sure all bases are covered. His blue-chip client list includes AT&T, Sony, and big drug companies. Some of his largest fees have come from Canadian lumber producers seeking access to US markets.

People of all political persuasions breathed a sigh of relief when Bush’s top political advisor and neo-con lightning rod Karl Rove recently announced his resignation from the White House.

For lovers of forests, that celebration may have come too soon!

Rove’s replacement, DC-insider Ed Gillespie, has made millions of dollars as a logging industry lobbyist for the past seven years.  In fact, one of the first well-heeled clients of Quinn Gillespie (his lobbying firm) was a logging industry group from British Columbia, Canada!

I’m guessing Mr. Gillespie isn’t a big fan of efforts to protect the Great Bear Rainforest.  And, he’s probably not super supportive of protecting the Boreal Forest either!

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Edward_W._Gillespie

rnc chair

cv http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/rev_summary.php?id=16466

Gillespie is a graduate (B.A. 1983[1]^(http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Edward_W._Gillespie#cite_note-0) ) of the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He is married to the former Cathy Hay, executive director of U.S. Rep. Joe Barton's political action committee, the Texas Freedom Fund. He began his political career as a nighttime telephone solicitor in the basement of the Republican National Committee headquarters in 1985. He later worked for a decade as a top aide to House Majority Leader Dick Armey and was a principal drafter of the Republican Party's "Contract With America" in 1994. In 1996, he became Director of Communications and Congressional Affairs for the Republican National Committee under then Chairman Haley Barbour.

In March 1998, Gillespie was executive director of coalition supporting computer data encryption called Americans for Computer Privacy." Gillespie's message was that "Encryption is, far from being a geek issue, essential to citizens' individual liberty. The mission that goes with the message is a tough one: to halt a Clinton administration drive to set up a system requiring that software equipped with data-scrambling capabilities also include a way for law enforcement or national security agencies to quickly access the encrypted information."[2]

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Edward W. Gillespie is an American Republican political strategist and former Counselor to the President in the George W. Bush White House. Gillespie, along with Jack Quinn, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Al Gore, founded Quinn Gillespie & Associates, a bipartisan lobbying firm.

Political career

He began his political career as a telephone solicitor for the Republican National Committee in 1985. He later worked for a decade as a top aide to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), and was a principal drafter of the GOP's 1994 "Contract With America."[citation needed] In 1996, he became Director of Communications and Congressional Affairs for the Republican National Committee under Haley Barbour. In 1997, Gillespie formed Policy Impact Communications, a public affairs communications firm, with Barbour.

From 1999-2008, Gillespie served as a political strategist to several American politicians. In 1999, Gillespie worked as the Press Secretary for the Presidential campaign of John Kasich until his withdrawal from the race. In 2000, Gillespie served as senior communications advisor for the presidential campaign of George W. Bush, organizing the party convention program in Philadelphia for Bush's nomination and Bush's inauguration ceremony. He also played an aggressive role as spokesman for the Bush campaign during the vote recount in Florida.

In 2002, he was a strategist for Elizabeth Dole's 2002 Senate campaign.

In 2003, Gillespie was selected as Chairman of the RNC, serving in that role through the 2004 elections that saw President Bush win re-election and Republicans retain control of the House and Senate. His book "Winning Right" was released in the September of 2006.

Gillespie has been particularly active in his home state of Virginia. He served as Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia from December 2006 to June 2007. He played a visible role in 2006 Virginia Senate elections as a spokesman for defeated Virginia Senator George Allen. He had been tapped by Allen as a political adviser for a possible presidential run in 2008 before that loss. In February 2009, Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell announced that Gillespie will serve as General Chairman of his campaign for Governor. Gillespie is an adviser to American Crossroads, a 527 organization that plans to help Republican Party members get elected.[^^1]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gillespie#cite_note-wsj-0)

[edit] Role as White House counselor

In late June 2007, President Bush brought Gillespie into the White House on a full-time basis, to replace the departing Counselor to the President Dan Bartlett with the mandate to help raise Bush's flagging popularity ratings. When Karl Rove also departed in August, the *Washington Post* described Gillespie as stepping up to do part of Karl Rove's job in the White House.[^^2]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gillespie#cite_note-1) A later Post article described Gillespie's role orchestrating a PR unit dedicated to "selling the surge to American voters and the media."[^^3]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gillespie#cite_note-2) According to the latter article:

From the start of the Bush plan, the White House communications office had been blitzing an e-mail list of as many as 5,000 journalists, lawmakers, lobbyists, conservative bloggers, military groups and others with talking points or rebuttals of criticism ... Gillespie arranged several presidential speeches to make strategic arguments, such as comparing Iraq to Vietnam or warning of Iranian interference. When critics assailed Bush for overstating ties between al-Qaeda and the group called al-Qaeda in Iraq, Gillespie organized a Bush speech to make his case. "The whole idea is to take these things on before they become conventional wisdom," said White House communications director Kevin Sullivan. "We have a very short window."

Later in 2007, it was reported that Gillespie had taken a substantial pay cut to become Bush's counselor. "A disclosure form shows he made nearly $1.3 million in salary and bonus in the previous 18 months at his consulting and public affairs firm.... His annual government salary is $168,000. The form, obtained by the Associated Press, reports that Gillespie, ... a former Capitol Hill aide who co-founded his lobbying shop in 2000 ..., has accumulated a fortune estimated to be between $7.86 million and $19.4 million." [^^4]^(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gillespie#cite_note-3)

[edit] Post White House

In 2010, Gillespie was named the chairman of the Republican State Leadership Committee, which helps elect state attorneys general, lieutenant governors, secretaries of state and state house and senate candidates across the country. He took the position after successfully serving as chairman of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell’s campaign in 2009, which has been described as a model for Republican victories.

Gillespie is also a founding board member of Resurgent Republic, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to informing the debate over the proper role of government. Through a steady stream of national polls and focus groups, Resurgent Republic helps policy makers, think tanks, interest groups and others advocate for policies that are consistent with conservative principles.

sw

Quinn Gillespie & Associates partial client list as on their website in April 2004 was:

Attachments