Secret money targets 2 props

A group led by former state House Speaker Kirk Adams has directed $1.1million into campaigns opposing two citizen initiatives, fueling a late surge by the opposition and drawing complaints of secrecy from backers of the propositions.

Americans for Responsible Leadership, which is operating as an independent-expenditure committee, has contributed nearly 40 percent of the money to date opposing Proposition 204, a tax measure that would ensure a permanent source of funding for education by extending the temporary 1-cent-per-dollar sales tax.

It also accounts for about 40 percent of the money spent to campaign against Proposition 121, which would establish a new primary system and scrap the partisan system.

State laws do not require the Arizona non-profit group to disclose where it gets its money. But a California court this week may force Americans for Responsible Leadership to name its contributors.

The group has spent $750,000 to oppose Prop. 204 and $415,000 against Prop. 121. In addition to weighing in on the Arizona races, Americans for Responsible Leadership has poured $11million into two California ballot initiatives, triggering the legal complaint that is scheduled to be heard at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday by the California Fair Political Practices Commission. A decision is likely before Election Day.

The group is registered in Arizona as a non-profit that can advocate on issues. California law requires non-profits to disclose their donors if those contributions come from people who acknowledge their dollars will support a political cause.

The battle over disclosure stems from the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial Citizens United campaign-finance ruling in 2010. The decision allows corporate donors to direct money for political purposes through independent committees without disclosing contributors' identities.

Last week, Common Cause of California accused Americans for Responsible Leadership of attempting to "manipulate" the state's election with "laundered money." Common Cause asked the commission to investigate the group and force it to reveal its donors.

Arizonans are closely watching the case.

Former Mayor Paul Johnson, who is spearheading Prop. 121, questioned the motives of the donors: "You could start by thinking the worst: Is this someone that wants a big state contract? Is this someone that wants a private-prison contract or to adjust the way that our health-care system works? Who is this group? What do they want?"

Ann-Eve Pedersen, chairwoman of the Quality Education and Jobs committee, which brought Prop. 204 to the ballot, is also watching the California court case.

She called the secrecy surrounding the group and its Arizona contributions "troubling" and said it's hard to fight a group that hides the source of its funding.

Pedersen called on state Treasurer Doug Ducey, who is serving as chairman of the No on Prop. 204 Committee, to reveal the donors even though state law does not require that he do so. She said Ducey indicated at a debate last week that he knew who the donors were.

Ducey didn't return a call seeking comment. But Ryan Anderson, who works for DC London, the consultant advising the opposition campaign, said they have no idea who gave the $750,000 to Americans for Responsible Leadership.

"They don't know me, and I don't know them," he said.

By law, a campaign cannot coordinate with an independent-expenditure committee.

Ann Ravel, California Fair Political Practices Commission chairwoman, said laws in that state require organizations such as Americans for Responsible Leadership to disclose donors.

California has stricter disclosure laws than Arizona, and she said the commission will seek more information about the circumstances surrounding the contributions.

Americans for Responsible Leadership spent $11million in California to defeat a proposed tax increase and to support an effort to drastically change the state's campaign-finance system, including banning the practice of political contributions by payroll deduction -- which labor unions rely on to raise political money.

"Our view is that they are required to identify donors unless people gave $11million not knowing at all that it was going to be spent in California for a campaign," Ravel said. "All we are asking for is information -- an audit to see if they fall within our law. Why they would be so unwilling to just let us look at the documents if they think they're acting legally is interesting."

Matt Ross, a publicist for Americans for Responsible Leadership, said the group is acting legally. In an e-mail, he stated, "California's Fair Political Practices Commission does not have the power to conduct audits in advance of the election."

On its website, the group says it promotes government accountability, transparency, ethics and related policy issues.

"For too long, America has been led by politicians who are beholden to special interests and make decisions based on political expediency and self-promotion rather than fiscal discipline and the national interest," the website says. "We need principled leaders who will make tough choices, provide straightforward answers to difficult questions and put our country back on the path to prosperity."

According to filings with the Arizona Corporation Commission, the group was incorporated last year by Robert Graham, a businessman who is running for state Republican Party chairman, and Eric Wnuck, a Republican businessman who ran for Congress in 2010.

Adams, also a Republican, became president this fall, a few weeks after losing his primary race against Matt Salmon for a congressional seat.

Adams did not return phone calls or an e-mail seeking information about the group.

But Graham told The Arizona Republic that the group is trying "to influence the right policies for Arizona" and is on the right side of the law. The group is set up as a non-profit, he said, because that status "allows your contributors to be confidential."

He said that the group is not solely focused on politics, adding that it also works to educate the public about policy. Graham said the group has educated the public generally about policies or proposals it supports or opposes. He did not detail what that "education" entailed.

Graham said the group is funded through in-state and out-of-state individuals and business groups. He would not identify donors. He said the group's non-profit status allows people "to feel like they had the freedom to impact election cycles or initiatives or policies without having a target on their back."

Steve Nickolas, a Valley beverage-industry businessman, and financial adviser Taylor Searle are also listed as group directors. Nickolas referred calls to the publicist; Searle did not return a call for comment.

In addition to Arizona's two ballot measures, the group gave about $11,500 to support House Speaker Andy Tobin's re-election bid. So far, the group has also donated $57,000 to independent committees working to elect Republicans to the Arizona Legislature.

Pedersen questioned why out-of-state donors would care about Prop. 204.

"It just is discouraging to have a citizens' effort, that again is being led by a bunch of volunteer parents, up against this kind of political machinery," Pedersen said. "And not even just from in-state folks, but from people out of state, and we have no idea who they are, what their motives are and why they're trying to buy an election."

In contrast, she said, the "yes" campaign discloses all its donors. Only one, the National Education Association, is from out of state. In that instance, she said, the public knows what the NEA is: a national teachers union.

She said she believes voters are interested in where the campaign money is coming from.

"I think the special-interest argument makes a difference to (voters,)" she said. But without disclosure, it's impossible to know which interests are playing a role in the closely watched education-sales-tax ballot measure, Pedersen said.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Mitt Romney Loses: What it Means for the Republican Party - Forbes

Mitt Romney. (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

If Nate Silver can put his reputation on calling the race 90% for Obama, why can’t I? In any case, on the small chance Romney has won tomorrow and this is my Dewey Defeats Truman moment, let’s just pretend this headline was a joke and I what I really meant was what Romney’s loss would mean for the Republican party, were it to occur, which it will.

My point here really is to point to an excellent piece of disillusionment from James Poulos. Here he is on the Republican party of today:

Most importantly, I believe Mitt Romney’s willingness to say anything this campaign season is far more illustrative of a problem with today’s Republican Party than it is of a problem with Mitt Romney. Consider that Romney has simply done whatever it takes to get his party’s nomination and maintain its voters’ full support, and that the path he must tread to do so is paradoxically very narrow. His scattershot remarks, his willingness to commit alternately to a policy, to its opposite, and to nothing at all — rather than terrifying indications of a man with no rudder, I see them as frightening proof that Romney would be simply rejected by his party if he delivered a Huntsman-style campaign where what you see is what you get.

I think the admitted etch-a-sketch campaign that Romney has had to run has to do both with what he had to do to win his party’s nomination and support, and the relationship that a campaign that could achieve that has to the median voter in this country. America has a conservative streak, but not a severely conservative streak.

In Pictures: Election Day 2012, Voting Across America

One important factor I think we will observe over the next four years is that the economy is going to gain a lot of jobs no matter who wins. With an Obama win, what many republicans will learn from this is that most of the problem with our jobs market has not been Obama holding it back. This will provide the GOP with an important lesson that Democrats, with their head full of idealism and hope and change, have learned over the past four years: the limited ability of the President to control the economy.

Eight years of the Bush administration gave Democrats a long time to fantasize about what a liberal president could do to this country. A similar, if opposite, fantasy about what a liberal president can do has developed in the minds of republicans in the last four years. It’s time for them to be disillusioned.

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3 Florida justices win retention bids - San Francisco Chronicle

MIAMI (AP) — Three Florida Supreme Court justices easily won a retention bid Tuesday despite an unprecedented push by the Republican Party of Florida to oust them after several rulings the party disliked.

Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince each led about 67 percent to 33 percent with about 66 percent of the precincts reporting.

The Republican Party's executive committee had unanimously voted to oppose the three, warning they are "liberal" and "too extreme." It marks the first time a Florida political party has taken a position in a retention race.

"The very foundation of Florida's independent judicial system was threatened in this election. I am grateful that Florida voters once again demonstrated their faith in our fair and impartial judicial system," Lewis said in a statement Tuesday.

The justices' supporters, including some prominent Republicans, say the GOP is endangering judicial independence and that the three have done nothing that deserves removal.

"Floridians care deeply about ensuring that we have a fair and impartial judiciary untainted by partisan politics," Quince said in a statement.

Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who has been critical of the high court, would have appointed replacements from candidates recommended by a nominating panel, also appointed by the governor.

Emails and phone calls sent to the Republican Party of Florida and Americans for Prosperity, an organization that opposed the justices, were not immediately returned Tuesday night.

Several high-profile court decisions by the justices have angered Republicans, including one blocking a constitutional amendment from the 2010 ballot that was aimed at blunting the impact of the federal health care overhaul. Lawmakers reworded the amendment and put it on this year's ballot.

The GOP also accused the justices of "activism" after they overturned Republican Gov. Jeb Bush's private school voucher program in 2006 and ordered a new trial for a convicted killer. That ruling was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The justices' backers said Republicans were trying to "highjack" the independence of the court by politicizing the retention elections. They fear a repeat of what happened in Iowa two years ago when a late infusion of out-of-state money helped defeat three justices over a 2009 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in that state.

The Florida chapter of the Washington, D.C.-based group Americans for Prosperity, a group formed by the conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, ran ads criticizing a pair of Supreme Court rulings dealing with the state's opposition to the national health care overhaul and property rights. It is also urged voters to sign a petition asking the justices to "stop legislating from the bench."

The justices also drew opposition from Restore Justice 2012, which grew out of a similar tea party-related organization that unsuccessfully campaigned against two justices in 2010.

Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles appointed Pariente and Lewis in 1997 and 1998, respectively. He jointly named Quince with Republican Jeb Bush, then governor-elect, in 1998.

Florida adopted the nonpartisan merit-retention system for justices and appellate judges in the 1970s as a way of distancing the judicial system from politics.

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WHAT NOW FOR THE REPUBLICAN PARTY? - Sky Valley Chronicle

(NATIONAL) -- Four years ago when Senator John McCain, a war hero and veteran Beltway player was running for President against the first black contender from the Democratic Party, GOP leaders thought they had the most electable candidate in the land backed by mounds of money and jet fuel and the one candidate they thought had the best ideas and ideology for the America of 2008.

Fast-forward four years. In Mitt Romney, the GOP also felt it had the most electable candidate in the land backed by even bigger mounds of money than backed McCain and the one candidate they thought had the best ideas and ideology for the America of 2012.

Both McCain and Romney were defeated by a man they accused of being a socialist, an apologist for America, a man who may not even have been born in the country, a Muslim, a man who they claim wants bigger government and more people depending on government, a leader who wants more taxes on the rich, bigger government spending, a man who is driving the country to hell in a hand basket and on top of all that is a leader that is soft on terrorism even though Osama Bin Laden was hunted down and killed on his watch.

So what does all of that mean for the Republican Party?

Does it mean, since Barack Obama has now been elected twice, that Americans are telling the Republican Party they just love having as the leader of the free world a Muslim socialist who was not even born in America and who has presided over four years of a rough economy and high unemployment because he is inept, an apologist for America, a man who wants bigger government and more people dependent upon government, a leader who’ll tax the hell out of us and on top of all that a leader that is soft on terrorism?

Is that what they are saying by electing Barack Obama twice?

Or is the message really that the Republican Party, at least as a national party, has become woefully out of touch with mainstream Americans?

OF MUSLIMS, FRIGHT NIGHT LINES AND BOOGEYMEN

Meaning Americans who are no longer buying the tired old fright-night lines about socialists and Muslims and big government lovers any more than they buy lines about the boogeyman coming into their bedrooms at night when the lights are out.

What would happen today if the GOP brought back to use with a Senate or House candidate the old line about “death panels” in health care reform? And exactly where are the death panels today since the Affordable Care Act passed?

Has anyone lost a Grandpa Lou or Grandma Emma to a death panel recently? Does anyone know where the office of the government death panel is located?

Is the GOP of 2012 simply talking to itself, engaging in latherous foamy layers of feel good self-stroking psycho babble targeted to the hard right conservative choir and disconnecting more and more with what the vast majority of Americans are thinking?

Has the party gone overboard to appease the Tea Party crowd and well off older white males?

“Mitt Romney’s loss to a Democratic president wounded by a weak economy is certain to spur an internecine struggle over the future of the Republican Party, but the strength of the party’s conservatives in Congress and the rightward tilt of the next generation of party leaders could limit any course correction,” says a new Op-Ed piece in the New York Times which notes that having now lost the popular presidential vote for the fifth time in six elections, “Republicans across the political spectrum anticipate a prolonged and probably divisive period of self-examination.”

OF HIGH PRIESTS AND ANTI GOVERNMENT WARRIORS

The piece predicts the coming internal GOP debate will be centered on whether the party should keep pursuing the “antigovernment focus” that grew out of resistance to the health care law and won them the House in 2010, or whether it should focus on a strategy that recognizes the demographic tide is running strong against the party.

The piece here quotes Mike Murphy, a longtime Republican Party consultant, as suggesting the internal duke fest would pit “mathematicians” like him, who argue that the party cannot keep surrendering the votes of Hispanics, blacks, younger voters and college-educated women, against the party purists, or “priests,” as he puts it, who believe that basic conservative principles can ultimately triumph without much deviation.

So far, it appears the high priests are on the losing end of that equation because the GOP continues to depend heavily on “older working-class white voters in rural and suburban America — a shrinking percentage of the overall electorate — while Democrats rack up huge majorities among urban voters including blacks, Hispanics and other minorities.”

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GOP Grabs 30 Governor Seats, Highest for Either Party in Over a Decade - ABC News

North Carolina elected its first Republican governor in more than two decades, securing 30 gubernatorial seats for the GOP.

Republican Pat McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor who had been leading in the polls in the final days leading up to the election, defeated Democratic candidate Walter Dalton, the state's lieutenant governor, with 55 percent to 43 percent of the vote, according to ABC News projections.

It was a major milestone for the Republican party. Not only was it the first time North Carolina had elected a Republican governor since 1988, it also gave the GOP 30 statehouse seats, the highest number for either party in 12 years. The Democrats now have 19 governor seats. One state, Rhode Island, has an independent governor.

Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst for Cook Political Report, a non-partisan election analyst group, said the significance of Republicans winning the majority of statehouse seats is that it gives them "bragging rights," especially after President Obama clinched his re-election.

"If Romney loses [today], one of their talking points will be governors," Duffy said. "If you have two-thirds of the nation's governors on the same policy and that share similarities, then you have something that has a combined larger effect... [Republicans] would argue they have all these governors implementing the same kinds of policy, that's only good for Republicans."

North Carolina's governor's race was a big target for the Republican party. Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue, who narrowly beat McCrory in 2008, served one term but was not seeking re-election.

The Republican Governors Association spent nearly $6 million in advertising buys to support McCrory and link Dalton to Perdue after a grand jury indicted one of Perdue's top aides for allegedly scheming to pay a staff member off the books in violation of state election laws.

Duffy said state Democrats made a mistake putting up Dalton against McCrory.

"Beverly Perdue was so unpopular she couldn't run for a second term," Duffy said. "It's easy to tag [Dalton] with everything she did, so Democrats kind of gave up on that one two or three weeks ago."

ABC News projected that the GOP also celebrated a gubernatorial win in Indiana when Republican Mike Pence defeated Democrat John Gregg. The Indiana governor's race was expected to be a lock for Pence, a six-term congressman, in a state that is traditionally deep red. But Gregg, a former Indiana House speaker, held him off for a few hours after the polls closed. Gregg had gained some last minute traction after painting Pence as an extremist, similar to Indiana's Tea Party-backed Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who created a controversy last month by saying pregnancy resulting from rape is something "God intended to happen."

Current Republican Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is term-limited and not eligible for re-election.

The Democrats scored a big gubernatorial win tonight in New Hampshire, one of three statehouse races that were considered toss-ups in the final days leading up to the election.

Democratic candidate Maggie Hassan, a former state Senate majority leader who had kept a slight lead in a tight race over the past few days, beat Republican challenger Ovide Lamontagne, despite the Republican Governors Association dumping a reportedly $6 million advertising buy into Lamontagne's campaign over the weekend.

Current New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat who has been in office for eight years, is retiring after his term.

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Chuck Todd: Republican Party 'Has Some Serious Soul-Searching To Do' (VIDEO) - Huffington Post

Chuck Todd advised the Republican party to take a good look at itself on Tuesday night.

The NBC News correspondent was reporting the election results on MSNBC. Some pundits have said that Hurricane Sandy will be the decisive factor in an Obama victory. Todd, however, dismissed that idea, arguing that it was the growth of the Latino population in swing states that would prevent a GOP win.

"The story of this election ... is demographics," Todd said. "The Republican Party has not kept up with the changing face of America. That explains what's going on in Florida. That explains what's going on in Colorado. That explains, frankly, what's going on in Virginia and North Carolina. ... The Obama campaign was right. They built a campaign for 21st century America. The Republican Party has some serious soul-searching to do when you look at these numbers ... they are getting clobbered among non-white voters."

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Henderson County GOP cheers state victories - BlueRidgeNow.com

Lois Stodghill talks with N.C. House District 113 candidate Chris Whitmire at the Henderson County Republican Party office Tuesday evening.

Patrick Sullivan/Times-News

Jennifer Lunsford left Henderson County Republican Party headquarters Tuesday evening and stepped out into the crisp, cold air. The emotional toll was apparent in every word she spoke.

The night wasn't over, but she left headquarters, where volunteers had gathered to watch the results, at 10 p.m. discouraged with the presidential numbers that had been pouring in.

“We just wanted to try and do everything we could to help our state,” she said. “We were concerned about where this country was heading.”

Lunsford was discouraged by losses in Wisconsin and New Hampshire and the tough losses Republicans took in Senate races across the country.

“I really expected our country to step up,” she said.

The news was good for North Carolina Republicans Tuesday night, however. A hush fell over the room early in the evening at the county headquarters as volunteers and staffers, who gathered around a projector to watch the results pour in on Fox News, learned that Republican candidate Pat McCrory had been elected governor. That announcement was greeted with cheers from the 50 or so in attendance.

It was also revealed early that Mark Meadows had won the U.S. House of Representatives District 11 seat and Chris Whitmire had been chosen for the N.C. House of Representatives District 113 seat.

“We've been working very hard,” GOP Chairman Mike Scruggs said. “You'd like to get all the fruit you can get. We got some, but not all that we want.”

He was thrilled with the results of the governor's race.

“That was a fairly decisive victory,” he said.

The mystery of the night, however, still remained at 10.

“There's still so much unknown,” Scruggs said about the presidential race. “I at least want to know how North Carolina went before I go to sleep.”

For the last two months, Lunsford worked more than 10 hours a day at her job and then volunteered to get out the Republican vote, knocking on doors, making phone calls or whatever she needed to do. She was still making calls into the night across the country in support of Romney.

As she began to talk about her 16-year-old son, Tyler, she began to tear up. The future and the impact of the election on her son had inspired her to volunteer, even though she'd never been involved in politics before.

“I had an urgency in my heart,” she added as she started to walk to her car. “We fought the good fight and we fought hard. You can't regret that when you've fought so hard.”

Reach Millwood at 828-694-7881 or joey.millwood@blueridgenow.com.

Henderson County GOP cheers state victoriesBy Joey Millwood BlueRidgeNow.comNovember 6, 2012 11:28 PM

Jennifer Lunsford left Henderson County Republican Party headquarters Tuesday evening and stepped out into the crisp, cold air. The emotional toll was apparent in every word she spoke.

The night wasn't over, but she left headquarters, where volunteers had gathered to watch the results, at 10 p.m. discouraged with the presidential numbers that had been pouring in.

“We just wanted to try and do everything we could to help our state,” she said. “We were concerned about where this country was heading.”

Lunsford was discouraged by losses in Wisconsin and New Hampshire and the tough losses Republicans took in Senate races across the country.

“I really expected our country to step up,” she said.

The news was good for North Carolina Republicans Tuesday night, however. A hush fell over the room early in the evening at the county headquarters as volunteers and staffers, who gathered around a projector to watch the results pour in on Fox News, learned that Republican candidate Pat McCrory had been elected governor. That announcement was greeted with cheers from the 50 or so in attendance.

It was also revealed early that Mark Meadows had won the U.S. House of Representatives District 11 seat and Chris Whitmire had been chosen for the N.C. House of Representatives District 113 seat.

“We've been working very hard,” GOP Chairman Mike Scruggs said. “You'd like to get all the fruit you can get. We got some, but not all that we want.”

He was thrilled with the results of the governor's race.

“That was a fairly decisive victory,” he said.

The mystery of the night, however, still remained at 10.

“There's still so much unknown,” Scruggs said about the presidential race. “I at least want to know how North Carolina went before I go to sleep.”

For the last two months, Lunsford worked more than 10 hours a day at her job and then volunteered to get out the Republican vote, knocking on doors, making phone calls or whatever she needed to do. She was still making calls into the night across the country in support of Romney.

As she began to talk about her 16-year-old son, Tyler, she began to tear up. The future and the impact of the election on her son had inspired her to volunteer, even though she'd never been involved in politics before.

“I had an urgency in my heart,” she added as she started to walk to her car. “We fought the good fight and we fought hard. You can't regret that when you've fought so hard.”

Reach Millwood at 828-694-7881 or joey.millwood@blueridgenow.com.

Copyright 2012 BlueRidgeNow.com - All rights reserved. Restricted use only.

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