CCA
Party fat cat donors laying low
Here they come! |
By
Will Collette
The
Charlestown Citizens Alliance emerged on Charlestown’s political landscape in
2006. They seized control of town government in 2008. All that time, the CCA
Party has had two keys to victory – spreading fear
across the community of some boogeyman
that only the CCA can defeat, and big
bucks mostly from its non-resident supporters.
The
new campaign finance reports are in and they show the CCA
Party with little money in the bank – only $2,228.18 after spending $882.06
on “Directors
& Officers” insurance to cover their leaders, presumably their steering
committee, from liability for their actions.
That insurance, by the way, is a smart move since the CCA’s main method of spreading fear is to tell lies. Sooner or later, those lies are going to come back and bite them in the ass.
That insurance, by the way, is a smart move since the CCA’s main method of spreading fear is to tell lies. Sooner or later, those lies are going to come back and bite them in the ass.
In
the past two election cycles, the CCA Party has violated their own sacred oaths
about transparency and honesty when it came to reporting their campaign
finances.
In
2010, the CCA Party hid most of their income and expenses by having CCA Party
leaders fund campaign activities out of their own pockets. They spent more
than $10,000, many times more than all their opponents combined, but reported
hardly any income or expenses under after
the election.
Then, on Election Day,
the CCA Party leaders turned in their expenses and got reimbursement checks.
The
Charlestown Democratic Town Committee filed a complaint with the Board of
Elections, which upheld the Democrats’ complaint, ruling that the CCA Party did
indeed illegally cover up their income and expenses.
In
2012, the CCA Party tried a new wrinkle. This time they reported their income
and expenses in a timely fashion, but listed
their non-resident donors’ addresses not by their actual residence, but by
their Charlestown vacation home.
I
published the names and true addresses of these donors in Progressive
Charlestown. Of course, under the CCA Party’s code of conduct – for others, not
themselves – naming names like that is an evil thing, while covering up is just
a thing they do.
Doing the research was pretty easy – these donors’ address of residence is listed on their assessment files in the Charlestown Tax Assessor’s database.
Doing the research was pretty easy – these donors’ address of residence is listed on their assessment files in the Charlestown Tax Assessor’s database.
About
60%
of the CCA Party’s income came from non-residents whose actual addresses
were masked by the CCA Party.
Each
election cycle, the CCA Party goes for long stretches without raising any
money. However, in the final days of the campaign, especially in the last 30
days, the CCA Party has a reservoir of wealthy supporters who can write them
$1000 checks.
It
looks like this will be just like those previous cycles where the CCA Party
won’t show who is really backing them until the last minute, in the hope that
it will be too late for voters to notice.
Charlestown
Democrats report small gains in the quarter
By
contrast, the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee reports regular fund-raising
activity. The Democrats raised $480 between March and June and ended
the second quarter with $6,457.54.
The
Charlestown Republicans continue to lie dormant. They have not reported raising
any money in several quarters and reported
no money raised once again. They spent $80 and dropped their current cash
balance to just $395.17.
They
have no endorsed candidates running in this election cycle. Stephen Young
is running for election as one of Charlestown’s Chariho School Committee
members as a Republican but without the CRTC’s endorsement.
Cameron Ennis
commits yet another rookie mistake
Wave buh-bye |
Cameron
Ennis of Charlestown declared his intention to run against incumbent state
Senator Catherine Cool Rumsey (D) but ultimately failed to collect the required
100 valid voter signatures on his nomination papers to qualify for the ballot.
I covered his misadventures here
and here.
While
I was reviewing the campaign finance reports on the Board of Elections, for the
hell of it, I checked to see if Ennis had filed anything.
Sure
enough, he did. Ennis
filed a CF-1 “Notice of Organization” report on May 13, a month before actual
candidate declarations were due to be filed with the Charlestown Board of
Canvassers.
By
filing so early, Ennis made himself subject to having to file a campaign
finance disclosure report on July 31, and he is now listed by the Board of
Elections as overdue.
That’s
yet another rookie mistake. All of Charlestown’s other candidates followed the
procedure of filing their CF-1 notice after
they filed their declaration papers, and that means their first individual
campaign finance report will not be due to be filed until October 7.
Ennis,
on the other hand, now faces fines that accumulate daily. For filing late, the
fine is $25 and after seven days, there’s another $2 added every day until the
tardy candidate pays up. Republican candidate Tina Jackson who ran against Rep.
Donna Walsh in 2012, decided at the end to stop filing reports and she has accumulated
fines of almost $5,000.
Once
again, it pays to read the rule book
and costs you when you don’t.
Walsh and Cool
Rumsey prepare for challengers
Senator Cool Rumsey and Rep. Walsh have served Charlestown well |
Rep.
Donna Walsh (D) and state Senator Cathie Cool Rumsey both face challengers in
2014. Donna faces Texas-style radical “Tenther*” Blake
Filippi, whose family owns Ballard’s on Block Island. Filippi is running as
an independent although he has been a registered Republican.
Donna ended the second quarter with $15,943.72 in her campaign account.
Donna ended the second quarter with $15,943.72 in her campaign account.
Senator
Cathie Cool Rumsey (D) was going to face two opponents, One was the
aforementioned Cameron Ennis who seems to be toast. The other is Republican
Elaine Morgan of Hopkinton.
Morgan
has run for and been elected as Hopkinton Town Sergeant but closed
out that campaign account and opened a new one for this new election bid.
Neither
Morgan nor Filippi were required to file campaign finance reports for the
second quarter. We will see what support they have when they file their first
reports on October 7.
So
the October 7 campaign finance reports now take on even greater importance, as
that will be the first true glimpse into the extent that money influences
Charlestown politics.
As
you see the yard signs sprout and get mailers in your mailbox, remember – the
CCA Party currently doesn’t have the money to pay for the signs, flyers and
mailers, so it will be all new money. Unless, of course, they can get
the town to send out more fear-mongering propaganda for them.
FOOTNOTE
* “Tenther” is the name members of the Tenth Amendment Movement
give to themselves. A Texas-style radical offshoot of the Tea Party, the Tenth Amendment
movement believes that the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution gives states the
right to ignore any law, rule or action by the federal government that they
believe is not expressly granted to
the federal government by the Constitution.
They believe, for example, that
Social Security, Medicare, the GI Bill, the VA,
environmental laws, just about every gun law and a host of others, are illegal usurpations of power by
the federal government. See the graphic, left, for the federal departments they would shut down.
They believe that states and local governments, and
private citizens, can ignore such laws or programs. They also believe that
state governments have the power to nullify
federal laws they believe are in violation of the 10th
Amendment, such as gun control or “Obamacare.”
The Tenth Amendment Movement is based on the premise
that the Constitution says what it does not say – that unless something is
specifically mentioned in the Constitution, the federal government can’t do it.
Filippi is Director of ythe RI Liberty Coalition, which is focused primarily on this version of the 10th Amendment and is a legal analyst for the Tenth Amendment Center.
Filippi is Director of ythe RI Liberty Coalition, which is focused primarily on this version of the 10th Amendment and is a legal analyst for the Tenth Amendment Center.