Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Oops, I did it again.

The Realtors PAC is well funded, and spreads money around widely, even to some Democrats, so its finances are worth looking at. First off, I notice that this PAC donated $750 to Clayton Cramer, but none to his opponent Sen. Tim Corder. I guess the Republican powers that be really don't like Sen Corder for some reason.

Click to enlarge.

More interesting is this. The RPAC gave $2,256 to Veritias Advisors on May 22, 2008to support Gail Hartnett in Dist 18 over former legislator Julie Ellsworth. Idaho Republican party Chair J. Kirk Sullivan is the head of Veritas. So this time the party chair has his fingers in an effort to defeat a former Republican incumbent.



I think Veritas should disclose its efforts to defeat legislative candidates. Who hired it, which seats were targeted, and how much was spent? I also think Sullivan should explain his role in these efforts.

Update:
Oops, I did it again. I consulted an out of date legislative guide which listed Julie Ellsworth as a sitting legislator. Adam pointed out my error in the comments. Thanks to Adam, and I'll just say I was giddy about Obama clinching the nomination when I made the mistake. Various changes made to reflect the screw up.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

As much as I would like it to be the case, Julie Ellsworth is not an incumbent.

Anonymous said...

Turns out that two other members of the Veritas HIT (High Integrity Truth) team- Ken Burgess and Elizabeth Criner- will be Ada County delegates to the Republican Convention/catfight, in addition to Boss Sullivan. Check out the article on Stapilus' blog and the list of Ada delegates on Richert's Statesman blog.

Anonymous said...

D'oh!

Clayton Cramer said...

You want Veritas to disclose what it is doing? Guess what? That's why we have a sunshine law about campaign disclosure. The information is all out there; it's not a big secret.

There are lots of special interests in this state. Teacher unions. Logging PACs. All sorts of them, trying to help their friends or at least hurt their enemies.

What makes IAR and Veritas so special that they deserve your special attention?

Anonymous said...

What makes Veritas so special is that its chief member is the head of the idaho Republican party. We ought to know whether he supports the party in general, or just certain potentates. Example, coming out in favor of Jim Risch before the primary showed his alliegence to the power structure.

No surprise, but folks who think they have a shot at getting in, like you, ought to be able to know the lay of the land.

Clayton Cramer said...

I'll tell you, I was surprised to see Sullivan connected to a group that was trying to help me (or at least hurt Corder). He certainly isn't on my list of people that I want running the Idaho Republican Party.

Anonymous said...

I suspect that Sullivan has stepped on it this time. I don't think he's going to be the Chair much longer.