Dirty Tactics

Howie Rich's effort to put his three-headed monster - TABOR, pay-or-waive schemes, and judicial attacks - on the ballot has not been pretty. In fact, the drive to manipulate state laws has resulted in unprecedented rule-breaking, lawsuits, fraud, and even violence. As a result, Howie's pet issues have been kicked off the ballot in four states - Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Oklahoma. Legal action against the initiatives is pending in three more states - Montana, Nebraska, and Nevada. These tactics have created havoc across the country, and Howie's strategy is facing new scrutiny as a result.

In This Section

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From New York City to Your Ballot

State Profiles: Howie's Dirty Tricks
Maine
Michigan
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
Ohio
Olahoma
Oregon

Recent Articles from Other States
Arizona
California
Idaho

From New York City To Your Ballot
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State Profiles: Howie's Dirty Tricks

MAINE

Maine was the second state in the nation to circulate TABOR, and the first state to witness first-hand the dirty tricks of those who support this failed policy. The circulating of the TABOR petition in Maine began with little fanfare and ended much the same way. Longtime anti-tax advocate, Mary Adams, arrived at the steps of the Secretary of State on October 21, 2005 to submit 58,151 signatures (50,519 needed to qualify) for the November ballot. The TABOR circulation in Maine was the quietest and most uneventful in the country.

It wasn't until Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap certified TABOR for the ballot on February 21st that something suspicious was noted. In his statement certifying TABOR for the ballot, Dunlap mentioned that he accepted and counted over four thousand signatures which were submitted three days after the deadline. Not only had he unilaterally decided to accept these late petitions, but it was these extra four thousand which allowed TABOR to qualify at all. Dunlap stated that he felt the extra signatures were gathered in good faith and that the process should be weighted towards the petitioner.

Predictably, the Secretary of State's decision to be the sole judge and jury of the initiative process produced sharp outcries from various sectors across the state. The state senate immediately called for an investigation and a private citizen, Kathleen McGee, filed suit in the Maine courts arguing that Dunlap had overstepped his authority. A Superior Court judge agreed with McGee and ordered TABOR off the ballot. The Supreme Court overturned that decision a month later, not because Dunlap acted within his authority, but because the state law was in contradiction with an unused law in the Maine constitution. TABOR is on the ballot only because of an arcane constitutional deadline; Mary Adams and her fellow TABOR supporters simply got lucky.

Recent Articles
Lewiston Sun Journal, 8/20/2006: Spending on ballot initiatives

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MICHIGAN

Michigan's TABOR (referred to as SOS or Stop OverSpending) is being run by bankruptcy attorney Kurt O'Keefe and committee member Scott Tillman. Due to Michigan's extremely poor campaign finance law, no ballot committee has to report it's funding until 35 days after an initiative is certified. This means we won't know for sure how much ALG has given Michigan until mid-October. There are indications, however, that Americans for Limited Government (ALG) is linked to the Michigan TABOR effort just as it has been linked to efforts in other states. When Scott Tillman rose to speak on behalf of Stop OverSpending Michigan in front of the Board on Canvassers, he introduced himself as being from ALG before correcting himself.

Although we can not yet trace Stop OverSpending Michigan's funding, we can indeed trace their efforts to qualify SOS and here enters ALG's favorite circulating firm, National Voter Outreach. Witnesses in Michigan reported numerous accounts of fraud on the part of the signature gathers. These actions included copying names from one petition to another, circulating in illegal locations, refusing to move when asked by police, and lying and deceiving voters about the purpose and effects of SOS. The counts of fraud reached such a critical point that Susan Johnson, owner of NVO, actually filed a complaint with the Michigan State Police complaining of illegal signature gathering practices by her own employees. One can only imagine how blatant the fraud must have been for NVO itself to notify the police.

Despite Susan Johnson's single action, the Michigan SOS petition is riddled with inaccuracies and illegal entries. Opponents of SOS have filed a challenge focusing on two different areas; signatures and fatal flaws in the petition itself. The signature challenge has become almost a foregone conclusion when NVO is the circulator. Within the sample pulled by the Secretary of State to establish a validity rate, there were so many inaccuracies between circulators who weren't allowed to collect signatures, duplicate signatures, and non-registered voters that it appears that SOS might not appear on the ballot this fall due to not having enough valid signatures to qualify.

The petition and language flaws are certainly something we've seen elsewhere this year. The legal portion of the challenge asserts that Stop OverSpending failed to reprint the portions of the constitution they were proposing to change (a state requirement), used the wrong type set and size (a state requirement), and forgot to title half the petitions (also a state law). Michigan law is very clear about the requirements of what a petition should look like, and Michigan authorities even offer to review a petition before circulating to ensure it complies with the law. Stop OverSpending Michigan never took advantage of this opportunity, and now they are fighting for their lives in court. This is what happens when out-of-state individuals swoop in, set up a shell campaign structure and try to alter the state constitution.

Recent Articles
Lansing State Journal, 9/18/2006: Petitions: SOS episode points Michigan to some petition reforms

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MISSOURI

The local pro-TABOR group in Missouri, Missourians in Charge, is spearheaded by a man named Patrick Tuohey. Tuohey spent the last ten years living in Arlington, VA, working for Republican consultant Frank Luntz and then owning his own business before moving to Missouri in April 2005 to spearhead the efforts to qualify both TABOR and Eminent Domain. The last available check of the voter files (August 2005) revealed that Tuohey wasn't even registered to vote in Missouri. Perhaps it's because Tuohey had been living in Missouri for less than a year, but his ignorance of Missouri's laws is one of the reasons TABOR and Eminent Domain aren't on the ballot this fall.

Tuohey hired National Voter Outreach (NVO) to handle the signature gathering for both measures. NVO promptly flooded the state with its mercenary circulators; there were 91 circulators registered with the Secretary of States's office to circulate the stem cell petition compared with 1312 circulators to circulate TABOR. Many of these circulators were from out of state, individuals who roam the country collecting signatures on whatever measures are paying the most. According to witness reports, some of these circulators ignored Missouri law in order to gain more signatures, resorting to offering free bottles of water for signatures or circulating on private property and refusing to leave when asked by the owners.

Missouri law clearly spells out how each initiative should be submitted; sorted by congressional district, numbered and bundled in specific ways. The folks at NVO and Missourians in Charge either didn't know the laws (not a surprise since they were from out-of-state) or simply didn't care. Many of the petitions were simply tossed into whatever boxes were handy. There were even TABOR and Eminent Domain petitions thrown together into the mix. After completely disregarding the laws, Patrick Tuohey claimed to be shocked when Secretary of State Carnahan refused to place TABOR on the ballot after not being able to count the petitions. Her decision was upheld in court. Maybe Tuohey will remain in Missouri for several years, learn the laws of the state, and then try again.

Recent Articles
Coming soon...

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MONTANA

Montana shares much in common with other states that Howard Rich has decided are targets for TABOR. They have a shell organization, Montanans in Action, spearheaded by farmer Trevis Butcher, who worked on term limits for ALG. Butcher followed the lead of adjoining states and hired a mercenary petition gathering firm to overrun the state in an effort to qualify not only TABOR but two other initiatives as well. It was reported that this firm engaged in many of the same tactics they are reported to have used in other states including; bad circulator addresses, not informing voters about the purpose of the TABOR petition, and asking people to sign the Eminent Domain petition and then just "sign the sheet below" because the circulator didn't have carbon-paper to make a copy. Unfortunately for the Montana voter, the bottom sheet was TABOR and they walked away from the signature gatherer never knowing they signed their support for TABOR.

Despite plenty of similarities to other states, Montana is in the truly unique situation of being the only state to have all parts of Americans for Limited Government's three-headed monster: TABOR, regulatory takings and an anti-judges measure. From this we can begin to gleam Howard Rich's ultimate goals; bankrupt the states, reduce or eliminate regulation for the benefit of his buddies, the Koch brothers, and weaken the judicial system to the point where there will be no one left to oppose his goals.

Trevis Butcher has taken every advantage of Montana's campaign finance laws. Despite calls from every corner of the state, he has steadfastly refused to open his books to the public and disclose his donors. What we do know is that Montanas in Action has donated $200,000 to Montana TABOR, $191,000 to Montana regulatory takings, $188,000 to Montana anti-judicial and $600,000 to California regulatory takings. Butcher's refusal to open his books has caused Montana officials to begin investigating charges of money laundering and violations of Montana campaign finance laws which require every donation to be made in the name of the contributor.

Recent Articles
Great Falls Tribune, 9/20/2006: CI-97 loses another round in court
Great Falls Tribune, 9/17/2006: Initiative gatherers violated the spirit of the law
Lewistown News, 9/16/2006: District court judge throws out initiative
Havre Daily News, 9/15/2006: Vote for your candidate and against CI-97

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NEBRASKA

No one thought that Nebraska would be a TABOR target in 2006. They waited until the last possible moment to begin circulating and had less than two months to collect over 115,000 valid signatures. Nebraska holds the distinction of being the only TABOR state where Howard Rich hasn't tried to mask his involvement. In fact, the official co-sponsor of the Nebraska TABOR petition is none other than Americans for Limited Government. Perhaps they decided that trying to quietly funnel money into various states wasn't working so they would try the direct approach.

The first thing the Stop OverSpending Committee and treasurer Mike Groene did was call in a new signature gathering company, Renewal Voter Outreach. The problems and allegations of clear violations of Nebraska’s election laws began to surface almost immediately, when Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale was approached by a 15 year-old and asked to sign his petition. According to Gale, although the boy was very polite, he knew almost nothing about the subject matter of the petition and admitted that he was only circulating as a way to make fast money. This and similar situations led to calls from the Nebraska citizenry for new laws banning underage circulators.

We next saw RVO getting really creative at the College World Series, a circulator’s dream. Instead of approaching voters one by one and asking for their signatures, they resorted to a gimmick to bring voters to them, even if it wasn’t quite legal. The TABOR petitions set up a booth outside the stadium and erected a huge Wheel of Fortune type game -- right in the path of families walking to the baseball games. If you signed the petition you could spend the wheel and win a prize. When approached by the media they said it wasn’t technically against the law because signing didn’t guarantee a prize. Their stunt resulted in a stern warning about such actions constituting a felony from the Nebraska Attorney General.

RVO’s whirlwind trip through the Cornhusker state was finally coming to a close on July 7, when their most flagrant violation to date occurred. When police were called in on a charge of disturbing the peace, they found a 41 year-old circulator and a 20 year-old college student who was engaging in voter education efforts. The college student told the officers that the circulator had threatened and pushed him. The circulator denied it but an audio recording proved otherwise. When police took the circulator downtown for booking, they discovered that the paid circulator, Joseph Carter of Hialeah, FL, served ten years in jail for a second degree murder conviction in Florida.

Perhaps if Mike Groene had started earlier and used Nebraskans to circulate a petition changing the Nebraskan constitution, he could have avoided many of these problems. But he didn’t. Instead he did what other shell pro-TABOR organizations across the country have done this year: take all the money Americans for Limited Government is offering and throw large amounts of cash to a petitioning firm who operates by any means necessary. Are we really surprised by the outcome?

Recent Articles
North Platte Telegraph, 9/21/2006: Group fights spending limit
McCook Daily Gazette, 9/9/2006: Study offers more proof SOS would be a disaster
Omaha World-Herald, 8/27/2006: Petition's origins tied to at least nine states

UPDATE: In an earlier version of the Nebraska profile, it was indicated that National Voter Outreach was the firm gathering signatures for TABOR in Nebraska. The firm had no role in the Nebraska TABOR campaign, and committed no fraud or malfeasance on the TABOR campaign in that state. We regret the error.

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NEVADA

Former Republican candidate for Governor Bob Beers is the official sponsor of TASC (Tax and Spending Control) in Nevada and used the issue as part of his platform. Perhaps Beers was hoping for the same boost Ken Blackwell was enjoying in Ohio, but TASC dragged Beers down, causing him to lose the nomination to fellow Republican Jim Gibbons. The rejection of his politics by the electorate of Nevada isn't stopping Beers; he's still out there pushing TASC on an unwilling population.

Perhaps NVO was too busy in other states, but Beers and his committee were forced to settle for Arno Political Consultants to circulate their petitions. For those who are hoping this would mean that TASC was being circulated legally and above board, you're going to be disappointed. It turns out that Arno lives by the same creed at NVO: by any means necessary.

During the TASC circulation period many of the same fraudulent activities perpetrated in other states were reportedly witnessed in Nevada, including coping names and signatures from one petition to another, signing petitions which were gathered by a separate individuals, and numerous cases of notary fraud. According to witness accounts, these violations were often taking place in broad daylight in full view of the citizens of Nevada. All of this evidence has been bundled and turned over to the Nevada FBI and local police for continued investigation.

Some of the most compelling testimony comes from an affidavit submitted by a TASC circulator who stated that he attended a "fraud party" over Memorial Day weekend. At this party, the circulator stated, his boss taught him and his fellow circulators how to copy names from the phonebook onto the petitions in such a way as to avoid detection. The identity of this circulator has been withheld from the press because he "fears for his life." That's what class of circulator was roaming the streets of Nevada seeking to alter the state constitution.

Recent Articles
Las Vegas Sun, 9/12/2006: PISTOL still pointed at many projects
Lahontan Valley News, 9/9/2006: TASC initiative fails to make election ballot
Las Vegas Review-Journal, 8/23/2006: TASC opponents seek investigation

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OHIO

TEL (Tax and Expenditure Limitation) enjoyed a front row seat during the Republican Gubernatorial primary. Secretary of State Ken Blackwell was the official sponsor of TEL while his opponent, Attorney General Jim Petro, actively opposed it. The two spoke about TEL at every stump speech for months and aired commercials questioning the other's position on the initiative. This bruising fight was possibly the point at which the Republican Party began to re-examine their strategy of making TEL the focal point of their election strategy.

Blackwell won the nomination on May 2nd, and almost immediately Republican leaders started publicly discussing ways in which TEL might be removed from the November ballot. On May 4th, only two days after Blackwell won with TEL as his campaign centerpiece, House Speaker Husted suggested that maybe a court could remove TEL, which staunch supporter State Senator Jacobson admitted that he was doing his best to "fix" TEL but if it remained on the ballot statewide, "we're in big trouble." Blackwell quickly countered these speculations saying that TEL would be a motivator, driving Republicans to the polls and that he wanted and would keep TEL on the ballot this year.

It took about ten days after his primary victory for the cracks in Blackwell's assertions to appear. At first it was just his promise to work with the Republican Party as they searched for a way to pass a legislative version of TEL. He then became an increasingly active participant until on May 17th, exactly 15 days after securing the nomination, Blackwell and the Republican Party announced their plan to pass a watered down legislative version of Blackwell's TEL. To add to the incredulity of the moment, they also announced that they would write and pass an unprecedented law allowing an initiative sponsor to remove his/her initiative from the ballot even after it had been certified.

Four days later it was all done. The Republicans managed to bulldoze both bills through the legislature by restricting debate and even turning off the microphone of a Democrat who was registering his disbelief and outrage at the manner in which the hearings were being conducted. Although Blackwell and the Republican Party got beat-up a bit in the press, many feel that TEL was a much greater liability than a month of bad press. Ohio is the perfect example of what can happen when you have bi-partisan opposition to TABOR.

Recent Articles
Coming soon...

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OKLAHOMA

The face of Oklahoma's TABOR effort was Tulsa political consultant Rick Carpenter and his group, Oklahomans for Action, who enjoyed the financial backing of Americans for Limited Government, and also hired NVO to circulate the TABOR petition. Anyone seeing a pattern here? Oklahoma has one of the toughest standards for circulators in the country and because of subsequent lawsuits, numerous instances have surfaced of blatant efforts on the part of Carpenter and NVO to circumvent or simply ignore Oklahoma law have been documented.

Let's begin with issues which came to light even before the legal challenges began. Police responding to at disturbance complaint discovered a 16 year-old boy circulating TABOR petitions in a Wal-Mart parking lot. A check revealed that the boy had been convicted of shoplifting in Massachusetts and was in Oklahoma illegally.

On the day of Oklahoma's primary, two circulators were discovered attempting to gather TABOR signatures outside polling places. One was arrested and charged when he refused to follow police directions and stop gathering signatures. The other was discovered to be an official precinct worker and was permanently removed from her duties. The next day, the Oklahoma State Senate officially called for an investigation into the circulation of petitions within the state.

The most blatant activities of Carpenter and NVO came to light during the subsequent lawsuit. Activities alleged to have taken place included paying out of state circulators to come to Oklahoma (and then procuring Oklahoma identifications for them so they wouldn't be hassled by the police), notary and signature fraud, and even employing undocumented workers to circulate petitions.

When a judge asked Carpenter why he would employ NVO and allow NVO to import out-of-state circulators to Oklahoma in violation of the law, Carpenter replied that he never actually read the portion of NVO President Susan Johnson's email when she spoke of bringing circulators into Okalahoma. He stated that he only read the portion of the email which stated how much money he should send to NVO. Is Carpenter actually trying to convince us that he would agree to pay hundreds of thousands to a company without bothering to read an entire email? It seems far more likely that Carpenter agreed to pay NVO to qualify TABOR by any means necessary.

The most surprising part of all of this isn't Oklahomans in Action or NVO's actions, but the fact that despite their best efforts to fool the Oklahoma citizenry, TABOR won't even appear on the November ballot. After months of testimony a court appointed referee ruled that 56,940 submitted signatures should be thrown out due to illegal circulators, illegal notaries, and unregistered voters. The Oklahoma Supreme Court agreed on August 31st. Perhaps the lesson to be gleaned from Oklahoma is "cheaters never win."

Recent Articles
Edmond Sun, 9/13/2006: Look more closely at TABOR petition to find slimy politics
KOTV, 8/31/2006: Oklahoma Supreme Court Throws Out TABOR
Oklahoma City Journal Record, 8/17/2006: Out-of-state groups supply 99% of pro-TABOR funding

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OREGON

The effort to pass TABOR in Oregon is being locally directed by Don McIntire of Taxpayer Association of Oregon, but like every other state, McIntire is being funded by those generous "philanthropists" at Americans for Limited Government. Perhaps it's because he has actually lived in Oregon for longer than a year, but McIntire decided to use several different circulating firms for TABOR, including Arno Political Consulting and a local firm called Democracy Direct. Although Democracy Direct isn't National Voter Outreach, they clearly operate in much the same way. The owner of Democracy Direct is Tim Trickey. Trickey is an acolyte of Bill Sizemore, (the former initiative king in Oregon who was found by a jury to have a signature gathering operation riddled with forgery and fraud) and Trickey himself is currently under investigation by the state Election Division for buying and selling petition signatures. It begs the question, if you were interested in following state election law, would this be the circulating firm you hired?

The violations certainly don't stop there. Another circulator who was retained to circulate TABOR was convicted of forgery in 2002 and then felony identity theft. We're sure Oregon's citizens were only too happy to give this gentleman their home addresses and a copy of their signatures.

Over and over, observers and reporters watched as TABOR circulators thumbed their noses at Oregon's recent law prohibiting paying circulator by the signature and instead paying them by the hour. One reporter witnessed a homeless man waiting to meet his "contact" to get $15 for his sheet of signatures. Another reporter conducted an on-camera interview with a circulator working for Arno who actually spelled out her compensation package (which is clearly based on a dollar per signature formula), plus a bonus incentive, which is also illegal in Oregon. Numerous complaints of violations of Oregon's laws have been filed against both Arno and Democracy Direct, and the director of Oregon's Election Division was forced to issue a public warning to both companies to obey the law.

Even when following the actual laws of the state, TABOR circulators found misleading voters to be a quick way to gather signatures. With the express blessing of Don McIntire, circulators would approach voters and ask them to sign a petition creating a Rainy Day Fund. The problem is that TABOR doesn't establish a rainy day fund; in fact the proposal never even mentions such a fund. McIntire defended his decision by saying that it was just message framing and that was perfectly legal, (much the way it would be legal to circulate a petition to give every child a dog, except what it really did was ban all dogs from the Oregon). Nice to know that McIntire has that much faith in his own initiative.

Recent Articles
The Eugene Register-Guard, 8/31/2006: Spotlighting Rich
Associated Press, 8/28/2006: Governor issues challenge to NY backer of Oregon spending limit
The Oregonian, 8/21/2006: Anti-spending crusaders gain steam for fall votes

News from Other Targeted States

ARIZONA
The Arizona Republic, 9/1/2006: U.S. group funds state initiative on property

CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle, 8/20/2006: California's stealth initiative on land use

IDAHO
Boise Weekly, 8/9/2006: Maxwell: We're In the Money

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