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Standing at a Crossroads to American Prosperity (updated 7x)
Author: Raine    Date: 10/15/2012 15:25:16

  (note from Raine: See Updates below)


This is an address:
45 North Hills Drive, Suite 100
Warrenton, VA 20186

It's the constituent address of Virginia State Senator Jill Holtzman Vogel of the 27th District of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

This is an address:
45 North Hills Drive, Suite 100
Warrenton, VA 20186

It was listed in an election fraud complaint in the state of Florida. Strategic Allied Consulting, LLC allegedly was found to have faked hundreds of voter registrations:
The GOP cut ties with the third party voter registering company Strategic Allied Consultants on Thursday after the Palm Beach County elections supervisor flagged 106 of the firm's registration forms for having similar handwriting, incorrect addresses and incomplete information.

Since then, elections officials in nine Florida counties have unearthed hundreds of possibly fraudulent registration forms.
The man who headed up this consulting firm is named Nathan Sproul. The NYT reported in the beginning of October:
Mr. Sproul, 40, a former executive director of the Arizona Christian Coalition and the Republican Party in Arizona, is well known in political circles there. Since 2004, Mr. Sproul’s companies — he has operated under several corporate names — have collected more than $17.6 million from Republican committees, candidates and the “super PAC” American Crossroads, mostly for voter registration operations, according to campaign finance records.

The Republican Party, which paid Mr. Sproul about $3 million this year for work in five states, has severed its ties with him, saying it has no tolerance for voter registration fraud.

But questions about Mr. Sproul’s methods first emerged in 2004, when one of his companies, Sproul & Associates, was paid nearly $8 million during the election cycle. The payouts made the company the seventh-biggest recipient of campaign expenditures by the committee, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Mr. Sproul declined to be interviewed.


This is an address:
45 North Hill Drive, Suite 100
Warrenton, VA 20186
This is the address of the law firm HoltzmanVogelJosefiak PLLC
HoltzmanVogelJosefiak PLLC provides counseling and compliance services to individuals, corporations, non-profit organizations, trade associations, PACs, Super PACs and candidates who are engaged in influencing the public policy arena in Washington and across the nation.
They have 10 partners in this firm. It's not uncommon for a State Representative to use a work address as a constituent address. That State Senator Vogel and her law firm share an office in and of itself is not necessarily scandalous.

This is an address:
45 North Hills Drive
Suite 100
Warrenton, VA 20186

It is the address written on an IRS form declaring the status of a 527. Open secrets explains what a 527 is. The name of this particular 527 is American Crossroads. It's president, Steven J. Law is named as the contact person at the Warrenton address. He is also the President of it's sister organization, Crossroads GPS. The former is a Super PAC, the latter is a 501( C )(4) and works in conjunction with American Crossroads. As a 501( c )(4) nonprofit, Crossroads GPS's primary purpose is the advancement of social welfare including public policy advocacy. See also: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

Nathan Sproul appears to still be working for the GOP. In spite of the party firing Strategic Allied Consultants, LLC., Brad Friedman reports at his blog that the company has morphed into yet another form and is continuing its behavior calling itself "Issue Advocacy Partners". It should be noted that when the original Florida fraud allegation came to light, the Virginia GOP cut its ties with the Nathan Sproul-led Strategic Allied Consultants, LLC.
Virginia's Republican Party has cut ties with a firm it paid $500,000 in August for "new voter and absentee ballot registration" services here, as the registration deadline looms, in the wake of a scandal involving the company in Florida.

That firm, suburban Richmond-based Strategic Allied Consulting, has also been dropped in other swing states, including Florida -- the state's Palm Beach Post newspaper initially reported on official concerns about some voter registration forms submitted.
Here is the interesting thing: according to this (page 106), Strategic Allied Consulting LLC has an address listed as 4701 Cox Rd., Glenn Allen, VA 23060. This perhaps is the state office used for billing purposes as it differs from the Address listed in the Florida complaint. Strategic Allied Consulting was the only New Voter and Absentee Ballot registration firm used by the Republican Party of Virginia according to this Itemized Disbursements PDF. It was filed September 17, 2012. It covers the time period of 8/1/12 to 8/31/12. The September disbursement will not be available until the 20th of this month. It will be interesting to see if the GOP hired a new Voter and Absentee Ballot registration firm -- and if so, who was hired. As a matter of fact, in September the LA Times reported:
Sproul said he created Strategic Allied Consulting at the RNC's request because the party wanted to avoid being publicly linked to the past allegations. The firm was set up at a Virginia address, and Sproul does not show up on the corporate paperwork.

"In order to be able to do the job that the state parties were hiring us to do, the [RNC] asked us to do it with a different company's name, so as to not be a distraction from the false information put out in the Internet," Sproul said.
The state GOP paid Strategic Alliance for voter inititives in Virginia, but it appears as though the national efforts found a home at 45 North Hills Drive, Suite 100 Warrenton, Virginia

The question I am trying to find out, and I think this is critical: why is a politician, a super PAC and a voter registration firm listed at the SAME office of an address of a law office that specializes in counseling and compliance PACs, Super PACs and candidates right here in Virginia? This election cycle it is clear that the GOP paid Mr. Sproul's company, but is this firm also coordinating with American Crossroads? You'll recall last year Stephen Colbert transfered his super Pac over to Jon Stewart in order to run as a candidate in the South Carolina Primary. Trevor Potter was represneting Mr. Cobert on the legalities of this transfer and what the 2 men/entities could and could not do. Campaign Central documents it here along with an interview with Mr. Potter.
The Supreme Court said [in the Citizens United decision] that these independent expenditures would not be corrupting because they would be wholly independent of the candidate. What Colbert and Stewart did was say we can be business partners and still not coordinate. That’s true. The FEC regulations have holes you can drive trucks through, and people are driving trucks through them all the time. You can have the business partner of the campaign manager running the super PAC, and that is still considered not coordinated under the FEC regulations. The FEC has even said the candidate can go out and raise money for the super PAC to a certain limit, and that the candidate can thank the donors for giving to the super PAC, which Romney has done. He went to an event and thanked the donors. Everyone blames the Supreme Court and Citizens United, but the mess we’re in right now is not solely the result of Citizens United. The Supreme Court said these things would be wholly independent, and they’re not. Their defenders say we’re complying with the FEC regulations, and that shows how bad the regulations are.
It appears it is legal for American Crossroadds to share an office with Senator Vogel, as long as they do not coordinate. However, the office in question also contains her law firm, one that is involved with navigating Super PAC rules and regulations, and in this case, it appears that somehow Mr. Sproul and his former firm Strategic Alliance are connected.

One could assume that Ms. Vogel and her firm were aware of this request. Particularly Ms. Vogel:
Jill Holtzman Vogel, Managing Partner Jill Holtzman Vogel specializes in ethics, campaign finance and tax exempt organizations. In addition to managing the firm, in February 2004, she was named Chief Counsel of the Republican National Committee. As counsel, she led the national party’s legal effort during the 2004 Presidential election. Prior to founding the practice, she served as Deputy Counsel at the Department of Energy, overseeing the transition and working with the White House, Energy Secretary Abraham, and other Federal Agencies to implement Energy initiatives. She previously served as Deputy Counsel at the Republican National Committee. During November and December of 2000, she was counsel in the Florida Presidential Recount, acting on behalf of the Bush-Cheney campaign in West Palm Beach and in Osceola County. She also served as staff counsel for the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego, California.


Jason Torchinsky is another partner at the firm.
In addition to his practice counseling clients on compliance with campaign finance, ethics laws, lobbying disclosure and election laws, Jason has served as lead counsel in a number of litigation matters. Representative matters in the redistricting area include Louisiana House of Representatives v. Holder (D.D.C.) (Section 5 pre-clearance action), City of Sandy Springs v. Holder (D.D.C.) (Section 5 bailout action), and Fletcher v. Lamone (D. Md.) (challenging Maryland’s Congressional Districting map). In the campaign finance context, he is currently representing clients in Alliance for America’s Future v. State (Nevada Supreme Court) and Van Hollen v. Federal Election Commission (D.D.C.) (Representing intervenor defendants). Jason has also represented Virginia candidates in recounts and voter registration challenges before various Virginia Circuit Courts.

Jason frequently lectures on campaign finance redistricting and ethics related subjects and provides commentary to the media on election related matters.
You know who else he represents? The Koch Brother funded Americans For Prosperity. "Torchinsky is a law partner at Holtzman Vogel PLLC. His fellow law partner at the firm is Tom Josefiak, a former Federal Elections Commission Chairman who was one of a group filing an Amicus in the Citizens United case."

Mr. Sproul is just the tip of an Iceberg that exists at 45 North Hill Drive, Suite 100, Warrenton, VA.

We are at the Crossroads of a very "suite" deal here.

and

Raine


===========================================================================


UPDATE 1: Someone in Virginia appears to have been caught destroying voter registrations forms. Ironically, the origin of this post was because a friend had serious questions regarding absentee voter registration forms that were being sent around her area.

In Virginia, Voter registration forms and absentee ballots do not requite a party affiliation. There will be more to this story to come. I have pictures of the GOP absentee Voter ballot applications. The only firm in this Commonwealth that was paid by the GOP to do such a service was Strategic Allied Consulting. They were fired by the State Republican Party in the beginning of October. Who was in control of this disposed folder of filled out voter registration forms?

And NBC affiliate in Charlottesville is reporting that an investigation is being launched.

UPDATE 2: TPM reports:
Colin Small, a 31-year-old resident of Phoenixville, Pa., worked for Pinpoint, a company hired to register voters on behalf of the Republican Party of Virginia. Prosecutors charged him with four counts of destruction of voter registration applications, eight counts of failing to disclose voter registration applications and one count of obstruction of justice.

Colin Small, a 31-year-old resident of Phoenixville, Pa., worked for Pinpoint, a company hired to register voters on behalf of the Republican Party of Virginia.


UPDATE 3: BlueNC Blog updates:
Update #3, 10/11:
Issue Advocacy Partners has surfaced in Baton Rouge, LA on Craigslist: Market researchers wanted (Baton Rouge). Also in various swing states job listings continue for the same kinds of Republican outreach jobs in ads placed by Penmac Staffing, Marathon Staffing and PinPoint Staffing. PinPoint was the conduit for hiring of a Strategic Allied Consulting employee in Florida suspected of registration fraud.


UPDATE 4: BradBlog is covering this story as well. (shameless plug: FourFreedoms got a mention! )

UPDATE 5: Colin Small, the man arrested appears to have a Linkedin Profile: It does not list PinPoint as an employer. Instead it lists the following:
Grassroots Field Director
Republican National Committee
Nonprofit; 51-200 employees; Political Organization industry
August 2012 – Present (3 months) Virginia

Manage a team of 15-20 grassroots canvassers, conducting voter registration drives, staffing political rallies, organizing Get Out the Vote Efforts.

Congressional Intern
U.S. House of Representatives

Government Agency; 10,001+ employees; Legislative Office industry
September 2011 – December 2011 (4 months) The Hon. Mike Kelly

- Researched issues, policies and bills pertinent to the office. Prepared research regarding the U.S., Columbia Free Trade Agreement which aided the Congressman in his decision to support the agreement.
- Attended briefings for four staff members and composed concise reports on the content of the briefings, often bringing in outside information and personal insight where appropriate.
- Handled office duties such as answering phones (approx. 120 per day), receiving and distributing mail, emails, faxes, etc.
- Maintained constituent contact information on IQ Database and wrote constituent letters on a variety of topics.
- Served constituents’ needs in a professional and courteous manner.


UPDATE 6: Colin Small appears to have scrubbed his Linkedin profile at the direction of the GOP Communications Director, Sean Spicer:
Sean Spicer, communications director for the RNC, told NBC News Thursday night that Small has now been fired as well, and that he had been directly employed by a payroll company called Pinpoint, which was previously used by Strategic Allied Consulting to pay workers for the GOP registration drive being run by the consulting company.

Small lists himself on his LinkedIn resume as a “Grassroots field director at Republican National Committee” from August 2012 to the present. But Spicer denied that Small was ever directly employed by the RNC and said he will be “told to take that down.” Small was reportedly in jail Thursday night and could not be reached for comment.
We have a screen shot of what it looked like before

UPDATE 7: Ben Trippet from Not Larry Sabato Blog Confirms former Strategic Allied workers were re-hired by the Republican Party of Virginia:
A few weeks ago after the Strategic Allied Consulting scandal broke in Florida, the RNC announced it was firing the company and no longer working with.

Now we are learning, that what *actually* happened was the Strategic Allied Consulting staffers were transferred over to a company called Pinpoint. It's the same people- just under a different name.
Now, for the first time anywhere I can confirm that these same staffers are STILL working for the Republican Party of Virginia out of *6* of their "Victory Offices" around the state. Those six locations are:

CHESAPEAKE (CHESAPEAKE CITY)
SPRINGFIELD (FAIRFAX COUNTY)
BRISTOW (PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY)
STERLING (LOUDOUN COUNTY)
VIRGINIA BEACH (VIRGINIA BEACH CITY)
HARRISONBURG (HARRISONBURG CITY)

Voters who have been registered in or near any of these localities by persons who may be affiliated with this group should be contacting your local law enforcement if you have not yet received confirmation that you were registered to vote.

 

6 comments (Latest Comment: 10/19/2012 02:18:07 by Raine)
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