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4th Congressional District, Americans for Prosperity, Ike Skelton, missouri, right wingnuttia, television ad, Vicky Hartzler
Right wingnuttia has started their air campaign against Representative Ike Skelton (D). I saw this particular ad on television this evening:
Announcer: Thirty-four years ago Rocky was in movie theaters, Missouri’s economy was humming along, and Ike Skelton first went to Washington. Today Skelton supports the Pelosi agenda ninety-five percent of the time. Under their control spending has skyrocketed, the defecit has tripled, and nearly one in ten Missourians are unemployed. Now they want to pass a new energy tax which could cost a Missouri family thousands. Tell Skelton he works for Missouri, not Nancy Pelosi.
[Paid for by Americans for Prosperity]
Apparently, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) is the personification of evil.
Uh, I was around for the Reagan and Daddy Bush administrations. All hype, no substance, and the economy sucked (except for people in certain tax brackets). It took Bill Clinton to turn it around.
And who was the President from January 2001 to January 2009 who left the big mess? Just asking.
The listing for “Americans for Prosperity” with the Federal Election Commission:
Committee ID: C30001051
AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY
2111 WILSON BLVD STE 350
ARLINGTON, VA 22201Treasurer Name:
Committee Designation: (N/A)
Committee Type: N/A
“Americans for Prosperity” filed [pdf – click on “Filed Documents”] paperwork with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office on March 26, 2010 as a “Foreign Nonprofit Corporation”. The officers and board, as reported in the filing:
Art Pope, Chairman
Frayday Levy, Director
James C. Miller, Director
Jim Stephenson, DirectorTim Phillips, President
John Flynn, Secretary
John Flynn, Treasurer
I tried scraping around to find an IRS 990 form and have had no luck yet. Chalk that one up to my Internets searching skills.
I did find this interesting little snippet of information at the Missouri Ethics Commission:
LOBID:L002591
Lobbyist’s Name Carl BeardenPrincipal(s) listed by Lobbyist
Principal Name/Address/Phone Status Date Added Date Deleted
AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY AND FOUNDATION
912 EAST BROADWAY
COLUMBIA MO
D 11/9/2007 7/3/2010
That’s interesting. And what happened on July 3, 2010?
An “Americans for Prosperity Foundation” filed [pdf – click on “Filed Documents”] an annual report with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office on September 11, 2009. The officers and board:
David Koch
Art Pope
Richard Fink
Walter Williams
Debra Gail HumphreysTim Phillips, President
John Flynn, Secretary
John Flynn, Treasurer
Well, there are a few names in common.
The 2008 IRS 990 [pdf] form for the Americans for Prosperity Foundation is chock full of interesting information:
1 Briefly describe the organization’s mission or most significant activities Educate citizen leaders on ensuring economic freedom and opportunity.
8 Contributions and grants (Part VIII, line 1h)
Prior Year 5,476,046.
Current Year 7,500,059.15 Salaries, other compensation, employee benefits (Part IX, column (A), lines 5-10)
Prior Year 2,124,037.
Current Year 2,234,014.19 Revenue less expenses. Subtract line 18 from line 12
Prior Year -1,072,849.
Current Year -684,765.4a (Expenses $ 3,048,529. including grants of $ 0) National office – educate citizens in support of restraining federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits.
4b (Expensses $ 3,870,879. including grants of $ 0) State chapters – educate citizens in support of restraining state government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits. State chapters are located in Kansas, Texas, North Carolina, California, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Virginia, Colorado, Oregon, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Arizona, Louisiana, and New Hampshire.
Schedule A, Part II, Support Schedule for Organizations Described in Sections 170(b)(1)(A)(iv) and 170(b)(1)(A)(vi)
1 Gits, grants, contributions and membership fees received. (Do not include ‘unusual grants.’)
(a) 2004 1,140,151.
(b) 2005 3,349,739.
(c) 2006 3,954,449.
(d) 2007 5,476,046.
(e) 2008 7,500,059.
(f) Total 21,420,444.Schedule M, Non-Cash Contributions
4 Books and publications 14,078. Fair market value
9 Securities-Publicly traded 260,614. Fair market value
Schedule O, Supplemental Information to Form 990
Pt VI-A, Line 2 One board member is an employee of a company owned more than 35% by another board member.
[emphasis added]
I wonder, has anything in Representative Ike Skelton’s (D) political career ever not appeared to be all about following the Constitution? Just asking.
a) I’m pretty sure the economy was not humming in 1976
b) 95% would be the percentage of time that Skelton voted with the majority of Democrats on everything, which includes a lot of stuff that both parties support (symbolic resolutions, etc). If nitty-gritty number was higher than 95%, they’d be using it.
c) Pelosi has cast 87 votes herself in this session.
legislation, anti-health care reform efforts, etc. They were among the folks most active in getting the Tea Party going here – they were behind lots of the handouts with the Death Panel information and related fantasies that were handed out to people going to town halls last summer.
According to Sourcewatch they have spun off a number of the main players in most retrograde industry efforts to manipulate public opinion – in this sense AFT may be the daddy of the Tea Party (although we all know that that movement is now going through a particlarly nasty adolescence so it is’s hard to know who it’ll try to bite next – maybe daddy).
Sourcewatch also indentifies Koch industries as one of the main funders of the AFT – which tells you all you need to know – a totally nasty group with big-time funds that astroturfs most fringer movements.
John Boehner (r-golf!), the republican’s Speaker wannabe, gets roasted in this ad:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaYVf4J1zus&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0%5D