The Opposition Research Training Blog

Fugitive and Major Cuccinelli Donor Apprehended

U.S. Marshals arrested the fugitive known as Bobby Thompson Monday night in Portland Oregon. Thompson had been wanted on charges in Ohio where he was accused of masterminding a scheme to steal money collected by a scam charity known as the U.S. Navy Veterans Association. Authorities believe Thompson and a female accomplice bilked unsuspecting donors out of more than a $100 million in 41 states.

In 2009 the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA) barred Thompson’s phony association from soliciting for donations because it had failed to register as a charity and to make the required financial disclosures. Starting in 2009 Thompson made over $67,000 in donations to Virginia politicians with the bulk of it, $55,500, going to the campaign of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Making him Cuccinelli’s second-largest individual donor. He also gave $5,000 to the McDonnell campaign, and $7,000 was divided among the campaign committees of four key Virginia lawmakers.

Thompson engaged the services of Washington, DC based attorney Samuel F. Wright to help get legislation passed in Virginia that would exempt veterans organization from having to comply with financial disclosure regulations. Once passed, Thompson would be free to fleece the citizens of the Commonwealth with little or no oversight.

Thompson made a $1,000 donation to Senator Patricia Ticer(D) the then chair of a State Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources with oversight of the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs. In 2010 Ticer sponsored SB 563 which added veterans organizations to the list of groups exempt from filing financial statements with the OCA. Reportedly Ticer tried to get the governor to veto her legislation after she learned the St. Petersburg Times had done an investigative piece exposing Thompson and his phony veterans association. She was to late. The bill became law in April 2010 only to be reversed in the 2011 session.

In May 2010 the Roanoke Times ran a story about Thompson’s political donations and lawmakers started dumping the donations with equivalent gifts to legitimate Virginia veterans associations. Cuccinelli didn’t want to let go of his sizable contribution. A spokesman for Cuccinelli’s campaign contacted by the Roanoke Times told reporters that if Thompson was convicted, and the money donated to the campaign had in fact come from misappropriated funds, they would donate those funds to reputable veterans organizations.

By mid June Cuccinelli’s campaign had placed Thompson’s contributions in a restricted account while they attempted to clarify matters. After months of pressure from Democrats the $55,000 became to hot for Cuccinelli to hold and in late July 2010 he relented and announced he would donate the Thompson money to a worthy organization.

 

Currie Acquittal Sends Strong Message

Judged by his peers, Maryland Sen. Ulysses Currie was acquitted of federal bribery charges Tuesday. Currie was accused of taking over $240,000 from Shopper’s Food Warehouse in exchange for political favors. Currie failed to disclose his financial relationship with Shoppers for five years.

Currie’s defense team brought in a parade of high profile follow politicians who said Currie was probably sloppy in his business dealings but did not deliberately hide his relationship with Shoppers. The verdict seems to suggest that in Maryland, not disclosing a nearly quarter million dollar consulting arrangement is a trivial matter. As long as a few of your political friends know or suspect you are working secretly for a company then you were not really trying to hide anything.

The ball is now squarely in the court of the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics. Will they welcome Currie back with open arms and condone his corrupt behavior or expel him for flaunting disclosure requirements sending a clear message that failing to fully disclose will not be tolerated.

Are Campaigns Spying On Each Other?

I hope not. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they were. I recently had lunch with two former federal agents who now offer technical surveillance countermeasure services to the private sector. We talked about what they view as the perfect storm in their business, a society that has seen a steady decline in ethical behavior, and the relative ease at which sophisticated eavesdropping equipment can be obtained today.

Chances are slim a campaign, as a policy, would overtly spy on an opponent. What I think is much more likely are campaign staff or volunteers spying, without the candidate’s knowledge, to gain status within the campaign as someone with a shrewd ability to predict the opponent's behavior. People are always looking for shortcuts to get ahead. And in a campaign, coming forward with with consistently valuable information from a friend of a friend source will get you noticed.

Political spying doesn’t have to be all super-secret bugs and wiretaps. It can be as simple and low tech as getting the access codes for an opponent’s conference calls. Or planting a voice activated digital recorder at the opponent's debate podium to hear conversation between the opponent and campaign manager during breaks. If someone wanted to volunteer with a campaign to place listening devices, obtaining the equipment is frighteningly easy. A simple Google search using the search string site:eBay.com "hidden camera" returns thousands of links. Many of these devices are made in China, fairly good quality, and relatively inexpensive. They often come with free shipping and arrive within weeks.

Not really up for waiting. Try Staples, I took this picture of pens with a hidden video camera that also record audio at my local Staples store selling for $79.99.

 

Report: Gray Administration Violated Nepotism Laws

In a report released Tuesday, a special council committee headed by Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh concluded that the actions of three of Gray's closest aides badly damaged the city's image.

via washingtonexaminer.com

Washington Examiner reporter Freeman Klopott takes a look at the DC Council report on the Gray administration's early hiring practices. The committee found evidence supporting Sulaimon Brown's allegations he was paid by the Gray Campaign to stay in the race and bad mouth Mayor Fenty.