Fact Confirmed: League of Conservation Voters a Democrat Partisan Attack Arm

Remember the League of Conservation Voters (LCV)?

• Spent a boatload of money attacking Bob Schaffer


• Connected with Mark Udall's wife Maggie Fox


• Fined $180,000 for campaign finance violations

Well, this week has brought more confirmation that LCV is nothing more than a highly partisan attack arm of the Democratic Party:

An article in the trade publication Greenwire reaffirms the findings of Senator James Inhofe’s (R-OK) ongoing oversight investigation into the multi-million dollar funding and partisan political activities of environmental groups. The Greenwire article by reporter Alex Kaplun reported that “since the start of the fall campaign, every dollar spent by these organizations has been aimed at helping Democrats.”...

Greenwire excerpt: With the 2008 campaign in the homestretch, major environmental groups are spending money and time on a half-dozen or so congressional candidates who figure to play prominent roles in future Capitol Hill energy and conservation debates. The charge is being led by the League of Conservation Voters, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club. While the three have endorsed dozens of congressional candidates, each has focused on just a couple of contests. The environmentalists have spent more than $3 million in congressional races on "independent expenditures" -- essentially campaigns the groups are running to assist or attack a particular candidate, campaign finance records show. That amount does not include campaign contributions given directly to the candidates, though those dollars tend to represent only a small percentage of the amount the organizations actually spend in a typical election year. And while environmental groups have endorsed a number of Republican candidates, since the start of the fall campaign, every dollar spent by these organizations has been aimed at helping Democrats.

Hardly a shock to us, of course, but perhaps enlightening to undecided Colorado voters.

Does Mark Udall Back Colorado Democracy Alliance's "Educate the Idiots" Campaign?

With the recent uncovering of the Colorado Democracy Alliance (CoDA) and its "Educate the Idiots" campaign, one has to wonder where Mark Udall fits into the scheme. More has to be dug out of the once-confidential documents first, but these are the first impressions left.

First of all, Mark Udall's campaign manager Mike Melanson is listed on an exclusive CoDA invite list as part of the "strategy group." The same person Udall trusts to craft his strategy is someone affiliated with the strategy of educating racial minorities as "idiots." All right.

Next, the AFL-CIO, the labor union assigned by its role as an "institutional member" in the Colorado Democracy Alliance to "Educate the [minority and dropout] Idiots," has given nearly $50,000 to candidate Mark Udall, according to the Federal Election Commission. It's not like Udall is unfamiliar with the agenda of "increasing union power", after all.

(Then again, what's a little more money from tainted sources for Mark Udall?)

And finally, there's a family connection:

Also involved in the operation of CoDA is a group called America Votes, an organization which until recently was run by U.S. Senate candidate Mark Udall's wife, Maggie Fox. A September 21, 2006 high-level CoDA "election protection" meeting was held at America Votes' offices during Fox's tenure (PDF).

None of these facts puts a lot of confidence in Mark Udall's judgment, integrity, or choice of friends. But then again, Mike Melanson, Maggie Fox, and AFL-CIO leaders could come forward and clear the record, if they wish.

Is Mark Udall Trying to Airbrush the Facts on Wikipedia?

Update (8/23): In the interest of fairness and accuracy, it is important to note that the description of the action in the quoted selection as "eliminated" is incorrect. As clarified on Politicker CO, the actions of the Udall staffer were to dispute the neutrality of the Wikipedia passage that connected the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) ads with Udall's wife, Maggie Fox - not to delete the passages. This fact essentially nullifies the significance of this particular post, except to remind readers of the relevant LCV connection.

Over at The Colorado Index, a watcher has done some valuable firsthand research and found that Mark Udall's paid "online communications director" Michael Ditto is tampering with Wikipedia entries to airbrush certain relevant facts:

Unsurprisingly, he doesn't want Wikipedia readers to know about the close connection between Maggie Fox, Mark Udall's wife, and the League of Conservation Voters. He has eliminated references to that connection twice.

"I tagged this section as disputed because it's not relevant that LCV does business with an organization that used to be headed by Mark Udall's wife." [Quote from Ditto]

LCV never mentioned Bob Schaffer in the six years he was out of office, but in 2008 he comes up third on their dirty dozen list and LCV's connection with Mark Udall's wife isn't relevant? No one will buy that when they understand that a Mark Udall staffer wrote it while trying to hide his identity.

In fact, at least through June, the League of Conservation Voters overwhelmingly spent money to attack Bob Schaffer and barely scratched anyone else on their so-called "dirty dozen list." A watcher also could have mentioned that LCV incurred $180,000 in fines for campaign violations after the 2006 election.

That Mark Udall is paying a staffer in an attempt to hide this information from the public should be concerning, and worthy of at least a little MSM attention.

Washington Times: Big Oil Smear Backfiring on Big Blue Lie Machine

Reading an article like this one from today's Washington Times must make the folks at ProgressNow feel deservedly silly and their favored candidate Mark Udall just plain hopping mad:

Bob Schaffer's opponents have spent the past two months tarring him as "Big Oil Bob," an advocate of oil drilling and an energy-industry insider. Maybe he should thank them.

Two polls show Mr. Schaffer, the Colorado Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, has erased a double-digit deficit and pulled within a nose of Democratic foe Mark Udall.

The reason, according to one poll, lies in fuel prices. Since gas hit $4 a gallon here, a majority of Colorado voters have come out in favor of offshore oil drilling and exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, said a Quinnipiac Poll released last week.

At the same time, Mr. Schaffer went from trailing Mr. Udall by 10 percentage points in June - 49 percent to 39 percent - to a 44 percent to 44 percent tie in July. The June survey of 1,351 likely Colorado voters had an error margin of 2.7 percentage points; the July poll of 1,425 likely voters had a 2.6-point margin.

ProgressNow of course has reason to feel silly, having spent so much time and money on a full-fledged Internet campaign to tar the candidate they hate as "Big Oil Bob." The absurdity of their facile ad campaign had been pointed out as early as April.

And why might Mark Udall be angry? Besides the plummeting poll numbers? Perhaps his wife Maggie Fox's intimate connection with the 527 group League of Conservation Voters so singularly obsessed with tarring Bob Schaffer?

Politics is a fickle game. At some point, enough of the public comes to see through the deception - though the ill winds may yet again work against common sense and decency for a time. But for now, it's sure funny to see the tar blow back on the Big Blue Lie Machine.

So Mark Udall Has a History of Questionable Campaign Activities...

We recently posted about the connection between Mark Udall's wife Maggie Fox and the third-party League of Conservation Voters, a group spending hundreds of thousands on attack ads against Bob Schaffer. Rocky Mountain Right follows up, pointing out that such potential coordination wouldn't be the first time for Udall:

One has to wonder the extent of shady impropriety that is occuring between Udall and these left-wing environmentalist groups this year given his past history. In 1998, The Sierra Club was caught "loaning" staff members to Mark Udall's congressional campaign even as Mark Udall's wife was regional representative for the organization.

Read the whole post for details.

Of course, it probably doesn't hurt to mention one more time that not only does Mark Udall have a history of "shady dealings," but so does the League of Conservation Voters - fined $180,000 for illegal activities in 2006.

Mark Udall's Wife Closely Tied to Group Unloading Attack Ads at Bob Schaffer

Mark Udall has built a nine-point polling lead with the tremendous help of a heavy barrage of third-party attack ads. But after a closer look, one can't help but ask if the group's heavy smear strategy is being done as payback for Udall's wife Maggie Fox, or perhaps the result of some collusion with the Boulder liberal candidate.

Clearly, the hypocrisy of Maggie Fox's profitable connections to Mega Fossil Fuel producer Progress Energy is magnified by other connections not yet examined by reporters covering the Schaffer-Udall campaign. An intrepid reader brought my attention to the fact that Fox recently served as president of the group America Votes - a "group that coordinated get-out-the-vote efforts among liberal groups in the 2006 election" (Bara Vaida, “All For One, One For All,” National Journal, March 10, 2007). Fox held the post until she stepped down last June (“Names In The News,” Commercial Appeal, June 4, 2007).

The America Votes "progressive" coalition includes a whole slew of the standard Left-wing groups, such as ACORN, Emily's List, People for the American Way, Colorado's own ProgressNow Action, and the League of Conservation Voters.

Wait, League of Conservation Voters (LCV) ... hmm, where have we heard that name before? That's right, the group throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Bob Schaffer for his alleged nefarious ties to "Big Oil." (Also the group that recorded $180,000 in campaign fines during the 2006 election.)

In fact, it seems LCV has a singular obsession with Bob Schaffer, whose name they have put on their "Dirty Dozen" list (with three other names - hey, math isn't their strong suit, leave them alone). Federal Election Commission reports indicate that LCV has spent nearly $637,000 attacking Schaffer and not a nickel attacking any of the three other candidates on their "Dirty [Not Quite Half-]Dozen" list.

If you live in Colorado, most likely you've seen the obnoxious ad played over and over on local television. And ProgressNow Action - also part of the America Votes coalition - has plastered the web pages of local major newspapers with a similar silly anti-Schaffer smear.

That leaves us with at least a couple relevant questions: What relationship does Maggie Fox - and by extension Mark Udall - still have to LCV or ProgressNow? To what extent might this relationship dictate the obsessive attack strategy against Bob Schaffer?

Yet, instead of the sound of journalists' steps hot on the trail of this story, methinks I hear crickets chirping....

Mark Udall's Hypocrisy on "Big Oil" Attacks Made Clear Through Wife's Investments

Today's Denver Post headline misses the point: "Udall's wife invested in renewables". From the story:

Maggie Fox last year purchased between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of PowerShares Exchange Traded Fund Wilderhill Clean Energy, according to a financial disclosure released Monday.

Fox also held between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of Progress Energy Inc., a Fortune 250 energy company pursuing renewable energy technologies. Most of the electricity it produces, however, still comes from oil, gas and coal. [emphasis added]

Dick Wadhams raised the point, but the Post story let it go:

Wadhams said it was "deep hypocrisy" that Udall "attacks Big Oil while the Udall family personally profited from Big Oil stocks."

One watchdog-group spokesman, however, said there isn't a clear conflict.

The primary issue here is not about conflict of interest, but about public hypocrisy.

Both Aspect Energy where Bob Schaffer worked and Progress Energy from which Mark Udall's wife profited both produce most of their energy from traditional fossil fuels. Both companies also invest in developing renewable energy sources (Bob Schaffer himself was active in promoting renewable energy development in his role with CHx Capital, part of Aspect Energy). What's the difference between the two companies, beyond public relations and political consciousness?

How about the relative size of the two companies? Aspect Energy brought in about $360 million in 2007. Progress Energy reported $9 billion-plus in 2007 operating revenues, about 25 times larger. If Aspect Energy is Big Oil, Progress Energy must be Gargantuan Oil.

And Progress Energy, which provides utilities directly to Florida consumers, has recently sought a rate hike on the families and businesses who get electricity from its oil and gas production. Is Mark Udall's wife profiting off Big Oil exploitation of hard-working Americans?

Simply put, No, unless you buy into the populist demagoguery that Mark Udall and his pro-Democrat surrogates have been practicing. But the hypocrisy and duplicity of those complaining about Bob Schaffer's ties to "Big Oil" - and silent on Maggie Fox's ties to a bigger producer of fossil fuels - are now writ large over this campaign.

Maggie Fox to Change Her Name?

Don't know who Maggie Fox is? Neither did I, until today. Ever notice that the wives of major Democrat politicians never carry their husband's name until it is time to run for major office, and how quickly, after the election, they go back to their maiden name?