{"id":10192,"date":"2016-01-30T09:40:09","date_gmt":"2016-01-30T16:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=10192"},"modified":"2016-01-30T09:40:09","modified_gmt":"2016-01-30T16:40:09","slug":"documents-detail-anti-union-groups-election-activities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/01\/documents-detail-anti-union-groups-election-activities\/","title":{"rendered":"Documents detail anti-union group’s election activities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Motl\"

John S. Adams\/Montana Free Press<\/p>

Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl identifies an email that NRTWC executive director Jedd Coburn sent to Allison LeFer containing text to be used for candidate “issue letters.”<\/p><\/div>\n

HELENA \u2013 Thousands of newly uncovered documents and recently filed court records bolster the already mounting evidence tying the anti-union National Right to Work Committee<\/a> to the political activities of conservative nonprofit groups accused of improperly coordinating <\/a>Republican legislative primary campaigns in Montana.<\/p>\n

Emails, documents and affidavits recently obtained by Montana’s commissioner of political practices<\/a> paint a detailed picture of how the national anti-union group oversaw the activities of American Tradition Partnership<\/a>, the group at the center of allegations of illegal third-party influence in Montana Republican primary campaigns in 2008, 2010 and 2012.<\/p>\n

The National Right to Work Committee is a 501(c)4 \u201csocial welfare\u201d group that, according to the IRS<\/a>, is not supposed to engage in \u201cdirect or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
Hot off the Free Press<\/h5>\n

This story appeared originally on Montana Free Press<\/a>, an independent, nonprofit news organization that deserves your support.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tens of thousands of pages of emails obtained by Montana Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl show a link between top NRTWC officials and political campaign activities in Montana.<\/p>\n

A former NRTWC employee said in a sworn affidavit filed in Helena District Court that NRTWC staff was relocated to Montana to work on the 2010 primary campaign and their work was overseen by the political director of the national organization, Dimitri Kesari. Emails provided to Motl show that National Right to Work executive director Jedd Coburn was in regular communication with the groups doing political work in Montana and provided text for candidates\u2019 campaign materials.<\/p>\n

Motl said this latest trove of information is significant because it proves ATP was not acting as an independent issue advocacy organization, as the group claimed, but was instead part of a massive, coordinated campaign machine funded by an out-of state organization with the goal of changing the make-up of the Montana Legislature.<\/p>\n

\"Christian

Christian LeFer as he appears on his Twitter profile.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cChristian LeFer was here as a field operative for National Right to Work. Once you get there, then National Right to Work\u2019s central role is more apparent,\u201d Motl said. \u201cI don\u2019t think you can underestimate the significance, or the threat, that a coordinated, funded, centralized corporate-take-over of candidates poses (to elections).\u201d<\/p>\n

Motl said in 2008, when Western Tradition Partnership first emerged on the scene in Montana, and in 2010 when the group changed its name to American Tradition Partnership, most people, including a previous commissioner of political practices, believed the group was an independent entity.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see from looking at all of these documents that it wasn\u2019t,\u201d Motl said.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the National Right to Work Committee did not return multiple phone calls or emails seeking comment for this story. Christian LeFer, who was the director of Montana Citizens for Right to work and ran two political nonprofits in Montana, also did not respond to email inquiries.<\/p>\n

According to a U.S. Senate lobbying disclosure database<\/a>, NRTWC spent more than $42 million between 1999 and 2016 lobbying the Senate to pass a national \u201cRight to Work\u201d bill. Dimitri Kesari was one of the group\u2019s top lobbyists in Washington, D.C., during most of that period. Montana is one of the few Western states without a \u201cright-to-work\u201d law. Such laws prohibit labor unions from requiring employees to join the union or pay dues as a condition of employment.<\/p>\n

LeFer\u2019s Montana nonprofit group Western Tradition Partnership made national headlines in 2012 when Frontline and ProPublica reported about boxes of documents<\/a> that revealed how the organization coordinated with Republican legislative candidates.<\/p>\n

\"WTP_ATP\"

Western Tradition Partnership in 2010 changed its name to American Tradition Partnership.<\/p><\/div>\n

WTP is also the group that successfully sued the state in 2011<\/a> and eventually overturned Montana\u2019s 100-year-old ban on corporate spending<\/a> in elections.<\/p>\n

Former staffers and interns who worked for WTP, its successor group American Tradition Partnership, and Christian and Allison LeFer, the Colorado couple who ran those organizations and a host of other political groups, turned over thousands of emails to Motl as part of an investigation leading up to a civil lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Motl is suing Bozeman Republican Rep. Art Wittich<\/a> in Helena District Court, alleging Wittich broke Montana campaign finance laws by accepting illegal corporate campaign contributions. Motl alleges WTP\/ATP and other groups provided coordinated campaign services to Wittich and other conservative Republican candidates at little or no cost to the candidates.<\/p>\n

Wittich has denied the allegations, saying he paid for the services he was provided. He has accused Motl of engaging in a \u201cpolitical witch hunt<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

That case is scheduled to go to jury trial March 28.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Motl made the email documents available for inspection by reporters in response to a series of public information requests from the Montana Free Press and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.<\/p>\n

Some of the documents in the emails tying NRTWC to WTP\/ATP\u2019s Montana primary campaign activities include:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Emails showing NRTWC\u2019s executive director, Jedd Coburn, wrote the text of \u201cissue letters\u201d on behalf of Montana Republican legislative candidates.<\/li>\n
  • Emails showing Christian and Allison LeFer, a.k.a. Allie Andrews, and their staff were in regular communication with Coburn and other NRTWC staff and officers regarding WTP\/ATP campaign activities.<\/li>\n
  • Emails showing that Dimitri Kesari, who was the director of NRTWC\u2019s government affairs department, conducted candidate training seminars in Bozeman for ATP-vetted candidates, and a \u201cCampaign Training School\u201d in a Chicago suburb for NRTWC field staff, which Christian LeFer attended.<\/li>\n
  • Emails showing the LeFers and other WTP\/ATP staff worked with Kesari on various projects, including a candidate \u201ctarget list.”<\/li>\n
  • Written statements indicating that ATP\/WTP staffers were paid by NRTWC, and that Kesari \u201cultimately cuts checks\u201d to LeFer and other ATP staffers.<\/li>\n
  • A sworn affidavit by former NRTWC employee Dennis Fusaro stating that NRTWC sent four staffers to Montana to work for LeFer in 2010.<\/li>\n
  • A sworn statement by Fusaro that the NRTWC staff, provided \u201clabor, skilled services (e.g. computer work, copy writing), printing, mail preparation, and equipment usage for the benefit of candidates at reduced costs and even, at times, free.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • A sworn statement by Fusaro that NRTWC ran, and paid for, a direct mail program and conducted phone banking on behalf of candidates.<\/li>\n
  • Emails showing that NRTWC communications director Jeremy Dahl provided \u201cwalk lists\u201d and \u201cissue id\u2019d lists\u201d and other valuable voter information to candidates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Many of the highlights of the emails come from Andrew O\u2019Neill, a staffer who worked on graphics and website design on behalf of WTP\/ATP and the various campaign services corporations run by the LeFers.<\/p>\n

    A review of the emails indicates O\u2019Neill was deeply involved in the day-to-day operations of the organizations centered on GOP legislative campaigns. The emails indicate O\u2019Neill and other WTP\/ATP staffers had regular communication with the LeFers and high-level NRTWC officials surrounding the campaigns of Republican legislative candidates.<\/p>\n

    In one of the emails, a document details the offerings of a turn-key campaign operation called Smart Simple Campaigns which says: \u201cEVERYTHING BELOW WE DO FOR INVITEES IS FREE OR AT COST.\u201d<\/p>\n

    In another email, Christian LeFer invited 26 Republican legislative candidates to a candidate-training seminar in Bozeman.<\/p>\n

    \u201cYour campaign’s effectiveness and your ability to recruit volunteers, and fundraise will immensely benefit, money-back guaranteed,\u201d the email states, adding, \u201cPlease do not forward\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

    Motl said that is the main problem with the operation: The NRTWC-affiliated groups in Montana provided services and labor to certain candidates without disclosing what was done or how much was spent. In some cases, the documents show, those groups gave away those services for free.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe significant thing for Montanans is that in the 2010 Montana Republican primary elections, there was a group that consistently sought privacy with the candidates it was working with, and provided those candidates services that were compensated by paid professional staff with the payment being from the National Right to Work Committee to those staff people,\u201d Motl said.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThose paid staff provided sophisticated, targeted voter id lists for the legislative districts that candidates were running in. They provided walking lists for the candidates. They did graphics for the candidates; they built websites. And the candidates didn\u2019t pay for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Andrew O’Neill’s emails<\/h2>\n

    2,101 pages selected from some 14,000 pages submitted to Motl<\/h4>\n
    <\/div>\n