Political consultant Kevin Collins pleads guilty to dirty tricks in 2009 N.J. Assembly GOP primary

Kevin Collins of Brooklyn, a political consultant, pleaded guilty Tuesday to arranging for deceptive “robocalls” to be made to over 12,000 voters in Bergen, Passaic and Essex counties, attacking the two Republican incumbents in the June 2009 primary race for state Assembly in the 40th District.

Collins, 41, formerly of Wood-Ridge, pleaded guilty to the dirty tricks ploy before state Superior Court Judge Donna Gallucio in Paterson to a criminal complaint charging him with violating the state Fair Campaign Practices Act, a disorderly persons offense.

Under a plea agreement, Gallucio immediately sentenced Collins to one year of probation and ordered him to pay a $1,000 fine.

Collins was also ordered, as a condition of probation, to apologize in writing to the primary victim of the deceptive robocalls, Ann Mary O’Rourke, former chief of staff to Assemblyman Scott Rumana (R-Passaic).

In return, the state dismissed a fourth-degree charge of impersonation contained in a June 17, 2010 indictment. The charges resulted from an investigation by the state Division of Criminal Justice and the State Police.

Collins, who was a paid political consultant for Republican challengers…

Obama to propose corporate tax rate of 28 percent

(Reuters) – The Obama administration on Wednesday will propose cutting the top tax rate for corporations to 28 percent, and pay for it by eliminating dozens of tax loopholes companies now use to lower their rates, a senior administration official said.

…Analyst Greg Valliere of Potomac Research Group called the timing a “cynical ploy” given that Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is expected to release his own tax reform plan shortly, as he struggles to fend off rival Rick Santorum for the Republican nomination to face Obama in November.

…The last major rewrite of the tax code came in 1986 under Republican President Ronald Reagan, who raised corporate taxes. Talk of tax reform has dominated the presidential campaign.

…Corporations are clamoring for a cut in the top rate of 35 percent. While that level is one of the world’s highest, few U.S. corporations actually pay it due to assorted loopholes that make their effective tax rates lower.

Pa. General Assembly considering bill to require ultrasounds for women seeking abortion

The Pennsylvania General Assembly is considering legislation that would require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound.
State Reps. Bob Godshall, R-53rd District, and Marcy Toepel, R-147th District, are listed as co-sponsors of the Women’s Right to Know Act.
The legislation in the state House of Representatives — introduced by Kathy Rapp, a Republican representing Forest, McKean and Warren counties — has been placed on the legislative calendar for debate, according to state Rep. Matt Bradford, D-70th District.The bill — advanced from the Health Committee in the state House on Feb. 6 — would force women to undergo the procedure at least 24 hours before an abortion is to be performed. And that a photo of the ultrasound be placed within the patient’s line of sight and given the opportunity to listen to the fetal heart.

Inserting something into the vagina of an unwilling woman is a violation in every sense of the word. But not to a [gop] majority of Virginia’s Senate.

Luntz jabs at Obama during Santorum campaign stop: ‘Run, Barack, Run’ sticker goes on the front bumper (video)

Frank Luntz, Republican strategist, made cracks about President Barack Obama’s sprinting capabilities and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s marriage at a GOP gathering Monday night.

Luntz spoke before GOP Presidential candidate Rick Santorum made an appearance at the annual Kent County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. He joked a bit to warm up the room.

“I actually have a ‘Run, Barack, Run’ bumper sticker, but I put it on the front of my car,” Luntz said.

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

February 21, 2012

Romney Says Cutting Spending Will Slow Growth

Mitt Romney said that cutting spending slows growth in the economy — the “sort of comment was sure to raise the eyebrows of fiscal conservatives in the GOP, who have long preached a message of fiscal restraint as a path to economic growth,” NBC News reports.

Said Romney: “If you just cut, if all you’re thinking about doing is cutting spending, as you cut spending you’ll slow down the economy. So you have to, at the same time, create pro-growth tax policies.”

Billionaire Sheldon Adelson Says He Might Give $100M To Newt Gingrich Or Other Republican

…Adelson, the 78-year-old CEO of casino giant Las Vegas Sands,  certainly can afford to: With a net worth of roughly $25 billion, that $11 million, which jolted Gingrich’s flatlining presidential bid back to life, equates to 0.044% of his fortune. For someone with a $1 million net worth, the equivalent would be $440, or a two-night stay at Adelson’s Venetian casino. Adelson could personally fund an entire presidential campaign—say, $1 billion or so—and not even notice.

Is that fair? “I’m against very wealthy ­people attempting to or influencing elections,” he shrugs. “But as long as it’s doable I’m going to do it.

Why not, it’s less than a week’s income for this American.

…The speech is from a 2008 event at Ave Maria College in Florida, where Santorum notes that America was founded upon a Christian philosophy but “the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant one.” “We look at the shape of mainline protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it,” he concludes.

Plea deal in Fiesta Bowl case

Attorney: Junker to admit donation deal

John Junker, the Fiesta Bowl’s former chief executive, is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to a felony for his role in a fraudulent political campaign-contribution scheme that cost him his job and rocked the post-season college football world.

Junker will agree to a plea bargain with the Arizona attorney general in which he will admit to soliciting campaign contributions from Fiesta Bowl employees who were later reimbursed with bowl funds, defense attorney Stephen Dichter told The Arizona Republic on Saturday.

Such reimbursements are illegal under state law.

…Precise details of the plea bargains have not been disclosed, except that Dichter said Junker would plead guilty to a Class 4 felony in the state case. A conviction on that charge has a presumptive sentence of 2 ½ years, but there is a possibility of probation.

Fiesta Bowl employees say bowl repaid political contributions

CEO John Junker denies repayments, which would violate election laws

by Craig Harris – Dec. 18, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

…Past and present Fiesta Bowl employees have told The Arizona Republic they were encouraged to write checks to specific candidates and were reimbursed by the bowl.

Such reimbursement would violate state and federal laws that prohibit funneling corporate campaign contributions through individuals. Participants could be charged with misdemeanors and felonies.

John Junker, the Fiesta Bowl’s chief executive, said employees never were reimbursed and the bowl did not orchestrate donations.

More than $38,000 in campaign contributions have been made since 2000 by 14 Fiesta Bowl employees.

Those contributions come on top of the $4 million the Fiesta Bowl spent during the same period on lobbyists, trips, dinners and golf retreats to build relationships with athletic officials who control the Bowl Championship Series and to garner support from politicians.

…The Fiesta Bowl also spends money to win and maintain support with Arizona legislators.

Since 2000, records show, the Fiesta Bowl has spent nearly $1.5 million on firms registered with the Arizona Secretary of State as lobbyists for the bowl.

Much of the money has gone to Husk Partners, which, records show, began working for the bowl in 2000. Husk Partners hired Chuck Coughlin, another registered lobbyist, who has worked on behalf of the bowl since April 2005. Coughlin also is an adviser to Gov. Jan Brewer.

…On the bowl’s behalf, the registered lobbyists offer lawmakers free tickets to the Fiesta Bowl and since at least 2004 have coordinated out-of-state trips for legislators, according to interviews and public records. The trips include airfare, hotel and food, and they have cost the Fiesta Bowl more than $4,000 per trip, according to Secretary of State lobbying records. It’s legal to pay for trips and offer free Fiesta Bowl tickets.

…No other BCS bowl takes their state lawmakers on football trips.

…One Arizona lawmaker who has taken these trips is Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa.

“I go to help,” Pearce said.

Fiesta Bowl Spending and Donations Questioned

By KATIE THOMAS

Published: March 29, 2011

Top executives at the Fiesta Bowl funneled campaign contributions to local politicians, flew other Arizona elected officials around the country at the bowl’s expense, racked up a $1,200 bill at a strip club and even spent $30,000 on a birthday party for the chief executive, according to an investigative report commissioned by the bowl’s board of directors.

The most serious revelations involve nearly a dozen employees who told investigators that the chief executive and others working for the bowl, the host of one of the nation’s pre-eminent college football games, encouraged them to make political contributions, then reimbursed them with sham bonus payments. Some said they were then pressured to lie about the practice.

…The Fiesta Bowl executives did not limit their political activity to campaign contributions. The Fiesta Bowl sometimes paid to cater political fund-raisers at the Fiesta Bowl Museum, including one in 2007 for State Representative Jim Weiers, who was then the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, and one in 2009 for W. J. Lane, the mayor of Scottsdale, who is known as Jim. Junker apparently knew that hosting such events was forbidden because he warned his assistant against sending out invitations using a Fiesta Bowl e-mail address, the report said.

In a telephone interview, Lane said that Fiesta Bowl officials offered to hold the event but that he did not know who paid for it. If the bowl paid, he said, “it’s not something we generally would be involved in.”

…A beneficiary of the trips was Russell Pearce, the State Senate president, a Republican who has gained a national profile over the past year for writing Arizona’s controversial immigration law. Pearce and his wife, LuAnne, traveled to Chicago in 2005 to attend a Northwestern-Michigan game and stayed at the Ritz-Carlton. He and his wife also traveled to Boston on a similar trip with his son in 2008, according to the report.

Pearce did not return three calls for comment.

Angela Holt, one of the bowl’s financial officers, told investigators she had found no documentation to show that the politicians had reimbursed the bowl for the cost of the trips.

…The report uncovered many new details about the campaign contribution practice. Most of the contributions were to Arizona state lawmakers and local city councilors, although Junker and his wife, Susan, were reimbursed for two contributions totaling $4,200 to Senator John McCain of Arizona in 2007, investigators found.

Candidate for Bell County sheriff ineligible to serve

One of the four Republican candidates seeking to become Bell County sheriff would be ineligible to serve as a peace officer in Texas if elected.

In 2005, Keith Lee pleaded guilty to a felony charge of injury to an elderly man during a dispute about his dog. He received two years deferred adjudication, which he successfully completed.

While the felony conviction never went on Lee’s record, the guilty plea still prevents the homebuilder from becoming a law enforcement officer in Texas, according to the rules of the state licensing agency…

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Paul Babeu’s Mexican Ex-Lover Says Sheriff’s Attorney Threatened Him With Deportation

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times.

The latest of the alleged threats were made through Babeu’s personal attorney, who’s also running the sheriff’s campaign for Congress in District 4, the ex-lover says.

He says lawyer Chris DeRose demanded he sign an agreement that he would never breathe a word about the affair. But Jose (New Times is withholding his last name because Babeu and his attorney have challenged his legal status) refused.

The 34-year-old from central Mexico charges that the sheriff’s lawyer warned against mentioning the affair with Babeu. DeRose said gossip about Babeu would focus attention on Jose, attention that could result in his deportation, Jose says.

Melissa Weiss-Riner, Jose’s attorney, confirms her client’s account.

Sheriff Paul for Congress

It’s time to send a true conservative to Washington, DC

Build the danged fence.

It’s about time more gops come out of the closet. Good for him. Too bad about his boyfriend’s charges, though.