Showing posts with label negative campaigning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label negative campaigning. Show all posts

Sunday, November 18, 2012

James Poulos adroitly connects-the-dots at Forbes.com re 2012 GOP's campaign's strategic/marketing mistakes, and suggests that while much of what Romney criticized (lamented) about Obama playing Identity Politics and patronizing Santa Claus to many niche voters is 100% true, GOP can't win by singing Blues re Obamanomics or chorus of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Needy, Young & Dumb Single Women Voters?"; @jamespoulos


VOAvideo YouTube Channel: VOA's Jeffrey Young examines so-called "Identity Politics" in this segment of "How America Elects." Uploaded June 20, 2012.
http://youtu.be/a0Hui4sEBfI

James Poulos adroitly connects-the-dots at Forbes.com re 2012 GOP's campaign's strategic/marketing mistakes, and suggests that while much of what Romney criticized (lamented) about Obama playing Identity Politics and patronizing Santa Claus to many niche voters is 100% true, GOP can't win by singing Blues re Obamanomics or chorus of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Needy, Young & Dumb Single Women Voters?"
This afternoon I read a Forbes.com column, below, that for all practical purposes is the book-end to that earlier Mark Hendrickson piece at Forbes.com that I mentioned this morning, regarding what I perceived to be the self-serving motives of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and many other GOP pols and consultants' jabs at Mitt Romney, and in particular, Jindal's unfortunate moth-like affinity for TV news cameras, as if lack of exposure was his real problem.

Bobby Jindal's Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma


Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard



Forbes.com
Romney's 'Gifts' Gaffe Highlights GOP Confusion On Obamanomics
WASHINGTON  
11/15/2012 @ 11:43AM
By James Poulos
Having not particularly relished telling donors what they wanted to hear during the campaign, Romney has now taken his lumps in the thankless task of telling them what they want to hear afterward.
Read the rest of the column at:


His honesty in this think piece about the Obama campaign's use of identity politics stands in stark contrast to many reporters, columnists and pundits who are twisting themselves into uncomfortable pretzels to deny that it was used, even though it was both obvious and successful.
I encourage you to start following him because unlike many better-known pundits, like those seen on MSNBCPoulos doesn't ask you to deny what you know about human behavior or to deny what your own eyes can see -Obama & Co. used identity politics and it worked.

But will that formula actually work for non-African-American, non-presidential Democratic candidates for office?
In my opinion, no.
I believe it was unique to Obama and has no transferability, which is why much of the crowing I've seen and heard from many national Dems I usually respect, and in some cases actually know, who are drawing all sorts of conclusions and over-reaching on some of the implications of Election Day, reminds me of young kids patiently building sand castles at the beach with their plastic buckets and shovels.

Kids, there's a wave out there in the ocean that you can't even see now, and guess what?
It's got very big plans for your castle and all your carefully-laid plans.

------

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard


Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal gets played and walks into quicksand, led by CNN's Wolf Blitzer in his condemnation of Mitt Romney: 'We Don't Win Elections By Insulting Voters.' Jindal doesn't seem to fully appreciate the fact that if he were being equally critical of President Obama in his public comments as he was of Mitt Romney prior to his appearance here, he wouldn't be appearing on TV at all. Someone as experienced in dealing with the news media as Jindal should be smart enough to appreciate that he is on TV specifically because he fits the post-election Mainstream Media narrative, but he doesn't. Why? Is the lure of the red light on the camera that powerful to him? sadly, it would appear so, since it's easy to see that when he says something in the future that the same news media wants to exaggerate or misrepresent because it doesn't jibe with the narrative that they want to put forth to the country, who does Jindal think will help him when he's complaining about being left out to dry, the Republican governors? Hardly. It's so damn laughable.
And you'll notice that Jindal is so concentrated on blasting Romney and mouthing high-minded feel-good cliches that he never has the good sense to pivot and turn things around by saying, matter of factly, "On the other hand, Wolf, I sure don't envy you and CNN and the rest of the Beltway media on Inauguration Day trying to remind your viewers what the big idea or ideas proposed by President Obama during the campaign were. You know, the ideas or plans that you and CNN presumably plan on holding him to account for in the new year. No, I don't envy you because there weren't any.
" Nope! There's none of that sort of quick thinking on his feet. LOL! 
Uploaded November 15, 2012. http://youtu.be/IUsXAseSeXg
Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard

The Mark Hendrickson column at Forbes.com that I received late Friday night was clearly written before Friday morning's New Orleans Times-Picayune editorial blasting Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal for resisting creating an Obamacare health insurance exchange.


Forbes.com
Bobby Jindal's Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma



New Orleans Times-Picayune
Gov. Jindal is ignoring his people's needs: Editorial

In my opinion, despite all his many admirable qualities and talents, it's likely that Bobby Jindal will STILL likely be trying to reason with the national news media and East Coast elites over the next few years even as they're verbally lynching him by twisting his words and making him seem either ridiculous or dangerous (or both) in ways that he, his friends and supporters can't even imagine now.
Well after the point that it's been clear to me and many others I know that those elites are "just not that into him."

To them, Jindal's an interesting oddity, the fish-out-of-water that complicates their usual patronizing view of The South, so far from the norms of Manhattan and the Beltway.
He's the human anecdote to bring out when important guests come over and you've got the fine china out on the table and want to show you're refined.

For such a very smart guy, remarkable actually, he displays an air of unreality about him at times that's positively frightening, almost childlike, and truly disconnected from the political history of the past 25 years in this country, where people like him are left on the side of the road.

It's as if Jindal thinks -not unlike John Edwards or Bill Clinton- that he can single-handedly talk anyone and everyone he meets into agreeing that he's not only uniquer-than-unique, but also quite correct on the public policy as well.

In many uncomfortable ways, to me, after years of seeing interviews with him on every matter of policy shows and forums and reading what he's written, Jindal seems like Exhibit A from Central Casting in what radio host Rush Limbaugh regularly says about a certain sub-set of Republican pols and consultants who care, desperately, about what the Beltway news media and pundit class think about him.

Just like former GOP senator from Wyoming, Alan Simpson, who was never more popular with the Beltway and East Coast MSM than when he was publicly disparaging the House Republicans in the '90's, esp. Newt Gingrich.
As I know even better, that was especially the role carved out by the media for Indina Senator  Richard Lugar, who for so many years played the role of shadow Secretary of State, even while taking things for granted back in Indiana, where I went to school.
It's also one of the chief reasons he lost the GOP primary to Richard Mourdock in a landslide

Sen. Lugar had become the very picture of the media-absorbed pol, albeit a very smart and articulate one, and it was hard fro me not to notice, even before I came back to South Florida in 2003, that he was increasingly getting on TV, on the front pages of major newspapers or being cited in Thomas L. Friedman columns not because of what he had to say about foreign policy, but because he was so consistently willing to publicly criticize other Republicans' policies or ideas.
The MSM found him a 'useful idiot' for their purposes of supporting Democratic policies.

All of that is something that was discussed back on May 16th in a post titled, Richard Mourdock: Precursor or anomaly? Greg Garrison and Charlie Cook adroitly pinpoint where Sen. Richard Lugar eventually lost his way, started losing the trust of Hoosier voters, then lost in a landslide due to the dis-connect. Points largely lost on a predictably apoplectic Beltway MSM
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/richard-mourdock-precursor-or-anomaly.html

What Limbaugh says about that is 100% true, in large part because it's simple human
nature, as I witnessed for 15 years while living and working in D.C. with many Republican
friends who were staffers who worked for bosses on The Hill or the agencies who were constantly being fooled into thinking that someone in the Beltway media and Think Tank Cool Crowd really liked them.

Who doesn't want to be liked? 
That was the central conceit with many new younger male Members of Congress, many of whom were fortunate to be born with either  connections, money or good looks because they sure WEREN'T very bright.
They were so used to people deferring to them that they couldn't tell when they were being played.

Those folks didn't like them, of course, they just wanted to have them around long enough to have some fun at their expense, before eventually tiring of them and sending them packing like Mean Girls -dismissed!

Unless he wises up pretty soon and recognizes reality and stops caring so much what the national news media thinks about him, that's Bobby Jindal's future -mockery and put-downs by the very news media that he so desperately wants to persuade thru his genuine brilliance.

Monday, August 6, 2012

With 13 weeks to go until Election Day, if you happen to see evidence in your part of Florida of the clumsy heavy-hand of Tallahassee lobbyist -and flashing red-light fethishist- Roger A. Pennington and his pals in an election campaign, please contact us!



With 13 weeks to go until Election Day, if you happen to see evidence in your part of Florida of the clumsy heavy-hand of Tallahassee lobbyist -and flashing red-light fethishist- Roger A. Pennington and his pals in an election campaign, please contact us!

We want to help shine a light on their efforts to manipulate, deceive and malign, even if it's far from our own poorly-governed and poorly-managed ocean-side city in South Florida, because we know instinctively that usually, but not always, more sunlight is the best disinfectant against those who wish to hide from public scrutiny.  



If you've forgotten who Pennington is and what he's about, I refer you to my October 30, 2010 blog post, The mystery man behind the pro-Alex Lewy 527 ad/flier attacks on Keith London; the multiple ethics rap sheet on lobbyist Roger A. Pennington
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/mystery-man-behind-pro-alex-lewy-527.html


The fliers pictured here were part of his failed effort to defeat Comm. Keith London's re-election effort in 2010.
Because London is not only running for mayor in November against the past ten-years of Mayor Joy Cooper's ruinous reign, but is actually eager to publicize and discuss her awful voting record in office, her chronic bad judgment, and her truly contemptible personal public behavior towards Hallandale Beach citizens at City Hall, those of us here who are in favor of genuine reform and meaningful accountability, know that it's only a matter of time before the likes of Pennington and his ilk, as well as other lobbyist pals of Cooper in Tallahassee, make a return visit to our mail boxes via their slick, untruthful and anonymous campaign fliers.

We're all waiting patiently for the first sign of this new wave of mendacity, because Cooper can't win when the largest number of HB voters know the facts and the context, she can only win when if she can successfully obfuscate, deceive and malign -and the news media obliges her by completely ignoring what's right in front of them.

To paraphrase what I said in that 2010 post... 
Supporters of Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew, past and present -William "Bill" Julian, Dotty Ross, Anthony A. Sanders and Alexander Lewylive in a strange and perplexing upside-down universe where the laws of logic and reason that you and your family deal with everyday, simply don't exist. 
For them, a better future for Hallandale Beach's residents, taxpayers and business owners is a 5-0 vote on the City Commission.
A future where even less oversight takes place than now, if you can imagine such a thing. How do you get less involved than auto-pilot?
A place where reasonable questions are never asked, much less, answered honestly by highly-paid and often under-performing city employees, and a place where the Cooper Rubber Stamp's pals and cronies like Joe Kessel, Dr. Debrorah Brown and Joe Johnson can always count on their support in the future when they have a hare-brained idea that is laughed at and rejected by local banks when they seek loans there.
They act like your tax dollars are a pot of gold that was just unearthed and it's first-come, first-served, and they plan on getting as much as possible.
But when you're on the HB City Commission, because of the CRA's monies, it's like being a member of the Loan Committee of a bank, isn't it? The applicant's idea or plan doesn't have to actually make sense, or even conform to the existing city rules, which you can always vote to over-ride anyway, right?
No, it only has to get the majority of votes cast by the City Commission. Which is why the Rubber Stamp Crew positively HATES questions.
Because questions have to be answered.
It's precisely because of the crony capitalism antics and failures of Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew that  Broward County Investigator General John W. Scott and his agents came  into the picture within the past few months, where naturally, the three with the most to fear from more citizens knowing what they were routinely doing, thought they'd challenge his legal authority using your tax dollars, not their own.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Economic fairness is a loser of an issue in 2012 presidential campaign: Bill O'Reilly and pollster Scott Rasmussen, separately, opine on why President Obama's negative TV attack ads on Mitt Romney's re his tenure at Bain Capital, while driving-up Romney's negatives among Democrats, are actually failing to move enough voters his way, as 62% of U.S. puts economic growth ahead of economic fairness



Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor with Bill O'Reilly
Talking Points: The real Barack Obama has finally stood up
July 19, 2012. http://video.foxnews.com/v/1743930340001/



Pollster Scott Rasmussen opines on why President Obama's negative TV attack ads on Mitt Romney's re his tenure at Bain Capital, while driving-up Romney's negatives among Democrats, are actually failing to sufficiently move enough numbers his way -while making Romney supporters and moderates more angry at Obama- as 62% of U.S. puts economic growth ahead of economic fairness


Rasmussen Reports

Bain Attacks Fail to Shake Up Presidential Race
A Commentary By Scott Rasmussen
Friday, July 20, 2012
Over the past few weeks, President Obama and his campaign team have launched a furious attack on Mitt Romney's record as head of Bain Capital, a highly successful venture capital firm.
There is clear evidence that the attacks have had some impact. 
Read the rest of the essay at:

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Rasmussen Reports

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Speaking of negative campaign ads and fliers, Bob Norman zeroes in on Ken Keechl's fight to stay on the Broward County Commission

Speaking of negative campaign ads and fliers as we have been the last few days, it wasn't until after the Dolphins at Bengals ballgame this afternoon -a snooze- that I got around to checking my Dashboard inbox to see what new pieces the blogs and websites I follow most closely had put out since early this morning, when I fell asleep listening to the BBC Radio's 5 live instead of ESPN's SportsCenter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_five_live

If I'd checked earlier, I might've linked to something in my last post that I believe is very worthwhile reading for everyone who comes here regularly, for reasons that I should hardly need to explain, given what I've written about and where we live: in the center of the culture of corruption.

Hallandale Beach in Broward County in the South Florida of 2010, the year where most of the South Florida news media was too busy telling us how bad they have it to actually do much in the way of first-rate or even basic reporting on city and county government, or doing shoe-leather reporting on local political campaigns.


Have so many articles on local campaign races ever been written almost entirely from the air-conditioned confines of One Herald Plaza or East Las Olas Blvd.?
In a word, no.


And forget any worthwhile print or TV investigations between Labor Day and Election day, right?

Oh, wait, didn't I predict that over the long hot summer?

Yes.


I mean how long has it been since the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes Bob Norman wrote his eye-opening Daily Pulp blog piece about the troubling behavior of Broward School chair Jennifer Gottlieb, and yet the two local newspapers and all 4 Anglo TV stations have preferred to just stay mum.
(Whether that's because of the pronounced aversion among the South Florida news media to go after female pols or govt. officials in quite the same way they go after male pols, is another post for another time, though it clearly does, as I've mentioned here previously. I'm hardly alone in this sentiment, since the lack of thoroughness is particularly pronounced among print and TV reporters in Miami covering public education issues.)

Instead, when not belly-aching and making excuses for their loust coverage, they have have gone DEFCON 1 to cover which celebs are going to the first of 41 Miami Heat home games, a game which at the end of the season, will count for no more than one played on Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's weekend or when they are resting the starters late in the interminably long season...
W
hich is to say, hardly at all.

The article that is positively must-read is this one by Bob Norman from this morning. It speaks for itself.

-----

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes

November Surprise: Keechl Camp Hits Gutter

By Bob Norman,
Sun., Oct. 31 2010 @ 6:00AM

Broward Mayor Ken Keechl appears to be getting desperate. He's certainly getting dirty.


Keechl camp's last-ditch negative ad campaign goes to a new low. Of course he won't take credit for it since it comes from one of those late-date 527 slush committees funded by a mega-lobbyist, a major developer, a construction contractor, and a county airport vendor.


Read the rest of the post at
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/

Irony: That's a hell of a view.
Did someone fire the webcam?

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-webcam3,0,3709944.htmlstory

What negative campaign ads? Two years later, this SNL skit about John McCain is STILL funny, esp. Bill Hader's sarcastic voice!

-----

-----

McCain Approves Open
Sen. McCain approves truth-enhanced negative campaign messages


http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live//video/McCain-Approves-Open/669582

The antidote to negative campaigning is laughter, mockery and stone-cold facts.


Here's a 2008 Saturday Night Live skit that does just that -sort of- with Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Darrell Hammond as U.S. Senator John McCain and Bill Hader as the creepy-yet-effective VO announcer.


I only wish that the 2010 campaign commercials I'd seen in the South Florida TV market were as clever and inspired as this skit.

Frankly, as much as people complain about them, I've seen a lot of TV ads that others thought were negative which I felt weren't so much negative -or as negative as they should've been considering who they were mocking- so much as poorly-produced and ham-handed, like the Joe Garcia ads for FL-25 against
David Rivera.

That's the House seat that
Mario Diaz-Balart abandoned in order to run for his retiring brother Lincoln's seat, FL-21, which the New York Times' campaign blog run by Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight, currently puts at precisely 99.5%.

Which is why those videos produced by
Scott Fortune that I mentioned here on Monday,
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-tv-ad-from-fairdistrictsfloridaorg.html
are so effective for the idea of ending gerrymandering, if not getting him into Congress from a ridiculously drawn district, FL-3.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ScottFortune4U

Facts and mockery cut thru the TV clutter every time.


http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/

http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/house/florida/25


http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/house/florida/21

http://www.nytimes.com/politics/

Saturday, October 30, 2010

The mystery man behind the pro-Alex Lewy 527 ad/flier attacks on Keith London; the multiple ethics rap sheet on lobbyist Roger A. Pennington


Is that an emergency siren/beacon I see in that flier and ad in the city-funded faux newspaper?Why yes it is, thanks for noticing.

Well, you know what that means don't you?
"Outside" political money is here in Hallandale Beach's elections.

To be specific Roger A. Pennington's Committee to Protect Florida.

He just loves the red siren/beacon graphic, using it over and over in various campaigns he's been a shadowy figure in throughout the state.

(See the St. Pete Times story at the bottom.)

Trust me, Pennington's money is NOT here on the side of the angels, or increased reform or accountability at Hallandale Beach City Hall, or even a dollar of service for a dollar of taxes.He's here to elect Alexander Lewy.
Period.

Even Bill Julian -yes, even Bill Julian- has told numerous people around town that he has nothing to do with the ads and fliers, and finds it offensive.
Which, using deductive reasoning, leaves us with exactly one suspect, doesn't it.
Yes, Code Name: Lewy the Liar
.

While I have no proof of it myself, there are plenty of usually well-informed people in town who strongly suggest that we all look closely for the hidden hand of
Lewy's mentor and campaign rainmaker, mayor Joy Cooper.
The reasoning is simple and well-understood.

Cooper
is as desperate, if not more so, to get
Keith London and his reasonable questions about finances, policies and accountability out of HB City Hall, as her protoge Alexander Lewy is desperate to sit there on the dais alongside her and be her newest puppet.
And paid-in-full member of the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew.

Plus, which Hallandale Beach city official goes to Tallahassee more than Joy Cooper?
Tallahassee, where Pennington and his 527 are based.
Hmmm-m-m....


For a very liberal Democrat like
Lewy, it's rather curious that he'd be in bed with the sort of deliberatively shadowy outside money types that's usually railed against by his soon-to-be-unemployed boss, Kendrick Meek.

But as I've already told you, Alexander Lewy is desperate, desperate, desperate to get elected here.

Not out of any great magnanimous desire to help the citizens of this city, mind you, but rather to help himself and take his first step in becoming a career politician.

(Which, naturally, is part of why I won't ever vote for him, besides him being such a loathsome character, and a genuine back-stabber who's completely untrustworthy. But then you already knew that.)

Besides, shadowy financing of negative ads against Tim Ryan and Ken Gottlieb worked for Eleanor Sobel's Florida Senate campaign to replace term-limited Steve Geller, didn't it?

Still, even if Cooper isn't involved, I have some very good hunches who is, based on a number of conversations with well-informed people who know about ECOs, including some reporters, who gave me a head's up on some information I didn't originally have.

Quick story about Roger A. Pennington, who in 2006 was charged with five counts of violating
Florida's campaign elections law while serving as Chair of an Electioneering Campaign Organization (ECO) called -if you can believe it- the Committee to Restore Integrity in Politics, CRIP.

No doubt because creating an ECO called "
Entrenched Interests Committed to Remaining Insiders" just wouldn't have sounded so appealing publicly.

Well, even more comically, Pennington signed a consent decree with the Florida Ethics Commission that he was guilty, admitting that he did illegal things, DESPITE having been given copies of the applicable rules beforehand.

He also admitted that he never contacted an attorney about the matters.


That's both a humorous and ironic admission because he's repped the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers for many years.

You'd think that if there was a lobbyist in Tallahassee who'd know the name of a good attorney,
or know when to contact one, it's him.
http://www.fec.state.fl.us/Final%20Orders/2006/112.pdf

Pennington, head of Committee to Protect Florida, seems to be yet another member of the pro-Alexander Lewy Dream Team, a grab-bag of ill-mannered sad sacks, malcontents and self-enrichment types who hope to continue to feed on the city's teat if Lewy gets elected.
Which is to say, via your wallet and purse.


Think of their help to Lewy as their insurance policy.
Lewy: pro-Diplomat LAC, pro-Red Light camera expansion in HB, pro-Ben Gamla Jewish Charter high school in quiet single-family NE HB neighborhood, and anti-Amendment 4... the list goes on and on...

Have you seen many of the ardent Lewy supporters, who are eager for things to get better? Their definition of better, of course, is far, far different than mine, and I suspect many of you who are reading this as well.

They live in the strange and perplexing upside-down universe of Joy Cooper and Alexander Lewy.


For them, better is a 5-0 vote where no reasonable questions are asked, much less, answered by highly-paid city employees, and any of their cronies can always count on their support in the future when they have a hare-brained idea that can't just can't get funded by a bank.


But when you are on the HB City Commission, because of the CRA, it's like being a member of the Loan Committee of a bank, isn't it?

It doesn't have to actually make sense, or even conform to the existing city rules, which you can always vote to over-ride anyway, right?

No, it only has to get the majority of votes cast by the City Commission.

Which is why the Rubber Stamp Crew positively HATES questions.
Because questions have to be answered.


In some ways, Lewy's own supporters are almost like a paid commercial for the pro-reform and pro-transparency elements in this city with which I am so strongly associated with, as well as Michael Butler, Mary Washington, Csaba Kulin, Louis Pellegrino Jr., John Pearson,Comm. Keith London and many others I could name here, but won't.

I'm only too happy for Lewy supporters to publicly identify themselves, since it makes it much easier for me and everyone else paying attention to know whom to take seriously in this community about making it better FOR EVERYONE.
Not just the friends, cronies and lackeys of HB City Hall.

And, conversely, whom, NOT to take seriously, of which there is already quite a long list, now that you mention it.

Frankly, I only wish that more Lewy supporters would publicly disclose their allegiances, so we ALL would all know who they are, but many of them are keeping it close to the vest.
And that's easy to understand.

They don't want people to know they support Lewy, since they also know so many people in this city justifiably loathe him.

It's far easier to keep it quiet.

You know, like where that money is coming from to run those scurrilous and untrue anti-London ads and fliers?


Speaking of the
opposite of reform, transparency and accountability, has anyone seen Lewy supporter Joe Kessel on any of his campaign fliers?
If they exist, I haven't seen them.

Kessel
as you'll recall, was a member of a very odd group that held its collective hand out for some city money, despite not being in compliance with many of the city's own requirements on their application.

They received tens of thousands of dollars from the city's CRA fund for a
completely preposterous idea, which still makes many otherwise level-headed people in this city see red at the thought of the money being wasted -intentionally.

You can find more about HB City Hall spy and Lewy supporter Kessel here, thought he was actually part of more stories that i could sometimes mention because of space limitations.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Joe%20Kessel

Or this March 4th, 2009 post in particular:
Hallandale Beach insiders to offer goodies/new propaganda TV channel to HB City Hall for $200k CRA loan Wed. morning
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/hallandale-beach-insiders-to-offer.html

Tell me, was Kessel legally registered as a lobbyist with Broward County, for the City of Hallandale
Beach, while he was under contract to them, when he publicly spoke before the Broward Planning Council and the Broward County Commission in favor of the Diplomat LAC proposal pushed by the city, his employer?

Did he at least publicly disclose his financial arrangement with the city during his public comments?

The answer to both questions is an emphatic NO.
He didn't.


(Just as he hadn't publicly revealed his conflict of interest during the public meeting the Diplomat was required to have at the HB Cultural Center.)


There are many members of the Broward County Commission and the South Florida news media
who know this already.So how's that investigation going, exactly?

Personally, I'm not usually one to question well-worn idioms like "Don't judge a book by its cover" but in Alexander Lewy's case, I'm afraid circumstances force me to, so I will.
He is exactly what he acts like -
The Devil You Don't know.


In my opinion, based on the stone-cold facts and what I have observed of him in-person for a few years, Alexander Lewy deciding your future with a vote will cause Hallandale Beach's besieged citizens to "Pay through the nose."
And pay in ways they can't even imagine now.

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You can find out more about Roger A. Pennington's clients at the Florida Senate homepage:http://www.flsenate.gov/

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Committee to Protect Florida
"527" Political Organization Filing Information http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/committee-to-protect-florida.asp
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http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/mar/22/consultants-are-lobbyists-too/

Consultants are lobbyists, too, in Tallahassee

St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
March 22, 2009
TALLAHASSEE — The unlimited special-interest cash streaming into Florida legislators' political accounts has enriched a small group of influential consultants who received $19.5 million from political committees and campaigns in the 2008 election cycle.
The torrent of money flowing through the Capitol has also fueled an industry of consultants who lobby.
Of the 60 political consultants for lawmakers' political committees, at least 12 work as lobbyists, according to a Times/Herald analysis. The consultants-lobbyists are hired by corporations to influence the same legislators who pay them for political help.
This circular network ties together special interests, lobbyists and lawmakers in a tight web of money and insider access. The lobbying clients seek legislative help. The legislators seek cash, for re-election or pet causes. The common link: the consultant.
Roger "Rocky'' Pennington, a veteran Republican consultant, says he and other consultants must strike a careful balance when special interests want to hire them because of their relationships with specific lawmakers.
"Once they start hiring you because they want influence with one person, you aren't a lobbyist — you're an influence peddler," Pennington said. "You have to ask yourself, are you lobbying because of the merits of the issue or are you lobbying because of your friendship or relationship with the elected official?"
Pennington was paid $2.1 million over the past two years to serve as political adviser to a host of lawmakers and to buy expensive TV ads for them. He says he minimizes problems by refusing to take clients halfway through the session, when clients most try to influence the votes of individual lawmakers, and he now is semiretired with only one client, the Municipal Electric Association.
Just last week, Altria, which manufactures Marlboro cigarettes, hired one of the Capitol's newest lobbyists, Todd Richardson. He's a political consultant for Republican Rep. Ellyn Setnor Bogdanoff of Fort Lauderdale.
Bogdanoff chairs the House Finance and Tax Council, where Altria hopes to kill a plan to raise the cigarette tax.
"What I'm doing is completely legal," Richardson said. "Relationships are the name of the game. I have more relationships than with just Ellyn. I have relationships with a lot of freshmen and with almost every member of the House."
Richardson was paid $126,000 in wages and reimbursements in his role as a consultant for Bogdanoff's campaign and political committee, Creating Possibilities. Bogdanoff opposed a cigarette tax hike long before Altria hired Richardson. She said she had no problem with his other work as a lobbyist for the cigarette company.
As the full force of term limits takes effect in the Legislature, more lobbyists are becoming consultants to increase their access to new legislators, said consultant and lobbyist Joe Perry.
The lobbyists can build up "sweat equity'' by acting as consultants for legislators, said Perry, a Democrat who has been paid $209,000 for fundraising and consulting work since 2007.
Perry acknowledged that when special interests hire people who have been on the payroll of lawmakers, they hire a unique commodity.
"There's no doubt we have access to these folks and probably more so than the rank-and-file lobbyists," Perry said.
But he said there's a downside, too. Perry lobbies for insurance giant FCCI Insurance Group, which seeks workers' compensation legislation opposed by many Democrats — the same people who hire Perry for political work. Perry said he can't afford too many conflicts like that.
"If I were to take too many lobbying clients and create a lot of enemies, I'll kill my fundraising business," he said.
Political committees — called committees of continuing existence — have become the cash cows of Florida's political process. They can be formed by legislators and used to collect unlimited amounts of so-called soft money from special interests, as these contributions are not subject to the typical cap of $500. The money can be rolled into other committees called "electioneering communication organizations,'' which spend money on attack ads and direct-mail pieces.
The 12 consultants-lobbyists were paid about $374,000 in total by the 40 committees they worked for, and received an additional $3.5 million from other political groups and campaigns during the past election season. The 60 consultants altogether received about $1 million from the committees and $18.5 million more from virtually every campaign and political group.
Not all consultants-lobbyists worked for a lawmaker's committee in the past election cycle. Still, the political committees — and the relationship they foster between lawmakers and consultants — offer a window into the world of Capitol insiders.
For example, the committees give lawmakers the opportunity to steer business to allies and friends. Consultant-lobbyist Esther Nuhfer earned most of her $201,000 from the campaign and political committee of her friend, Republican Rep. David Rivera of Miami.
Rivera's committee, Future Leadership, also paid $10,000 to Bridget Gregory Nocco, a prodigious Republican fund-raiser and Rivera friend.
The big money washing through the Capitol stands out in a year when the budget is in the red and large numbers of Floridians are losing jobs. Against that backdrop, the idea of consultants who lobby makes even the king of Florida political consultants uncomfortable.
Randy Nielsen, a top Republican consultant, said he didn't want to "cast aspersions'' on his colleagues, but he warned that "you can do a disservice to the client if you lobby them."
Nielsen is not a registered lobbyist.
"I don't see how you can give clear, unfettered advice if you're paid to lobby your clients," Nielsen said.
Nielsen's firm, Public Concepts of West Palm Beach, raked in the most consulting money this election cycle: $4.1 million over the past two years. In the 2000 cycle, Public Concepts earned $390,000. Not all that money went to Public Concepts. As with other consulting companies, some of the cash paid for media buys, lawyers and investigators to do opposition research.
Public Concept's most high-profile client is Senate President Jeff Atwater, a Republican from North Palm Beach who calls Nielsen "my consultant'' and made sure the firm reviewed his speech to the Senate that opened the legislative session March 3.
Consultant-lobbyist Bill Helmich collected $297,000 from a variety of lawmakers and political groups for consulting and hiring help. Helmich acknowledged there is a risk in mixing lobbying and consulting.
"Theoretically, if you get involved in a race where you end up losing, the person who won could hold a grudge," he said.
Lawyer and lobbyist David Ramba represents 37 clients and sells legal advice to 40 political committees, many controlled by legislators. Ramba said his legal adviser role doesn't give him much of an advantage. "Most of the time I'm delivering bad news," he said. "I tell them what they're not allowed to do with their money."
For instance, Ramba told Republican Sen. Mike Bennett of Bradenton that money from one of the lawmaker's two committees was off-limits to help pay for a Jewish community dinner.
Bennett has raised $528,000 through his two political committees since 2007 and he acknowledges the dicey balancing act legislators engage in when their closest political advisers are also paid lobbyists.
"You're going to give your buddy as much leniency as you can until you hit that ethics line … wherever that line is. It happens in any friendship," he said. "If I had my druthers and you didn't need soft money to play the game, I would like to see all this disappear."
12 Political Consultants* Who Lobby
(Total amount received/Number of clients/Notable client)
1. Roger Pennington, Republican
$2.1 million/1 client/Municipal Electric Assn.
2. Christian Ulvert, Democrat
1 $522,290/9 clients/Dosal Tobacco.
3. Bill Helmich, Republican
$297,100/9 clients/Miami-Dade County
4. Joe Perry, Democrat
$209,744/2 clients/FCCI Insurance
5. Esther Nuhfer, Republican
$201,618/1 client/Evidence-based Assoc.
6. Bridget Gregory Nocco, Republican
$181,973/4 clients/U.S. Sugar
7. Todd Richardson, Republican
$126,006/2 clients/Altria Tobacco
8. Amber Stoner, Republican
$116,026/1 client/HCA Healthcare
9. Jerry Wayne Bertsch, Republican
$55,417/1 client/American Cancer Society
10.Randy Enwright, Republican
$52,983/7 clients/At&T
11. Thomas Grigsby, Republican
$23,763.73/3 clients/Florida State Fraternal Order of Police
12. Screven Watson, Democrat
$22,644.36/4 clients/U.S. Sugar
Total: $3,937,778.61
Source: Division of Elections data
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St. Petersburg Times
In Florida House District 45 race, flier recycles old tactic
By Jodie Tillman, Times Staff Writer July 4, 2010

Back in 2007, a political group called the Committee to Protect Florida hammered a state Senate candidate named Richard Corcoran.


In its arsenal was a mailer that accused Corcoran of making false allegations about an opponent in a previous race.

The mailer showed an image of a flashing police beacon along with a warning: "BEWARE! Richard Corcoran is back in the area looking to buy a seat in the Senate."
Corcoran dropped out of the race, citing the negative campaign.

Now, as he runs for the state House District 45 seat, the Committee to Protect Florida has returned — and paid for a familiar flier that just hit mailboxes in Pasco and Pinellas counties.
The flashing police beacon is back.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/in-florida-house-district-45-race-flier-recycles-old-tactic/1106803