by Aaron Klein
A group calling itself Americans Elect, or AE, seems designed to appear like a massive, grassroots effort involving millions of citizens acting to draft a third party-candidate. However, the organization’s internal voting process has been called into question and there also are concerns AE’s by-laws may allow the group’s own board members to bypass votes and nominate their own candidate.
AE describes itself as “a non-partisan, non-profit organization founded by Americans from across the political spectrum, who are worried that our nation’s deep political divisions keep big problems from being solved.”63 AE sought to hold its own nominating convention on the Internet this June to select an independent presidential and vice-presidential candidate. While it is unclear whether AE will ultimately run an independent candidate in November’s election, the organization warrants close observation as it can be called upon in the future to nominate a so-called independent with the intent on splitting the GOP vote. AE is also a case study in how Obama’s crafty progressive backers deploy all sorts of electoral schemes to ensure victory at the ballots.
AE reportedly has raised more than $22 million so far and already has been certified to be placed on the ballot in every state in the U.S.64 To get onto state ballots, AE evidenced mass organizing skills, claiming it collected over two million signatures nationwide in its effort to get on state ballots. Two of AE’s board members, Kellen Arno and Michael Arno, were paid by the group for helping to run the massive signature-gathering drive via their firm, Arno Political Consultants.65
Arno’s firm, APC, has reportedly previously been accused of both forging and fraudulently collecting signatures. In 2004, APC was accused of forging signatures on a petition to legalize slot machines in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.66 The next year, Boston’s Fox 25 News ran a feature interviewing paid signature collectors hired by APC through subcontractors. The interview subjects said they were trained on how to trick people into signing a petition using fraud, including by switching the actual petition text after each signature was collected.67 In 2007, APC reportedly hired JSM, Inc., which in turn hired independent contractors, who gave snacks and food to homeless people in exchange for signing petitions and registering to vote.68 Then in 2009, APC gathered signatures to put the Ohio Casino Initiative on the November 3, 2009, ballot, but a subsequent review reportedly found the overall validity of the signatures was certified at just under 51 percent.69
Americans Elect, meanwhile, reportedly had earlier been associated with another group that sought an independent candidate. That organization, calling itself Unity08, eventually suspended operations citing organizing and fund-raising issues.70 Unity08 said it did not back any particular candidate, but two of its founders launched their own national effort to draft New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for president. The Irregular Times documented how AE and Unity08 shared the same Washington, D.C., address. Previously, Unity08 had shared an address with the Draft Bloomberg Committee. Irregular Times also found that the founders of Unity08 “registered the domain name draftmichaelbloomberg.com in 2007 at a time when Unity08 was insisting that it had no candidates in mind.”71
AE’s funding has been called into question. In late 2010, AE changed its tax status from a tax-exempt group to what is known as a 501(c)(4), or social-welfare organization, which is not required to show its donor list. Capital Weekly reported that prior to the change, in the second and third quarters of 2010, AE’s more than $1.5 million in funding came from one person—venture capitalist, Unity08 activist and Obama donor Peter Ackerman. Ackerman reportedly gave AE a total of at least $5 million in seed money.72 Many of AE’s other donors are unknown.
AE officials have defended their secretive donor collection practices. “We have to be able to raise significant amounts of money to be able to take on the status quo,” Kahlil Byrd, AE’s chief executive officer, told Mother Jones last November. Byrd said that if his group would be compelled to disclose its donors, there would be “a chilling effect … on people’s willingness to participate in this process.”73
Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center, two campaign finance watchdogs, requested in September the IRS investigate Americans Elect, charging it may be violating nonprofit status by function like a political party. But AE’s finances are not the only source of controversy.
Mother Jones reported that AE’s Internet voting system has been called into question. Pamela Smith, president of VerifiedVoting.org, a voters’ advocacy group, argued AE’s reliance on Internet voting is insecure and difficult to audit. “If you allow it to be used in public elections without assurance that the results are verifiably accurate, that is an extraordinary and unnecessary risk to democracy,” Smith says.
Regardless of any improper voting results, there are also concerns that current guidelines would allow AE to anoint its own candidate. Salon reporter Justin Elliott noted that candidates chosen by voters must be approved by a Candidate Certification Committee, which according to the group’s bylaws consists of AE’s board members.74 According to the by-laws obtained by Salon, this committee will need to certify a “balanced ticket obligation” consisting of candidates who are “responsive to the vast majority of citizens while remaining independent of special interests and the partisan interests of either major political party.” AE official Darry Sragow also told Elliot that his group’s guidelines are subject to change, and went on to defend AE’s board:
While we don’t mean to put the board in the company of the Founding Fathers, we’d point out that nobody picked the Founding Fathers, either. They took it upon themselves to turn a popular dream into a shared reality. And they, too, had debates over how much control should be centralized. They knew that too much power in the hands of too few isn’t real democracy, but that power too diffuse is anarchy.
AE’s board includes multiple ties to Obama, but some Republicans also grace the committee, for example former John McCain aide Mark McKinnon, former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, Larry Diamond of the Hoover Institute, and former director of national intelligence Dennis Blair. Besides Peter Ackerman, an Obama donor who gave money to help start AE, the advisory board includes Lawrence Lessig, an Obama technology adviser.75 Lessig has been mentioned as a future candidate to head the Federal Communications Commission. He is an activist for reduced legal restrictions on copyright material and advised Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
AE’s CEO, Kahlil Byrd, has drawn scrutiny from conservatives because he formerly served as Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick’s communications director. Patrick’s chief strategist was top Obama strategist David Axelrod.76 AE board member W. Bowman Cutter is senior adviser to the Podesta Group lobbying and public relations firm, which was founded by John Podesta, who directed Obama’s transition into the White House in 2008. Podesta is director of the Center for American Progress, the most important progressive think tank helping to craft White House policy. AE board members Kellen Arno and Michael Arno, noted earlier, are tied to John Podesta. Also on the board is Will Marshall of the Progressive Policy Institute.
AE has ties to Hillary Clinton supporters as well. Lynn Forester de Rothschild, who is a prominent Hillary backer, is on the board, as is Doug Schoen, a former pollster and adviser to Bill Clinton. Schoen recently was in the news after he teamed up with Jimmy Carter’s former aide Patrick Caddell to publish an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, entitled “The Hillary Moment,” in which they called for Clinton to throw her hat into the ring for the presidency.77 The two wrote another piece at Politico calling for Democratic voters nationally—particularly in New Hampshire—to organize a write-in campaign for Clinton.78
We conclude by noting that Barack Obama, and the Progressive movement in general, have long specialized in manipulation of the democratic process. Even before his political career, as a Saul Alinsky–style “community organizer” in Chicago, Obama worked closely with groups such as Project Vote and ACORN, which not only focused on voter registration, but was repeatedly foun
d guilty of voter fraud. It is no coincidence that the “progressive tsunami” has brought with it a host of threats to the integrity of the American electoral process. The threat of the “National Popular Vote” may be off in the future, but others, as we have described here, are upon us now, as the Manchurian President battles for his second term.
NOTES
Chapter One: U.S. Armed Forces to Fight “Injustice,” Poverty, and “Global Warming”
1. Lawrence Korb, Miriam Pemberton, “A Report of the Task Force on a Unified Security Budget for the United States,” Institute for Policy Studies, June 30, 2011.
2. Michael Scherer, “Inside Obama’s Idea Factory in Washington,” Time magazine, November 21, 2008, http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1861305,00.html.
3. Ibid.
4. “Russia and US to Dispose of Tonnes of Surplus Plutonium,” BBC News, April 13, 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8618066.stm.
5. Thomas Omestad, “Nuclear Weapons for All? The Risks of a New Scramble for the Bomb,” US News and World Report, January 15, 2009, http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2009/01/15/nuclear-weapons-for-all-the-risks-of-a-new-scramble-for-the-bomb.
6. Charles J. Moxley Jr., “Obama’s Nuclear Posture Review: An Ambitious Program for Nuclear Arms Control but a Retreat from the Objective of Nuclear Disarmament,” Fordham International Law Journal 34, no. 4 (2011), http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2292&context=ilj.
7. John Feffer, Miriam Pemberton, “The Green Dividend,” Institute for Policy Studies report, September 30, 2010, http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/greendividend.
8. “Fact Sheet: U.S. Global Development Policy,” The White House Office of the Press Secretary, September 22, 2010. Available at www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/22/fact-sheet-usglobal-development-policy.
9. Michael Werz, Laura Conley, “Climate Change, Migration, and Conflict: Addressing Complex Crisis Scenarios in the 21st Century,” Center for American Progress report, January 2012, http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/01/pdf/climate_migration.pdf.
10. Kim Chipman, “Agencies Urged to Plan for ‘Inevitable Effects’ of Warming in U.S. Report,” Bloomberg News, October 14, 2010, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-14/agencies-urged-to-plan-for-inevitable-effects-of-warming-in-u-s-report.html.
11. The White House, “National Security Strategy” (2010), available at, http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/national_security_strategy.pdf. See also U.S. Department of Defense, “National Security Strategy,” Quadrennial Defense Review, 2010, available at http://www.defense.gov/qdr/. Also the United States Department of State, “Leading Through Civilian Power: The First Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review” (2010), available at http://www.state.gov/s/dmr/qddr/. And The White House Office of the Press Secretary, “Remarks by the President to the United Nations General Assembly,” press release, September 23, 2010, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/thepress-office/2010/09/23/remarks-president-united-nations-generalassembly.
12. Aaron Klein, “Now Obama ‘Greening’ Hamas?” WND, February 13, 2012, http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/now-obama-greening-hamas/.
13. “About Us: Mission and Vision” section, Connect U.S. Fund website, accessed April 9, 2012, http://www.connectusfund.org/about/mission.
14. Connect U.S. Fund Powerpoint Presentation, www.connectusfund.org/…/Connect%20U.S.%20Fund%20Power%20Point%20Presentation.ppt.
15. Michael Isikoff, “The End of Torture: Obama Banishes Bush’s Interrogation Tactics,” Newsweek, January 22, 2009, http://www.newsweek.com/2009/01/21/the-end-of-torture.html.
16. “Eric P. Schwartz,” Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, U.S. Department of State, http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/125768.htm.
17. Cliff Kincaid, “Obama Advisers Demand ‘More Blue Helmets on U.S. Troops,’” America’s Survival, Inc., http://www.usasurvival.org/docs/ASI_Rprt_Obama_n_UN.pdf.
18. S. Stephen Powell, Covert Cadre: Inside the Institute for Policy Studies (Ottawa, IL: Green Hill Publishers, Inc., 1987), 249–50 (quoted from in “Kerry, the Sandinistas, and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS),” FreeRepublic.com, February 11, 2004, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1076375/posts). Event also reported by Warren Mass, “The Trouble with Leon Panetta,” New American, January 7, 2009, http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/election/655.
19. Emerson Vermaat, “Obama’s Preferred Future Spy Chief Leon Panetta,” Free Republic, January 8, 2009.
20. Profile: Institute for Policy Studies, knology.net.
21. S. Stephen Powell, “Moscow’s Friends at the Institute for Policy Studies,” American Opinion, November 1983, quoted in Christian Gomez, “Leon Panetta and the Institute for Policy Studies,” New American, June 11, 2011, http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/congress/7819-panetta-unfit-for-sec-of-defense.
22. “Debt, Deficits, & Defense: A Way Forward,” June 11, 2010, Sustainable Defense Task Force, http://www.comw.org/pda/fulltext/1006SDTFreport.pdf.
23. “New Era, New Openings: FCNL’s 2009 Annual Meeting,” Conference Call Event Summary at Connect Fund website, http://www.connectus fund.org/events new-era-new-openings-fcnls-2009-annual-meeting.
24. President Barack Obama, “Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on Libya,” delivered at National Defense University, Washington, D.C., March 28, 2011, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/28/remarks-president-address-nation-libya.
25. International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, The Responsibility to Protect, December 2001, at http://www.iciss.ca/pdf/Commission-Report.pdf.
26. Peter Beaumont, “Israel May Face War Crimes Trials over Gaza. Court Looks at Whether Palestinians Can Bring Case. International Pressure Grows over Conflict,” Guardian (UK), March 2, 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/02/israel-war-crimes-gaza. Daniel Schwammenthal, “War Crimes: The International Criminal Court Claims Jurisdiction over U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan,” Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870 4013004574519253095440312.html.
27. See “Donors” page of Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect website, accessed July 26, 2011, http://globalr2p.org/whoweare/donors.php.
28. “Patrons,” Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect, http://globalr2p.org/whoweare/patrons.php.
29. “About The Elders,” The Elders website, http://www.theelders.org/elders.
30. Kofi A. Annan, “Two Concepts of Sovereignty,” The Economist, September 18, 1999, http://www.un.org/News/ossg/sg/stories/kaecon.html.
31. “Advisory Board,” Responsibility to Protect website, http://www.iciss.ca/advisory_board-en.asp.
32. “Annan Calls for Responsibility to Protect,” International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty website, undated, http://www.iciss.ca/menu-en.asp.
33. “Advisory Board,” International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, http://www.iciss.ca/advisory_board-en.asp.
34. George Soros, “The People’s Sovereignty: How a New Twist on an Old Idea Can Protect the World’s Most Vulnerable Populations,” Foreign Policy Magazine, January 1, 2004, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2004/01/01/the_peoples_sovereignty.
35. Ramesh Thakur, “Toward a New World Order,” Ottawa Citizen, March 1, 2010, reprinted at http://www.cigionline.org/articles/2010/03/toward-new-world-order.
Chapter Two: What Solyndra? New “Green” Stimulus, Federal “Green Bank”
1. Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott, Red Army. The Radical Network That Must Be Defeated to Save America (New York: Broadside Books, 2011), 183–204.
2. “State of the Union 2012: Full Transcript of President Obama’s Speech,” The Guardian, January 25, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/25/state-of-the-union-address-full-text.
3. “Parent of Obama-Backed Battery Maker Goes Bankrupt,” USA Today, January 27, 2012, http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-01-27/batter
y-maker-bankruptcy/52815302/1.
4. Sharon Terlep, “GM to Idle Chevy Volt Output as Sales Slow,” Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970 203986604577257681918603106.html.
5. Aaron Klein, “White House Still Listening to Van Jones ‘Green’ Advice,” WND.com, November 30, 2009, http://www.wnd.com/2009/11/117548/.
6. “2011 Report: Building the Obama Administration’s Climate Legacy,” Presidential Climate Action Project, January 2011, accessed April 12, 2012, http://climateactionproject.com/plan/2011/PCAP_Report_2011.pdf.
7. “About Us” section, Sustainable Communities website, accessed March 12, 2012, http://www.sustainablecommunities.gov/aboutUs.html.
8. Ibid.
9. Bracken Hendricks Lisbeth Kaufman, “Cutting the Cost of Clean Energy 1.0,” Center for American Progress report, November 2010, http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/11/pdf/cleanenergycosts.pdf.
10. H.R. 1682: American-Made Energy Act of 2011, 112th Congress, 2011–2012.
11. Kate Gordon, “Enacting President Obama’s Manufacturing Blueprint Means Sustained Economic Growth,” Think Progress.com, January 25, 2012, http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/01/25/411594/presidentobama-manufacturing-blueprint-economic-growth/.
12. H.R. 487: Manufacture Renewable Energy Systems: Make It in America Act of 2011, 112th Congress, 2011–2012.
13. Solar Energy Regulatory Relief Act of 2011, 112th Congress, 2011–2012.
14. “Climatic Research Unit Email Controversy,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climatic_Research_Unit_email_controversy.
15. Jonathan Petre, “Climategate U-Turn as Scientist at Centre of Row Admits: There Has Been No Global Warming Since 1995,” The Daily Mail, February 14, 2010, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html#ixzz16sZxqEU5.
