23 conservative candidates records found in Colorado meth house

[Tonington]

Here's some strange news...

Found in a meth house in Colorado were files on 23 conservative candidates for Montana state legislature. The files consisted of surveys and mailers, as well as some finance details, with one folder labelled "Montana $ Bomb."

The documents pointed to one outside group pulling the candidates' strings: a social welfare nonprofit called Western Tradition Partnership, or WTP.

Altogether, the records added up to possible illegal "coordination" between the nonprofit and candidates for office in 2008 and 2010, said a Montana investigator and a former Federal Election Commission chairman who reviewed the material. Outside groups are allowed to spend money on political campaigns, but not to coordinate with candidates.

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Weird stuff. What the heck was it doing in a Meth house???

 

[Locutus]

From the comments:

If you read the story carefully you’ll find that the WTP documents found in the meth house were allegedly acquired from a stolen car. So the presumable chain of custody of the documents is: WTP -> Car Thief -> Meth House -> Mr Seibel -> Authorities. Given that it is too early to draw connections between WTP funding and profits from drug trafficking.

Thus, the title is a bit more flashy than it should be as it does imply the connection between WTP and meth.

 

[Tonington]

Did you read the article or even what I quoted? The point wasn't at all about connections between WTP and profits from drug trafficking....the article is detailing potentially illegal co-ordination between a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization and political candidates. In one case, in a Republican primary for Montana State legislature, the incumbent was beaten by someone with no experience in politics at all. Letters were mass mailed days before the election, and some of the documents found at the meth house in Colorado include "Wife letters" which appear to be linked to surveys WTP sent out to candidates and their wives.

 

[damngrumpy]

Well at last we know the drug the Tea Party is on. I think this will give CNN something to
talk about after the election fever dies down.

 

[Goober]

Altogether, the records added up to possible illegal "coordination" between the nonprofit and candidates for office in 2008 and 2010, said a Montana investigator and a former Federal Election Commission chairman who reviewed the material. Outside groups are allowed to spend money on political campaigns, but not to coordinate with candidates.

"My opinion, for what it's worth, is that WTP was running a lot of these campaigns," said investigator Julie Steab of the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, who initially received the boxes from Colorado.

The boxes were examined by Frontline and ProPublica as part of an investigation into the growing influence on elections of dark money groups, tax-exempt organizations that can accept unlimited contributions and do not have to identify their donors. The documents offer a rare glimpse into the world of dark money, showing how Western Tradition Partnership appealed to donors, interacted with candidates and helped shape their election efforts.

Though WTP's spending has been at the state level, it's best-known nationally for bringing a lawsuit that successfully challenged Montana's ban on corporate spending in elections, extending the provisions of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Citizens United decision to all states.

The tax code allows nonprofits like WTP to engage in some political activity, but they are supposed to have social welfare as their primary purpose. As reported previously by ProPublica and Frontline, when WTP applied for recognition of its tax-exempt status, it told the IRS under penalty of perjury that it would not directly or indirectly attempt to influence elections — even though it already had.

The group is now locked in an ongoing dispute with Montana authorities, who ruled in October 2010 that the nonprofit should have registered as a political committee and should have to disclose its donors. WTP sued. A hearing is set for March.

 

[gopher]

Meth house = Republican haven