Right-wing-tea-party style Republicans are trying to take over all the town councils and school boards in Wisconsin. They also put up a circuit judge. These candidates ran with the help of a cover PAC called American Majority.
These are the people who want to strip out unions of all power, crush or eliminate public sector jobs, demoralize public school teachers. They want to carry out the “Gov. Scott Walker” agenda all the way so progressives can’t defend their hard fought gains all of these years.
With their e-mail groups they have sent the following message to all their supporters and I received one;
“Something big happened in Wisconsin yesterday. Twenty four American Majority-trained conservative candidates advanced out of their primaries to the general election in April. That makes more than 250 candidates trained by our American Majority Wisconsin staff since opening our Mequon office in October 2010.
Advancers in Tuesday's election include 10 school board candidates, 12 candidates for town board or city council, one county board candidate in a special election, and a circuit court judge. Our Wisconsin staff has focused on building leaders from the level of government where citizens often feel the most impact: local. These local candidates are also the folks who will hopefully take the next step for public office when a member of the State Assembly or State Senate retire or need a challenge.
Right Wisconsin featured our Wisconsin success today, saying: "For years, progressives have had a distinct edge in candidate training and campaign organizing. With organizations like American Majority, conservatives can level the playing field at the local level."
I'm proud of our Wisconsin team and I'm proud of each candidate, some of whom signed our New Leaders Project Pledge , stepping forward to serve their communities for the first time as elected officials. They have pledged to uphold free enterprise, limited government, and fiscal responsibility. They are on their way to greatly impacting their communities -- one school board, one circuit court at a time. And that's how real change happens.”
The letter ends with their greeting: “Keep America Free” (from the rights of working people)-សតិវអតុ
So where does American Majority get its money and support?
From Crooks and Liars;
Drew Ryun, son of disgraced Kansas Congressman Jim Ryun has put his support behind American Majority. He has access to a whole lot of money?
Ryun estimates that "above 75 percent" of American Majority's funding comes from the Sam Adams Alliance, a conservative think tank in Chicago.
Who is the Sam Adams Alliance?
You may recognize the name if you've visited any Tea Party sites. Their logo usually rests alongside those of FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, and other Republican sponsors.
Here are some facts about the Sam Adams Alliance published late in 2009:
The president of Sam Adams Alliance is John Tsarpalas, former executive director of the Illinois State Republican party. Eric O'Keefe, SAA's chairman and CEO, is a former executive director of the National Libertarian Party. He once worked for Citizens for Congressional Reform (pdf), a project of David Koch's Citizens for a Sound Economy. Along with noted Libertarian financier Howard Rich, O'Keefe sits on the board of directors of Americans for Limited Government.
In the world of non-profits, large donors like to be on the board to oversee the donation they've given. In the past, the Sam Adams Alliance hasn't been a major player. In 2006 direct public support was $401,500. 2007 gifts and grants appear to be 1,822,458, but there are some discrepancies from one year to the next.
But in 2008, donations increased by a factor of ten. Total gifts and grants were $4,222,604. Denis Calabrese joins the board, and coincidentally happens to be Dick Armey's former chief of staff, and donations bloom into full-throated support for offshoots like America's Majority? Ah, the smell of astroturf in the spring.
Of the $4.2 million, $3.7 million was an "unusual grant".
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