
Over at his Repuglican PR firm, er, Red County blog, our old playmate Matthew Cunningham has taken great offense at the good post “Rogue Elephant” wrote on the Orange Juice blog the other day, and that we generously shared with the Friends, here.
Why is he offended by Rogue Elephant’s post and our take on it? Because the post pointed out that former State Senator Jim Brulte gave Linda Ackerman $3900 out of his bogus BoE in 2014(!) campaign committee. We pointed out that her husband’s equally bogus BoE 2010 (created in 2006!) committee also gave her the same amount. We noted that these committees were basically money pots that politicians could use to finance their maintenance of power and influence. In other words a scam – create a committee for a fake political campaign and then use it as an influence buying cash cow.
Cunningham got his knickers in a real wad and noted that FFFF is a political committee, too, and that there is no difference between us and the donors to Ackerman. See, it’s all about free speech. Shame on us.
What a howler.

It seems to have escaped Cunningham’s notice that we are not politicians; we don’t raise funds under the guise of a phony run for office. We aren’t pretending to run for anything as a way to hang on to money raised for other offices. We don’t redistribute money as a way to influence elections and buy friends. Our purpose is to to promote causes and candidates we feel are worthy, but we’re not in it to amass wealth, or to keep control of wealth courtesy of people who contributed for other purposes. Too bad none of that can be said about Brulte or Ackerman.
Repuglicans have gotten into the nasty habit of using the “free speech” complaint as an argument to support any kind of deceit practiced in the pursuit of power. But at the core the issue isn’t about free speech – it’s about a fundamentally dishonest way of maintaining influence in Sacramento. Of course the crooks and their hangers-on can’t admit it. If it ain’t illegal it ain’t wrong. Plus the Democrats do it too!
What a culture.
An woman canvassing for Ackerman came to our door this morning. I asked a few questions and she was pro. Knew what she was doing, quick with answers and not shy about slamming Norby. She implied that Norby might have psychological problems Since I’m voting for a Democrat it was all wasted on me.
Hmm. Doesn’t sound like your typical volunteer precinct walker, now does it? Did Mrs. Ackerman hire people to do her walking? That would square with what seems to have been a scripted character assassination of Norby, which is perfectly congruent with the Ackerman campaign strategy.
It could be that baxter just happened to get an experienced volunteer who was really on the ball. But somehow we have trouble believing that. Linda Ackerman has zero “grassroots” support in the 72nd, where she does not live, and except for a few die-hard Republican Women Federated types and a few of Dick’s old Rotarian buddies, she would have trouble scrounging up volunteers to hit the streets.
Why this operative wasted time going to the door of an evident Democrat is a bit puzzling, but maybe they figure they need every voter that they can bamboozle.