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Progressive Policy Council: Textbook 501(c)(4) GOP Front
(Crossposted at Daily Kos)
Everyone in the know agrees that 501(c)(4)s are this year's 527s. David Corn called them the new mudslingers and Paul Kiel wonders which one will emerge as the successor to Swift Boat Vets. Last week, I posted here about two new ones, American Future Fund and Iowa Future Fund, being operated by Holtzman Vogel.
501(c)(4)s are supposed to be non-profit social organizations as defined by the IRS. Key is the fact that donors can secretly contribute unlimited amounts of money. Campaigning is limited to adressing issues but that leaves a lot of leeway for abuse.
The story behind the Progressive Policy Council is an easy-to-follow textbook example of how a 501(c)(4) Republican front operates.
On October 30, 2006, Paul Kiel at the TPM Muckraker asked his readers for help in identifying the people behind the Progressive Policy Council's campaign mailer. The mailer compared the similiarities of the views held by Rick Santorum on certain social issues like gay marriage with those of Bob Casey and was meant to discourage Democrats from turning out to vote in the senate race.
The next day, Kiel identified Jason Torchinsky, an attorney with Holtzman Vogel, as the one who registered the Progressive Policy Council in Virginia in June 2006.
Torchinsky, along with his bosses, Alex N. Vogel and his wife, Jill Holzman Vogel, are among the dirtiest of dirty Republican operatives. Along with Mark "Thor" hearne, they operated the American Center For Voting Rights and the Free Enterprise Coalition through which they promoted the suppression of Democratic voters by disenfranchisment, redistricting schemes and other hardball tactics.
(See Sourcewatch's entry for the Progressive Policy Council for more information and links.)
For quite awhile, Torchinsky was the only name linked to the Progessive Policy Council. At some point, however, the Virginia corporate registration was changed to include the names of the officers.
Surprise, surprise! All three officers are Republican consultants:
Mike Devanney
Craign Snyder
Corrin Merritt
Devanny is based in Pennsylvania and previously worked on Bill Scranton's failed governor campaign.
Snyder and Merritt are partners in a political consulting firm, Ikon Public Affairs.
The Progressive Policy Council 990 tax return was not filed until November 2007, long after the 2006 election. The delay underscores another problem with 5019(c)(4)s, untimely information.
The Council reported $255k in revenue. $85k was paid to the officers and $117k was spent on postage and mailings which left $1k in the bank at the end of June 2006.
The Council was dissolved as a corporation in June 2007.
The Progressive Policy does appear to have engaged in any activity other than sending out those campaign mailers. It was clearly an election day scam but it was legal. And that's the problem.
Comments (53)
Mrs P - great work, as always!
Is there any way to combat these rouge fake c'4s? Aside from reporting them to the FEC, are there any actions that can be undertaken on the state of incorporation level? Any actions that can gin up and expedited IRS investigation?
Any way to hit the predictably complicit GOP vendors that they're using (to do mailings, lists etc) that could slap the vendors with a significatnt unpaid sales tax due bill?
April 8, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
It might be worthwhile to check out some of Ikon Public Affairs' clients by way of the Senate Office of Public Records.
IKON does a lot of work in PA, and western PA and has a number of former Santorum staffers working there, some of whom are still restricted in who they can represent (because the "cooling off period" has not lapsed).
I'm not sure why some of these organzations are engaging a DC-based lobbying firm to do work for them, like the East End Cooperative Ministry.
April 8, 2008 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
C92,
I don't know what can be done about 501(c)(4)s before this election. If they are as abusive as we expect them to be, something will probably be done about them afterwards.
I really miss having access to Lexis-Nexis. I'd search for all of the non-profits registered by Holtzman Vogel.
I think one of the tricks of the trade is to register these 501(c)(4)s well before the onset of the general election campaign so as to qualify as a legitimate social welfare organization. PPC was registered in June 2006 but appears to have been inactive until late October 2006.
Thanks for the info re Ikon. Notice that Ikon does not provide any names on the website?
Here's a biggy that I just started researching - Roger Stone is or was a Ikon business partner. I'm going to update my Kos diary with that info.
It's pretty easy to see why the East End Cooperative Ministries engaged a lobbyist. The Ministries was only founded in mid-2005 and during the following year, was awarded $1.1 million in government grants.
Craig Snyder is on the board of Autism Speaks! which explains why it is an Ikon client. It also helps explain why McCain recently spoke up about the causes of autism seemingly out of the blue.
April 8, 2008 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
LexNex search for you...
Found DVR Consulting, LLC, 2466 Jostaberry Way, Odenton, MD 21113-3694 registered in Virginia on 9/1/2006 with Jason Torchinsky as the registered agent via Holtzman Vogel.
Found this searching on the 98 Alexandria Pike Suite 53 address. Also found:
The Foundation Project
Date of Incorporation: 10/20/2005
Christopher Hull: President
Scott Berkowitz: Vice Chairman, Director
David Thompson: Vice Chairman, Director
Eric Winterbauer: Chairman, Director
Hope Through Healing Hands (former name World Hope, Inc.)
Date of Incorporation: 1/21/2004
Jill Holtzman Vogel: registered agent
World Growth
Date of Incorporation: 10/18/2005
Henrik Rasmussen: President
Alan Oxley: Vice President, Chairman
Justin Paterson: Secretary
Ran a search checking for Jessica Young (incorporator on IFF) but only got the one hit.
April 9, 2008 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks! World of Hope is Bill Frist's shady charity. I did some research on it which I will dig up when I do a post about the Holtzmans.
I don't know if you saw last night's update to my American Future Fund/Iowa Future Fund post. I re-read the Minn Dems FEC complaint and noticed the Nicole Schlinger is listed as the AFF president.
Schlinger is a Republican fundraiser and the president of Capitol Resources Inc also dba as Campaign Headquarters, located in Brooklyn Iowa. She was paid approx $200k by the Romney campaign.
Someone emailed some other info that I am going to try to go through later today.
According to the state of Iowa, Nick Ryan, a lobbyist, used the same post office box listed in the FEC complaint.
AFF address per FEC complaint: PO Box 13434, Des Moines, IA
Per Iowa Lobbyist report:
1568 Ryan, Nick
PO Box 13434 Des Moines, IA 50310
Registration Date: 01/08/2007 1444 Hawkeye Renewables, LLC
Cancellation Date: 07/16/2007
Registration Date: 01/08/2007 1442 Iowa Winds, LLC
Cancellation Date: 07/16/2007
Registration Date: 01/08/2007 1562 Summit Capital Group
Cancellation Date: 07/16/2007
Registration Date: 01/08/2007 1441 Summit Farms, LLC
Cancellation Date: 07/16/2007
Looks like we have a link to Bruce Rastetter here. Summit Farms, Hawkeye Renewables and, I think, Iowa Winds are owned by Rastetter.
April 9, 2008 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nick Ryan, who ran Jim Nussle's losing gubernatiorial campaign?
April 9, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
See my comment below. Looks like Nick Ryan is working for Bruce Rastetter's Summit Capital Group.
April 9, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think one of the tricks of the trade is to register these 501(c)(4)s well before the onset of the general election campaign so as to qualify as a legitimate social welfare organization. PPC was registered in June 2006 but appears to have been inactive until late October 2006.
I agree. You see the same thing with IFF and AFF. Their paperwork was pushed and filed in August 2007 - but they're only coming onboard now.
Santorum seems to have been active with the autism organization.
April 8, 2008 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wish someone had made a test case out of the Pregressive Policy Council's 501(c)(4) status. It clearly had no other purpose than sending out the mailers during the campaign. Everyone associated with it is involved in politics.
I wonder if the case had been brought to before the FEC or a court, the Council could have been ordered to disclose the names of its donors.
April 8, 2008 8:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder if a campaign they were targeting with negative ads would have standing to go into court to request a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, preventing the 501(c)(4) from engaging in activities inconsistent with 501(c)(4) status.
Any campaign finance lawyers out there have any ideas why this would or would not work?
April 9, 2008 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Remember your old pal Mattie Fein (aka Mattie Lovalar) wife of Bruce Fein? I recall you were researching her way back, don't remember why, but it had something to do with their ranch in Colorado and some comments she made Josh M remove?
Anyway, seems as though there was some bad blood between her and Ikon and Stone, according to this:
http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/430/430.F3d.221.04-1901.html
I did see that IKON was registered with the Senate to lobby for Argentina in 2000.
April 8, 2008 5:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
That would be Mattie Fein aka Mattie Lovalar aka Mahtaub Hojjati aka Mattie Lovalar-Cohen who is married to Bruce Fein.
Fein worked for Dick Morris and Roger Stone as a p.r. consultant and then sued them. After her relationship with the dynamic duo ended, she continued to represent Argentina.
Her one-man think tank, the Institute For Persian Studies, appears to be inactive.
April 8, 2008 8:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
I see Craig Snyder was once Arlen Specter's chief of staff.
April 8, 2008 7:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know if this link will work - Google has an excerpt of Ken Silverstein's book online which discusses how Arlen Specter awarded a $1.25 million earmark to Night Vision Equipment Co., an Ikon client. Snyder put out a last-minute nasty ad about Specter's opponent in a tight race.
April 8, 2008 8:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Also searched on Holtzman Vogel's DC office address, 1341 G Street NW Suite 1100, got only one good hit, though several years old:
Political Information Center Network
State of Registration: California
Date of Incorporation: 2/16/2001
Jim Ozimek: registered agent
Ryan Ozimek: President
Mailing Address:
1341 G Street NW Suite 1100, Washington DC 20005
April 9, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mrs. P:
Look for a bunch of e-mails from yesterday!
One thing I didn't mention is that I found a Holtzman-Vogel Virginia incorporated entity called The Foundation Project (TFP). TFP seems to have outlived its usefulness because it stopped paying business registration fees.
Anyway, TFP had four officers/directors with various professional competencies which I could not link together:
Christopher Hull
1816 S St NW #2, Wash, DC
Scott Berkowitz
212 10th St, NE, Wash, DC
David Thompson
8420 Sandford Place, Johnston, IA
Eric Winterbauer
1310 N Oak #502, Arlington, VA
Hull's biggest achievement seems to be that he wrote several papers while at Georgetown University about e-voting, the Iowa caucuses, etc.
Berkowitz is the CEO of A&I Corp (Media), A&I Publishing LLC and the CEO of nonprofit RAINN, (Rape Abuse and Incest National Network). Berkowitz has been criticized for taking a big salary at RAINN and sending a lot of foundation business to his A&I businesses.
No hits on Iowa-based Thompson.
Eric Winterbauer is a Senior Attorney in the Office of General Counsel of FERC (the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). (eric.winterbauer@ferc.gov )
What brings these fellows together? I have no idea. What was the Foundation Project doing? I have no idea.
The FERC connection is particularly striking... I recall that Jill Holtzman Vogel was employed at the Department of Energy - and was involved in these issues before she went to tne RNC. That would place Jill somewhere in the whole still opaque Dick Cheney Energy Taskforce timeframe.
April 9, 2008 10:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
David Thompson former President of the Iowa chapter of the National Agri-Marketing Association?
Haven't dug through the chapter website too much yet, but see that Thompson is no longer president.
April 9, 2008 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks! A wealth of information. I don't have much time this a.m. but will go through it later.
Did you see my comment above re Nick Ryan? Given that Ryan is linked to Bruce Rastetter, it is certainly plausible that Eric Peterson, Summit Farms business manager, is Eric Peterson, Iowa Future Fund president.
I took a look at a couple of reports filed by Romney's Iowa state PAC, the Commowealth PAC. There was some big out-of-state money flowing into it. Lot of good it did Romney.
April 9, 2008 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
@Wandering
Thanks!
I found those records last night. World Hope is actually World of Hope which was Bill Frist's sham nonprofit charity used to finance parties at the 2004 Republican convention in New York. He was going to do some sort of cruise but had to back off.
I find it interesting that Holtzman Vogel is still using World of Hope and for some reason changed the name to Help Through Healing Hands only a few months ago.
Holtzman Vogel is connected to Bill Frist, really close. Jill Holtzman's husband, Alex Vogel was the government-paid Chief Counsel to Frist.
And Frist has a number of unresolved ethical issues involving money - the sham charity, daytrading, etc.
It is becoming clearer and clearer that Holtzman Vogel's firm is actively involved in this illegal money gambit in 2008.
April 9, 2008 10:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
In addition to the dirty tricks, we've also got a developing theme of energy lobbying.
We've got Jill Holtzman, who used to work for Energy about the time Dick Cheney was running his Energy Task Force.
We've got Nick Ryan, an Iowa energy lobbyist.
We've got Bruce Rastetter, Iowa energy executive who's supporting AFF and IFF, supposedly "independent groups."
We've got Norm Coleman, endangered Republican, who's on various Senate energy committees and up for re-election.
And we've got a FERC attorney associated with one of Holtzman-Vogel's 2005 (now disbanded) nonprofits (The Foundation Project). We presently know nothing about what The Foundation Project did or does. Maybe the new K Street Project?
April 9, 2008 11:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting point about Romney's money in that Iowa State Committee PAC. Keep in mind it is NOT a federal PAC so the FEC doesn't get records.
Keep in mind also that State PACS can pretty much spend their money however they want.
Do you suppose the Romney Iowa state pac (which still had in it at least $495,000 at the end of 2007) is paying for some of this stuff? What else would Romney do with the money?
How often to state pacs have to report?
April 9, 2008 11:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Note the zip code given on the American Future Fund FEC complaint. It is 50310 which is the same as Nick Ryan's home address. Nicole Schlinger Lang's zip is 52211.
A few years ago, Nick Ryan made several political contributions as "Nick Ryan" to Jim Nussle and G W Bush. As "Nicholas Ryan", he recently made the following contributions:
10/25/07 - Norm Coleman - $2300
11/30/07 - Thomas P. Latham - $1000
12/31/07 - Rudy Giuliani - $2300
When he donated to Latham, Ryan listed himself as an executive with Summit Capital Group.
Given that Summit Capital Group's address, 600 Country Club Rd, Iowa Falls, is the same as several other companies owned by Bruce Rastetter, I think we can safely conclude that Nick Ryan works for Bruce Rastetter.
Eric Peterson, Summit Farms, business manager, is looking better for Eric Peterson, Iowa Future Fund president, every day.
April 9, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Correction:
Summit Capital Group
620 Country Club Road,
Iowa Falls, IA 50126.
Some of the other companies at that address:
Summit Farms LLC
Midwest Renewables
The Pinnacle Group
April 9, 2008 5:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Summit Farms LLC received some government funding in 2004 from the Natural Resources Conservation Service of USDA:
http://www.usaspending.gov/faads/faads.php?reptype=r&database=faads&record_id=6204314&detail=3&datype=T&sortby=i
April 9, 2008 5:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bruce Rastetter is on the Renewables Fuels Association board. I wouldn't be surprised if the ethanol industry was putting big bucks into American Future Fund.
April 9, 2008 6:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have you run down FEC contributions on the other RFA board types? Starting with the officers, it took me until Jeff Broin of South Dakota until I found a donation to Norm Coleman... should note that there's a mixed bag after the first few searches, and that they seem to be buying committee members across the board.
I thought you really nailed it that first day, but when it comes to ethanol/renewables, AFF seems to fit the profile. Should we run down the appropriate committee/subcommittee members, crosscheck to see who is up for re-election, and run down contributions accordingly?
April 9, 2008 9:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Des Moines Register ran an excellent article in December about the Iowa bio-fuel industry and politics. According to Paula Lavigne, the industry has not put big money into politics.
But American Future Fund an Iowa Future Fund were already in the works by August 2007.
The DMR also has a very useful interactive map with info about ethanol companies in Iowa.
April 10, 2008 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Laura Rozen of War and Piece has a terrific story in Mother Jones about Freedom's Watch and Sheldon Adelson.
April 10, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mrs. P:
Did you look over the Americans Solutions for Winning the Future e-mail from a few days ago?
All the familiar hallmarks - a Holtzman-Vogel address, with a dose of the SmarTECH Corp website hosting thrown in?
April 10, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Briefly. No surprise that Smartech is hosting American Solutions. Can you run a search for the corp reg to check for officers?
I'm going to take a closer look at AS donors later.
I'm wondering if Sheldon Adelson has put money in American Future Fund. Ben Ginsberg at Patton Boggs is a lobbyist for Adelson's Venetian Resort in DC and we know Ginsberg is behind AFF.
April 10, 2008 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm tickled to see Ben Ginsburg's name again.
You'll recall that he was "outside counsel" to the Bush-Cheney campaign in the '04 election cycle. At the time, the campaign was issuing regular public denials about any campaign coordination with the Swift Boat Veterans - and the requisite denouncements that they were being "slimed" by Kerry.
Well, Ginsburg was found to have been serving both Bush-Cheney '04 and the Swift Boats. He had to publicly resign from the Bush-Cheney campaign. It was a two day media cycle embarrassment.
Before '04, Ginsburg was also influential in the Florida '00 irregularities and antics.
April 10, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I spent some time looking deeper into Iowa "lobbyist" Nick Ryan. He wears a lot of hats, it seems.
As Mrs. Panstreppon has pointed out, in addition to working for Summit Capital Group, he's also been listed as a representative of the Rastetter Foundation.
Nick also owns an Iowa-registered LLC called Nick Ryan LLC. He also seems to hold some board position with the City of Des Moines. And on that board application, Nick reveals that he has an email address with a Connecticut company called AltEnergy.
AltEnergy is a whole different ball of wax. Thos leads to a corporate aircraft, a rich execitive and suspicions of "straw donations" being made to the Guiliani Campaign. My comments are on KOS, but that site is being temperamental.
April 11, 2008 9:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
I can't post my AFF/IFF Kos diary for some reason.
Russell M. Stidolph of Whitney Investments and Altenergy LLC gave a presentation at an Iowan energy conference.
I assume John O'Connor of J H Whitney Investments listed below is an associate of Russell Stidolph.
In mid-2006, Rastetter tried to take Hawkeye Renewables pubic. The IPO is on file with the SEC. Thomas H. Lee Inc was the underwriter. The offering fell apart because the ethanol market was soft.
I wonder how Rastetter got in the ethanol business. I vaguely reading that he was set up in it by investors.
April 11, 2008 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
10/24-25/07 Contributors to Norm Coleman
Everyone on the list donated $2300. Impressive group, yes? They could all afford to donate to American Future Fund.
Carlos De La Cruz
Eagle Brands Inc
Jacob Doft
Highline Capital
Judith Ann Eisenberg
Lewis Eisenberg's wife
Lewis Eisenberg
RNC Finance Committee
NY-NJ Port Authority Chairman
Granite Capital
Jon Jacoby
Stephens Group
Little Rock
William Janetschek
KKR
Rhonda Keenum
Schmidt Public Affairs
Henry Kravis
KKR
John O'Connor
J H Whitney Investments
Bruce Rastetter
Heartland Pork
Leslie Rickman
Calyon Financial
Nicholas Ryan
Investor
Joseph Sauvage
Lehman Brothers
J. D. Schlieman
Hawkeye Energy
David Sorkin
Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett
Law Firm
William Steere
Retired
Bryce Toll
Toll Brothers
Builders
Michael Vlock
Investor
April 11, 2008 10:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bruce Rastetter and a number of his employees contributed to Rudy Giuliani in late December 2007 and early January 2008. Search "summit farms", "hawkeye renewables" etc at FEC.gov.
Eric L. Peterson, Summit Farms business manager, donated $1k to Rudy. Peterson, as has been noted before, is probably president of Iowa Future Fund.
April 11, 2008 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's quite a list to pick apart. Let's start with Keenum:
Source: http://www.msstate.edu/web/media/detail.php?id=3844 from April 25, 2007
Interesting how all these agro folks just keep flocking to the American Future Fund... just how did they know to do so?
April 11, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Plans for the American Future Fund and Iowa Future Fund were in place before August 2007, the registration date. The websites were registered on 10/19/07. The Coleman contributions were made on 10/24/07.
I looked at a few names. More later.
Carlos M. de la Cruz, a Cuban, owns Eagle Brands, the largest Anheuser-Busch distributor in South Florida, according to this bio on the Cuba Study Group website.
Jacob Doth's Highline Capital was recently involved in some sort of failed business deal involving Good Harbor Partners Acquisition Corp. (see SEC docs). The directors of Good Harbor Acquisition were all partners in Good Harbor Consulting LLC and include Richard Clarke, former National Coordinator for Security and Counter-terrorism, and Brian L. Stafford, former head of the Secret Service.
William Steere, former Pfizer CEO, has been involved in both the Giuliani and Romney campaigns.
April 11, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
$2300 seems to be a common number among these folks. Is everyone financially able to make such a contribution?
30 year old Nick the "investor" wears a lot of hats yet his wife works for Iowa state government. Are any other investors as young and as busy with other jobs?
Were the contributions made on the same day? Anyone donating to Rudy Giuliani too?
April 11, 2008 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
I listed all Norm Coleman donations made on 10/24/07 and 10/25/07 that equaled $2300.
Wanderindiana and I looked at some other donors to Coleman on those days at this TPM MR post.
The following people also donated to Coleman on either 10/24/07 or 10/25/07:
Brent Rastetter
Bruce's son
Todd Steen
Hawkeye Renewables
Alan Rosendahl
Iowa State Bank
Kent Krause
Iowa Wind Farms
Rastetter's partner
Robin Sampson
Hawkeye Renewables
Justin Peterson
DCI Group
(Dave Kochel, AFF advisor, was with DCI)
Doug Goodyear
DCI Group
Ken Mehlman
Akin Gump (10/15/07 & 10/24/07)
Bruce Mehlman
Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti (4/30/07)
April 11, 2008 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't have much time at the moment but google "russ stidolph", Altenergy LLC partner. Stidolph is no longer listed on the www.whitney.com website but he was a partner up until at least 2005.
Stidolph was involved in Hawkeye Renewables' aborted inital public offering.
For some reason, he was sanctioned by the state of Iowa for acting like a lobbyist.
I'm thinking some, if not all, of the 10/24/07 Coleman donors are invested in Altenergy LLC.
Stidolph was also one of the 12/31/07 Giuliani donors.
April 11, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
What is Jim Nussle up to these days? His former campaign manager, Nick Ryan, seems to be cashing in so why wouldn't Nussle?
April 11, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jim Nussle is presently the White House Director of OMB.
Maybe he's laying the groundwork to cash in...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/organization/office.html#ddomb
I wonder if there have been any recent contraversial actions by Nussle as OMB Director?
April 11, 2008 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
From the Belmond Independent on 11/6/03:
IOWA FALLS: The company considering a windfarm in Wright and Hamilton Counties is now also talking about building an ethanol plant in Hardin County. Midwest Renewables, part of Whitney and Co. of Connecti-cut, wants to build the $65 million facility south of Iowa Falls. The plant would produce 40 million gallons of alcohol using 15 million bushels of corn and would be the second ethanol producer in Hardin County. Company official Russ Stidolph said there should be no problem having two ethanol plants close together, since in a 25-mile radius there are 200 million bushels of corn grown. Stidolph is also involved with Iowa Winds, LLC, and says that company has secured options for wind generators on over 30,000 acres of land in southern Wright and northern Hamilton Counties.
April 11, 2008 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
According to the Hawkeye Renewables SEC S-1 registration statement filed 9/5/06, Hawkeye Renewables owed more than $75 million to Midwest Renewables.
Interesting that there doesn't seem to be any other obvious link to J. H. Whitney, Russell Stidolph etc although it does say that Midwest Renewables is a "member of the Company", i.e. Hawkeye Renewables.
It appears that Bruce Rastetter is a front for a Wall Street syndicate.
April 11, 2008 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
"part of Whitney and Co. of Connecti-cut"
although it appears this way in the paper, do they mean "Pratt and Whitney" . Pratt and Whitney, a division of the international military contractor United Technologies, makes jet engines, but they also make engines for propeller aircraft. Such an engine would probably be a significant component of a wind turbine farm. Pratt and Whitney and UTC are based in Connecticut.
If UTC is involved here, that might explain all of the LLCs, the private jet, etc. It would seem to a layman like me there's just too much $$ moving around to be coming from an Iowa renewables businessman who used to run a pork empire. Then again, Adelson is also in on this...
April 11, 2008 5:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, the "Whitney" in this case refers to John Hay Whitney, founder of J. H. Whitney which, according to Wiki, is the oldest venture capital firm in the U.S.
There is J. H. Whitney and Co. and J. H. Whitney Investment Management LLC.
Norm Coleman donor, John M. B. O'Connor, is CEO of Whitney Investment Managment.
The money is coming from very, very wealthy private investors who I suspect have been sneaking around Iowa and other locales getting a lock on the alternative energy industry.
Again, I wouldn't be at all suprised if those Coleman donors weren't all investors in Altenergy LLC.
April 11, 2008 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL - The Iowa Progress Project is replacing the Iowa Future Fund. Dave Kochel is the president.
I wonder if Eric Peterson freaked out when I emailed him.
April 11, 2008 11:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
From the IPP website:
IPP announced the following Board of Directors for the organization:
President: David Kochel
Director: Kathy Pearson
Director: Gary Grant
Is Gary Grant the vice president of Public Affairs Co.?
April 12, 2008 10:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
You've been busy! :-)
I cannot stand how these people keep ripping off "progress" and "progressive" from the Left. Who do they think they're fooling?
April 12, 2008 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Their new website's domain was registered on April 7th, hidden ownership, of course. Another sign that they are roaches scurrying from the spotlight.
April 12, 2008 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Kathy Pearson is past president of Iowa Federation of Republican Women, whose website lists her as having an email address at Kaas Employment Services in Cedar Rapids.
April 12, 2008 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Iowa SoS corporate filing for IPP here. Dated April 10, 2008. I don't think they like your attention to their business.
April 12, 2008 11:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
The IPP website was registerd on 4/7/08 so apparently the Iowa Republicans decided to change the name four days after I first posted about Iowa Future Fund. I wonder what they will do with American Future Fund, if anything.
I posted a diary about IPP at Bleeding Heartland since it is an Iowan progressive blog. desmoinesdem gave it the front page.
Thanks for the info about Kathy Pearson which I incorporated in the Bleeding Heartland diary.
April 12, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
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