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American Future Fund, GOP Front: Weekly Update
American Future Fund, a 501(c)(4) run by Republican operatives, registered its PAC, American Future Fund Political Action, with the FEC on May 7. Lisa Lisker is treasurer and Keith Davis is assistant treasurer. Lisker and Davis are principals of Huckaby, Lisker & Davis, an Alexandria, Virginia-based political accounting firm representing political action committees for Republican Party candidates and entities.
Chris Cillizza in the Washington Post reported that AFF is "widely rumored to be the most likely conduit for soft-money donations to be spent on some of the most hotly contested Senate races this fall." This correlates with what Peter Stone wrote in the National Journal a few weeks ago about Karl Rove coordinating the campaign efforts of independent groups at the presidential, senate and congressional levels.
AFF announced this week that Tim Albrecht will be AFF's National Director of Communications:
"Albrecht has served in communications roles for a number of local, state and national officials. In 2007-08, he served as Iowa Press Secretary for Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. Prior to that, he served four years as Director of Communications for Iowa House Speaker Christopher Rants. Most recently, he headed up the Republican Party of Iowa’s communications efforts."
In February 2008, the Iowa Republican Party announced that Albrecht would be the party's communication director for the 2008 election cycle:
"The Republican Party of Iowa announced today that Tim Albrecht will serve as communications director for the 2008 cycle.
Albrecht, 30, says 2008 will be a positive year for Republicans.
"From races for the Statehouse to the White House, Republicans have a big opportunity this year," said Albrecht. "The Republican Party of Iowa is putting together a strong slate of candidates and staff, and we will be successful in November."
Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Stewart Iverson, who yesterday announced that Caleb Hunter will be the party’s new executive director, says Albrecht is another great addition to the team.
"Tim is a tested, proven communications director, and I look forward to working with him as we focus on the fall campaigns," said Iverson. "He brings a wealth of experience and will be instrumental as we share our conservative message to the voters of Iowa."
Albrecht, of West Des Moines and originally from Ida Grove, most recently served as Iowa press secretary and national media coordinator for Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. From 2002-2006, he was communications director for Iowa House Speaker Christopher Rants, R-Sioux City. Previous campaign experience includes Steve Sukup’s run for governor in 2002, and the presidential campaign of Steve Forbes in 1999-2000."
About American Future Fund:
AFF and its affiliate, Iowa Future Fund, were registered on 8/7/07 in Iowa by Holtzman Vogel. Alex N. Vogel and his wife, Jill Holtzman Vogel, were both high level operatives for the Republican National Committee.
Given that AFF/IFF's operations are based in Iowa, Brian Kennedy, an Iowa-based DCI Group exec and co-founder of the notoriously successful 527, Progress For America, is probably managing the operations.
Nicole Schlinger, AFF president, is the founder and owner of Capital Resources, Inc, an Iowa firm that raises money for Republican candidates. Schlinger is also a former executive director of the Iowa Republican Party.
In February 2008, Schlinger and David Kochel, another Republican operative associated with AFF, registered Mission Control Partners Inc. in Iowa. Kochel is also a former executive director of the Iowa Republican Party.
In addition to his AFF association, Kochel is the president of Iowa Progress Project, the successor to Iowa Future Fund. IPP was created when ethanol mogul, Bruce Rastetter, was publicly linked to IFF. IFF president, Eric L. Peterson, appears to be Rastetter's employee.
The politically ambitious Rastetter hired Jim Nussle's campaign manager, Nick Ryan in January 2007 after Nussle made a failed bid for the Iowa governorship. Ryan's post office box was used when AFF placed pro-Norm Coleman ads in Minnesota.
I posted about American Future Fund, Iowa Future Fund and IFF successor, Iowa Proress Project, in the Daily Kos here, here, here and here. I posted about AFF, IFF and IPP in the TPM Cafe
here, here, here, here and here
Comments (5)
In addition to McCain, which House and Senate seats is AFF targeting? Please keep following the money.
May 12, 2008 11:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
American Future Fund has already provided support for Norm Coleman in Minnesota. AFF operatives were spotted in New Hampshire so add John Sununu to the list. That's all I've heard so far re AFF.
When a few of us here researched America Future Fund and its affiliate, Iowa Future Fund, we noticed some people associated with AFF/IFF such as Bruce Rastetter contributed to Norm Coleman on 10/24/07. Some other big money donors like Pepe Fanjul, the Florida sugar king also donated that day. We speculated about whether those donors also contributed to American Future Fund.
As a 501(c)(4), AFF is not required to disclose its donors but its PAC will have to do so.
May 13, 2008 7:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Russel Stidolph registered RTS Farms with the Illinois Secretary of State. RTS Farms has an address in Alden, IA:
May 13, 2008 10:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
In one of the old threads, you found some ties between Thomas Lee Partners and Rastetter. Here's a Rastetter address, Nick Ryan as President and Thomas Equity in the title...
May 13, 2008 10:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, C92! 10640 Co Hwy D20 is the address of Summit Farms, Bruce Rastetter's company, and where Eric L. Peterson works. As you know, Peterson is the likely president of Iowa Future Fund.
I've been thinking about doing a post about Iowa Future Fund/ Iowa Progress Project and summarizing what we know to date. I just have to find the time.
I'm surprised that we haven't read anything in the Iowa media or anywhere online about Bruce Rastetter and Nick Ryan being linked to IFF/IPP. The IA Dems know about them and for awhile, the IFF anti-Culver ads were big news in IA.
So far, we have Nick Ryan working for Bruce Rastetter and using Altenergy LLC's email adress. Altenergy is headed by Russell Stidolph.
Stidolph used Rastetter's buiness address to register an Illinois company but gave the Altenergy LLC address as his own.
American Future Fund used Nick Ryan's p.o. box address when it placed pro-Norm Coleman ads in Minnesota.
The brucerastetter.com lists 400 Locust St., Ste 330, Des Moines as its address. In the same building but in a different suite, is Summit Capital which Nick Ryan claims is his employer.
We know Rastetter is close to Peter Castleman, chairman of J. H. Whitney, because Castleman put Rastetter on the board of his family charity, ThorpeWood.
We know Rastetter has a close business relationship with Richard "Dick" Jacobson, founder of Jacobson Companies and Hawkeye Energy chairman. Jacobson of late has become a big political donor, giving $50k to Nussle's gubernatorial campaign.
I still think it is odd that the officially sanctioned IA Republican senate candidate, Steve Rathje, has $7k in the bank and $19k in debt after trying to raise money for more than two years.
Are the IA Republicans really giving up that easily?
An IA conservative blogger said he was told that the Iowa Progress Project was supposed to revive the IA Republican Party. What does that mean?
The IA Dems might want to run ads asking why the IPP board of directors is secret and what are they hiding.
BTW, within the same week, Cindy McCain announced she was writing her memoirs to be published in September and then a few days later, she said she was too busy to do so. I have a vision of Karl Rove calling McCain and asking him if he was crazy.
If Cindy published her memoirs, we then would get to challenge everything in it including her version of the adoption and Wes Gullett's role in it. I, for one, am disapointed the memoirs won't be published.
May 14, 2008 10:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
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