Taxpayers for Liberty: Who Is This Group Playing in U.S. Senate Race?
by Ben DeGrow | 5:42 am, March 10, 2010 | 5 Comments
Update: Scanned copy of the March 5 Taxpayers for Liberty letter posted below.
Yesterday I received a strange mailing from a group called Taxpayers for Liberty. (Many of my fellow conservative, politically-active Colorado friends likely received the same.) It’s a self-described 501c4 organization with a Denver P.O. Box and an executive director named Andrew O’Neill — I’m almost positive it’s not this Andrew O’Neill.
I will take time later today to scan and post the four-page letter, along with the attached questionnaire and reply form, so you can see the mailing for yourself. It looks a lot like your standard political fundraising letter, with short paragraphs and heavy on underlined text and bullet points. Suffice it to say, the group Taxpayers for Liberty is very fond of Ken Buck, while railing on Jane Norton for not returning the questionnaire and Tom Wiens for filling out the questionnaire identically but having a voting record, or something like that.
Let me add here that the Taxpayers for Liberty questionnaire leaves a lot to be desired in its ability (or lack thereof) to meaningfully distinguish candidates from one another. For the most part, the 12 statements are largely factual in nature and focus on perspectives of existing problems without proposing or suggesting what type of solutions are needed. So at best, the answers might tell us all the candidates agree on the nature of the problem. Okay … then what?
So who is Taxpayers for Liberty? A search on the Colorado Secretary of State website finds the group originally was registered last November to one Sue Rehg of Loveland, a Republican activist and currently listed as a Larimer County co-chair of Ken Buck’s campaign. Last month the group switched registered agents to Denver attorney Adam Kehrli, no doubt to help make sure the language of the letter complies with electioneering regulations on 501c4 groups.
But this information only leaves many other questions unanswered — such as how large the group’s list or expenditure is. I’ve contacted representatives of the three leading Republican U.S. Senate campaigns to see if they have any insights or reactions to offer. But if anyone else out there has valuable information to add, please feel free to add to the intrigue.
Here’s a scanned copy of the actual letter. Click Fullscreen for an easier read:
?March 5, 2010
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March 10th, 2010 @ 9:35 am
I wonder if this is the same group of people who quietly donated 350K dollars to the national Campaign For Liberty to advertise the Ken Buck/CFL survey ad that was being shown a month ago on Colorado T.V. No one within the state CFL knows where the money came from other than some “new donors” in northern Colorado. The donors obviously support Ken Buck and after the spot was seen on Colorado T.V. Hundreds of CFL members complained as the ad looked to be an endorsement of Ken Buck and the CFL is a 501c(4) organization. The national CFL removed the spot shortly thereafter and said they would do ads differently in the future.
One thing is certain. There is some real money being donated up north and they are very quiet about it. Perhaps the groups have no relation but the one common factor is Ken Buck.
March 10th, 2010 @ 9:46 am
This is pure conspiracy theory speculation.
Up north money? Pat Stryker? Colorado Model lefties trying to force Jane Norton into an expensive primary or even elect Buck because they think he would be easier for Bennet to beat?
If that’s their game, they may be disappointed, because Bennet and Romanoff are so far left that Buck or Norton probably could beat them. And once it’s clear who the GOP nominee is, he or she will raise big bucks and exploit the anti-Obama Democrat sentiment in Colorado.
March 10th, 2010 @ 4:31 pm
That group identity might explain why my survey answers were left out of the CFL mailing…. again with answers like Ken Buck’s.
The problem I have with such surveys is they are often superficial and fail to allow for the fine details that sloppy questions raise.
For example, consider a contract question “would you oppose government rewriting contracts, except for a court and then only to determine the terms”
This clearly came from the pay czar and similar shenanigans.
One candidate won a big endorsement, in part for his “YES”.
BUT
Anyone answering YES is either totally big-business oriented and very ANTI-little-guy, or completely ignoring reality. Consider:
Contract formation: IS there a contract? Does putting a sticker in a hidden spot really make you liable to whatever terms a software maker wants, like a royalty when you sell your car to transfer the firmware?
Statutes of Limitations. Contracts are not enforced if you wait too long — is it fair to try to collect 30 years later when the receipt for payment has long since been lost?
Bankruptcy law, contracts are modified many times a day when the beans to pay just ain’t there….
Product Liability law. Remember when automakers would force buyers to agree to never sue them, and to pay THEM if anyone else should ever sue for damage caused by defects in the product — like wooden wheel spokes weakened by knots, and painted before sale? It happened!
Steve Barton
March 10th, 2010 @ 7:33 pm
It is rare when I agree with Mr. Johnson but on this topic he is spot on. Regardless of who wins the Republican nomination for the senate, Colorado will again be represented by a Republican Senator. The Democrats, on a daily basis, prove their wanton disregard for America. I no longer believe that the retaking of both houses in Washington DC is a pipe dream. I believe it is enevitable!
March 10th, 2010 @ 7:49 pm
I attended the Candidate Search forum in Colorado Springs last night. Norton stated that every budget she was in charge of while in Colorado government she cut. If the information in the letter is correct then…Houston we have a problem!!!!