A damning new report exposed the GOP and shadowy groups behind the ballot initiatives supporting third party candidates like RFK Jr. and Cornel West. These groups’ efforts may have violated federal law.
“Republicans are willing to do anything to circumvent democracy and push Trump’s Project 2025 agenda forward—including using deceptive tactics that may violate anti-corruption laws,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “The fact that MAGA extremists are working to support these shadowy third party campaigns is further proof that RFK Jr. and Cornel West are solely in the race to play spoiler and help elect Donald Trump.”
Associated Press: Kennedy and West third-party ballot drives are pushed by secretive groups and Republican donors
Brian Slodysko
07/16/24
Key sections:
- Libertarians in Colorado want to put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the ballot to create chaos.
- Petition drives for Cornel West in Virginia and North Carolina are being run by groups with Republican ties.
- At the beginning of June, West had been largely absent from the campaign trail and his political operation was $30,000 in debt, disclosures show. He had spent just $2,400 this year to gather the signatures needed to qualify for the ballot in states across the U.S.
- But then, Justice For All submitted well over the roughly 13,800 signatures needed. State government emails obtained by The Associated Press show current and former employees of Blitz Canvassing, a Republican firm that earned millions of dollars doing work for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, helped West pull off the feat.
- It’s unclear who paid the firm, which isn’t listed as a paid vendor in West’s campaign finance reports.
- State elections officials said they surveyed roughly 50 petition signers and many said they didn’t sign it or didn’t know what it was for. Another group gathering signatures for West refused to provide information sought under subpoena.
- But the GOP-linked signature collection effort on West’s behalf isn’t limited to North Carolina.
- Signature gatherers in suburban Washington were witnessed asking people in a Target parking lot to sign a petition to “get Donald Trump off the ballot,” NBC4 reported. The signatures were actually being collected to help get West on the Virginia ballot, and one of the workers said they would be handed off to the state GOP, the TV station reported.
- Last month, more than 80 paid out-of-state signature gatherers descended on the pivotal battleground of Arizona to collect signatures for West, state records show. Many of the workers listed Wells Marketing, a mysterious Missouri limited liability company, as their employer.
- Jacoby’s firm, Let the Voters Decide, was investigated for using dubious signature gathering tactics during a 2020 petition drive in Michigan that sought to roll back some of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic.
- In 2006, signature gatherers told Massachusetts lawmakers that Jacoby instructed them to use deceptive tactics, like asking people to sign a petition to allow for the sale of wine in grocery stores. They were actually gathering signatures to roll back the state’s historic gay marriage court ruling, the workers testified during a hearing.
- Legal experts say West’s reliance on an army of paid signature gatherers financed by an outside party could cause him legal trouble because it could be viewed as an in-kind contribution to his campaign.
- Republican megadonor Timothy Mellon, himself the heir to a storied Gilded Age fortune, donated $25 million to a super political action committee supporting Kennedy, records show. Other major pro-Trump donors have followed suit, including Leila Centner, who donated $1 million to the Kennedy super PAC, as well as arch conservative donor Elizabeth Uihlein, who gave $3,300 to his campaign.
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