Yesterday National Public Radio's All Things Considered program aired a good story on the North Carolina Robocall scandal that describes some of the key problems with the robocalls by Women's Voices Women Vote (WVWV). NPR has also uncovered some clear conflict of interest issues that could put WVWV in more legal hot water and does a great job of summarizing the many Clinton connections that run throughout the organization. It's great reporting.
To start, the NPR story makes clear right off the bat, in the introduction to the story, the two most important points about this story: that WVWV has strong ties Hillary Clinton and that its robocalls appear to be illegal. Reporter Peter Overby starts by playing the Lamont Williams robocall message (you can also play the robocall message directly on the NPR website):
In fact, the deadline to register for the May 6 Democratic presidential primary had already passed. The robocall went to many registered voters who were expecting to vote that day. The call and follow-up mailings left many wondering whether they were registered for the primary or not.
This sounds like a classic example of voter suppression — sowing confusion in order to drive down turn-out. The calls seemed to be aimed at African-American communities, places where Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is expected to run well ahead of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
But the group behind the calls isn't partisan Republican or ideologically conservative. It's Women's Voices Women Vote, a 501(c)(3) charity that states its mission as registering single women to vote. The robocalls seem completely at odds with the group's usual, upbeat message.
The story goes on to point out the key problems with the robocalls (problems of which we are all familiar thanks to ProgressiveSouth's diaries) and WVWV's pattern, over five months, of sending out deceptive, confusing robocalls and mailings that generate complaints in a given state, then apologizing for it and doing it again in other states, as Chris Kromm of the Institute for Southern Studies makes clear in the story:
Kromm says this shows at least five months of a "deceptive tactic, illegal in many states." He notes, "Each time this group is criticized for this activity, they apologize for the confusion."
NPR also makes clear that WVWV has many strong ties to Hillary Clinton. They point this out not just in the All Things Considered piece but in a comprehensive table that accompanies the story on its website. I was aware of many of WVWV's connections to Hillary that are in the table, but some of them were new to me. Here are highlights from the table:
- Page Gardner, founder and president
Connections: Served as as deputy politcal director for Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign and presidential transition team.
Donations: $4,200 to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign in 2005; $2,500 to HillPAC in 2006.
- Joe Goode, executive director
Connections: Pollster for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign.
- Micheal Lux, board member
Connections: Worked on Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, and later served as his special asst. for public liaison.
Donations: $2,500 to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign in 2000-2001; $1,000 to HillPAC in 2002.
- Mimi Mager, board member
Connections: Member of the Clinton-Gore transition team; founding member of Emily's List, which supports Hillary.
Donations: $2,000 to Hillary Clinton in 2007.
- John Podesta, board member
Connections: Former chief of staff for President Clinton.
Donations: $2,300 to Hillary Clinton in 2007; $1,000 to HillPAC in 2001; $2,000 to Hillary's Senate campaign in 2000.
- Hal Malchow, leadership team
Connections: Hillary Clinton's campaign owes Malchow's firm, MSHC Partners, nearly $1 million for printing expenses.
Donations: $2,000 to Hillary's Senate campaign in 1999-2000 and $2,100 in 2005.
- Pat Griffin, leadership team
Connections: Former top advisor to President Clinton; served as asst. to the president for legislative affairs.
Donations: $4,600 to Hillary Clinton in 2007; $3,000 to Clinton from 2000-2005.
- Maggie Williams, leadership team
Connections: Current campaign manager for Hillary Clinton, and many other ties to the Clintons.
Donations: $4,600 to Hillary Clinton in 2007.
NPR notes that a few people in leadership positions at WVWV have some ties to Obama, but the vast majority are linked to Hillary Clinton. For example, in the NPR table I count donations of $33,800 to Hillary Clinton and just $3,600 to Barack Obama.
It gets worse. In a secondary story on its website, written by Will Evans of the Center for Investigative Reporting, NPR uncovers some serious conflicts of interest at WVWV that could be a violation of nonprofit law, according to charity watchdogs.
In 2006, WVWV paid Integral Resources Inc. nearly $800,000 for phone services. That company's CEO and founder is Ron Rosenblith, who is married to WVWV president Page Gardner. NPR notes that the contract represents 16% of the nonprofit's budget.
"I think it's a really big concern," said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy in Chicago. "It does give an appearance of a conflict of interest."
The question, he and other charity experts say, would be whether Integral Resources profited from its inside connections.
Also troubling is that WVWV paid several million dollars more on contracts with companies run by five additional members of the nonprofit's leadership team:
This would be troubling if those people had influence over the nonprofit's expenditures when the contracts were awarded, said Rick Cohen, former executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, now national correspondent for Nonprofit Quarterly magazine.
"By going to companies that are related to members of the organization, it does create the image, if not the reality, of self-dealing," Cohen said of the Women's Voices contracts. "I think this is a concern for donors, a concern for state and federal regulators, and a concern to the public."
I found it interesting that WVWV did not make anyone available for comment for the NPR story. Perhaps they're trying to just stay mum on this until the primary next week, in the hopes that the truth doesn't come out before then?
And there's one other thing in the NPR story that really stood out for me. On the WVWV's website you can view one of the group's public service announcements in which actress Julia Louis Dreyfus strolls through a replica of the Oval Office and fantasizes about electing a woman president and encouraging women to put a woman in the White House (hmm, I wonder who that woman could be?). You can view the Julia Louis Dreyfus video on YouTube here. You might want to rate the video and add your comments about what you think of WVWV's dirty, illegal tactics.
It seems increasingly clear, the more we learn, that Women's Voices Women Vote's primary mission was not to register more women to vote, but to get one particular woman in the White House. The more I learn about Women's Voices Women Vote, the more problems I see with how this group operates. Here's hoping that the legal authorities get to the bottom of this, and here's hoping that North Carolina voters realize how Hillary has been willing to do anything to get in the White House - including the use of deceptive, illegal tactics to suppress, confuse and deceive North Carolina voters through a nonprofit front group that appears to be doing the opposite of what it claims.
UPDATE:
It appears that WVWV has now disabled comments and ratings for the Julia Louis Dreyfus video to which I linked above. When I wrote this diary the video had a four-star rating, but it was down to two stars when they disabled the ratings. I guess a few of the comments that got through were too much for WVWV to handle. It looks like Women's Voices Women Vote not only supports voter suppression but YouTube suppression as well! (h/t winstnsmth)