Tag Archives: Marco Rubio

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Campaign Finance Shenanigans: Don’t Be A Sucker

Sure, I know, it takes money to run for office and if we want to support dignified, well-meaning, thoughtful candidates somebody has to chip in. But as fundraising has gone digital, it has, to use a term technology critic and author Cory Doctorow came up with, undergone “Enshittification”. The whole damn enterprise has just made our daily lives worse and filled the internet with junk.

“Will you stand with President Trump and Senator Rubio in this critical moment?”  was a message I got the other day from the Anti-Woke Fund, demanding my attention with the following:

STAND WITH TRUMP AND RUBIO
This could be the end of faith, family, and freedom, if we do nothing.

Leaving aside the fact that Marco Rubio is no longer a senator, the message urged me to go on record now to tell every Republican to STAND WITH MARCO RUBIO AND TRUMP TODAY. 

I guess all of my contribution will go to Trump and/or Rubio, right?

NOPE!

I clicked through and found this: “Your contribution will benefit Anti-Woke Fund, Trump National Committee, Anti-Woke Caucus JFC, and 1 other.”

Click through further and you’ll find that if you give $25, $23.50 of that will go to the Anti-Woke Fund PAC, $1.25 to the Trump National Committee JFC and 25 cents to Hageman for Wyoming, the fundraising site for Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY). Larger contributions will be apportioned in the same way. 

What’s the Anti-Woke Fund PAC?

In 2024, Hageman was chair of the Anti-Woke Caucus, a group within the House of Representatives that says it is dedicated to fighting the growing influence of “woke” ideologies in government, business and society. But the Anti-Woke Fund has no clear connection to the Anti-Woke Caucus or Hageman.

According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Anti-Woke Fund is a political action committee (PAC) that registered on January 3, 2025. Its total receipts as of June 30, 2025 were $471,572.54. Almost all of its contributions were $200 or under. 

Its expenditures totaled $364,113.90, all of it going to 27 companies engaged largely in digital fundraising and messaging.

More than 50% of its expenditures went to six firms:

  • Better Mousetrap Digital: a digital fundraising consulting firm for Republicans – $68,635.22
  • Launchpad Strategies LLC: A Republican online advertising, digital consulting and fundraising firm – $48,169.64
  • DonorBureau: Aggregates and analyzes data to create a deep understanding of donors – $26,600.36
  • O2M Digital LLC: Works to deliver conservative political messaging – $26,010.93
  • Apex Strategies LLC: Facilitates fundraising, specializing in Political Candidate Fundraising and Non-Profit Event fundraising – $24, 158.80
  • TMA Direct Inc: Specializes in Data Management, Data Brokerage, Email Marketing, Political Consulting, Fundraising, and Direct Mail – $21,787.95

The rest went to 21 other mostly similar companies.[1]

What politician or interest group benefited from the work of all these companies that were paid by the Anti-Woke Fund from monies contributed by people who responded to the Fund’s email? Who Knows. 

Dozens of other political messages are similarly deceiving.

There’s the message from Team Crane.

National Debt or Refund Check

How would you like the tariff revenue spent, Friend?

Reply before our survey closes in 60 MINUTES!

SUBMIT YOUR RESPONSE HERE >>

Along with the usual plea for a contribution, the message says, “Your contribution will benefit Crane for Congress and Trump National Committee JFC.” But you have to dig deeper to find out that if you give $75, for example, $71.25 of that will go to Crane for Congress, a PAC affiliated with Republican Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona. Only $3.75 will go Trump.  Larger contributions will be apportioned in the same way. 

Crane promoted the conspiracy theory that there were “massive amounts of fraud” in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and called upon the Arizona State Legislature to decertify Joe Biden’s victory in the state. 

Republican Rep. Mary Miller from Illinois sent out a message alerting me that former FBI Director James Comey had been indicted:

This will be the FIERCEST battle for TRUTH in America! Comey LIED to the American people in order to PLOT against President Trump. 

We deserve justice. America deserves justice. 

MAGA needs to mobilize NOW!
STAND WITH TRUMP!

If you click on ‘Stand With Trump”, she asks you:

SIGN YOUR NAME to our petition of MAGA Patriots that are declaring I STAND WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP! 

Of course, if you sign your name, you are asked to chip in. “Your contribution,” she says “will benefit Mary Miller for Congress and Trump National Committee JFC” but as with Eli Crane, if you give $25, only $1.25 will go to Trump; $23.75 will go to Mary Miller for Congress.  Larger contributions will be apportioned in the same way. 

“There’s a sucker born every minute”, the American showman P.T. Barnum is supposed to have said, thinking of how confidence tricksters operate.

Don’t be a sucker.

[1] WINRED TECHNICAL SERVICES LLC: an American fundraising platform for the Republican Party 

TAILWINDS POLITICAL, LLC: Helps causes acquire, grow and enhance audiences, specializing in fundraising and political campaigns

NORTH COUNTRY STRATEGIES LLC: N/A

FRONTLINE STRATEGIES LLC: Data-driven fundraising

RED CURVE SOLUTIONS: Offers comprehensive treasury, budgeting and FEC compliance services for political campaigns, party organizations and PACS

A-TEAM DIGITAL LLC: a political digital marketing firm

ROC MEDIA, LLC: Digital media targeting firm.

LP BROKERING LLC: N/A

OLYMPIC MEDIA LLC: digital marketing and advertising firm

P2P MESSAGING: Delivers managed service text messaging solutions to political organizations, non-profits, and government officials.

TWENTY MANOR PROJECTS LLC: a digital advocacy and fundraising company

CONSERVATIVE OUTREACH GROUP, LLC:  List acquisition 

EDEE INC.: List acquisition

POP ACTA: Creates and uncovers highly targeted and curated audiences to raise funds, acquire donors and expand the reach of political candidates.

GRASSROOTS FOR YOU LLC: Political campaign marketing

MAWCO LLC: Elevates conservative campaigns with fundraising and marketing 

NORTH COUNTRY STRATEGIES: Political consulting

GET OUT THE LISTS LLC: Curates updated lists of conservative Republicans, donors, and activists

RIGHT RAIL LIST COMPANY: N/A

BELIEVE MEDIA, LLC: Digital marketing agency

CHAIN BRIDGE BANK, N.A.: Delivers banking and trust services nationwide

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Will you vote for Hillary… or for a woman?

Alex Conant, Marco Rubio’s communications director during his presidential race, recently sat down with the Huffington Post to discuss the campaign.

Conant: “Look, I think what we saw last night (June 7) is what we’re going to see from the Clinton campaign every day from now until November. Which is, they’re going to make this election a referendum on whether or not you want a woman in the White House. Not whether or not you want Hillary Clinton in the White House. I think that’s her only message.

Huffington Post: Do you think it plays?

Conant: It’s better than asking people to vote for Hillary.

hillaryFirstFemalePres

 

This illuminating conversation took place the day after the California and New Jersey primaries, when Clinton picked up enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee after focusing heavily on being the first female candidate of a major political party.

In sync with Conant’s observation, Hillary triumphantly claimed the Democratic nomination, focusing on the “first woman” theme.

“Thanks to you, we’ve reached a milestone, the first time in our nation’s history that a woman will be a major party’s nominee,” she announced to applause at a campaign event at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Responding in lockstep, media across the country announced Hillary’s victories with stories emphasizing that she would be the first woman to win a major party’s presidential nomination:

Clinton claims milestone as first female major-party nominee, wins California primary. Los Angeles Times

Hillary Clinton’s historic moment. Hillary Clinton — former first lady, former U.S. senator, and former secretary of state — has become the first woman to capture a major-party nomination for president. CNN

‘History made’: Clinton claims nomination. Hillary Clinton triumphantly claimed the Democratic nomination for president on Tuesday, calling for party unity to stop Donald Trump as she became the first woman in U.S. history to lead a major-party ticket. Politico

Hillary Clinton becomes first female presidential nominee from a major party after securing enough delegates. Daily News.

Following the party line, when Oprah Winfrey endorsed Hillary for President on June 7 (Wow! That was a surprise), she highlighted that it is time for voters to elect the nation’s first female president.

“I’m with her,” she told Nancy O’Dell of ‘Entertainment Tonight’. “It’s a seminal moment for women. What this says is that there is no ceiling. That ceiling has gone ‘boom,’ you know?”

 

It’s no secret that Hillary is a damaged and flawed candidate, so the “first woman” approach makes a lot of sense.

Her e-mail scandal may be fairly recent, but she is associated with decades of personal and political blunders and scandals that have led a high level of Clinton fatigue among the public.

“She has always been awkward and uninspiring on the stump,” a senior Democratic consultant once told the Washington Post. “Hillary has Bill’s baggage and now her own as secretary of state — without Bill’s personality, eloquence or warmth.”

The Democratic party has also known for a very long time it is confronting a serious Hillary trust gap.

In a July 2015 Quinnipiac University national poll, 57 percent of respondents said Clinton is not honest and trustworthy, one of the worst scores among all the top candidates at the time. In a subsequent Quinnipiac University poll, “liar” was the first word that came to mind more than any other in an open-ended question when voters were asked what they thought of Clinton, followed by “dishonest” and “untrustworthy”.

In a more recent Washington Post-ABC News national poll, 57 percent of people said they didn’t believe Hillary was honest and trustworthy.

But Hillary’s problems as a candidate go even deeper than that.

“Voters see her as an extraordinarily cynical, power-hungry insider,” James Poulos said in The Week magazine on Feb. 2. “She is out for herself, not out for Americans. Voters know it.”

This ties in with a wide perception that Hillary and Bill are just plain greedy, what with them hauling off $190,000 worth of china, flatware, rugs, televisions, sofas and other gifts when they moved out of the White House, taking money from all sorts of unsavory people and foreign countries for their Foundation, and charging exorbitant amounts for speeches.

David Axelrod, a political consultant for Obama, noted in his book, “Believer”, that Hillary has two other main weaknesses: she’s a polarizing rather than a “healing figure,” and she has a hard time selling herself as the “candidate of the future” given her checkered past and long political resume.

So here we are, facing the possibility Hillary will become the “first woman” president not because of, but despite, herself (and maybe because her opponent is another deeply flawed candidate).

Just goes to show that Clarence Darrow was right. “When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it,” he said.