Pledges. They are worthless – witness Howard Jarvis Taxpayers endorsements in recent years. They have endorsed several marginal Republican Candidates that have made a mockery of their good name. (How dare I point that out) Remember Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Witness all the people who have signed the ATR “No New Taxes Pledge” who have wiped their behinds with it.
So-Called taxpayer groups sprout up like weeds – including the taxpayer group that is supporting Frank Bigelow against Rico Oller.
Jon Fleischman has appointed himself one of the guardians of virtue in the Republican Party with his website and his boorish tactics to coerce Republican candidates in to signing the ATR Pledge or to make some sort of public statement that they won’t raise taxes, ever.
What he does – is to threaten people, he’s done it for years and I believe that I am the first to ever expose this publicly. I have also been told that he engages in similar tactics to sell ad space on his blog.
From: Scott Loenhorst <redacted>
Date: May 14, 2012 11:49:14 PM PDT
To: voteforles@sbcglobal.net
Subject: RE: You have NOT signed the ATR Pledge – so you are willing to raise taxes?Dear Les,
My name is Scott Loenhorst and I am writing on behalf of Jon Fleischman, Publisher of the widely-read FlashReport Website on California Politics (www.flashreport.org).We are writing you because you are a candidate for partisan office and according to our records, you have not signed the Americans for Tax Reform’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge.” We wanted to make sure that you have the pledge available and we would like you to sign it right away. It is our request that you sign and return this form within 24 hours. Let us know if you have any questions.
We believe that it is very important that fiscally conservative candidates present a united front against the onslaught from special interests, who put tremendous pressure on GOP legislators to vote for a tax increase.
The form is attached. Please note that it needs a witness. If you need more information about the pledge itself, you can find more information on the ATR website: http://www.atr.org/taxpayer-protection-pledge
We believe that one of the reasons why Democrats have not raised taxes in Sacramento, is because virtually every Republican legislator in Sacramento has signed this pledge. It might interest you to know that every Republican member of Congress from California has signed.If we do not hear back from you in this email, we will follow up with a phone call.Thank you for your prompt attention to completing the attached form. In addition to faxing it to ATR to the number on the form, we ask that you also email it back to us, or fax it to us at 1-928-223-8068.
Scott
PS – Please get back to me as soon as possible, as Jon is getting ready to write a story about Republican candidates who have not signed the pledge, which will be read by local conservative grassroots leaders and GOP donors in your area, and will likely be picked up by the media in your area.Scott Loenhorst
The FlashReportSenior Associate
xxx-xxx-xxxx-Mobile
I don’t think that this quite meets the criteria for extortion. (“Buy my political ads or else your campaign burns down” might.) It does meet the criteria for “this person had hope that there’s no such thing as karma, because if it exists then in their next couple of dozen lives they’re coming back as a self-aware dung beetle.”
*Sgt. York – Good points to be sure. Piling on…anyone? No, actually, in our opinion this is a national effort that began with the Gov. Scott Walker deal in Wisconsin. Grove Norquist is the the so-called Conservative Grand High Lama of Tax Philosophers that followed the Lew Ullers National Taxpayers Union and a variety of others in a effort to separate Democrats from their Union Representation and support.
If you think on it…it’s kind of like joining the a adjunct to the Tea Party. Everyone FOR taxes on this side….and Everyone AGAINST taxes on this side! As we know, it isn’t all that simple….but hey….that’s politics!
Jon is a dutiful soldier and is doing what is being ordered from above. Nothing wrong with following instructions from the big guys. The results on June 5th in Wisconsin will greatly dictate what may happen right here in California in the very near future..like in November..perhaps!
If Walker is Recalled – the Republican NO NEW TAX Pledges will go the way of the Buggy Whip. If Walker stays in office…..”Jenny bar the door……the Indians are comin!” and all Unions Nationally will be attacked with impunity. Laws will surface to stop their fund raising activities and their numbers will fall like a skydiver without a parachute.
We believe that whatever happens on June 5th……is going be a harbinger of the future and we also believe….there may be a series of great surprises for both sides when it is all over on June 6th!
Thanks, guys – my issue is the spirit of this email and the fact that candidates are getting hit over the head with the “comply or die” hammer.
The pledge itself isn’t worth the paper it is printed on given the way it has been abused in the past anyway – there has to be a better, more productive way to get this done.
“Les Baugh …believes that there are only two pledges he should ever make in his life – to God and his wife.”
Whatever. Those two pledges are fine for Les. But number one for any American office holder is the pledge to the CONSTITUTION.
That’s Paul Cook’s position. An Inland Empire assemblyman and now state senate candidate, a conservative Republican and Vietnam Vet, he tells Grover and Fleshman to take a hike. His only pledge is to the Constitution, and he’s never voted to raise taxes, but he can’t swear on a stack of bibles that the time will NEVER come when he feels he has to. (I THINK I’ve got his position down right.)
Vern – it is refreshing to see you talk about the Constitution. It goes without saying that Les Baugh would take such a pledge when he os sworn in!
I never stop talking about the Constitution. Doesn’t make me a tenther or a birther though.
Let’s see now. Some of hte pitches being made for Proposition 28 (changing State term limits) are that it takes a minimum of a couple years for a newly elected State Legislator to learn the job, the state is just too complex to understand the intricacies of the decisions that need to be made by a Legislator without that learning curve, etc. Yet, these guys want anyone running for office to sign a pledge as though they already are a fountain of knowledge about State government. Seems to be in conflict to me. Sign a pledge about the decisions you will make in a job before you learn the job. Makes no sense, except in partisan politics where the agenda is gridlock. Have we had enough of this stuff yet?
Amen! You got my point – these things are a money maker for a small oligarchy and that’s it!
How many Democrats sign pledges? That seems to be more of a GOP thing. So, “Equal Time,” yes; “False Equivalence,” no!
Equal Time is like the Winships: They make good trenchant criticisms of what today’s Republicans do, but they can’t say the word “Republican” when they do it. Either they’re trying to sound non-partisan and even-handed, or maybe it just hurts too much.
BTW, Are you sure you’re the first person to complain publicly about Fleischman’s boorish threatening ways? If so, that’s quite something. It’s been common wisdom for a while.
Vern – my understanding is that I was the first to publicly “out” the boorish emails that Mr. Fleischman sends.
You are dead on when you talk about the California Republican message Epic Fail – this sort of backroom crap is definitely part of that Epic Fail.
The fight for integrity in politics seems to be like trying to inherit the wind.
BTW – I did disclose that Les Baugh, the target of this is a client? Also – just for grins, he is a relative (albeit distant) of Scott Baugh. Someone all of you know well.
*Chairman Vern,
Read the small print in our first post….try it…you’ll like it! Dutiful Soldiers….who could
that be? It ain’t Monty Python…trust us!
The whole thing hinges on the Scott Walker Recall in Wisconsin. We will know the
results of that trial ….in a couple of days.
I just think that one reason your Party keeps getting more and more extreme is because nice Republicans like you don’t stand up and say, “We’re Republicans, and we don’t like what’s happening to our Party!”
“Anon” has got on your case for this too. (not to be confused with anonster…)
Can’t say Republicans on this one, but can say – some Republicans! No feet in the sand from ths one.
*Chairman Vern,
Mom always said: “Pick your battles!” There are two philosophies: (1) Follow the National RNC or (2) Take up Favorite Son positions on everything.
Right now, the Tea Party is in disarray and Conservatives are trying to find out who is who in the zoo. Events are moving faster than the majority of the party get a grip on with any clarity. Do we simply fold and say: “The Ryan Plan is great…let’s do that?” or do we do “Newt, Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann and Boehner…….what are they doing?”
Too confusing. The results of the this elections we believe will be very mixed across the country. In the end, there may be no coalesence of positions or focus for any particular personalities that come out sterling.
Sorry, we can’t be any clearer than that….but we just don’t know yet. It much akin to asking Donald Trump who his next wife is going to be. Time will tell.
I remember seeing Norquist on 60 minutes. His venality was obvious and apparent. When asked what happens if a candidate has the gall to to not sign on to the pledge, or to change his/her mind, he calmly stated that, well, the voters would be “educated.” Meaning, a nasty series of vile hit pieces calculated to appeal to the ideological base that would be well funded and relentless and would eat into valuable resources that could be used for a meaningful campaign.
If the little bastard shuffled off the mortal coil, the planet would be partly cleansed.