Local Right Wing campaign operating plan
Local Right Wing campaign operating plan
A PDF file for your easy printing is linked at the bottom of this article. The original chart is in color. If the BIA or Realtors or Gravel interests (the three big business sectors behind the four candidates) want to send me a better, clearer copy of this, I will post it for all to view.
Notice how the local Republican Party is near the center of this for organizational purposes. Sam Crawford is one of the prime "Fundraisers." Some of the items on the chart are not so nice - such as "Hit Piece Letters." And it is interesting that they group the Tea Party, Realtors, BIA, and GOP into the same team. Publicly, they like to pretend they are not joined at the hip. In practice, they are. Always have been. I could post more names, but discretion intervenes.
In truth, this is probably not too different from what the far left machine uses for their candidates. One reason for posting this is to try to convey to my Pollyanna friends that local politics is not about someone deciding to run for office, finding a friend to be campaign manager and doing their best. Those poor souls are left in the dust. This slate of candidates was picked by local conservative leaders, and they were promised support. They are also pretty much told how to run their campaigns. Yes, there are honest campaigns. The ones run by John Blethen and Mike McAuley for Port Commissioners are two examples. So is the race by Catherine Chambers for Bellingham City Council.
This chart primarily shows us that the effort this year by the right wing in Whatcom County is for the County Council. If anyone else can shed more light on all this, please do.
Update - late Wed eve: There are many items on this chart that could use research. I checked out one item this evening - the flow of all website development through one person. What is intriguing is this did not flow through the candidates and their managers, but rather was handled entirely by some "Website Development" person.
And lo, I found the four sites to have some striking similarities - not in appearance but in how and when they were set up. All four domain names were bought the first week of June; all four cost $64.20; all four were registered to be served from the same web host - dotsterhost.com - and all use exactly the same contribution button. All say at the bottom of their pages that the candidates paid for their websites - but I cannot find those expenditures in their C-4s. Someone else want to check this out?
The common processes, costs and use of the same company - not a local company - indicates that a single experienced web site developer was contracted to create all four websites. The fact that this cost appears to not be reported is worthy of PDC complaint filings. (I won't be doing that but others may want to look into this.) All four websites show very pricey, professional development. So, it seems that this part of the chart was followed nicely - and has been in play since early June.
Finally - another nice large donation of $7,500 to Bill Knutzen from Marberry Packing in Lynden - on October 12, of course. We can expect some more contributions to turn up. And we can expect Sam Taylor to explain them away - at least those we reveal here. He has an aversion to discovering on his own.
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