The $100 million tax increase on Jefferson County for enhanced 911 services was accomplished through a list that was purchased from the Missouri Democratic Party.
Forefront Organizing prepared a report for the Jefferson County Dispatch on their work.From that post-campaign report, we get this gem:
To determine a target audience for the educational program, the population was processed using the Voter Activation Network, a paid service provided by the Missouri Democratic Party. the criteria used to determine how to educate this audience through the VAN, among other factors, included voting frequency, trending, modeling and micro-targeting.
Set the fancy language aside. Basically the Missouri Democratic Party has a list of reliable voters. They use this list to drive GOTV during election cycles. They allow organizations to purchase that list data. It' shady to use the information for those purposes, but not against the law. If the money for the campaign were run through an organization that raised funds for just such purposes, it would be acceptable.
That's not what happened. Jefferson County Dispatch paid Forefront Organizing, who either directly or through subcontractors paid the Missouri Democratic Party for that list. In other words, Republican and independent voters, through their taxes, helped fund the Missouri Democratic Party and its voter outreach program.
That information was then handed over to the SEIU MO/KS Council and ACORN staff to use to drive support to raise taxes, under the guise of voter education.
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