24thState

Carnahan Blog Now Signals End of an Era

With both Russ Carnahan and Robin Carnahan leaving elected office last January, the time has come to wind down their family blog: FiredUp! Missouri. And so they have:

Here at 24thState.com we have followed the hollow work of FiredUpMissouri (FUM) for years. Now seems a fitting time to remind our readers of the racist lies the Carnahans trumped up against Roy Blunt (R-MO). That was during Robin's failed bid for US Senate in 2010. We caught them red-handed manufacturing political "news" on multiple occassions in that campaign. Of course, FiredUp used similar tactics to go after Ed Martin when he was running against Russ. And who can forget our satrical press release about FiredUp merging with the Missouri Democratic Party?

With Russ Carnahan's loss to Lacy Clay in the MO-1 Democrat primary and Robin Carnahan's stint as Secretary of State coming to an end earlier this year, a glorious new day has dawned on the Show Me State. We have entered the era of Carnahan-free government. May it ever remain thus!

 

Russ Carnahan For Illinois-12?

Now that Brad Harriman (D) dropped out of the race to replace Jerry Costello (D) in Illinois 12, perhaps Russ Carnahan could run to greener pastures in the sprawling district across the river.  We know he co-owns a yacht in Illinois, so he probably owns some property, as well.

And he may not even have to worry about allegations of carpet-bagging, since the Republican opponent for Illinois-12, Jason Plummer, has had the same allegations of carpet-bagging thrown at him.

Russ Carnahan Manuevers Obama Administration For Post-Congress Career

We were really hard on Russ Carnahan in 2009 and 2010.  The weakest of the Carnahans, we assumed he was just another empty suit with no fire and no brains, running on an old name in a safe district.  And then he surprised us.  Carnahan has been running on all four cylinders since it became clear his district was toast.  After picking fights with Lacy Clay and the Congressional Black Caucus (going so far as to say F*** You to Lacy on the House Floor), Carnahan switched gears and is working feverishly for a job in January 2013. 

But what job?  The worst kept secret in Missouri politics is that Russ is running in the 1st District against Lacy.  Knowing him as well as we do, we are convinced, as are many city Democrats, that Russ is raising money pretending he will step into the 2nd district, all while planning to run against Lacy in the primary. 

Reasons Why Russ Is Not Running In The Second

Carnahan cannot win the 2nd.  It's gerrymander is a lot worse for Democrats than the +4 or +5 it's given.  Every conservative neighborhood on the West side of the district is snagged up, which means the County portions are weaker vote totals than he is used to.  Add to that the many new residents that have had Lacy Clay in the 1st as their congressman for years. Many didn't vote out of frustration.  They're chomping at the bit to be represented by someone without a D by their name. 

Carnahan doesn't want to face Ann Wagner or Ed Martin.  Wagner would have a money advantage over Carnahan and she's not an easy target.  Her biggest problem is name ID in a year shaping up to be another anti-incumbent wave.  Martin took Carnahan to the wire in his own district, winning Jefferson County and gong 50/50 in St Louis.  Without a 2:1 advantage in the minority districts of South St Louis, Carnahan would have lost badly.  Add Martin's pugnacious campaign style against Carnahan, and a Tea Party fired up by last year's close watch, and you have the makings of Carnahan not only beaten soundly, but humiliated a second time.  

He's not running in the 2nd.  

Reasons Russ Is Running In The First 

Carnahan is best friends with Lewis Reed, the President of the St Louis Board of Alderman.  They bought a boat together and profited from a shady real estate deal together. Reed is an anti-Slay advocate rumored to be running for Mayor.  Can you imagine the delight of having you and your best friend be the Congressman and the Mayor from St Louis.  Even if it's a long shot, Carnahan would be happier being the 1st District Congressman than the 2nd District (facing strong opposition every year). 

The primary is in August, and Carnahan could use his political network to get out the vote.  He could split portions of the black vote off with help from Reed, and also tap into black dissatisfaction with Clay.  Clay is a fixture, but not a monolith.  It could be done, especially if Carnahan had a big cash advantage to pay out "walking around" money from Corporate and Union PACs.

Which brings us to Carnahan's fundraising.  Carnahan has had several good fundraising quarters, with assistance from the DCCC and national figures, including Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi.  Using left-wing reporters like Dave Catanese from Politico, Carnahan pretends he's running in the second to raise money from national sources and from Corporate PACs.  When the time comes, he files in the 1st and enjoys a huge cash advantage over Clay.  

It all works out.  Except, doing so will anger the Congressional Black Caucus and possibly cause a Civil War among Democrats in St Louis.  With Nixon already suffering from low approval ratings in St Louis (he couldn't stop four black Missouri House Democrats from overturning his veto), a second front opened against one of the top black leaders in Missouri will be seen as treachery. It could even affect the governor's race for re-election.  Would Carnahan chance it?

What Carnahan Has Wrought

Last year, a rumor was making the rounds that Carnahan was quietly preparing for his defeat at the hands of Ed Martin.  This blog was emailed the rumor, and confirmed it with a South City source, that Russ told a group of people that if he lost he would be taken care of by the Obama Administration.  

It was widely assumed he'd get some international job working with the United Nations, or assigned to something like the World Bank or an NGO with close ties to the UN. 

So what do we read yesterday in the Post-Dispatch?  Russ Carnahan Chosen To Attend UN Meeting.

This is a non-paying job, but it coincides with another interesting development.  Emanuel Cleaver, the head of the Congressional Black Caucus and a fellow Missouri House member, is telling the world that the CBC is unhappy with Obama.  Cleaver goes so far as to say if it were Clinton, they'd be marching on the White House. 

With the Congressional Black Caucus already on the verge of rebellion, the last thing Obama can handle is a white Democrat challenging a black incumbent Democrat in a majority/minority district.  The simple solution?  Give Carnahan what he wants - a way out.

If Russ agrees not to run in the First District, he gets his UN job, a much more secure and way more fun spot where he can continue to suck at the government teat without the hassle of elections.  It's doubtful he even runs, as that would require the Obama administration to pay up after he lost, and when they are on their way out.  All that points to either a quiet appointment or job offer before the filing deadline, in advance of a primary run at Lacy Clay.  

Right now, it's Russ who has the leverage.  We did not think he had it in him.

Russ Carnahan Moves Money To New Campaign Committee

Russ Carnahan in Congress just filed a termination report for this campaign committee (well, they filed two of them) and are moving either $67,000 or $102,000 from Russ Carnahan In Congress to Russ Carnahan For Congress.

Russ Carnahan For Congress is a new campaign committee.  Keep in mind that Carnahan's campaign claims it was the victim of check fraud.  We know their office was"firebombed" and a campaign worker was arrested but not charged back in August, but that story and the investigation went nowhere.  Maybe checks were stolen, and the evidence was removed?  There were television reports of bags of documents taken to a dumpster the next morning.  Those were never followed up either.  It probably wasn't important.  A Congressman's office being firebombed isn't that big of a deal, right? 

A second problem is the filings, a day apart, reporting $67,00 and $102,000 being moved over to the new committee (or the old one, depending on how you look at it).  Which was it? What happened to that $35,000 in one day?

 

 

What does it mean?  We don't know the full reasoning, but it means something.  There are a number of documents to follow up with, as it seems he amended just about every report you can find.  We'll look into more, as there a bunch of documents at fec.gov to go through.

One thing to remember.  A committee that is shut down doesn't allow new complaints to be filed against it. 

Update: This is interesting.  The five page articles of organization give a lot of information.  The new committee is run by Campaign Finances, which is a compliance organization.  There does appear to be something of interest.  The documents for the new organization were sent to the Secretary of the Senate, despite being listed as a House committee.

Strange. The two houses of congress don't share that information.  Why would a House committee filing  be sent to the Secretary of the Senate?  Is Russ planning a primary run against Claire McCaskill, or is this just another "clerical mistake?"  Campaign Finances also has Robin Carnahan as a client.  Maybe they just checked the wrong box.  I guess we'll know soon.

Update II:  Although there are a huge number of amended filings for pretty much every period, there is still no record of a payment to Michael Corwin.  While there are still the payments to Veritas Research, there has never been an explanation from the Carnahan campaign what exactly Jeannine Dillon was paid for.

 

Writing On The Wall For Carnahan To Lose District

It's not 100%, but it sure is looking bad for Carnahan to keep the 3rd District seat.

The Source links to a SwingState chart showing the two smallest congressional districts in Missouri as the 1st and 3rd, based on the Census numbers.  Lacy Clay is safe due to the majority-minority regulatons for his district, which will require he take the South City precincts that went 2-1 to Carnahan in 2010.

In short, when the music stops, Carnahan is going to be the small district, the weakened Congressman, and the likely reduction in Missouri's congressional delegation.  While the Tea Party was ultimately unsuccessful in helping Ed Martin defeat Russ in 2010, the razor-thin margin in a D+7 district weakened Carnahan greatly.  If he could barely win a district drawn to elect a Democrat forever, what chance would he have in a district that would have to include more Republican voters and more of those conservative Democrats like the ones that turned Jefferson County a deep shade of red?

Combine his poor electoral showing with the incredibly poor campaign Russ ran, the sense that he is a lightweight by other Democrats, and the loss of stature by St Louis Democrats in recent years (Smith, Brown, El-Amin), and you end with one conclusion.  Russ Carnahan is finished with electoral politics, either off to the great lobbyist farm in the sky, or as suggested by this blog in the campaign, off to the Obama administration for a cushy foreign policy job.

Keep in mind what a South City source had to say during the campaign.

Russ spoke to what he thought were confidants that he doesn't think he can win the district this year.  The arrogant pr*** then tells them not to worry, because he's going to be okay, seeing as he has a job lined up with the Obama Administration.  

As we mentioned, the information is secondhand, and should be treated as gossip, but Carnahan's showing in Jefferson County has to cause some real heartburn.  He couldn't hold the seat, even if St Louis were able to keep three congressional districts.  It also complicates the redistricting map, as Democrats don't know if the poor showing was due to Russ's personality, low turnout among Democrats, or an acceleration of the blue to red tide that has taken over the rest of Missouri.  The fall of Ike Skelton is permanent, and leaves Democrats with nowhere to run, and no incumbents they can rely on.  They have to be focused on protecting Emanuel Cleaver (the head of the Congressional Black Caucus), and by law have to protect Lacy Clay.  That doesn't leave much real estate left to carve out a third district.

So yes, we didn't remove Russ Carnahan in 2010.  But you can bet your sweet patootie that our efforts helped boot him from the ranks of Congressman.  And in doing so, we also enabled a new generation of patriots who are making big steps in their local and regional contests.

Wheels of justice.  Exceedingly fine.  You know the saying.   Now all we need is a trial date for Elston McCowan and Perry Molens, and the worst of the last two years will be behind us.

 

 

Speaking Of Bad Carnahan Checks, Who Paid Michael Corwin If It Wasn't Veritas Research?

Near the conclusion of the 2010 election, a smear site attacking Ed Martin was launched two weeks before the election.  In addition to being anti-Catholic bigotry, the site was researched and launched by Michael Corwin, Jeannine Dilon, and Victor Arango, three individiuals who were paid by the Carnahan campaign to research Ed Martin's background.

After the site launch, a whisper campaign was started by Victor Arango online, trying to drive attention to the site using anonymous names at the Riverfront Times and FiredUpMissouri.  Jeannine Dillon also made Facebook posts on child abuse pages on Facebook, as well as the DNC.  Victor followed up with a phone call to Ed Martin's campaign offices, feigning concern about the site. 

Well aware of what was happening, Martin threw a press conference and denounced the smear site.  At the press conference, it was revealed by no less than Charles Jaco that Arango and Dillon had contacted national news programs trying to get someone to cover the story. 

And that's when I stepped in.  Tracing the efforts of Dillon, Arango, and Corwin online, in addition to using the FEC reports filed by the Carnahan campaign, I tracked down the possible payments by the campaign to Veritas Research, uncovering a false address the Carnahan campaign used that obscured the true identity and location of Arango and Dillon. 

My research and subsequent posting of that information led directly to the Carnahan campaign amending its disclosure, and follow-up reports from Michael Corwin denying he had broken the law.  The Post Dispatch, Riverfront Times, and Beacon followed up with reports, and Martin responded by filing an FEC complaint for unlawful coordination by the Carnahan campaign, Michael Corwin, and Veritas Research, LLC.

I wanted to add something to that investigation, especially seeing as the complaint is still active, and that Carnahan is now dealing with more check problems which could possibly bring to light evidence of how and why Veritas Research was paid two days before the smear site was purchased.

Lewis Reed Also Paid Castle Ballroom LLC With Campaign Funds

Russ Carnahan had a lot of dirt on him that finally came to light in the 2010 campaign, but his partner in crime in those business dealings was none other than friend and president of the St Louis Board of Alderman Lewis Reed.  The Post Dispatch says Reed probably won't draw a challenger.  Maybe this will help.

Lewis Reed owned the yacht with Russ Carnahan that was docked in Illinois and ducked the Missouri personal property tax.

Lewis Reed was also a partner in Castle Ballroom LLC, the company that purchased the decrepit old building on Olive for a no-money down commercial loan and then sold it two years later for $150,000 in profit. Castle Ballroom LLC also was paid rent by the Carnahan campaign fund, a convenient way to funnel campaign cash to the Carnahan and Reed families. Remember this was an FEC complaint that is still outstanding.

If one were so inclined to challenge Reed, one might do so pointing out he, in his own words, "got lucky" buying a commercial property from a Carnahan donor and selling it less than two years later for a tidy sum. Note the building is still unoccupied, and still derelict. One wonders why such a large sum was paid to two politicians for a property that was never used. Maybe it had to do with then 6th Ward Alderman Lewis Reed and his ability to provide public funds to historic building preservation.

Here are two articles talking about Reed's ability to get those public funds.

2003: Funding for the $1.1 million renovation came from The Private Bank along with historic rehab tax credits and a façade grant from the city thanks to 6th Ward Alderman Lewis Reed.

 2006: After a Whitaker Foundation grant brought another $25,000 to the project, Alderman Lewis Reed pledged public funds to match what the enterprising neighborhood group had raised.

On its own, the tax credits sound like a worthy cause, and you can't fault Reed or Carnahan for working with their district.  And yet you have to ask - is it appropriate for two politicians heavily involved with the giving out of tax credits and public funds to be investing in those same areas?

The building at 2845 Olive purchased by Castle Ballroom LLC stood to profit from the work that Reed and Carnahan did in their public works.  In addition to the $150,000 windfall profit, Carnahan paid the Castle Ballroom LLC over $10,000 in rent from his campaign funds.  When you take a look at the MEC records, you find that Reed also paid rent from campaign funds.

Reed stood to profit, just as Carnahan did, by using the public treasury to boost his private investments.

Reed also used his campaign to pay rent to himself for a building he owned, in this case $500 in September of 2003 and $1100 in May of 2004.

 

In both cases, money from donors was used to pay for a property that by all accounts can't be used as an office.  Why are there no electric records?  Why was the mailing address separate from the supposed campaign office?  Why did no one bother to ask Reed or Carnahan why the rent payments were different amounts and at odd times?  

The complaint for Carnahan is live in the federal system, but this is the first time Reed has had to face scrutiny.

If there are challengers, I'd suggest they ask

1) About the $150,000 windfall profit

2) About Reed using campaign funds to pay for rent just two months out of the year.

3) Whether he has any other real-estate or yacht deals we've yet to uncover.

 

 

 

 

Ed Martin Challenges Election Results: What Comes Next?

Late last night, with Ed Martin clinging to a small lead, the prognosis for sending Carnahan home early (I still maintain he'll quit this term for a job in the Obama administration), looked good.

Ed had won Jefferson County by large margins, held his own in St Louis County, and turnout in the city was very low.  Earlier in the day, our teams of St Louis Tea Party volunteers had gone to inspect the polls and make sure no shenanigans were occurring.  The Democrats had rented a large number of vans that had yet to be spotted, and we went out to 28 poll locations in the city to look for a poll-packing stunt like the one used in 2000 to keep the polls open.

What happens is a large number of people appear at the poll at 6-6:30 and queue in line.  The election workers are quickly overwhelmed, and when the 7:00 cut-off happens, the Democrats find a friendly judge who agrees to keep the polls open later to make up for slow lines, not enough machines, or technical errors that led people to go home because the line was too long.

We were prepped for this, but it did not occur.  The polls closed on time.  The vans never appeared.  And the turnout was low.  There was a small rush as people off work went to the polls, but the 28 poll locations closest to the city were not particularly busy.

When we returned to headquarters, we were surprised to see how late election returns were for the 3rd District.  This is common for most Democratic areas.  They always report returns last.  What this allows is an understanding of what the election is looking like.  If it's close, a large number of provisional or held back ballots can be dumped into the precinct at the last moment to boost vote totals. 

How do we know this?  Why, we need only look to Chicago's electoral fraud bust to see how Democrat machine politics works.  100,000 fraudulent votes, taken from the dead, the disabled, absentee, and vote counts, all in a systemic fashion.  When most people hear voter fraud, they think of someone walking into a polling station and pretending to be someone else, but that takes a lot of time, manpower, and is inherently risky.  It only takes one snitch to blow it apart.

But with bad voter rolls, a corrupt system  in just a few precincts can manufacture votes that get dumped into the system, and then the normal procedures take place to protect all ballots.  It only takes a few people, and while others may know something has happened, it isn't worth it to rock the boat.

That's where Ed Martin stands. He's down some 4500 votes, but a last minute surge of ballots in St Louis City, an implausible 2:1 count in precincts controlled by Democrats, pushed Russ Carnahan over the top and gave him a cushion.  4500 votes is a lot to overcome.  Judges are reluctant to throw out voters and even more reluctant to overturn elections without definitive proof. Once elections are over, no one wants to rehash the problem; not the voters, not the national parties, and certainly not the guilty parties. 

So what needs to be done?

First, Ed is perfectly reasonable to challenge the vote.  The surge of votes from city precincts needs to be investigated, and the results published.  Where did the votes come from  Who had charge of the security of them?  Do the voter rolls in that precinct show evidence of vote tampering?  What percentage of registered voters voted at those precints versus neighboring ones?  If fraud occurred, we have to identify it and punish the offenders.  Reports have come in that Carnahan's campaign knew the results of those precincts before they were made official.  Did they know the exact totals, and if so, how?

Second, Ed needs to determine if the number of votes suspected in the fraud are enough to overturn the election.  I've heard that up to 7,000 votes are suspect, and that would just barely give him enough to contest.  We also need to dig into vote totals for Jefferson and St Louis County, looking for abnormally high totals from precincts or evidence of large numbers registered at the same address. If there aren't enough votes, and the surge was intended merely to pad the results, Ed can still push to discover the voting fraud, but he has to recognize that Carnahan pulled out a squeaker.

Third, we need to work on clearing up the voter rolls.  I know for a fact that illegal votes were cast in this election.  An investigative team from local tea parties uncovered the voting of ineligible voters in Jefferson County prior to the election, but we were not able to find malice.  The system had registered voters with mental handicaps who were voted by the Jefferson County election authority.  A review of the registered voter rolls identified assisted living centers with large numbers of registered voters who lacked the franchise to vote because they were under guardianship.  It's possible that hundreds of ineligible votes were cast, but the process to uncover those votes couldn't fully be done by private citizens because of privacy laws. 

That said, we did identify 31 cases of registered voters who were possibly ineligible.  And we know 8 that voted, at least one of which was not eligible to vote and should be taken from the rolls.  That was based on just two locations.  Because we had no villain, we held off reporting the information until after the election, as our plan was to work with cooperative election authorities rather than making a scandal out of what was really a systemic problem.

Those votes represent real fraud, and a larger investigation is needed to discover how many ineligible voters were involved.  We know in Iowa and Minnesota that Democrats were caught voting mentally incapacitated voters.  We also heard from an election judge who saw a car driving Missouri voters to at least two different poll locations. 

Summary

The election was not clean, but no election is clean.  Ed Martin needs to quickly discover how bad it was, and identify enough fraudulent votes to get national attention on the race.  It is a tough road to overturn an election, but we might be able to uncover a vote fraud scheme from St Louis City Democrats, and at the very least, finally shine a light on how Robin Carnahan has used her office to weaken the voter rolls and confidence in honest elections.

Keep Hope Alive.

  In 2004, The Washington State election that took three recounts to overturn Dino Rossi's lead was investigated by blogger Stefan Sharkansky from Sound Politics.  Stefan's efforts uncovered the vast corruption in the King County election authority, including fake voters, dead voters, illegal voters, and a counting process that had inadequate security.  Sharkansky eventually filed a lawsuit against King County for taking two years to respond to an open records request.  King County eventually settled for $225,000, a great victory for the forces of Sunlight and Blogdom.  The story was underreported, but Sharkansky proved that bloggers invested in the truth could beat politicians invested in fraud.

 

Ed Martin's Closing Argument For Missouri's 3rd District

I liked this email.  It's a strong closing argument from Ed Martin.

For the last 14 months I have been campaigning and detailing my perspective on campaign issues.  Debt, spending, war, new taxes, power grabs, new regulation, neglected borders – all these have resulted in a moribund economy and men and women who are questioning the future.

Yet these things are not the Big Things.  These are Big Symptoms of a central, generations-long conflict of visions between big government of the progressive era, and limited government of the founding fathers.

The original vision of America is that prosperity and great social good would spring forth as free people pursued their desires and interests and those of their communities.  How great was the success of that vision!  Has there ever been a nation as prosperous as America? Has there ever been a nation as generous as America?  Has there ever been a nation that has offered so much treasure and so much blood for the good of mankind in modern history?

America is not the problem.  Americans are not the problem.  It is the vision of an America monitored and directed by a nest of experts in Washington DC that has brought us to this great debt and turmoil, pitting neighbor against neighbor.

We have now come to a crossroads. Here is where we look into our future and determine if we abandon our two centuries old experiment in self-government, or reclaim the original ideal of America.

These are the Big Things.  In Missouri, beginning at 6:00 AM on November 2nd, the battle begins.

I am running for office because the vision of America Washington DC offers is not the real America.  It is not the America I was raised in, and it is not the America I want to hand off to my children.

I am not in need of beneficent elites, and neither are my neighbors. We do not believe that prosperity will follow if only we give bureaucrats an ever-increasing share of our time, labor, treasure and loyalty.  Americans do not sit and hope someone will help their neighbor.  We help them.  We do not sit and hope someone will do for us that which we ought do for ourselves. Given the freedom, we just do it.

I believe the hardy, self-reliant America is awake and aware, ready to reject the false promise of prosperity through regulation.  I believe the generous America is weary of watching their neighbors entrapped in endless, generational entitlement, nor do we want to be coerced into that same trap.  I believe the strong, confident America is infuriated by the abasement heaped upon her by her own government.

I want to end the havoc an overweening Federal government is foisting upon us.  I want to restore commonsense values to America’s leadership.  I want to help restore more than our economy, I want to work to restore our self-confidence and spirit. I want to look back in a few years and know with profound satisfaction that I have joined with my community to chip away the thick slag that encrusts the Liberty Bell.

Then I want to come home.

My name is Ed Martin.

I am running for congress for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District, and I would like your vote on Election Day, November 2nd, 2010.

Thank you,
Ed Martin

In comparison, Russ Carnahan hung out at the Restoring Sanity And Or Fear Satellite Rally, put together by two comedians.

Vote November 2. Choose wisely.

 

Corwin Digs Deeper Hole In Carnahan Smear Campaign Scandal

Jo Mannies weighs in with more on the Carnahan smear campaign against Ed Martin, taking more information from Michael Corwin, and failing to see that he contradicts his conversations with other reporters.  

I'll start by pointing out that It doesn't matter to me what Michael Corwin, Teri Powers, or the Carnahan campaign say to reporters. What will matter is what they say to the FBI when a prison term of five years for McCain/Feingold violations stares them in the face.

Corwin makes the first mistake, claiming he knows FEC laws, but contradicting himself in stating why he decided to wait to put up the website. 

Corwin earlier said the duo parted ways with the campaign in May or June...

...Corwin emphasized that he regularly does opposition research for Democratic candidates around the country, and therefore is mindful of the FEC restrictions on candidates. Independent activities -- such as Corwin's website -- cannot be coordinated with a campaign.

The May/June timeframe that Corwin claims he left the Carnahan campaign is of special importance.  One, it gives investigators the ability to pinpoint when Veritas Research was actually hired.  If it was hired in May or June, then you'll have phone records, emails, and invoices, as well as the testimony of staff and Carnahan himself on why they brought in Dillon, how long she worked on information, and how much applied to the smear site Veritas Research built.  

When weighing Corwin's testimony, keep in mind that Veritas Research LLC did not exist until July 23rd, when it was incorporated in the state of Colorado.  That's when Jeannine Dillon registered the company.  To claim that Corwin left in a huff because Carnahan wouldn't run with his information suggests that both Dillon and Corwin were working for free for months before they even bothered to incorporate the media company.  The Carnahan campaign would be the first, and probably the only client of Veritas Research.

Also keep in mind that there are two payments to Veritas Research, one August 2nd and one September 27.  This would mean that Carnahan was paying bills at over 120 days, and that there were two separate invoices, one written just 20 days after the company sprang into existence.  We're to believe that the campaign contacted Dillon, who hired Corwin, but they didn't bother to get a bank account, EIN, or incorporation until right before the first check arrived.  And with no prior history, we're to believe that $6495 was agreed to as a payment for a company that did not exist and had no track record. 

If there is no evidence of invoices, meetings, plane tickets, conference calls, or expenses at that time, it becomes pretty clear that Corwin is lying about the timeframe so that he doesn't fall afoul of the FEC law barring campaigns from coordinating with independent expenditure.  But Corwin, who says he knows the law and recently added a new line to his website claiming he is in compliance, doesn't address the 120 day rule. 

The site went live on October 19th.  if you track back 120 days you get June 21st as 120 days.  To not break the law, Corwin would have had to break off from the campaign no later than June 21st.  The purchase of the website domain may complicate that, as it would push the window back to May 31.  It's rather convenient that the time Corwin says he left the campaign is so very close to 120 days.  For his sake, he better have evidence to back that up if he plans to tell that story to the FBI.

Corwin said that he and Dillon delayed purchasing the website name until she got paid, because they knew the Carnahan campaign would be upset if it learned about the site before it went online. Dillon feared she might then lose the money she was owed, he said.

This is where Corwin contradicts himself.  He says they were waiting for the $1995 payment before buying the site to make sure Carnahan paid Dillon.  In that statement, he suggests that he wasn't actually waiting 120 days, but instead was waiting on a check. If Dillon had been paid in July, they would have launched the site then, clearly violating the 120 day rule. 

So which was it?  Was it his knowledge and adherence to FEC rules, or was it the desire to get paid?

Also note that Mannies doesn't ask the question about the $4500 paid to Veritas Research on August 2nd.

Speaking of Veritas, let's address Victor Arango and Jeannine Dillon.  Keep in mind that it was this blog that told you Veritas Research was a false flag.  The amended report was filed by someone.  How did that someone get the address of the research department in Arizona?  Will they testify why they had the wrong address?  I ask because the report was filed only after I found it and published it.  That means an error was made, and someone has to describe why it was made, and how they came up with the Arizona address.  It was also this blog that uncovered Victor Arango as a hidden third hand in the operation.  Without that research, the Carnahan campaign wouldn't have refiled their report, and no one would known that the media company hired by the Carnahan was actually run by Jeannine Dillon.

And that's the problem.  Jeannine Dillon is listed on the site.  She's listed as an independent journalist, but she formed Veritas Research, just 10 days before getting her first check,.  She was the media company hired by the Carnahan campaign.  If Corwin has been telling the truth, why didn't he just come out and say that Jeannine Dillon hired him?

If Corwin was telling the truth, why did he say this to Nicholas Phillips of the Riverfront Times?

Corwin says he was asked to do research on Ed Martin through a media company hired by Team Carnahan. When he discovered what he perceived to be a nexus between Martin, the Curia (a deliberative body within the Archdiocese), and pedophile priests, however, he says that Carnahan's staff decided to pass on it because "they didn't want to alienate the Catholic vote."

So, Corwin says, he severed ties with the democrat's campaign and teamed up with  journalist Jeannine Dillon to pursue the story independently.

Corwin misled Phillips to make it look like he was paid directly by the Carnahan campaign, when in fact it was Dillon all along who was the vendor.  And it leads to the question - did the Carnahan campaign fire Corwin?  Did he leave on his own accord?  Did the Carnahan campaign sever ties with Veritas Research, or did they simply tell Corwin to leave?  Why hasn't Jeannine Dillon or Victor Arango spoken to this?

Note that Michael Corwin has taken the lead on media interviews, speaking to the Daily Caller, RFT, Beacon, and KTVI.  Jeannine Dillon has said nothing, nor has Victor Arango.  But it wasn't Corwin who was paid by the campaign.  Corwin was paid by Dillon.

So first, take everything you hear from Michael Corwin with a grain of salt.  He has attempted to mislead reporters about his relationship with Jeannine Dillon, his relationship with the Carnahan campaign, and quite likely the timeline in which he worked with the Carnahan campaign.  Second, it hasn't yet been addressed, but how do journalists like Mannies, Phillips, Jaco, and the Amanda feel about reporting on a website that was launched through an anonymous online campaign from a former Emmy winning producer?  Is that the kind of journalistic professionalism they expect to exhibit when they leave the business?

Is it okay to directly mislead reporters about where information and money comes from when attacking a candidate?  Or is that okay, as long as you don't get caught.  Mannies especially has some explaining to do. In attempting to do straight reporting, she's been used by Michael Corwin. I'd like to know what she thinks about that.