Political Doublespeak and the Non-response Response

Singer gave some kind of response to his various critics (which includes me – but that’s no surprise) although he really evades the questions. He says:

Other than accepting Carol’s various allegations as true (several are flat false some are half-truths), this is a great post.

So I’m curious about what are false and what are half-truths. I’m curions about more too such as:

• Who are the donors that helped with the matching funds from the grant.
• How is it possible that FM holds itself out to be non-partisan with three statehouse elected Democrats on the Board Of Directors?
• Does the relationship between FM, MontPIRG, and ASUM violate the law as it pertains to state and student funds – especially in light of the allegations on what happened in the last election.
• Are FM volunteers campaigning outright in their efforts and might this be a violation of campaign finance laws?

If he offers up explanations to those I have others. But I think he could start there.

[Update] Here is the thread of emails between Matt & me:

Matt Singer wrote:Dave,
I just wanted to clarify your questions so I can answer.

Are you wondering who is funding the grant or who else has provided us with money other than the granting folks?

And when asking about volunteers, are you asking about volunteers helping candidates on their own time or while volunteering for Forward Montana?

I’m not going to get into your legal questions, because I’m not a lawyer, but I’m willing to answer your non-legal questions. I just generally don’t see much point in dealing with someone who seems more interested in pointing the finger than in actually finding out what’s up.

Oh – and the most blatant falsehood is her reference to MontPIRG operating as a campus 527 and spending money attacking Aaron Flint. I don’t know where she got that information, but it isn’t true.One of the reasons I left MontPIRG is because even after facing open assault from the Republican Party and people like Aaron Flint, the organization refused to fight back electorally

On 10/29/07 2:09 PM, “Dave Budge” <dave@davebudge.com> wrote:

Matt, I’m interested in knowing who else has provided money. As I read it the $200,000 from Skyline was a “matching grant” – correct me if I’m wrong.

Also, are your volunteers campaigning while working for FM.

[From Matt]

Unless I have a legal reason not to, I respect my members’ right to privacy. That said, other than the Skyline matching grant, we currently have a dozen donors who are at the $1,000 level or more. All dozen (actually, slightly more than that, counting couples) live in Montana.We’ve got a total of roughly 375 members (counting the dozen who have given $1,000+). Of those, all but 27 live in Montana (or at least did when they joined — I haven’t done an accounting of them more recently). Membership is defined as people who have given at least $10 to the organization for the purpose of membership (so we don’t count people who gave us money to get into Candidates Gone Wild or one of our parties or to buy a t-shirt).

As for volunteers campaigning for candidates while working for Forward Montana, they shouldn’t be, unless they’re volunteering for our PAC, which is currently not in operation anyways. For our Beer Brats and Ballots effort, for example, we’ve had to strike a few BBQ hosts because they told us that they would be too likely to tell their attendees whom to vote for.

Matt

I appreciate the answers for what they’re worth. I’ll take Matt at his word that MontPIRG wasn’t acting as a 527 re: Flint but I still have questions about the FM/MontPIRG/ASUM alliance in the last election. And that also doesn’t leave the Campus Democrats off the hook for their part in the Flint caper. I also can’t get a handle on the math of the $200K “matching” grant. He accounts for 12 +/- $1k+ donors and I’m having a hard time seeing $200K in matches unless a few of those donors were significantly higher than $1K.

I’m also concerned about his response to the legal questions. If he can’t answer them, as the CEO, then maybe he would be wise to hire a lawyer who can fill him in (and those of us who are wondering too) before he actually needs one.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 10:54 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.