Secretive front group supporting Cindy Golding with 1000s of mailers is withholding its tax returns — again

In a letter released to Jeremy Hooper of GoodAsYou and other "interested parties," Fred Karger again wonders why the well funded and secretive Mormon-organized anti-gay lobby the National Organization for Marriage is again concealing financial information.

NOM was caught days ago distributing mailers in New Hampshire which contained faked photos.

If Cindy Golding fails to specifically disavow and disassociate herself from this deceptive, unaccountable political hit squad, and if NOM continues to refuse to come clean about its supporters, AKSARBENT recommends voting for Liz Mathis.

October 28, 2011

Mr. John Eastman

Chairman

National Organization for Marriage

2029 K Street NW, Suite 300

Washington, DC20006

Re: Missing NOM Tax Returns

Dear Mr. Eastman:

I am writing to alert you that the 2010 federal tax returns (990’s) of the National Organization for Marriage are missing. They were due in May 2011, and an extension was granted until October 15, 2011. We stopped by your Washington, DC office this week and there were no 990’s available for viewing as required by law. They are not up on your web site nor are they on Guidestar.

No IRS returns [are] available again this year at the tiny national NOM office in Washington DC.

As the newly hired Chairman of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a distinguished law professor and a former law school dean, I had hoped that you came aboard NOM to perhaps try and give it some much needed honesty.

Who is NOM Trying to Protect?

NOM has not filed its tax returns on time with the Internal Revenue Service for both its 501©3 and 501©4 organizations for any of the four years since it began. I have had to visit your various NOM offices year after year to request them. Others and I have sent certified letters requesting your 990’s and have never received them. I finally had to file multiple complaints with the IRS to force your organization to release its tax returns.

I have been the most prominent watchdog of the National Organization for Marriage since June of 2008, soon after it was established. I watched NOM grow from nothing just over three years ago, to an operation working in over half the states on each and every anti-gay legal and political battle. NOM is also deeply involved in hundreds of state and federal candidate campaigns. Additionally, all your federal lobbying and other activities in Washington, DC rival that of the Family Research Council.

NOM Under Active Investigation in Maine

As I am sure you are aware, NOM and its former officers are under investigation by the state of Maine for money laundering on a referendum NOM put on the ballot in November 2009. The active investigation of the National Organization for Marriage by the State Ethics Commission and the State Attorney General is in its third year. I filed the original complaint and testified three times in Maine to make sure that the truth comes out. Only then will we finally learn where all the millions and millions of dollars NOM brings in each year to its two organizations actually comes from.

You can't blame me for being suspicious, since NOM has sued 23 states to try and keep the names of all your funders secret. It was, however, gratifying to see NOM lose its California case this week in federal court the same case you subpoenaed http://californiansagainsthate.blogspot.com/2009/09/fred-karger-subpoenaed-by-nom.html me in). CLICK HERE: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19159246

So, as NOM’s new Chairman, I am writing you in the hope that finally there may be a modicum of integrity at the National Organization for Marriage. We hope that someone with your distinguished record will act in accordance with the law; unlike your predecessors Robby George and Maggie Gallagher.

We assume that you will promptly obey federal law and file and release both sets of tax returns.

I anxiously await your reply.

Best regards,

Fred Karger
Founder

cc: Interested Parties

MSNBC covers fake photo distributed by group campaigning for Cindy Golding for Iowa Senate

Not one, not two, but three unsavory groups, the Iowa "Family leader," the National Organization for Marriage (see below clip) and the Concordia Group really, really want to send Cindy Golding to the Iowa senate. If that's not a reason to vote for Liz Mathis, then we don't know what. BTW, the web site mentioned by Rachel which found the fakery is GoodAsYou.org, which actually discovered two doctored photos. Here is the other one.

Cindy Golding for Iowa Senate mailer organization caught sending faked mailers in New Hampshire

The organization, the National Organization for Marriage, an anti-gay group, has been sending thousands of mailers supporting Cindy Golding, who has pledged to advance a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships in Iowa. (But she won't tell you about that on her web site.)

Update: For a Republican, AKSARBENT likes Cindy Golding, who is definitely not a yes-woman to her party's Neanderthal establishment. But in September, she told iowapolitics.com,

...that Iowans deserve to have a vote on the issue, but declined to shed light on her personal beliefs about same-sex marriage.
     "I have friends who are in gay relationships, and friends who abhor gay relationships,” Golding said, proposing that Iowans should make their own “cultural” decisions.

AKSARBENT takes that as a yes to supporting the advancement of the constitutional amendment that would make all Iowa gay couples strangers to the law; therefore we would encourage every gay Iowan to vote for Cindy Golding's opponent, Liz Mathis, and to work hard for Golding's defeat.

NOM, which is teaming up to elect Golding with Bob Vander Plaats, head of the Iowa Family Leader, has lost campaign disclosure court fights to hide the identities of its supporters in Rhode Island, Maine, Washington State. and now says it will defy the law in Minnesota, too.

Fake NOM photo showing nonexistant crowd...

Recently, NOM was caught sending fake anti-gay mailers in New Hampshire. The mailers show thousands of supporters at a NOM rally — but the "supporters" were PhotoShopped from an Obama rally in Ohio.

...digitally stolen from an Obama rally in Ohio

NOM, an astroturf organization organized by Mormon church officials and now heavily funded by Catholic organizations like the Knights of Columbus, draws pathetically small groups of people to its bus tour whistle stops, like the one pictured below last summer.

Even when NOM (you can see its interlocking rings logo painted on the bus) joins with two other organizations, as it did on this Iowa tour, it still can't attract more than a handful of followers — in the real, non-PhotoShopped world.

Here is Maggie Gallagher, former head of NOM, being ridiculed for her mean-spiritedness.

One Iowa working against NOM's district 18 propaganda barrage

UPDATE: If you live in District 18 and are receiving robocalls from the National Organization for Marriage please leave a comment below with the number displayed on your caller ID. And let AKSARBENT know if NOM or the Iowa Family Leader is calling your cell phone.

One Iowa has created a phone bank to keep District 18 representation and the Iowa Senate Democratic and to safeguard marriage equality.

Well (and anonymously) funded organizations like the National organization for Marriage are flooding district 18 with mailers with toxic disinformation like this.

Well-heeled Iowa organizations have produced attack-gay-marriage videos like this one, made by Nick Ryan's Des Moines Concordia Group, LLC for Cynthia Golding.

If you can help, do so here.

Des Moines Concordia Group disables YouTube comments after angry reaction to its Cindy Golding antigay attack video

Nick T. Ryan

AKSARBENT's first post about the video was here and was picked up by Towleroad, Joe.My.God and ThinkProgress (which goes a long way toward explaining all the angry YouTube comments that the Concordia Group is now hiding from public view.)

Wonder how KCCI and Molly Nelson feel about having out-of-context video from their newscast included in a right-wing political attack ad?

The photo at right of Nick T. Ryan, founder of Concordia Group, LLC and of the American Future Fund, is from his website. The picture was uncredited by Mr. Ryan (as of this writing) but was actually taken by Steve Pope of the Associated Press.

Gay marriage attack video touts Cynthia Golding; Rick Santorum's Concordia Group advisors behind bid to upset Iowa Senate Democratic majority

UPDATE: Concordia group attempts to stifle evidence of angry reaction to its video by shutting off YouTube comments.

The Condordia Group, Des Moines political consultants, have released the following video on YouTube supporting Republican Cynthia Golding in her special election Iowa Senate race against Liz Mathis.

Jill Latham

The founder of The Concordia Group, Nick T. Ryan and an associate, Jill Latham (daughter of Iowa GOP Congressman Tom Latham) are consultants to Rick Santorum's presidential campaign.

The Concordia Group's video targets gay marriage despite the fact that Golding recently said "I have not had a single person ask me about gay marriage." Golding also has said she would support referring a gay marriage ban to voters; Mathis opposes such a move.

Nick T. Ryan, Santorum advisor,
founder of Concordia Group and
American Future Fund

Nick T. Ryan, founder of the Concordia Group, also founded the shadowy, right-wing American Future Fund, which has worked to remove restrictions on robocalls. From Factcheck.org:

American Future Fund is registered as a 501(c)(4), which means it can receive unlimited donations and does not have to disclose its donors...

It expects to spend between $20 million to $25 million on political ads this fall [2010]. Federal Election Commission data show American Future Fund has spent $6 million in 16 states in independent expenditures as of Oct. 12.

Bruce Rastetter

Although the group has not publicly disclosed its donors, Hawkeye Energy Holding CEO Bruce Rastetter acknowledged to the New York Times that he donated an undisclosed amount in 2007 to help get the group started. In an Oct. 11 story, the Times described Hawkeye as "one of the nation's larger ethanol companies," and noted that most of the incumbent congressmen targeted for defeat by American Future Fund "have seats on a handful of legislative committees with a direct say in the ethanol industry." Ryan sits on the board of the Rastetter Foundation and was chairman of a state political action committee "financed largely" by Rastetter. Daniel Stockdale, Rastetter's attorney, told the Times that his client has no "decision-making authority" at American Future Fund.

Iowa's special election is to replace Sen. Swati Dandekar (District 18) whom GOP Gov. Terry Brantstad appointed to an $85,000 per year job at the Iowa Utilities Board.

By appointing Sen. Swati Dandekar to the Iowa Utilities Board, Gov. Terry Branstad ensured Republicans would have a shot at sharing control of the state Senate, a chamber where Democrats have used their narrow 26- to 24-seat majority to block a number of GOP efforts, most notably a proposed constitutional amendment to overturn Iowa's gay marriage law...

     Branstad has denied that his selection of Dandekar last month was related to his desire to remove a Democratic roadblock to his agenda, which besides [attacking] gay marriage includes extending abortion restrictions and reducing business taxes.

     Although Dandekar wasn't among the 17 who applied for the $85,000-a-year job, Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht said the governor "recruited her for this position because of her immense knowledge and talent."

     Dandekar has no experience specifically related to utility regulation but she and Branstad have noted she has a chemistry degree...

     Democrats have laughed off the governor's denials that he was using a government appointment to achieve his political goals.

     "Of course he is. It would be silly to say otherwise," said Ron Parker, a top staffer for Senate Democrats.

     The GOP has a narrow edge in the district, with 16,008 Republicans and 15,745 Democrats, but both parties are outnumbered by the 19,960 voters who registered without declaring a party preference.