Political Consultants Scam Texas Oilman

Posted by | March 19, 2015 09:20 | Filed under: News Behaving Badly Politics Top Stories


Pro Publica, via Raw Story, has just posted a terrific investigative piece on how GOP “political consultants” drained a geriatric Texas oilman’s PAC:

Throughout the booms and busts of his Fort Worth oil empire and during his brother’s notorious murder trial, Kenneth W. Davis Jr. largely kept to himself. At 89, he still does. He puts in full workdays at his small downtown office, with drapes drawn against the North Texas sun. He usually dines at an exclusive club across the street, often alone, using distinctive silverware set aside just for him.

Davis has long shut out politics, too. He remembers voting only three times 2013 for Eisenhower, Goldwater and Reagan. Yet last year he thrust himself into the public eye by starting his own super PAC.

His group, Vote2ReduceDebt, aimed to move the needle in eight key U.S. Senate races by energizing disengaged conservative voters. It spent almost $3 million to boost Republican candidates in the 2014 midterm election 2013 ranking it among the top right-leaning groups of its kind.

But now it’s dead in the water, with its main operatives expelled amid questions about where the money went.

Even within the free-wheeling world of U.S. campaign finance, Vote2ReduceDebt stands out as a cautionary tale for donors, activists and voters.

It’s a long read, but well worth the time.

[su_fb]

Click here for reuse options!
Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.

5 responses to Political Consultants Scam Texas Oilman

  1. Budda March 19th, 2015 at 09:25

    Should I feel sorry for him?

  2. William March 19th, 2015 at 10:15

    Holy smokes, that article, which is a look into Texas GOP politics, could easily be a script for an HBO series. It would make Sopranos and boardwalk empire look like an episode of romper room

  3. Angelo_Frank March 19th, 2015 at 10:49

    Rethugs will steal you blind.

  4. EnuffBull March 19th, 2015 at 11:00

    What, it doesn’t make you want to fleece–I mean–start your own Super PAC?

  5. Dwendt44 March 19th, 2015 at 23:55

    There are two kinds of Republicans, the rich and the suckers.
    It seems that there is some overlap sucker wise.

Leave a Reply