One of the things we noticed in Brian Davis's Q3 filing to the FEC were two payments totalling $14,526.85 for GOTV phone banks to FLS Connect, a Republican political services shop that's been in the news of late. These articles in the Huffington Post* and New York Times are typical.
There are no similiar disbursements in Walz's expense report because phone banking is done by cheerful and eager volunteers, rather than paid friends. (Though it's nice for the Walz campaign to have that $1 million-and-change for cash in hand, too).
In honor of the Davis campaign payments to FLS Connect, our midnight video is this classic song, performed here by Merle Haggard:
*The Huffington Post article quotes a Freeborn County commissioner as a key player in discovering the link between those horrible McCain campaign robocalls and FLS-Connect:
. . . On Friday, a recipient of one of those calls, Chris Shoff of Minnesota, said that he had tied the origins of the campaign to the St. Paul-based firm FLS-Connect, run by prominent GOP figure Jeff Larson.
This past week, Shoff, a Freeborn, Minnesota Democratic County Commissioner, received the Hollywood call while at work. Because state law dictates that any such calls be made by an actual human, Shoff demanded that he be connected to the supervisor. That official, who worked at the robocall shop King TeleServices in Brooklyn, New York, said that they had been contracted out by FLS-Connect.
Officials with King TeleServices did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Asked about the connection to King TeleServices, a receptionist for FLS relayed a message from her supervisors that implicitly acknowledged that they have been working on behalf of the Arizona Republican: "If it is having to do with the McCain campaign or the RNC, you will have to direct your question to them."
According to campaign finance reports, the RNC has paid the firm more than $8 million this cycle. On Friday, Minnesota Democrats stated in a press release that FLS-Connect "may be behind the [RNC/McCain phone campaign]." . . .
Remembering that there were robo-calls on behalf of Gutknecht last election, did you look how much was paid to FLS then. This dollar amount seems relatively small … I wonder if it isn’t for fundraising ? FLS has a call center in the Madison East Shopping Center in Mankato.
BTW, McCain’s people called our home to alert us to “Hollywood” Obama.
Coleman is the one with the problem … he’s calling for all negative ads to stop, yet as Al Franken communications director Andy Barr correctly observes that FLS Connect is owned by influential Republican consultant Jeff Larson. "Norm Coleman's latest political ploy rings more hollow than usual when you consider he has paid the person responsible for smear calls nearly $2 million and Jeff Larson remains the treasurer of Norm Coleman's PAC, a member of his inner circle, and his landlord. Norm Coleman is still paying Jeff Larson for the same services Larson is providing to the RNC and to the McCain campaign. If he's sincere about this, he ought to fire him."
Posted by: MinnesotaCentral | October 19, 2008 at 12:04 PM