While Ted Cruz's father was in Minnesota last week touting his son's independence from "corrupt" "cartel" "career" politicians, in favor of "we the people," even a cursory look at the contributors of the various "Keep The Promise" SuperPACs reveals that the committees' cash comes from oil and gas interests, with a rich hedge fund manager and climate change denier thrown in.
Not surprisingly for folks with both background and backers in the fossil fuel industry, both father and son are climate change deniers.
In Lake Elmo last Monday, Rafael Cruz derided climate change after touting his son's qualifications as a "servant" to the people.
From the Machine Shed: the Lake Elmo talk
At the Woodbury Bulletin, Mathias Basen reports in Ted Cruz for President campaign visits Woodbury area that the presidential candidate's father was in town as the guest of the local Republican BPOU (basic party operating units):
Rafael Cruz passed through Minnesota at the invitation of the Senate District 56 Republicans and their counterparts from Senate District 39. The local GOP party extended requests to all of the Presidential candidates’ campaigns, but Senate District 53 Republicans chairman Brandon Lerch admitted that while the Ted Cruz for President campaign was not the only one to respond to the invitation, it might be the only one that sends such a powerful spokesperson. Still Lerch and Senate District 53 Republicans chairman Nick Norman are hoping for Rafael Cruz’s speech to be the first of a series.
However, the BPOUs weren't the only hosts for the elder Cruz' trip to Minnesota. Earlier that day, the West Metro One Percenters' group, the Freedom Club, listened to the candidate's father, MinnPost's Cyndy Brucato reported in In Twin Cities, Rafael Cruz touts Ted's record as 'constitutional conservative.'
Unlike the lunch at the Minneapolis Club, the evening appearance was captured for a wider audience. North Star Oasis, which bills itself on its Facebook page as "a weekly live television program that airs from 4-5 p.m. Central Time every Saturday in the St. Paul, Minnesota suburban area," posted a Youtube of the entire talk here.
Conservative talk radio host Bob Davis podcast about the event in Episode 424, estimating the audience to be about 90 people.
Pastor Rafael Cruz is introduced to the audience by avid Cruz supporter state representative Steve Drazkowski, who posted the clip on his Facebook page. Later in the evening, twice unsuccessful Minnesota House 37A candidate Mandy Benz (2012 and 2014) helps out in the Question and Answer period of the talk. Representative Cindy Pugh, R-Chanhassen, and Kelly Fenton, R-Woodbury, were also in the audience. Davis interviewed Cruz supporter Pugh for his podcast (begins around 21:20 here). From the Woodbury Bulletin article, it's unclear who Fenton supports, if anyone.
After outlining his son's fundraising prowess among small donors and nationwide campaign structure, Pastor Cruz touts Wallbuilders' founder David Barton's assumption of the reins at the Keep The Promise group of SuperPACs:
He claims that Barton's personal integrity will set these independent groups--which are not supposed to coordinate with the campaign--apart:
Now let me tell you another huge news. David Barton now has taken over the SuperPAC [cheers from audience]. David Barton is a man of unquestionable integrity, a man that America highly, highly respects. I'll tell you what that does. It puts the SuperPAC in a totally different credibility.
The MinnPost article also noted this change:
Rafael Cruz said he had just learned that David Barton, an influential evangelical leader and political activist, would be leading one of the Ted Cruz super-Pacs. . . .
It's unfortunate that Brucato is too lazy to consult Mr. Google, for she would have discovered (had she had the slightest bit of curiosity about anything) that Barton's leadership wasn't a shiny thing. This non-breaking news was first reported over a month ago in obscure venues like Bloomberg News.
Back on September 9, Bloomberg's Zachery Mider reported in PAC Built by Ted Cruz Mega-Donors Gets Evangelical Leader:
David Barton, an influential Christian author and activist, is taking charge of the leading super-PAC supporting Ted Cruz.
The super-PAC, Keep the Promise PAC, is the umbrella for a group of related pro-Cruz political committees that raised $38 million in the first half of the year, more than the super-PACs supporting any other candidate with the exception of Jeb Bush.
"From the outset, the Keep the Promise PACs made their mission to provide a voice for the millions of courageous conservatives who are looking to change the direction of the country," Keep the Promise PAC said in a statement today. "Barton's involvement is an important step signaling that the effort will not be run by a D.C. consultant but by a grassroots activist."
. . .Barton is a self-taught historian, former school administrator and the founder of Wallbuilders, a group dedicated to the idea that the U.S. was established as a Christian nation and should embrace those roots. Time Magazine named him one of the country's top 25 most influential evangelicals in 2005.
His 2012 book about Thomas Jefferson, The Jefferson Lies, was withdrawn by its publisher after being denounced by some mainstream academics as full of errors. Barton has dismissed such criticisms as politically motivated and has remained influential on the religious right. . ..
So much for "unquestionable integrity." The Texas Freedom Network notes in Barton's Faulty Scholarship:
Why does David Barton have such a poor reputation in the academic community? It’s not because of his religious convictions, his politics, or even his shortage of formal training. It’s his poor track record as a self-described historian. Numerous scholars, reporters and other writers have taken Barton to task for manipulating historical fact to promote his agenda.
The following is a clearinghouse of resources on Barton's poor scholarship. ...
Following the Bloomberg report, Right Wing Watch noted some items iin Barton's agenda in Anti-Gay Pseudo-Historian David Barton Tapped To Run Ted Cruz's Super PAC:
David Barton is a long-time Religious Right activist and Christian nation pseudo-historian whose 2012 book about Thomas Jefferson so shoddy that it was pulled from circulation by its Christian publisher. Promoting inaccurate, misleading, and downright false information has been a hallmark of Barton's career and a centerpiece of his effort to institute a virtual theocracy in America in which our nation's laws are literally based upon the Bible.
Naturally, he has now been tapped to take over the super PAC supporting Ted Cruz's presidential campaign . . .
A long-time vice-chairman of the Texas Republican Party, where he is based, Barton is notorious for exaggerating his own accomplishments and for regularly making outrageous statements such as his assertions that the Founding Fathers opposed the teaching of evolution, that the Bible opposes Net Neutrality, and that Jesus opposes the minimum wage.
He believes that demons control the government and is also a Second Amendment radical who insists that there should literally be no limits on what sort of weapons individuals can own, including tanks, jet fighters, or nuclear weapons.
But most of all, Barton is vehemently anti-gay, claiming that schools are forcing students to be gay and that the government should regulate gay sex. Recently, he has been telling audiences that the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage will force all student athletes to share the same locker rooms and churches to hire pedophiles to run their nurseries while requiring the military to protect those who engage in bestiality.
Barton also believes that homosexuality is "reprehensible and disgusting" and "very repugnant" and that the government can outlaw it. He has also repeatedly asserted that a cure for AIDS will never be found because the disease is God's punishment for sin[.]
Well okay then. We think that selecting Barton to run his SuperPAC might well put Senator Cruz in the driver's seat of the Clown Car, or at least allow him to call shotgun to Carson or Trump, who seem to tied for first this week.
The Bartons visit Minnesota
Between the September 9 news of David Barton's new job and Pastor Cruz' talk at the Machine Shed just over a month later, David Barton visited Minnesota while his son taught for a week at a local private Christian school in Andover.
The Minnesota Family Council shared the image above on its website, along with this message:
We encourage you to attend this "Cultivating a Godly Heritage" event at Legacy Christian Academy!
Christian parents understand that God has placed the responsibility of raising godly children, and guarding children's hearts and minds, solely with their parents. We deeply appreciate Christian schools like Legacy that understand parents' irreplaceble role and partner with them to raise up our next generation of godly leaders.
Legacy's outstanding guest, Historian David Barton, is renowned for his work and understanding of our Christian heritage
The largely political organization added that it was not a sponsor of the event. On its Facebook page, the Legacy Christian Academy shared several photos from the evening. Earlier in the day, it shared one with this caption:
Spiritual Emphasis Week is underway! We are blessed to have David Barton and Tim Barton at LCA to speak to our community!
Tim Barton is David Barton's son. Later in the week, he showed on on state representative Eric Lucero's Facebook wall:
I joined friends and colleague legislators Peggy Scott, Linda Runbeck, Abigail Whelan, Michelle Benson and area pastors over lunch today to listen to a very intriguing presentation by WallBuilders Timothy Barton.
It is undeniable truth the Founding Fathers of our great United States, the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights ALL had as their foundation the religious and moral conviction of the Bible. Much of present day societal ills from abortion to mass shootings, from drug abuse to human trafficking, from fatherless children to sexual redefinition (just to name a few) are the natural byproduct of turning away from truth.
Here's the photo:
David Barton had already added SuperPACmeister to his list of theocracy building by this time. Did he court any big contributors--like the members of the Freedom Club--when he was in town?
We imagine that the son's weeklong residency had probably been scheduled before the father took over management of the political action committees. Perhaps there was nothing political going on, however much the Bartons' presence attracted conservative lawmakers, like fruit flies to ripe muskmelons.
Keeping a promise I: who stuffed the bills in Ted Cruz' SuperPACs?
Barton steps into a stable of SuperPACs stoked by contributions mostly from people who've made their nut in the fossil fuel industry.
Politico's Katie Glueck reported in Cruz super PACs rake in $38 million:
Four affiliated super PACs supporting the presidential bid of Ted Cruz reported a fundraising haul of $37.8 million — a significant haul that puts the conservative Texas senator in the top fundraising tier.
The bulk of the money comes from seven individual donors. Keep the Promise I, which took in about $11 million, is funded almost entirely by Robert Mercer, the New York hedge fund magnate. Keep the Promise II is fueled by a single $10 million donation from Toby Neugebauer, a Puerto Rico-based investor who is the son of Texas GOP Rep. Randy Neugebauer. Keep the Promise III, which brought in $15 million, is sustained only by the Texas-based Wilks brothers, Farris and Dan, billionaires who made their fortunes in fracking, and their wives, JoAnn and Staci.
A fourth pro-Cruz super PAC, called Keep the Promise PAC, took in $1.8 million, nearly all from Texas-based donors, including Robert McNair, Sr., the chairman and CEO of the Houston Texans football franchise.
The New York Times reported in Hedge-Fund Magnate Robert Mercer Emerges as a Generous Backer of Cruz that:
The two men share a passion for unbridled markets, concerns about the Internal Revenue Service and a skeptical view of climate change. . . .
CNBC reported that Mercer gave to "the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, which denies man-made climate change; and the Heartland Institute..."
Like the Wilks brothers, other Cruz SuperPAC super donors have more direct ties to the fossil fuel industry than Mercer. In The Man Behind the $10 Million Donation to a Ted Cruz ‘Super PAC’, the New York Times reported:
Mr. Neugebauer, the son of Representative Randy Neugebauer, Republican of Texas, is the co-founder of Quantum Energy Partners and has been an active investor in the oil and gas sectors, overseeing billions of dollars of assets.
McNair made his fortune in power co-generation, selling three gas-fired power plants in New Jersey to Enron in late 1998; in addition to a football team, he continues to own two power plants in New York and West Virginia.
Keeping a promise II: Pastor Cruz trashes climate change
There's nothing inherently anti-evangelical or anti-Christian in the notion of climate change. Witness the Evangelical Environmental Network or Pope Francis's recent encyclical on climate change. One might be tempted to think that the Cruzes are listening to the gospel of climate change denial and their funders on this one.
Pastor Cruz is asked about climate change, something that the audience member believes is a hoax designed to control people:
Audience Member: I believe the issue of climate change was created for government control--
Pastor Cruz: Absolutely!
Audience Member: And I think it's a religion of secular Democrats.
Pastor Cruz: As a matter of fact--did you see the question that my son had with the Sierra Club just this last week in the committee? I'll tell you what, he had the president of the Sierra Club in the committee in the Senate and Ted asked him, he said, now let me ask you a question, how do you justify when you keep pushing this global warming when the data proves that over the last 18 years there's been zero global warming?
And this guy repeats--as a matter of fact he first talks to a guy that's standing behind him and then he states, well, 97 percent of a consensus of scientists is that global warming is a reality and we need to abide by that.
And then again, Ted asked the same question, he asked it about six times and this guy parroted the same answer and Ted even said, look, that statement was based on a study that has been proven to be a bogus study based on falsified data.
And this guy keeps on parroting the same answer.
You need to google "Ted Cruz" "Sierra Club" it was just last week.
The first thing on the search is Climate Denial Is Not an Option: A Message to Ted Cruz, which says in part:
This week, you held a hearing on the clean air and clean water safeguards that protect millions of American families. I testified because I wanted to talk about how these safeguards are especially critical for people of color and low-income communities, who are disproportionately affected by pollution and climate disruption .
But, as a friend to big polluters, you derailed the whole hearing with misinformation, claiming there was a “pause” in rising global temperatures -- misinformation already debunked by scientists and the non-partisan Politifact.com....
But we digress. Pastor Cruz continues in the excerpt above:
Global warming is a manufactured thing. You want to take it to the extreme, it wasn't too long ago, they even said, well, cow farting is causing global warming. Even the cows are to blame. As a matter of fact, the whole thing is based on bogus data. It is all about control. It has nothing to do with global warming.
I'll tell you where global warming has worked. It's worked for Al Gore. Al Gore has become nearly a billionaire pushing this garbage of global warming, but there's no reality to it.
In case readers forgot, in April, we learned that most of the Republicans in the Minnesota House agreed. A press release from Rep Melissa Hortman, Is Climate Change Real? 99% of House Republicans Vote No, spelled out the sad story.
As a counter to this malarky, we recommend checking out Republican weatherman Paul Douglas's observations in Veteran Meteorologist: Accepting Climate Change 'Doesn’t Make You Liberal, It Makes You Literate'.
Pastor Cruz goes on to attack not only the Environmental Protection Agency, but workplace safety (OSHA) and unemployment compensation. It's quite the rant about the loss of the enterprising American spirit.
If only he didn't take such a negative view of Democrats making money, he might take heart in the new Atlantic article, The Planet-Saving, Capitalism-Subverting, Surprisingly Lucrative Investment Secrets of Al Gore. Apparently Gore wants to re-invent capitalism, the dirty hippie.
Pastor Cruz is dancing with the old school, fossil fuel capitalists filling the SuperPACs' coffers.
What's this strategy all about?
Pastor Cruz bashes marriage equality as well as workplace safety and climate change; in his podcast, Bob Davis calls it "red meat" for the base, but we have to wonder why attacking policy attractive to so many voters is a path to victory.
Unless Cruz's father is completely unhinged, there's got to be method in this madness. Sure enough, in July, CNN's Theodore Schleifer found it in First on CNN: Cruz super PAC's plan to win presidency:
he $38 million super PAC supporting Ted Cruz plans to highlight polarizing issues as part of a full-throttle plan to turn out the white evangelical voters that can power him to victory, a new document reveals.
Keep the Promise, whose strategy is detailed in a 51-slide PowerPoint presentation titled "Can He Win?" recently posted to the organization's website, mercilessly attacks 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney as unable to elevate "wedge issues," or divisive issues that polarize voters, to the forefront of the Republican debate. Calling Romney a "terrible candidate with a terrible campaign," the slides pillory him as a Republican who managed to squander winnable states just like every other "loser" moderate candidate.
By deploying these issues and emphasizing his Hispanic heritage and religious roots, Cruz can win the presidency, the super PAC says.
The presentation, seemingly written to appeal to donors, syncs with much of the pitch that Cruz himself makes on the stump: that Republicans have their best chance of winning the White House if they nominate a clear-eyed conservative who can turn out the GOP base. But the presentation makes the fullest case yet for how Cruz's allies believe he has a path both to win the Republican nomination and then to defeat Hillary Clinton, who is mentioned by name in the presentation.
Among the wedge issues from past campaigns that the document cites in the Fear of A Black Planet Willie Horton ads. Fearing black lives and criminal justice reform, climate change and cute boys marrying each other, the Cruz campaign--which frets over control--seeks to further divide the country in order to gain control of the White House.
Oh good.
Here's the document, which we found online, although the CNN link is no longer working:
Photo: Pastor Rafael Cruz.
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Pastor Cruz has largely flown under the mass-media pundit radar, except for when someone wants to point out something particularly zany that he's said. But the man is zany like a fox, and may well be smarter than his son.
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Oct 18, 2015 at 06:41 PM