Source:
RawStory.comA website run out of Arizona, ostensibly to support the so-called tea party movement, is under scrutiny after a local news organization dug into their finances and ownership, only to find what some may characterize as a remarkable scam.
According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) disclosure forms,
JoinTheTeaParty.us took in approximately $469,000 in donations this year and spent roughly half its budget on marketing, with the rest going to distinctly non-political avenues.
In fact,
according to CBS 5 in Phoenix, there's no evidence the group spent so much as a dime to promote tea party candidates or related events.
FEC forms pulled by CBS affiliate show the group spent nearly $200,000 on search engine optimization and Google sponsorship, along with Facebook ads promoting their website. Submitting a Google search for "tea party" returned with the site atop the list of results.
Read more:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/arizona-tea-party-group-469000-donations-spent-politics-report/
They even
advertised the site on Craigslist, with an impassioned appeal to "patriots" who may be sympathetic to conservative causes. Ironically enough, the ad states numerous times that this group in particular is a "marketing campaign" with a fundraising goal of $500,000
per week.
The domain is owned by Todd Cefaratti, an Arizona businessman with a background in data collection. His other business specializes in
mining contact information and reselling the leads to clients in the reverse mortgage industry.
"Thousands" of donors have given their personal contact information and credit card numbers to the tea party site, according to CBS.
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