It appears there is a falling out among the geniuses responsible for an anonymous mailer that was sent out to Madison County voters before the August 2015 primary elections for supervisors. Geoff Pender reported in the Clarion-Ledger last week:
The case of an anonymous campaign mailer in 2015, and a related anonymous federal lawsuit against the governor, attorney general and secretary of state, appear to be over.
Political operative Greg Brand and printing company owner George Williams agreed to a “bill of information” on a misdemeanor election violation and each was sentenced to six months of probation and a $500 fine. Brand said the third person involved in the mail-out and lawsuit was former Madison County Engineer Rudy Warnock. No Hinds County court records available this week referenced Warnock. The attorney general’s office, which prosecuted the case, did not respond to numerous requests for information or comment beyond a short statement that noted Brand and Williams had pleaded guilty and received probation and fines....
“This wasn’t something clandestine we were doing over in a corner to hide something,” Brand said. “… Rudy Warnock paid for the project, Mr. Williams produced and mailed it, and I advised them that it did not have to have who paid for it because it did not say who to vote for one way or the other,” Brand said Wednesday. “… Rudy Warnock and the mayor (Butler) – their love for each other is well known. It turns out she got the sweep in the supervisor races, and he lost his job.”
However, Mr. Pender unearthed some rather interesting information:
“We are unable to comment on any other potential defendants at this time,” the AG’s statement said.
Neither Warnock, who contributed at least $10,000 to Hood’s campaign last year, nor his attorney returned repeated calls.
Is this a case of pay to play? Mr. Pender continued:
Brand, Williams and an anonymous third person in turn have dropped a federal lawsuit — they had filed as “Anonymous Doe, Anonymous Roe and Anonymous Company” — against Gov. Phil Bryant, Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and Attorney General Jim Hood. The lawsuit claimed state law requiring information identifying the sender on political mail-outs violates their right to free speech.Case closed.
The case relates to a Madison County mail-out during the 2015 elections. It depicted a cartoon Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler — who was then running for state auditor — as a puppet master pulling the strings controlling three Madison County supervisor candidates.
Hosemann was incensed by this anonymous mailer and others that hit days before the Aug. 4 primary, calling them “gutless” and calling on Hood to launch an investigation. Hosemann has since championed tougher campaign laws, penalties and reporting requirements for third-party groups..... Rest of article.
Kingfish note: There are a couple of questions that should be asked in this case.
1. The guy who created the mailers is prosecuted. The guy who printed the mailers and distributed them is prosecuted. What about the guy who paid for them?
2. The Secretary of State reported that other anonymous mailers were distributed before the primary. Did the Attorney General or anyone else investigate those mailers as well?
The orders and actual mailer are posted below.
19 comments:
Tip of the iceberg. What about all the crap that happened at the county level last year in Hinds? SOS doesn't care since it didn't involve a fellow white republican. Most of the candidates in Hinds didn't bother to file a single report. i.e. David Archie.
Citizens United paving the way to unlimited hidden corruption?
Has NOTHING to do with Citizens United. Troll elsewhere.
And now look at how Warnock, Claude Banks (Karl's son), Karl Banks, Mike Espy, and Terry Lovelace of UCI are going to steal tons of money from CMU. And the customers of Madison, Bear Creek, and PRV are going to be forced to help tote the bill. Madison County building inspector and CMU board member John Noble was even caught on audio tape saying he met with Karl and Karl agreed to give $50,000 if CMU would hire Lovelace and Claude Banks to do some sludge removal.
The Madison County Journal has been doing great work on this story the last few weeks.
These "anonymous" messages, thrown into driveways in Madison County go back about 20 years that I can remember. A particularly virulent one was thrown when Louise Spivey was running for County Supervisor.
They are the cowards way to attempt to influence an election.
Looks to me like someone 'engineered' a good financing operation here. Contribute to friends that will accept a plea with an immediate expungement. Then 'engineered' a defense with provision of a lawyer - who had to remove himself from the final settlement since there appeared to be a conflict among the three defendants.
And lets not forget Dilbert here. Acknowledges in his comment to Pender that there were several mailers and other materials without disclaimers during the same election, but for some reason this is the only one he chose to pursue. Why did he go all in on this group that confined itself to one county rather than any of the others that were just as well known and much more egregious but didn't involve a major republican county?
Lastly, it was a nice comment that Dilbert was trying to clean up the campaign finance laws in this last session of the legislature, but truth be told, his proposed bill did nothing to address this question. (Nor did it touch the question that was raised in this last year's legislative contests where his staff testified incorrectly as to what the current laws required, but who's counting?)
Brand has done this shit for years, over 30 years. His father in law covered his ass for years in the early 80's, and was a federal official. His father had a clothing store on the now trashed Highway 80 in south Jackson. His brothers are/were attorneys. He is below dog vomit...
Nice bio on Brand - father in law, father, brothers... But, what is the 'shit' that you are claiming that he has done? He has been a Dem operative - yes. And just like many of their operatives this is kinda typical, although childish. Frankly, other than having been a waste of effort and Rudy's money, I don't know what the big deal was with this piece other than Mayor Mary didn't like the likeness.
Big part of this story, though, is not Brand getting nailed for what may or may not have been 'illegal' but the fact that between the AG and the SOS, they let off the mainstay behind this deal - Rudy. If he wrote the checks to pay for this mail piece and his only 'punishment' was pleading guilty with an accompaning expungement and no fine - while the other two got 6 month probation and a small fine - sure looks like the campaign contributions to AG and SOS paid good dividends.
Will anyone serving jail time or probation?
Wonder what stuff Warnock will pull if he doesn't get his way in Canton? oh wait, he's got KB and Espy getting him set up ...
well just dayum~~
Those folks better wake up in the City of Canton.
My god you people are dramatic
It ought to concern us more than no one would make these attempts to smear candidates unless it worked . Whether it's this local nonsense or the nonsense we see on the national level, in the end , it's the humans who never question the motivations behind gossip , bother with checking out the facts before forming an opinion, who don't see the danger in things like loyalty pledges and who think the end justifies the means who have gotten us into this mess in which we find ourselves.
To be independent , you need to be capable of independent thinking.
... it's the humans who never question the motivations behind gossip ...
Right, because we know that all other forms of life are must more structured in their thought processes and discerning.
In the lingo of Donald Trup.... "Everyone knows, People say, it's true, I've always heard, it is often said, ...
that Greg Brand is a con and p.o.s.".
A couple of you have attempted to post comments that were pretty entertaining and enlightening. However, I don't want to get sued for slander either if I can't get verify some of it. I know it's probably accurate but it's not worth the lawsuit either. Don't take it personally as I appreciate the comments, really do
With all that's going on with CMU I"m surprised that KingFish hasnt posted more on it. With Rudy, Claude and Karl Banks involved in it, watch and see if Claudes wife Tashee, the county's ex-solid waste director, doesnt land a cushy 50/60+K job at CMU now. With Tim Johnson in the wings to take over the CEO position at CMU it looks like ebony and ivory are going to be riding again ! ! ! ! Hell, you might even see Robert Winn land something there to go along with with his DA investigators position.
Mr. Fish, your concerns are noted and equally appreciated. Suffice it to say, for whatever reason Brand is not well liked or respected.
Tim Johnson needs to stick to brawling on HoR floor over chicken houses. He has as much experience running a public utility as my dog does in politics......she could do a better job than he ever did or has done.
Brand is actually a pretty decent guy. Yes he plays a rough
style of politics but he is smart and usually on the winning
side. If you were running, you would want him on your
team.
Sept. 18 @ 7:29 P.M.
As for Brand, I know him well. His family is nice enough. Greg is not.
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