Center for Investigative Reporting follows Women's Voices' political connections

Facing South May 2, 2008

Will Evans with the Center for Investigative Reporting has compiled a helpful chart documenting in detail the connections between the principals of Women's Voices Women Vote -- the nonprofit we discovered behind illegal election robo-calls in North Carolina -- and the various presidential campaigns.

As we have already noted, many of the group's top leaders have worked for Bill and Hillary Clinton in some capacity. Founder and President Page Gardner, for example, served as the deputy political director for the 1992 Bill Clinton campaign and worked on his presidential transition team. Executive Director Joe Goode was a pollster for Bill Clinton, and former Women's Voices leadership team member and strategic planner Maggie Williams is now Hillary Clinton's campaign manager.

The Center breaks new ground by showing just how heavily and disproportionately Women's Voices principals have invested in the Hillary Clinton campaign. According to the chart, they have donated a total of $34,800 to Hillary Clinton or HillPAC since 2000. At the same time, they have donated only $3,600 to the Obama campaign and $2,300 to John Edwards.

click here and scroll to the bottom about questions raised by charity watchdogs over the fact that in 2006 Women's Voices paid $800,000 -- 16 percent of its budget -- for phone services to Integral Resources Inc., whose CEO and founder, Ron Rosenblith, is Gardner's husband. The organization also paid several million dollars more to companies run by five other members of the nonprofit's leadership team.
Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy in Chicago, said that's a concern as it gives the appearance of a conflict of interest. Rick Cohen, former executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and a national correspondent for Nonprofit Quarterly magazine, added that such relationships create "the image, if not the reality, of self-dealing."]
posted by Sue Sturgis at 1:30

Local voter advocacy groups were encouraging voters to take advantage of "same day registration" during North Carolina's early voting period. That makes WVWV's behavior even more troubling:

Facing South. May 02, 2008 Why did Women's Voices use disruptive voter registration approach in NC?
In response to our investigation of Women's Voices Women Vote and their illegal and deceptive voter outreach in North Carolina before the critical state primaries, some have defended their voter registration approach.

No one seems to be defending Women's Voices' use of anonymous, illegal robo-calls in North Carolina, or their decision to do those calls in North Carolina two and a half months after they had told a newspaper in Virginia that they vowed to stop the practice nation-wide.

This strategy -- which Women's Voices conceded could cause problems, in a letter they faxed to the N.C. State Board of Elections on Monday -- is all the more curious given that every organization Facing South spoke to that has been involved in voter registration in North Carolina has been using a much easier alternative: One-Stop Early Voting.

This voting reform, passed last year, allows North Carolina voters to register and vote all at once at over 200 One Stop voting centers across the state. Representatives from Democracy North Carolina, the NAACP, and the N.C Democratic Party all tell us they have been pushing almost exclusively for One-Stop Voting, because of its ability to capitalize on interest in elections created by the primaries, but also avoids the potential of discouraging and disenfranchising voters inherent in Women's Voices' approach.

For example, as Damon Circosta of the N.C. Center for Voter Education said to Facing South:

"Ever since the register-by-mail deadline passed, nearly every voter engagement group in the state has been pushing one-stop early voting, where you can register and vote at the same time without mailing anything in. To be pushing mail-in registration at this time is either a blunder of comedic proportions or a deliberate attempt to confuse."

...more at the link

Call 1-866-OUR-VOTE if you experience any problems registering, early voting, or voting on Election Day. You will get a live person who can assist you. 1-866-OUR-VOTE is the only national voter assistance hotline staffed by live call center operators trained to provide state specific assistance to all voters. Call 1-866- MY-VOTE-1 to report your votiing experience/problems or to find your polling place.