Notorious Lincoln Strategy Group Hired by 'Show Me Better Courts' & Realtors To Gather Signatures

Campaign finance reports filed today by the Show Me Better Courts committee show $225,000 in petition collection fees paid to Lincoln Strategy Group of Tempe, Arizona.  Show Me Better Courts is currently trying to get put a measure on the November ballot that, if passed, would overhaul the state's widely-praised judicial selection process.

The Vote Yes to Stop Double Taxation Committee has also paid the firm $195,000.  Realtors are pushing their own ballot initiative to block the creation of a real estate transfer tax in Missouri -- a tax which does not currently exist in the state.

Lincoln Strategy Group, formerly known as Sproul and Associates, has developed quite the reputation for its dubious practices on behalf of right-wing clients.  Think Progress summarized some of the firm's more notable activities in August:

- In Oregon and Nevada, Lincoln Strategies — then known as Sproul and Associates — was investigated for destroying Democratic voter registration forms. The Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign paid Sproul $7.4 million for campaign work. [CNN, 10/14/04; KGW News, 10/13/04; East Valley Tribune, 09/07/06]

- In Nevada, people who registered as Democrats with Lincoln Strategies — then known as Sproul and Associates — found their names absent from the voter registration rolls. [Reno Gazette-Journal, 10/29/04]

- During the 2006 midterm elections, Wal-Mart banned Lincoln Strategies for partisan voter registration efforts in Tennessee. The Republican National Committee had hired the firm. [Associated Press, 08/24/06]

- In Arizona, Lincoln Strategies employed a variety of deceptive tactics — including systematically lying about the bill — to push a ballot initiative to eviscerate the state’s clean elections law. [Salon, 10/21/04]

- Lincoln Strategies, then employed by the Republican Party, was behind efforts to place Ralph Nader on the ballot in states such as Arizona.[American Prospect, 06/25/04]

In 2008, the John McCain campaign came under heat for hiring the same firm.  From an October 2008 article in the Huffington Post:

[Nathan Sproul's] involvement with the Republican Party's voter registration efforts has the potential to create a political and public relations headache at a time when McCain can ill-afford one. For weeks the Arizona Republican and his allies have been seeking to tie Barack Obama to the community organization ACORN, which they have accused of potentially committing massive voter registration fraud. Sproul's contract with the GOP ticket -- in addition to news of Republican officials attempting to suppress Democratic turnout in California -- raises, for some, questions about McCain's own efforts.

"It should certainly take away from McCain's argument," said Bob Grossfeld, a progressive political consultant based in Arizona who has followed Sproul's career. "Without knowing anything of what is going on with ACORN, there is a clear history with Mr. Sproul either going over the line or sure as hell kicking dirt on it, and doing it for profit and usually fairly substantive profit."

As Republican Congressman Chris Cannon summarized during a joint hearing for the subcommittee on commercial and administrative law back in May 2008: "The difference between ACORN and Sproul is that ACORN doesn't throw away or change registration documents after they have been filled out."

Indeed, Sproul's history is filled with allegations of political misdeeds. During the 2004 election, Sproul & Associates (the former name of Lincoln Strategy) was accused of attempting to destroy forms collected by Democratic voters in Nevada. That same year in Oregon, Sproul & Associates allegedly instructed canvassers to only accept Republican registration forms in addition to destroying those turned in by Democrats.

In Minnesota, meanwhile, Sproul's firm was accused of actually firing workers who brought back Democratic registration forms, while other canvassers were allegedly paid "$13 an hour, with the $3 bonus for every Bush, undecided or Ralph Nader voter registration." Similar problems related to Sproul & Associates popped up in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Keith Olbermann ran the following segment in October 2008:

Salon.com also profiled Sproul during the 2004 campaign.

It will be interesting to hear how Republicans obsessed with the foibles and conspiracy theories involving ACORN defend the choices of James Harris, Show Me Better Courts and Vote Yes to Stop Double Taxation Committee to hire this company.