busted

Lobby firm forges anti-climate-bill letters from Hispanic group and NAACP 9

Updated reactions below

The Charlottesville, Va., Daily Progress broke the story of a D.C. lobbying firm forging letters in opposition to the House climate bill:

As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate change legislation in June, the freshman congressman’s office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure.

The letters, as it turns out, were forgeries.

“They stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it. They forged a letter and sent it to our congressman without our authorization,” said Tim Freilich, who sits on the executive committee of Creciendo Juntos, a nonprofit network that tackles issues related to Charlottesville’s Hispanic community. “It’s this type of activity that undermines Americans’ faith in democracy.”

The letters came from the Washington lobby firm Bonner & Associates, which offers “Strategic Grassroots / Grasstops support to help you win.” It hasn’t yet come to light who hired the firm to do this possibly illegal work. Another set of forged letters claimed to represent a local chapter of the NAACP.

Grist has copies of the fake Creciendo Juntos and NAACP letters [PDFs].

Perriello, a first-term Democrat from a swing district, has emerged as a strong voice on climate and environment issues since his election last fall. He voted in support of the House bill that inspired the letters, the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

No other members of Congress have reported receiving forged letters such as this, though there’s a good deal of speculation that Perriello wasn’t the only target. Let us know if you’ve heard more. It wouldn’t hurt to urge your own representatives to review files for similar letters.

Updates

  • The NAACP issued a statement about the misrepresentation of its name:

“The NAACP is appalled that an organization like Bonner and Associates would stoop to these depths to deceive Congress.  In this case Bonner and Associates are exploiting the African-American Community to achieve their misdirected goal. These tactics illustrate that discriminatory tactics normally used to deceive voters are now being used to deceive the Congress,” stated Hilary O. Shelton, Director of the NAACP’s Washington Bureau and Senior Vice President for Advocacy.

  • Firm founder Jack Bonner said a temporary employee is to blame. The rogue temp was fired.

 

Jonathan Hiskes is a Grist staff writer. He reports, tweets, eats, asks questions, self-promotes, looks out windows, and wonders if it could be like this.

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  1. PurpleOzone Posted 12:51 pm
    31 Jul 2009

    They have no shame. 

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  2. greenpeacetempe Posted 3:58 pm
    31 Jul 2009

    That lobbying "group" needs to be shut down immediately after the full investigation by federal police.  Our democracy is at state.  Kudos to dc climate action factory btw, keep it up.

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  3. Dave from Canada Posted 10:00 pm
    31 Jul 2009

    Uh, they have a temp giving sign-off on letters to a Congressman?Mm hmm.  And the receptionist approves their annual report, right?And if you read the Post article (last link in the article), it says the temp was acting contrary to "policy."  So, they have a policy against forgery?  I didn't think anyone needed to have a policy against breaking the law....Sounds like a very credible bunch.

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    1. Cacaoatl's avatar

      Cacaoatl Posted 1:39 pm
      01 Aug 2009

      The temp is being set up as the scapegoat for this. I can almost guarantee that no executives of Bonner & Associates will see the inside of a prison cell or even a court room. The executives will probably go to a nice comfy board room with their attorneys, make a deposition that they had no "prior knowledge" of the forgery. They'll go home to their mansions and the lowly temp will be sent to prison for 10 years and the whole thing will be forgotten.

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  4. Delay And Deny's avatar

    Delay And Deny Posted 10:52 pm
    01 Aug 2009

    Mau-mau'ing the flak catchers, I see. Their tune will change the minute Warren G. Obama directs billions in "Climo-Dollars" to their districts...  

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  5. Tyler Durden Posted 12:46 am
    02 Aug 2009

    Lobbying on behalf of business interests is completely illegitimate and should be banned.  These jerks and their clients already own Congress anyway, as they've bought the elections of most of its members.

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  6. Erik Hoffner's avatar

    Erik Hoffner Posted 9:19 am
    03 Aug 2009

    I love it. If you look at their other astroturfing exploits at the ThinkProgress link, they'd have no staff left by now if they kept firing people each time something questionable is done.The true grassroots stands united, and naked, apparently, too, in opposition to tactics like that.- Erik, Orion Grassroots Network

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  7. dadrees Posted 10:38 am
    03 Aug 2009

    Where are the moralists in Congress who think they are doing Gods' work by opposing everything from climate legislation to SCHIP when something truly  immorall and amazingly corrupt happens? Probably at a prayer meeting at the "C" street boys club

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  8. sanderson508 Posted 9:46 am
    04 Aug 2009

    Typical conservative pattern.....the end justifies the means.

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