And another thing…

One more thought on KillerCokeGate: did it ever occur to the rocket scientists over at Reilly HQ to do a little basic due diligence on Killer Coke before they hopped on board with its anti-Deval Patrick campaign?  Did they consider, for example, looking into whether the money funding the anti-Patrick effort came from a corporation?  (Memo to the Reilly gang: It did, as Ray Rogers himself told Bob when Bob, you know, asked.) 

Now, as everyone knows, campaign contributions from corporations are a big, big no-no.  And just to refresh our recollection, here are some words of wisdom from OCPF:

Where a communication that relates to a candidate’s nomination or election is “coordinated,” … this office would consider the coordinated communication to involve the receipt of an in-kind contribution.

“Coordination” in campaign finance law is a slippery concept, but here’s what OCPF says about it:

such an expenditure is considered an in-kind contribution when there has been substantial discussion or negotiation between the candidate or the candidate’s committee and the spender over the communication’s (1) contents; (2) timing; (3) location, mode, or intended audience (e.g., choice between newspaper or radio advertisement); or (4) “volume” (e.g., number of copies printed or frequency of media spots).

Hmm.  Contents, timing, location, mode, intended audience, or volume.  Let’s see…

For Sunday: ‘‘interview with Globe, talk about week ahead, stops to make, issues to raise, give them flier, pose for pic.’’ For Tuesday/Wednesday, among other things: ‘‘columnist pitches’’ to ‘‘Bailey, Vennochi, Lehigh, Buckingham, Brett Arends, McGrory.’’ The proposal for Thursday refers to ‘‘Evening Deval fundraiser in Boston — hit it hard with standout/rally/labor handing out fliers. Push TV to go back.’’ (On Thursday night, Rogers and a few protesters picketed a Patrick fund-raiser in the South End, according to Doug Rubin of the Patrick campaign.)…

They consider various PR consultants and end with Guarino’s proposal to ask consultant Kimberly Hinden for help: ‘‘She is a close friend, huge Tom supporter (although worked as Registrar of Motor Vehicles under Swift and Romney), runs PR consulting company, was deputy communications director in AG’s office and prior to that at Channels 4 and 5. No question about her loyalty, saavy, skills and discretion.’’

On Aug. 4, Guarino e-mails Sherman at Greenberg Traurig and asks: ‘‘Bob Any update?’’ Sherman’s reponse: ‘‘Yes. Spoke to her. She is on board assuming he checks out okay after she meets him.’’

Whoops.

Honestly, shouldn’t these guys have known better?  I mean, Tom Reilly is the Attorney General and everything – isn’t he supposed to be on the lookout for, oh, I don’t know, violations of the law?  I’m sure the Reilly campaign is looking forward to being hauled in front of OCPF to explain whether it was “coordinating” with Corporate Campaign, Inc., the corporation that funds the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke.

Please share widely!

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