Doug wrote: "...they [Larouchies] really hate the Bush family, because 41 put Lyndon in jail."
And isn't this the sort of thing they put him away for?
>Told of the extent of her donations, she said, "Oh, my goodness! I
>don't think I gave so much. I don't remember the name College
>Republicans. I thought what I gave to was a national Republican
>company."
>Similar accounts from other senior citizens in Minnesota and
>nationwide have put Eric Hoplin, the St. Olaf College graduate who
>chairs the College Republican National Committee, on the defensive
>about its record $8 million fundraising this year.
>
>Hoplin, 26, whose job was once held by top White House strategist
>Karl Rove, says he is looking into whether the committee's chief
>consultant misled and preyed on elderly people with a barrage of
>letter solicitations.
>
>"We've come to discover that there are a few donors who have been
>confused, a few donors who have some form of dementia, who aren't
>entirely sure of the amount of money that they're giving -- and how
>often they're giving," Hoplin said this week.
>
>Hoplin also acknowledged one source of that confusion: The College
>Republicans raise funds "using a lot of project names" -- letters
>that in the past neglected to mention his group at all.
>
>Hoplin said that, after becoming the committee's executive director
>in 2001, his "first reform" was to require that every solicitation
>identify the College Republicans.
>
>He pledged in a phone interview to refund donations to any unhappy
>contributor and said about a half dozen have been reimbursed.
>
>But Monda Jo Millsap, 68, of Van Buren, Ark., said she agreed, when
>solicited by phone and mail, to "lend" nearly $60,000 to the group,
>but hasn't gotten her money back.
>
>"They were supposed to give it back, and I haven't heard nothing," she said.
>
>Hoplin said he is looking into possible irregularities by the
>group's longtime consultant for direct-mail fundraising,
>Virginia-based Response Dynamics Inc. The firm and its
>subcontractors appear to have been paid at least $6 million for
>sending hundreds of thousands of direct mail solicitations,
>according to the College Republicans' disclosure reports to the
>Internal Revenue Service.
>
>"If Response Dynamics is preying on old people, I'll put a stop to
>it," Hoplin said.
>
>Ron Kanfer, president of Response Dynamics, said the firm has no way
>of knowing the ages of the recipients of its fundraising letters. He
>said the problem more than likely resulted from some people
>appearing on dozens of purchased lists of potential donors, possibly
>resulting in their being bombarded with solicitations within days.
>Kanfer said his firm has tried to eliminate duplications.
>
>"Why would any client want to have the same person receiving these
>letters?" he asked. "It's not in anybody's best interest."
>
>Elliot Baines, an 84-year-old retired metallurgical engineer from
>Vero Beach, Fla., said that he has received "as much as 20 pounds"
>of mail in a day, much of it appeals from Republicans. Baines gave
>the College Republicans $63,435 in 59 donations, some as high as
>$4,000. But since President Bush won reelection, he said, he's not
>bothered by the fundraising tactics.
>
>In September 2003, two months after Hoplin began his two-year term
>as chairman, the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity
>reported that some elderly donors knew they gave to GOP groups, but
>did not realize that College Republicans were the recipients.
>
>Hoplin said he "noticed that a few of our projects didn't mention
>the words College Republican National Committee," instead alluding
>to a bigger GOP cause. He said he ordered that changed to ensure
>that "all of the donors knew exactly where the dollars they were
>contributing were going."
>
>But the Seattle Times, in an Oct. 29 story, said it obtained copies
>of more recent letters urgently soliciting donations and warning
>recipients that Bush would lose if they did not donate. The letters
>referred in large print to "Republican Headquarters 2004" or the
>"Republican Election Committee" and only identified the College
>Republican National Committee in fine print, the Times said.
>
>Frances Offerman, 86, of Eden Prairie, sent in 36 checks totaling
>$1,814. "I don't remember giving that much," she said. "No, I don't
>remember addressing it to the college."
>
>Kanfer said College Republican officials approved every letter.
>
>Alison Eikele, a spokeswoman for the College Republicans, said 79
>percent of the group's revenue has been eaten up by the costs of
>fundraising consultants. The rest went for a campus recruiting drive
>that more than tripled membership to 150,000, for grooming new
>members to be foot soldiers in the Bush-Cheney campaign's
>get-out-the-vote effort and for dispatching 75 paid staff members to
>presidential battleground states this fall, Hoplin said.
>
>One reason the elderly donors' unusual giving patterns surfaced is
>that the College Republicans are a tax-exempt 527 group named for a
>section of the federal tax code. While free of any limits on the
>amounts of donations they can accept, the 527s are required to
>publicly disclose all contributions, no matter how small.
>
>In an interview before the election, Hoplin gave no hint of any
>fundraising issues. He said the CRNC received donations from 32,000
>people. Many of them give multiple times because they're excited to
>make "a political investment" in a new generation of Republicans, he
>said.
>
>The Detroit Lakes native also took personal credit for starting a
>"major donors" program that raised $1 million from three wealthy
>givers, including Cincinnati financier and professional baseball
>team owner Carl Lindner, who contributed $375,000, and Dr. John
>Templeton, the famed Philadelphia conjoined-twins surgeon, who
>donated $400,000.
>
>But after the election, Hoplin acknowledged that questions have
>surrounded the firm's fundraising since 2001. Dozens of senior
>citizens donated with extraordinary frequency this year.
>
>Charles Hermann, 87, of Mounds View, wrote 256 checks totaling
>$10,789 this year, sometimes making several donations on the same
>day, according to the Republicans' financial disclosure reports.
>Hermann could not be reached for comment.
>
>Janet Roche, 73, of Richfield, wrote 111 checks for $2,854. "I
>prayed a lot," she explained, "and I just felt that was right."
>
>http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5081925.html
>
>--
>
>/ dave /
>___________________________________
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