The Giuliani Papers

Giuliani/Singer California Electoral Scam Results in FEC Complaint

The question of collusion between the California electoral initiative financed by Giuliani fundraiser Paul Singer and the Giuliani campaign has resulted in a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission by California Democrats.

The complaint seeks FEC and DOJ opinions of whether Singer's money possibly violated the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. Named as the complaint's respondents are Giuliani and Singer, a NY hedge fund billionaire and GOP donor who's very tight with the ex-NYC mayor.

Singer indirectly gave $175K in seed money to the creators of The Presidential Election Reform Act, which if passed by voters in 6/08 would change CA's electoral votes from winner-take-all to being allocated by congressional district.

Singer confirmed to New York's Daily News last week that he funded the initiative's group, Californians for Equal Representation.

The initiative has collapsed in the wake of the Singer disclosure.

As problems with the Singer money unfolded, abrupt resignations were announced on 9/27 by initiative spokesman Kevin Eckery and treasurer Tom Hiltachk, the GOP-allied atty who wrote the ballot measure. Also quitting was fundraiser Marty Wilson, an ex-aide to CA Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who on 9/05 dismissed the initiative because, "it almost feels like a loser's mentality."

Another personnel change worth looking at is Anne Dunsmore's. She was the head of the Giuliani fundraising operation until she was abruptly fired last Thursday, the day before Singer's confession to the New York Daily News.

Coincidence? I trust the FEC complaint has noted the proximity of Dunsmore's firing and Singer's song.

Is There a Connection Between Giuliani Firing his Campaign Fundraising Chief and the News that Paul Singer was Behind California Electoral Vote Grab?

Anne Dunsmore, in charge of the Giuliani fundraising, was fired by the campaign on Thursday.

On Friday, Paul Singer, Giuliani's chairman of Northeast fundraising, admitted that he was the sole financial sponsor of "Take Initiative America," the group behind the California regerendum to change the way the state's electoral votes are distributed. The change would have benefited the Republican nominee.

If the Giuliani campaign was involved in such an initiatve to alter the outcome of the presidential election, election law could be broken.

But, of course, Dunsmore was completely unaware of Singer's involvement with "Take Inititave America."

Of course.

Did Giuliani Fundraiser's California Vote Scam Break Election Law?

The San Francisco Chronicle reports Democratic response to the revelation that top Giuliani fundraiser, Paul Singer, was behind the Republican attempt to rig California's electoral votes in their favor.

The revelation about Singer was met with outrage by Democratic operatives who had fought the ballot measure and called it a "dirty trick" by Republicans aimed at changing the outcome of the 2008 election.

They said Singer's admission confirmed what they believed all along - that the GOP presidential candidate's backers believed he might have benefited from the effort.

"This puts this money-laundering operation right inside the Giuliani campaign ... with Rudy's top donor and his closest confidants," said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist and spokesman for Californians for Fair Election Reform, which fought the GOP-backed ballot measure.

"Federal election law is clear. If you're a presidential candidate, you or your agents can't direct money to a campaign that impacts the presidential campaign ... and there's no better way to rig the campaign than to impact the electoral college system."

Vulture Fund Head and Giuliani Pal Behind California Vote Grab

Paul Singer, top Giuliani fundraiser and head of notorious vulture fund, Elliot Associates (see previous post).

The New York Daily News reports:

Rudy Giuliani’s top fundraiser, hedge fund giant Paul Singer, revealed himself today as the sole financial backer of a stalled ballot drive to turn California into a motherlode of Republican votes in 2008.

Singer’s disclosure, made in a statement to The Daily News, came a day after Republican operatives in the Golden State announced they were halting their ballot effort, in part because they were unsure of their own funders’ identity.

The group, Californians for Equal Representation, had received exactly one donation for $175,000, from a mysterious, Missouri-based corporation identified only as Take Initiative America.

The lack of specifics left organizers in California open to allegations they had something to hide, and several — among them lead lawyer Tom Hiltachk and spokesman Kevin Eckery — resigned Thursday rather than defend the arrangement.

“I have demanded that Take Initiative America fully disclose the source of its funds and have been assured that it will do so,” Hiltachk said in resigning. “Nonetheless, I am deeply troubled by their failure to disclose.”

But Singer, apparently eager to put the disclosure issue to rest, yesterday stepped out of the shadows to reveal himself.

“I contributed to the Take Initiative America because I believe in proportional voting in the Electoral College,” Singer said in a statement e-mailed to The News.

The ballot initiative, if approved, would have changed how California apportions its electoral college votes. Under the states’ current winner-take-all system, the Democratic nominee has traditionally pocketed all 55 electoral votes in the left-leaning state — the nation’s largest electoral prize.

Instead, electoral votes would be apportioned to the winner in each congressional district — a change likely to shift up to 22 of those 55 votes into the GOP column, given the number of safely Republican districts in the state.

For the GOP, it would be a bonanza, akin to adding a large, new Republican state to the map.

The Giuliani campaign claims total ignorance of Singer's electoral scam. Anthony "Fat Tony" Carbonetti, Giuliani's senior advisor said, "There is no coordination between the Giuliani campaign and any statewide effort.”

But opponents of the ballot drive scoffed at suggestions Giuliani wasn’t at least tacitly aware of Singer’s giving.

Olbermann on Rudy's $9.11 Fundraiser

Keith Olbermann noted on Tuesday's Countdown that if you were to attend a Rudy Giuliani houseparty in Palo Alto, CA this week, "you will get morbid proof that despite his denials, Mr. Giuliani is exploiting the events of September 11, 2001."

Raw Story has the video clip. Watch it here.

What Sept. 11 Really Means to Giuliani: $9.11

A California fundraiser for Giuliani has unwittingly crystalized the real meaning of September 11 for America's Mayor.

The Associated Press reports:

Abraham Sofaer is having a fundraiser at his Palo Alto, Calif., home on Wednesday that aims to raise $9.11 per person for the Republican's presidential campaign.

"I'm just providing support for him. He's an old friend of mine," Sofaer said of Giuliani.

Sofaer was a State Department adviser under President Reagan and is a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Federal election data indicates Sofaer has given nearly $50,000 to Republican causes and candidates, including Giuliani, since 1995.

Rudy and Vulture Funds: Another Bush Legacy Continues

One of Rudy's biggest contributors is Paul Singer who runs a hedge fund called Elliott Associates which is notorious for its 'vulture fund' operations that, in essense, collude with powerful governments against vulnerable governments to make huge profits at the expense of the sick and hungry.

Greg Palast a British journalist investigated vulture funds for the BBC. Palast describes them this way:

Here’s how a vulture operation works. The vulture fund buys up the debt of poor nations cheaply when it is about to be written off and then sue for the full value of the debt plus interest — sometimes more than ten times what they paid for it. Singer, for example, paid just $10 million for Congo Brazzaville’s debt and is now suing for over $400 million.

Singer knew he’d turn a 1000%-plus profit on his $10 million investment with George Bush’s help.

Bush convinced the US Congress to forgive the money Congo owes the US taxpayer, but once the US taxpayer forgives Congo’s debt, the vulture, Singer, swoops in with lawyers to claim, “Congo now has the money to pay ME.” In fact, the US Constitution provides power to the President to stop vultures from suing a foreign country in a US court if the President states such a private lawsuit interferes with America’s foreign policy.

Singer, by suing Congo for the taxpayer money meant for debt relief and medicine, is interfering with US foreign policy. Yet Bush has done nothing.

According to Palast, Singer is:

...the biggest donor to George Bush and the Republican cause in New York City - giving $1.7m since Bush started his first presidential campaign.

Rudy Guiliani is the favourite to be the next Republican presidential candidate and a leaked memo from his campaign shows that Paul Singer has pledged to raise $15m for Guiliani’s campaign.

The Palast BBC report is chronicled here.

In April, the Wall Street Journal reported:

Employees of hedge fund Elliott Associates donated $159,000 to Mr. Giuliani. Mr. Giuliani yesterday announced that Paul Singer, a partner with Elliott Associates, will serve as a finance chairman for his campaign.

And, more recently, The New York Observer reports on Singer's efforts toward reaching Rudy's $15M+ 2nd Quarter goal:

Rudy Giuliani is looking to boost his second-quarter fund-raising numbers with a dinner for donors at the Sheraton on June 20, according to a one of the campaign's top contributors.

The minimum ticket for the event is $1,000, and Rudy's key backers are pitching the event as a "great time to impact Rudy's 2nd quarter results!" The dinner is being organized by Paul Singer, the campaign's eastern regional Finance Chairman and Ken Langone, the New York City finance chair, according to an invitation passed on by the supporter.

Giuliani's campaign often argued that it got a late start in the first fund-raising quarter, in which he reported nearly $15 million in donations, and that the second would be more impressive.