Rep. Peter DeFazio Turns The Tables, Confronts Shadowy Conservative Group Running Attack Ads Against Him (VIDEO)

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) is turning the tables on a political group launching attack ads against him in an attempt to bring its shadowy practices to light. On Friday, he went to the Capitol Hill headquarters of the Concerned Taxpayers of America to deliver a letter and speak with members of the organization about making its donors public. But the person who answered the door misrepresented himself and lied, saying he had never heard of Concerned Taxpayers, even though subsequent information shows that he is affiliated with the group.

According to Federal Elections Commission (FEC) filings, Concerned Taxpayers is spending $86,000 for ads to help DeFazio's opponent, Art Robinson. The ads being broadcast in southern Oregon try to portray DeFazio as a puppet of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cali.). The Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon calls this association "a reach":

DeFazio has opposed several of the speaker's top legislative priorities, including the stimulus bill and cap-and-trade climate change legislation, and he came close to revolting against the health care reform bill.

Pelosi regards DeFazio as one of the least loyal members of her caucus, and DeFazio said in an interview earlier this week that he'd favor replacing Pelosi as speaker if the Democrats retain their House majority. But the Concerned Taxpayers of America, whoever they are, understand that Pelosi is less popular than DeFazio in the 4th District, so the ads make them out to be political twins.

Very little is known about Concerned Taxpayers. The group's treasurer is a man named Jason Miller, who, according to the FEC report, is with a Republican political consulting firm called Jamestown Associates.

DeFazio decided to confront Concerned Taxpayers on Friday, intending to deliver a letter requesting that the group make its donors public. "Since you intend to try and buy Art Robinson a congressional seat, by raising and spending 'unlimited amounts of money,' the voters of Oregon are entitled to know who is picking up the tab," wrote DeFazio.

The Huffington Post, along with a couple of journalists from The Washington Post, accompanied DeFazio on the short walk from the Rayburn House Office Building over to Concerned Taxpayers' headquarters, listed as 10 E St, SE, which turned out to be a small grey townhouse. DeFazio had to ring the doorbell, knock, and yell through the mail slot before someone came to the door. The man identified himself as Mike Omegna and he told the congressman that he had never heard of Miller or Concerned Taxpayers, nor was his voice on the organization's voicemail:

DEFAZIO: You don't know Jason Miller?

OMEGNA: No. No, I don't, sir. ... I rent this place. [...]

DEFAZIO: Did you ever hear of Concerned Taxpayers of America?

OMEGNA: Nope. [...]

WASHINGTON POST: You're on the [voice] message, aren't you?

OMEGNA: Am I? I shouldn't be.

DEFAZIO: So you know nothing about Concerned Taxpayers for America, and you're not forwarding calls.

OMEGNA: No.

DEFAZIO: You're just a renter?

OMEGNA: Yes.

"These people must be really scared of revealing who they really are, or they wouldn't be having a blind drop and someone who's probably misrepresenting themselves answering the door," DeFazio told reporters after the incident.

WATCH DEFAZIO'S CONFRONTATION:

It appeared that Omegna was dissembling. The Huffington Post called Concerned Taxpayers' phone number, and the message, in Omegna's voice, said:

You've reached Michael Omegna at Jamestown Associates. I can't get to my phone right now, but if you leave me your name and number, I'll get back to you as soon as I can. If this is regarding Concerned Taxpayers of America, please leave a detailed message and I will respond back as soon as possible.

So not only did Omegna clearly have an association with Miller -- who works at Jamestown Associates -- but he also has a tie to Concerned Taxpayers and his voice was on the answering machine, despite what he told DeFazio.

The Huffington Post was able to reach Miller later in the day, who said that Omegna simply "misspoke." "He [Omegna] works for me at Jamestown, but yeah -- regarding the whole, you know, ambush from Congressman DeFazio earlier today, Michael clearly misspoke and should have identified himself clearly," he said. "So, 10 E St where Concerned Taxpayers is located, and I'm the treasurer." When asked whether Concerned Taxpayers was willing to disclose its donors, as DeFazio is requesting, Miller laughed. "We comply fully with the Federal Election Campaign Act, and our donors are disclosed as required by law, and so it's very clear," he said. "I think this all sounds like a media circus from a career politician, who's quite frankly, worried he's going to lose in November."

It doesn't appear that Concerned Taxpayers is breaking any laws. The Supreme Court's Citizen United decision has opened the floodgates for groups like this to operate with very little scrutiny; independent groups are now allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money without disclosing their donors. "Voters are accustomed to manipulative political advertising, but it used to be possible to find out who was behind it, ensuring some degree of accountability," writes The Register-Guard. "Sniping from the bushes is allowed now in American politics, with no disclosure of who's pulling the trigger, how much ammo they have or where it came from. The chief remaining restriction is the one that prevents independent political groups from coordinating their activities with candidates' campaigns. But it will be difficult to know whether such coordination has occurred if the groups paying for political ads and other campaign activity hide in the shadows."

DeFazio believes that more politicians should be confronting these groups face-to-face. "We've got to take it to them," he told HuffPost. "I'm an activist, always have been my whole life, and I'm going there to confront them and say, 'Who are you, and why are you so afraid to disclose where your money come from? Would it totally discredit your attacks on me and other Democrats? Would it totally discredit your organization?' We don't know who they are. And as I said earlier, how can we enforce existing law, which does say it can't be a foreign government, a foreign entity, a foreign individual, but if we are allowed no disclosure, how will we ever know who funded these campaigns?"

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Comments

[DougDeWitt]

01:59 PM on 10/23/2010

"We don't know who they are. And as I said earlier, how can we enforce existing law, which does say it can't be a foreign government, a foreign entity, a foreign individual, but if we are allowed no disclosure, how will we ever know who funded these campaigns?"

I have to totally agree with that point... and it appears that the learned Chief Justice has erred in allowing the non-disclosure provision. What is to keep an enemy of the United States from unseating a patriotic American, and putting a foreign agent into office?

[JustDavid]

12:46 PM on 10/08/2010

The original newspapers were not created for profit or because the owners had an altruistic desire to get the news to the public. They were created to influence elections. All major media retains that capability which is why large corporations now own them.

Even without the media/money issue elections are little more than a popularity contest. The voters do not personally know the candidate so they vote for the existing image. A popular music, military, sports, or movie star can win hands down.

What is it going to take before you (Yeah, you reading this!) accept the fact that elections are a terrible way to choose a leader. They have never worked well and today it is simply....Richest liar wins!

[RepChicksDoRock1]

09:58 AM on 10/23/2010

I concur. Our whole campaign system needs reformed. Why are we spending millions to spread more lies from either side? Why are campaign commercials ABOUT the opponent and not what the candidate can and will do. Why are there even commercials period?

I think this spending has got to stop. Don't allow candidates to get any type of donations from groups, organizations, corporations or individuals. Limit the campaign spending to $20k given by each party to the candidates and call it a day.

Get back to the roots of campaigning... hold debates, door to door campaigns, town hall meetings. If we want to fix the congress we need to make "getting the job" in the grasp of ordinary everyday people. We need to stop the he said, she said and allow candidates to speak of their abilities to do the job vs. dogging their opponent.

It is a shame that you have to have million to run a comparable campaign.

[DougDeWitt]

02:02 PM on 10/23/2010

wow. you may count this dyed-in-the-wool Dem solidly with you on this one. Fanned!

[Hallucinocynic]

10:37 AM on 10/08/2010

Anyone who caught Art Robinson's appearance on Rachel's show last night got a glimpse of Robinson's counterintuitive reasoning. This shadow group reflects Robinson's lack of integrity.

Robinson, who bills himself as a 'scientist/educator' would NOT be a professor that anyone with a desire for knowledge would want to have at the podium. Based on his tasteless performance last night anybody with a set of ears can conclude that he has no knowledge - or perhaps temperament - for legitimate dialectics. He is simply a bully, and despite his Ph.D, not a particularly well read bully.

I would like Robinson to provide a roster of those Cal Tech scientists who he insists agree with him that contemporary climate change is not anthropogenic. And his unequivocal support for hormesis further demonstrates just how dangerous this demagogue is to society.

[Richard Brubaker]

01:23 PM on 10/23/2010

A little paranoid are we?

[OffaMyLawn]

04:53 PM on 09/28/2010

Note that this "organization" has until October 18 to declare exactly what it is that they are--right about the time that the Oregon ballots will be mailed out (Oregon votes by mail).

[jcgrim]

08:35 AM on 09/28/2010

The dems failed to pass the disclosure law that would have required complete donor transparency. It died in the Senate because they couldn't get (you guessed it) 60 votes.

[emncaity]

03:51 AM on 10/08/2010

Yup. But it also failed because 1) it wasn't nearly bold enough, and 2) Dems don't know how to embarrass Republicans into voting for stuff they don't want to vote for but can't defend voting against. Any bill with clear language designed to circumvent or set new law vis-a-vis the Citizens United decision would have about 85% support nationwide, and Republicans would have no choice but to go along with it. Or at least some of them would have to. Instead, the buying of America has begun in earnest, and at this point the prospects for it ever ending don't look so hot.

[alexj]

11:33 PM on 09/27/2010

bgofca, he's not just a global warming denier. He's the originator of an apparently "fraudulent" petition project that was padded with all sorts of people whose field of expertise isn't particularly relevant to climatology. See the first line here:
http://understandit.ml1.net/#Flawed_petitions_used_in_attempts_to

[smartalek]

10:07 PM on 09/27/2010

An oldie but goodie:

Q: How can you tell when a Publican / teabeggar / conservatroid / Villager is lying?

A: Check to see if their lips are moving, or their fingers typing on a keyboard. If either is the case, they are lying.

[William Watson]

07:46 PM on 09/27/2010

More creeping fascism. Corporations running government for their own benefit. It wouldn't work if we were a little smarter in voting, but don't hold your breath. Even if their candidate loses, they'll go after the winner with money and freebies.

[David01]

06:29 PM on 09/27/2010

Good job, Rep. Fazio!!
Ultimately what takes away the power of all this money is for everybody to get out and vote. Everybody needs to vote their rep. based on what they know from reputable sources in their district. The big money is powerful because so few people vote and there are those who are easily swayed by tv ads./Fox, etc.
When more people vote it's harder to manipulate the electorate, but that means people have to have credible information.

[jayburd]

06:19 PM on 09/27/2010

They're running shady attack ads and the call DeFazio on his, "you know, ambush?"

You're dam right it was an ambush!!! These creepers deserved it!!!

[jayburd]

06:05 PM on 09/27/2010

Every Democrat getting hammered by PAC ads should be doing this! Brilliant!!!

[tnlcallen]

05:54 PM on 09/27/2010

It's unfortunate that this group is targeting this representative, and not being above board with who they are, and where their funding comes from. I'm sure it is frustrating to him to be attacked.

[Boor123]

05:53 PM on 09/27/2010

I knew Mike Omegna. He is a contemporary of John Sinledon, John Coktolsten, John Coctolstoy and Dr. Rosenrosen. His is also the new made-up name I will always use when I prank call people.

PS: the only reason DeFazio "opposes" Pelosi is because he wants bills that are more progressive than what she is able to pass. Let's at least be honest about that.

[justanothertruthseeker]

05:47 PM on 09/27/2010

Dont worry Peter you have my vote!

[AJH]

05:28 PM on 09/27/2010

Which do you think opregon voters will dislike more.

A dishonest K street lobbyist firm that doesn't even have the guts to own up tyo their political machinations from DC in their state and their K street picked republican candidate or

a representative from oregon with lots of respect. That Wall street lobbyiasts oppose his reelection should be all they need to know.

He should end his ad's. I'm Peter Defazio and I'm proud to be opposed by K street lobbyists from washington who won't even reveal their financiers or admit they are opposing me when confronted.