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After the Jan 6 insurrection, there were tons of demoralizing stories about how much pro-insurrection lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Josh Hawley were raising in small-dollar donations, suggesting a vast base supporting authoritarian overthrow of the US government.
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But it turns out that those numbers were hugely and deliberately distorted by Taylor Greene and Hawley, as @propublica reveals in a new reporting from @derekwillis and @iarnsdorf.
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-josh-hawley-and-marjorie-taylor-greene-juiced-their-fundraising-numbers
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https://www.propublica.org/article/how-josh-hawley-and-marjorie-taylor-greene-juiced-their-fundraising-numbers
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The report analyzes campaign finance disclosures from the pair and learns that they spent vast sums - $600,000 in total - renting out mailing lists from sleazy GOP operatives whose business is compiling databases of suckers who give whenever they're asked.
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The cost of those donations is high even by GOP standards, where half the money donors cough up can be skimmed off by "consultants," and it echoes the tactics used by Trump to artificially goose his own fundraising figures through straight-up fraud:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/us/politics/trump-donations.html
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/us/politics/trump-donations.html
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The lists in this case come from one of the GOP's leading sleazemongers, Bryan G Rudnick (though his company LGM Consulting Group), who attained notoriety by spamming Jewish voters in 2008 with warnings that an Obama victory would lead to another Holocaust.
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Spending a lot of money to raise a little money sounds like a losing proposition, but only if you discount the value that comes from fronting the appearance of popularity and support that comes from grossing a fortune in small-dollar donations (nevermind the net).
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Hawley and Taylor Greene's fundraisers were political theater, and they worked, sending progressives into a panic at the thought of a vast groundswell of support for insurrection, and reassuring conservatives who worried that the pair were too extreme to garner support.
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It was a canny - but ultimately easily discovered - ruse.
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ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on http://pluralistic.net , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/21/re-identification/#jan-6-fraud
https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/21/re-identification/#jan-6-fraud
