College Republicans Prey on Seniors

[RTFirefly]

This is pretty damned scummy.

The College Republican National Committee has raised $6.3 million this year through an aggressive and misleading fund-raising campaign that collected money from senior citizens who thought they were giving to the election efforts of President Bush and other top Republicans.

Many of the top donors were in their 80s and 90s. The donors wrote checks — sometimes hundreds and, in at least one case, totaling more than $100,000 — to groups with official sounding-names such as “Republican Headquarters 2004,” “Republican Elections Committee” and the “National Republican Campaign Fund.”

But all of those groups, according to the small print on the letters, were simply projects of the College Republicans, who collected all of the checks.

And little of the money went to election efforts.

Of the money spent by the group this year, nearly 90 percent went to direct-mail vendors and postage expenses, according to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

Some of the elderly donors, meanwhile, wound up bouncing checks and emptying their bank accounts.

“I don’t have any more money,” said Cecilia Barbier, a 90-year-old retired church council worker in New York City. “I’m stopping giving to everybody. That was all my savings that they got.”

This year, as millions of dollars flowed in, College Republicans falsely claimed in letters that checks were only trickling in and that the group was in a constant budget crisis.

And the elderly continued to be a major source of donations.

There are far more retired people giving to College Republicans than to any other IRS-regulated independent political committee, IRS records indicate.

The Times was able to determine the ages of 49 of the top 50 individual donors to the College Republicans. The median age of the donors is 85, and 14 of them are 90 or older.

Donors interviewed this week frequently expressed disbelief when they were told how much they gave to the College Republicans.

“That can’t be true,” said Francis Lehar, a 91-year-old retired music publisher, when he was told records showed he gave the College Republicans nearly $23,000. “I have donated to dozens of Republican causes. Some of them might be the Republican Party organizations.”

From January through September, the Massachusetts man wrote 90 checks to the group, records show.

“It surprises me that it goes to them and not to the other names that they had,” he said. “I admire their skill in writing letters.”

An August fund-raising letter showed that aggressive approach, telling donors there was a Democratic conspiracy to intercept the committee’s mail:

"Given what I’ve learned, you and I must take every precaution necessary.

"Apparently the Democrats don’t have any concern about hurting you, your family or America.

“Their sole concern is revenge — vengeance — retribution.”

With the approach of Tuesday’s election, the letters have become even more breathless.

Last Saturday, a donor received what appears to be a photocopied handwritten note from the director of one committee: "Please understand I have no one else to turn to. This is serious: We will have to close our doors!

“I need your help now!”

And the guy who was their chair from 1999 to 2003 is now running Bush’s Nevada campaign. Maybe this is the GOP’s new motto: no sleazeball left behind.

[gobear]

Sorry, Rt, but this is a stupid Pitting. So seniors got targeted by the College Republicans for fundraising? So? Every nonprofit churns out tons of direct mail fundraising that make urgent pleas for donations. If those seniors were so feeble that they gave away all their money, that’s the fault of their relatives for not getting the seniors’ assets placed in conservatorships.

[tnetennba]

Er… isn’t that blaming the victims, gobear?

[rjung]

Waitaminute… if I read this correctly, the College Republicans have been scamming senior citizens by pretending to solicit money … for the Republican Party?

Isn’t that like shooting your own side? Or are young Republicans really so amoral that they’ll backstab their own candidate to make some extra bling-bling?

[jayjay]

@rjung

Waitaminute… if I read this correctly, the College Republicans have been scamming senior citizens by pretending to solicit money … for the Republican Party?

Isn’t that like shooting your own side? Or are young Republicans really so amoral that they’ll backstab their own candidate to make some extra bling-bling?

There is no honor among thieves. Or Republicans. The spirit of Reagan’s 11th Commandment is dead.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

Sounds to me like this College Republicans group is a scam, not a friend to the Republican Party at all. Turn it around: if there were a group called College Democrats doing this to old folks, claiming falsely that the donations were going toward Democratic causes, would you consider that group to be proof that Democrats were sleazebags?

Hell, no. There’s no guilt by association here.

Except for Nevada. If this scammer is also heading up Bush’s campaign in Nevada, sounds like Bush might want to have him investigated for fraud there, and fire his ass. Not because doing so will help out the Democrats–quite the opposite–but because it’d be the smart thing to do.

And gobear, it’s pretty low to blame the victims here. Yes, nonprofits do direct-mail fundraising; we’re in the process of putting a piece out right now. However, what we DON’T do is:

• Target old people specifically.
• Use deceptive practices (such as using multiple different names)
• Funnel most of the money into overhead.

What they’re doing sounds suspiciously close to fraud to me.

Daniel

[gobear]

I’m shocked that the College Republicans are so bad at business–giving 90% of their revenue to the direct mail company is a ridiculous figure.

Yes, the College Republicans practiced scummy tactics, but any sensible person should have seen through their BS. Either the old people were just congenitally stupid, in which they deserved to get ripped off, or they were enfeebled by age, in which case their relatives should have been protecting them.

High pressure tactics are definitely wrong, but they’re hardly illegal.

[Evil_Captor]

This sounds so much like a typical Florida boiler-room scam that I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that the College Republicans are a front group for someone who’s grabbing all the money. I would investigate those direct mail firms and find out if they’re real, and who owns them, and what they have done for College Republicans.

As much as I despise the Republican Party, I’m inclined to give 'em a pass on this one until more information comes in.

[World_Eater]

@gobear

Sorry, Rt, but this is a stupid Pitting. So seniors got targeted by the College Republicans for fundraising? So? Every nonprofit churns out tons of direct mail fundraising that make urgent pleas for donations. If those seniors were so feeble that they gave away all their money, that’s the fault of their relatives for not getting the seniors’ assets placed in conservatorships.

Cool, the fundamental attribution error at work. Go psych class!

[Already_in_Use]

So these people thought they were donating money to get Bush reelected, and it turned out that most of the money went to direct mailing companies. What are they complaining about? That they didn’t get screwed as badly as they wanted?

[Kimstu]

gobear: High pressure tactics are definitely wrong, but they’re hardly illegal.

And it’s the wrongness that’s being criticized here, not the legality. These fundraising tactics are being called “scummy” and “sleazeball” precisely because they’re ethically wrong.

[Jackmannii]

@gobear

Either the old people were just congenitally stupid, in which they deserved to get ripped off, or they were enfeebled by age, in which case their relatives should have been protecting them.

Would this have been your answer if the elderly people in question had been deceptively pressured into buying unnecessary insurance or siding?

It would be one thing if Republicans across a balanced age spectrum were getting these letters, but there are indications (not fully fleshed out in the story) that the fundraisers particularly target elderly folks who are especiallyly vulnerable to these sorts of misleading appeals.

Disgusting.

[gobear]

@World Eater

Cool, the fundamental attribution error at work. Go psych class!

So, clue me into the situational attribution you think is more appropriate.

[Kimstu]

gobear: High pressure tactics are definitely wrong, but they’re hardly illegal.

And it’s the wrongness that’s being criticized here, not the legality. These fundraising tactics are being called “scummy” and “sleazeball” precisely because they’re ethically wrong.

[Liberal]

@RTFirefly

This is pretty damned scummy.

And the guy who was their chair from 1999 to 2003 is now running Bush’s Nevada campaign. Maybe this is the GOP’s new motto: no sleazeball left behind.

Meh. You sound just like them.

[Duke]

Response Dynamics, the direct-mail organization that directed this campaign has–shall we say–an interesting reputation in the fundraising biz. Here’s the results of a Senate Select Committee on fundraising for POW-MIA charities. Essentially, one of Response Dynamics, through one of its contractors, sent out 2.5 million solicitations

claiming that live U.S. servicemen were being held captive and that rescue could be achieved…

through donations–of which Response Dynamics was receiving a large percentage–to a certain charity. Problem was, Response Dynamics knew claims like these:

During…meetings in Vietnam, the Vietnamese leaders told our representatives that American POW’s are still alive in Southeast Asia! THEY ADMITTED IT – FINALLY! This confirms live sighting reports collected by the other “core” groups. We’re making some important progress as negotiations continue.

Marilyn Price (who worked for Response Dynamics) drafted and signed a solicitation letter in January, 1991 on behalf of VVnW which stated in part:

Our representatives have been to Southeast Asia to meet with government leaders to break the deadlock. The Vietnamese have admitted that some of our men are still alive!

Another solicitation from VVnW claimed that Norwegian workers in Vietnam had seen POW’s who had called out to them. In all, solicitation materials prepared by Price were sent to hundreds of thousands of Americans netting more than $11,000,000 since 1984.

Both of those claims–the Vietnamese “admissions” and the Norwegian sighting were outright frauds. Shows you something of the track record of Response Dynamics, I think.

[Duke]

Excuse me, “made” claims like these.

[gobear]

Yeah, I know I’m being hardhearted, but this is something different from a scam that preys on the innocent. These people were writing checks in support of Bush’s agenda, so their getting screwed by their own team smells like justice to me. Yes, I know they’re elderly, but, c’mon, by now shouldn’t they have learned not to give to everyone who asks them?

[World_Eater]

@gobear

So, clue me into the situational attribution you think is more appropriate.

Being old/vulnerable/senile and badgered/coerced/threatened out of their money?

[gobear]

@World Eater

Being old/vulnerable/senile and badgered/coerced/threatened out of their money?

And explain how that differs from “Either the old people were just congenitally stupid, in which they deserved to get ripped off, or they were enfeebled by age, in which case their relatives should have been protecting them.”?