But On Us, It Looks Good – Good And Boring
by John Weckerle
In a June 3 article titled “Stranger Than Fiction: Which It Appears To Be,” Sandia Tea Party official internet spokesman Chuck Ring denounces the Evangelical Immigration Table – a coalition of evangelical organizations seeking immigration reform – and its logistics partner, the National Immigration Forum, on the basis of a Breitbart.com (once the web site of the late serial liar Andrew Breitbart) article. Mr. Ring and the Breitbart writer, Mike Flynn, take issue with the fact that the coalition had announced a $250,000 ad buy as part of its efforts to support the immigration reform bill currently slogging its way around (note that we did not say “through”) Congress. The criticism is based on two premises: that the coalition “doesn’t legally exist as an incorporated entity or nonprofit organization,” and that the organization is not transparent with respect to its funding and activities to the point that Mr. Ring, speaking for the Sandia Tea Party, accuses the organization of “hiding its true agenda.”
Let’s deal with the legality of the group’s existence first. There is no legal requirement that coalitions or other groups of people exercising their First Amendment right to free speech (and, as legal precedent based on the First Amendment dictates, free association) be registered or recognized by government in any way, and there is no prohibition against such groups purchasing advertising. The Breitbart article states: “There are strict limitations on what (c)3’s (sic) and (c)4’s (sic) can undertake” (somewhat true, but these limits apply primarily to interference with elections and lobbying and can be fairly murky; see the IRS web site on exemption requirements for charitable organizations for more information) “and clear prohibitions on them coordinating on an issue campaign” (an absolute falsehood in the grand tradition of the site’s founder).
As far as transparency is concerned, those who have already clicked through to the two organizations in question will have seen what we did: both organizations list their leadership and/or key members, something that the Sandia Tea Party has neglected to do on their web site. Neither does the Sandia Tea Party publish the names of their contributors and the amounts of their donations. We challenge them to do both. On our own, we can’t gather much information about the latter, but a little research has provided us with some information regarding the Sandia Tea Party, its officers, and its (at least as far as we can find out) “nonexistent” status as a Federally recognized tax-exempt organization.
The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission database entry for the Sandia Tea Party (here) identifies the organization as a “domestic nonprofit.” This does not necessarily mean that the organization is recognized as a tax-exempt entity; as stated in the New Mexico regulations “”nonprofit corporation” means a corporation no part of the income or profit of which is distributable to its members, directors or officers.” Searches of the IRS database and Guidestar.org revealed no evidence that the organization has tax-exempt status. The agent of the corporation is listed as Richard N. Loomis of Moriarty, who is also listed as president; the listing identifies Joy S. Madole as vice-president and Susan J. Hill as secretary. Other corporate listings involving these directors are not particularly interesting. The PRC database also lists Mr. Loomis as a director of the New Mexico Big Horn Gun Club. The database provides two other results for Susan Hill: The Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Alamagordo, New Mexico, Inc. and the Second Street San Mateo Crossing Association – given the distances, we suspect that these are two other Susan Hills. Ms. Madole is also identified as a director of Sweet Treats, Inc., which was dissolved in 2003. The group’s spokesman, Mr. Ring, is listed only as a director of First Choice Community Health Care; to his credit, Mr. Ring was instrumental in bringing the First Choice clinic to Edgewood.
FollowTheMoney.org provides information on donation to state-level political campaigns, and OpenSecrets.org provides similar similar information for Federal campaigns. Searching on the officers’/spokesman’s names provided little of interest – just a few small donations to local Republicans seeking State office, none of whom are known to be associated with the evil (in our opinion, at least) American Legislative Exchange Council. Searches performed for the Sandia Tea Party provided no results.
Why has the Sandia Tea Party been hiding this information? Put simply, they haven’t – no more than the Evangelical Immigration Table and the National Immigration Forum have been hiding, well, anything. Of the three organizations, however, the Sandia Tea Party appears by far the least transparent – although the “real truth” about the organization’s officers, their corporate directorships, and political campaigns is, admittedly, breathtakingly boring. In any case, on both the issues of the right to work toward immigration reform and transparency, the Sandia Tea Party’s and Brietbart.com’s case are little more than hot air – at best, a poorly formulated smear campaign against an organization simply because that organization holds a different view. Such campaigns are far easier than developing a convincing argument to counter the opposition. These inflammatory and phony arguments do little to enhance a reasoned consideration of important issues, and we wish they would stop. We’re not naive enough to believe they will, though.