Casey & Move-On: The Rigged Endorsement Poll

Last month Adam Ruben of MoveOn PAC sent an email to its Pennsylvania members asking them to vote in a secret poll. This "poll" would determine who MoveOn would endorse, Bob Casey or Chuck Pennacchio.

We now know the "poll" was a fraud, perpetrated by the married couple of Adam Ruben and Sarah DiJulio. Adam works for MoveOn and his wife is consulting for the Casey campaign.

Even though Casey is against a woman's right to choose, expanded stem cell research, banning oil drilling in ANWR, sensible gun safety laws, and is for "staying the course in Iraq," Ruben's email used an out of context quote from Howard Dean to imply that Casey was the progressive choice.

Here is the email sent by Adam Ruben:

Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 10:36:23 -0700
From: "Adam Ruben, MoveOn PAC" Add to Address Book

To: ????
Subject: Should MoveOn defeat Sen. Santorum?

Sen. Rick Santorum, a ringleader of the radical Republican leadership in Congress, has $5 million for his 2006 re-election. But he's out of step with Pennsylvanians' views, and polls now favor Democratic candidate Bob Casey Jr. Should MoveOn PAC jump into the 2006 U.S. Senate race early and oppose Santorum? Should we endorse Casey now?

Dear Pennsylvania MoveOn member,
Sen. Rick Santorum is one of the chief architects of the policies of the radical Republican leadership in Congress. From intervening in the Terri Schiavo case to his efforts to grab power and appoint right-wing judges, Santorum has consistently put his corporate backers and hard-right allies ahead of Pennsylvanians' interests.
Now, he's seeking re-election, and many MoveOn members in the state have urged us to make Santorum's defeat a priority. There are two Democratic candidates currently running to defeat him: State Treasurer Bob Casey Jr. and Charles Pennacchio, a university professor. Most political observers believe Casey has a lock on the Democratic nomination, and we tend to agree. But we wanted to check in with MoveOn's Pennsylvania members before we endorse anyone.
Whom should we support for Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate seat? Cast your vote now:

Some background on the candidates:
Rick Santorum (R) is high-profile right-wing Republican running for third-term re-election to the U.S. Senate in a Democratic-leaning state. A backer of President Bush's unpopular Social Security proposal, Santorum is best known for his outspoken opposition to the right to privacy established by the Supreme Court--especially as it applies to abortion and gay rights. Notable on the list of ethics questions facing Santorum is the manner in which his campaign cashed in on the Schiavo tragedy: he cancelled a Social Security forum in Florida out of respect for Schiavo's family, and he prayed publicly outside her hospice, but he went ahead with fundraisers on the same trip, raising over $84,000.[1]
Bob Casey Jr. (D) is Pennsylvania's current state treasurer and former two-term auditor general. Casey's investigations--into Pennsylvania's long-term care system, the implementation of sex-offender laws, the child care oversight system, women- and minority-owned businesses' access to state contracts, the state's use of federal child care funds, corporate fraud and misuse of tax dollars--have all led to major reforms, protecting Pennsylvania's most vulnerable citizens and saving state taxpayers over $1 billion. Howard Dean calls Casey "a tremendous friend of working people."[2]
Chuck Pennacchio (D) is the History Program Director at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and winner of the 2003 Professor of the Year award at Delaware Valley College of Science and Agriculture for engaging students in campus-wide discussion of current events. Pennacchio served as a statewide field organizer for Tom Harkin's (D-IA) first successful Senate run, and played leadership roles in campaigns for former Colorado Senator Tim Wirth and presidential candidate Paul Simon.[3]
Rick Santorum's ultra-conservative record, radical public statements, and ethically questionable actions have turned off Pennsylvania voters and made him vulnerable in the 2006 Senate race. However, Santorum has already raised a formidable $5 million, and President Bush helped him raise another $1.7 million on Tuesday--well ahead of both Democrats' fundraising.[4] Early fundraising in opposition to Santorum could make a critical difference in this race, as could early support of his Democratic opposition. However, we will only move ahead and jump into this race if you think it's the right thing to do.
Take a moment to let us know what you think now:
http://www.moveonpac.org/2006/?state=Pennsylvania&id=5672-3089746-9jHq9T49t9kMiflyWUAn1A&t=4
Thanks for weighing in on this important question.
--Adam, Tanya, Joan, Jennifer and the MoveOn PAC Team
Friday, June 17th, 2005
Sources:
[1] Sen. Rick Santorum's voting record: http://www.progressivepunch.org/members.jsp?member=PAI
Fundraiser: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/11456989.htm
[2] Bob Casey's bio: http://ga4.org/senate2006/about.html Dean quote: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/11262057.htm
[3] Chuck Pennacchio bio: http://www.chuck2006.com/aboutus.asp
[4] Santorum's fundraising: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/11895448.htm
PAID FOR BY MOVEON PAC
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

What was NOT disclosed in this email is that Adam Ruben's wife, Sarah DiJulio, is working for the Casey campaign in her capacity as Senior Vice-President of M & R Strategic Services, an internet campaign consulting firm.

In a Philadelphia Inquirer article last spring Carrie Budoff revealed that the Casey campaign had hired M&R:
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:0oJtdEUDd-sJ:www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/penns ylvania/11263553.htm+marc+farinella+and+M%26R+strategic+services&hl=en&start=2

M&R Strategic Services itself reveals the relationship between DiJulio and Ruben here:
Sarah DiJulio, Senior Vice President is the driving force behind M+R's eCampaigns division. A former PIRGer, Sarah joined M+R several years back after launching the online campaign division for TechRocks where she also developed the Internet strategy for the Heritage Forest campaign. The progressive world breathed a collective sigh of relief this fall when Sarah and her husband Adam Ruben of MoveOn.org returned from eight months abroad, living in Tuscany and becoming connoisseurs of Italy's wines and cheeses. Cheese is one of Sarah's passions and her favorites include gorgonzola dolce and pecorino di pienza. If you're planning either an online campaign or a trip to Italy and you need some expert advice, you can email Sarah at sdijulio@mrss.com.

This raises some very serious questions about the integrity of these people. Why was there NO DISCLOSURE of this relationship by either MoveOn or Bob Casey? Casey gladlly accepted MoveOn's endorsement even though there was NO transparency to the vote, and the vote totals have never been made public?

This was obviously a case where MoveOn was going to endorse a Lieberman Democrat over a Dean Democrat because of this relationship, but they needed the political cover to do so. In fact M&R has another relationship to both the Lieberman campaign (Debra Rosen) http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/lieberman/lieborgia.html

and to questionable ethical lapses. They actually tried to doublecross their environmental clients by attempting to convince a skeptical public that DuPont is a green company. http://www.prwatch.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-781.html

and here: http://ngin.tripod.com/290102a.htm

I especially like the line at the end that "discloses" that this was not paid by any candidate or candidate's committee. We all know that was a lie. This entire excercise was an effort by the Casey for Senate campaign. What sort of people are managing that campaign to perpetrate a fraud on MoveOn members?

Is it time to withdraw support for MoveOn? Is it time we moved on and found a U.S. Senate candidate with morals? The decisions to these questions are yours.