Embattled former Montana legislator John Sinrud’s Western Tradition Partnership has been targeting pro-conservation candidates in both parties for the last few years, and specializes in nasty (and potentially illegal) campaign tactics. Sinrud, a former Belgrade legislator, has been previously
identified in connection with the shadow group in the Montana press.
Correction: I had earlier written that former Speaker of the House Scott Sales was someone behind this group. That was incorrect. Sales was among those
endorsed/backed by the group. Now, the shadow group is making headlines in other states for their tactics.
The Colorado Independent has the story, including how the group was
formed by Montana political activists but registered to GOP operative Scott Shires in Aurora, Colo. That group denies advocating for any particular candidate in any particular race, insisting its campaign surveys legally gauge for the voters where candidates stand on the issues.
Shires has been fined and censured by Colorado officials in past elections, including the 2008 Garfield County commissioners’ races, which saw Democrats targeted by the oil and gas industry. Shires’ Colorado League of Taxpayers was fined $7,150 for spending $2,400 on mailers in that race without filing proper electioneering reports with the Colorado Secretary of State.
Nearly two years later, Shires still hasn’t paid his fine. “At this point, collections hasn’t been able to get that money yet,” Secretary of State spokesman Rich Coolidge said.
[...] and “Director of Grassroots Coalitions” (a.k.a. tea-bagging) for Sinrud’s shady Western Traditions Partnership, doesn’t understand why we don’t want to get our news from tea-baggers, via his [...]
[...] a decision as to whether they want him representing them. Right now he is a major force behind shady campaign tactics and shadow groups, as he has been for the last several election cycles in the Flathead and elsewhere. Western [...]
[...] Tune with Montana Values? By Cowgirl, on September 20, 2010, 12:41 pm | One comment Hardly. John Sinrud’s Western Traditions Partnership is so out of touch with Montana that they sent a Montana candidate their survey for the Colorado [...]
[...] the union. Also opposing Montana is the embattled Western Traditions Partnership, a groups with legal problems in Colorado and whose leadership appears to have acted illegally in Montana. But that’s not all. As [...]
[...] also a pet project of John Sinrud, the man involved in other shadow groups and behaviors that have recently come under fire. Complaints of fraud and misrepresentation are [...]