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April 15, 2019 10:00 AM UTC

UPDATE: Caldara Now Skimming Galindo, Polis Recalls

  • 13 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

We wrote last Thursday about the co-opting of the longshot and nasty campaign to recall Gov. Jared Polis, which would require an unprecedented 600,000+ signatures in order to even qualify for the ballot necessitating a multimillion-dollar petition campaign on a scale never before seen in Colorado, by the Independence Institute–the decades-old local “nonpartisan nonprofit” run by right-wing prankster Jon Caldara. Caldara’s operation is taking over fundraising in particular for the Recall Polis campaign, via an online platform that automatically skims 6% plus a per-transaction fee from every donation. That’s more than double what GoFundMe, the processor the campaign was previously using, charges for the same donations.

Well folks, you can add the campaign to recall Rep. Rochelle Galindo to Caldara’s revenue stream:

As you can see they’re raised over $4,000 toward the Galindo recall, of which Team Caldara pocketed $246 at their stated 6% skim–plus a 30 cent per-transaction fee. Over at the Recall Polis page, the $16,290 they’ve raised translates to a cool $977 off the top to the Independence Institute. As you can see above, the “goal” of $2,500 for the Galindo recall has been met–which on fundraising sites like GoFundMe would mean the funds will be released for their intended purpose.

Over at the Recall Polis campaign, the “goal” is higher–$135,000, which they haven’t met.

But it doesn’t matter, rubes!

You see, the Recall Polis campaign is a “flexible” Freedomfy campaign, meaning they’re going to take your money whether or not they reach their fundraising goal. The FAQ page for the campaign explains that “funds are setup to deposit to the Issue Committee bank account every few days and will be used as they come in for advertising and materials to run the operation.” That means the campaign’s “goal” is irrelevant, and the money flows directly to the campaign less Caldara’s 6% cut no matter what happens. A fair amount of those funds can be expected to eaten up by invoices from former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, who signed on as the lawyer for the campaign at the same time Caldara took over the money side.

Especially with the Polis recall, the enormous logistics that would be required to successfully collect the required signatures in the short 60 days allowed make success of the effort extremely unlikely–which in turn raises ethical questions about the revenue positive “help” the campaign is now getting from local right-wing usual suspects. For the Galindo recall the threshold is lower, of course, but using Caldara’s pricey platform for their fundraising siphons off valuable resources on a continuous basis from the campaign.

Above all, what grassroots conservatives need to be asking is why, in response to their grassroots anger, all the “experienced” political operatives want to talk about is monetization of the recall campaigns. This is an especially urgent question given the novel way Caldara stands to reap a much higher percentage than the market rate off funds raised in support of both of these campaigns.

Short of that, we have to assume that these people are okay with being ripped off.

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13 thoughts on “UPDATE: Caldara Now Skimming Galindo, Polis Recalls”

  1. Pols writes: "……we have to assume that these people are okay with being ripped off."

    I'm personally OK with that as I won't be contributing to, or signing a petition for, the Polis recall. After all, elections do have consequences. Sore losers should run a better candidate next time. I would have voted for Victor Mitchell had he been the Republican candidate, but he finished second in the primary despite getting my vote there.

    What I do like about Jon Caldara is that he is a throwback to the days of P.T. Barnum and "fleecing the marks" out of their hard earned money. Those stupid enough to fall for this deserve their fate. Prospective donors may be some of the same folks who contribute to the TV preachers or the NRA's recent "we're going bankrupt if you don't give" campaign.

    As an aside, the NRA campaign reminds me of the time that the 200 foot tall Jesus “appeared” to Oral Roberts and said give to Oral. 

    1.  . . minus $6.30 times two . . .

      (. . . But, then, I’d have to believe you’re not a total fucking liar, despite all evidence to the contrary . . .

      . . . But, then too, you’re in good company with Caldara.)

    2. Good boy, Moderatus, good boy. A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place. Besides, a patriot-warrior such as Jon Caldera shouldn't be burdened with falderal such a working for a living.

      1. …and the fool and his money shall soon part?  With PoddyMouth's massive tax savings from the *rump tax legislation billionaire give-away he can surely be a big player in this fundraising effort?  Take one for the team Poddy – maybe you can wrangle an Ambassadorship to Backbone out of the deal.   

    4. Hey Poddy, I hope you didn't forget to also give to Sarah Palin, Tom Tancredo and Dr. Chaps.  They all still want need your money! 

      Thank goodness they can depend on idiot sheeple like you to shear smiley

      Let's hear you give Three Baa-aa-aa's for the P.T. Barnum's running today's GOP

    6. Sure. ActBlue charges .0395 processing fee per user account. So on your $200, ActBlue would get $7.90. Caldara and the I I, on the other hand would get $12 for their 6% cut, plus .60 for your two transactions, so 138% more than ActBlue gets. But you get all that hate thrown in for free.

      Now ActBlue does ask for a "tip" or donation for their expenses on top of your candidate contribution, but that's optional. Sometimes I "tip", sometimes I don't, and I've donated through ActBlue many times. 

      See how arithmetic works? It's one of those sciency facty things that make libruls so irritating. devil

  3. Moderatus/PodestaEmails: feel free to waste your money. While you're at it, I hear the Poor Boys and Oathkeepers could also use some dough.

    For what it’s worth, still proud to be a Never-Trump Republican. Not real excited either about the “Amerika’s bedroom police” component of our party.

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