Could #NRA and #RussianRubles🇷🇺 convinced him to go?
Link to highly recommended article by @mikespiesnyc:
Ron Johnson (R-WI) defended his Senate seat in 2016 by fewer than 100,000 votes:
👀
>Johnson's campaign paid OnMessage almost $4 million, but in stopped in August
>In October, the NRA stepped up, and paid Starboard nearly $200,000 for Johnson advertising
The 8th Circuit US Court of Appeals ruled in May "using the name of a shell company to report the recipient of money spent by a political committee could violate a criminal statute...
2005 Founded by brothers Curt and Wes Anderson, and Brad Todd
2010 FEC filings: OnMessage listed as a NRA vendor
NRA paid OnMessage $3.19 million for ads supporting GOP Senate candidates Roy Blunt and Patrick Toomey (among others)
(con't)
NRA paid OnMessage $11.25 million (NRA’s top federal election vendor by more than $5 million)
During 2010 and 2012, OnMessage never produced ads in races where it was working for the NRA
(con't)
Jan:
Co-founder of OnMessage Wes Anderson registers starboardstrategicinc.com+
(some language nearly identical on each website)
Mar:
Starboard Strategic incorporated by OnMessage partners. OnMessage would never again appear in NRA’s FEC reports.👀
2014:
NRA pays Starboard millions of dollars for ads supporting Tillis, Gardner and Cotton. In the same period, money flowed from these candidates to OnMessage.
2016:
NRA pays Starboard $40 million (75% of total independent spending for 2016, which was nearly $53 million).
Source: Wikipedia