I was always taught a simple thing. Never juggle numbers, as they are sharp little buggers that tend to slip at the last moment and slice your fingers off.
In that spirit, I bring you the ghost of Ricky Ricardo, who would look at the data presented 
below and come to the conclusion that “Somebody got some ‘splainin’ to do.”
I start off with Angus King and his Senate campaign not because I opposed him (H/T to Crash Barry) but because what happened is still fresh in everyone’s mind.
Eliot Cutler was one of Angus’ campaign chairs.
He was also on the Board of Directors of “Americans Elect.”
Americans Elect donated a whopping $500,000 to AK’s campaign on October 5th, a month before the election. Clearly a campaign violation, the Maine GOP cried “Foul” to the Federal Election Commission, who seem to have filed the complaint somewhere under the Lost Ark of The Covenant.
See the complaint here.
Cutler shrugs this off, presenting an affidavit that he resigned from the board of AE on June 26th, and that the website never changed to reflect that.
Hmm.
Checking this post over at Breitbart, things get muddier. “No one other than Americans Elect founder Peter Ackerman contributed any money to Americans Elect prior to Monday, October 1, 2012. He donated $250,000 on August 8, $100,000 on September 7, and $150,000 on October 1.
John Burbank III did not donate his $750,000 until Monday, October 1, a mere four days before the first ads supporting Angus King appeared on Maine television stations.
Michael Bloomberg did not donate his $500,000 until Thursday, October 4, just one day before the first ads supporting King appeared on Maine television stations.
No vendor was paid a penny prior to Friday, October 5, the day the television ads ran.
Americans Elect, however, must have incurred obligations to several vendors long before October 5, the day the television ads first ran. Television production timelines can be lengthy–one week to a month, pollsters incur expenses to take polls, and television stations will usually not reserve valuable advertising air time without prepayment.”
Over at the AETransparency site, it gets a bit more interesting.
“Last Friday, Americans Elect released a copy of Cutler’s letter of resignation from Americans Elect’s board, dated and “effective the close of business on June 26, 2012″. But an Americans Elect filing submitted to and posted on the web site of South Dakota’s Secretary of State includes an AE board resolution, executed June 23/24 2012, which states in part “the undersigned, being all of the members of the Board of Directors of Americans Elect,” and does not include the name or signature of Eliot Cutler among those signatories.
In short, Cutler’s resignation letter declares that he was a member of AE’s board through June 26th, 2012, whereas AE’s South Dakota filing declares that he was not. At least one of these two statements must therefore be false.”
Whoops.
Interesting email exchange here. Especially liked the part about Eliot still being described as on the board…in August.
All of the smoke and mirrors show STILL can’t explain a simple fact, that AE claims to have sent a letter to the Secretaries of State of all the states they got ballot access in July, telling them that the organization had been disbanded.
Eliot would have been at that meeting.
Funds would have been either allocated at that point, to be spent down the road.
Even if he were NOT at that meeting, Eliot took the position of being one of AK’s chairs in MARCH.
I guess three months of coordinating campaigns between a shady 501(c)(4) that doesn’t have to disclose donors, fundraising, or anything else for that matter falls beneath the cracks of FEC interest.
EC claims to still be “thinking about” running.
It gets worse from here.
Think harder.
