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Base Connect: March 2010

Base Connect

Citing TPMmuckraker Report, Cao's Campaign Suspends Work With Base Connect

Zachary Roth | March 9, 2010, 9:37AM


Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA)

The campaign of Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) has suspended its relationship with Base Connect, a Washington fundraising firm, citing TPMmuckraker's reporting on the company.

"We have frozen doing anything else with Base Connect," Bryan Wagner a top adviser to the campaign, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune yesterday. Wagner said the decision was prompted by our story from yesterday, which suggested that Cao is among the GOP candidates being taken advantage of by Base Connect. Wagner added that the decision would also apply to Base Connect's affiliated companies, at least one of which works out of the same office suite.

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Topics: BMW, Base Connect, Bill Russell, Fundraising, Joseph Cao

Base Connect

Notorious GOP Firm Still Fleecing Longshot Candidates

Zachary Roth | March 8, 2010, 8:19AM


Republican Congressional candidate Bill Russell and Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA)

BMW Direct, the GOP fundraising firm known for taking long-shot candidates for a ride while raking in big bucks off their campaigns, has re-emerged under a new name -- but with a similar modus operandi. And this time around, even some Republicans are crying foul, with one consultant accusing the firm of engaging in "sub-prime fundraising."

One 2010 client of BMW Direct -- now rechristened as Base Connect -- is William Russell, the retired lieutenant colonel who is running for the Pennsylvania Congressional seat of the late John Murtha. Russell's campaign raised over $895,000 in the fourth quarter of last year, according to federal disclosure records. But it paid over $719,000 of that amount -- about 80 percent -- to Base Connect, and other companies associated with it, which ran the company's direct-mail fundraising program. For the year as a whole, Russell's campaign raised over $2.8 million, but spent over $2.6 million -- much of it again going to Base Connect -- leaving it with cash on hand of just $211,000.

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Topics: BMW, Base Connect, Bill Russell, Erick Erickson, Freedom's Defense Fund, Fundraising, Joseph Cao, Kimberly Bellissimo, Scott Mackenzie

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