The top congressional Democratic political action committee was behind the illegal campaign mailers sent in the Second Congressional District 2022 GOP primary, designed to influence the outcome on behalf of U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster.
That’s just one of the revelations in a settlement agreement announced Thursday by New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella regarding anonymous political mailers promoting pro-MAGA Republican primary candidate Bob Burns that violated state law.
NHJournal first broke the story in August 2022.
The agreement is between the Attorney General’s Office and Deliver Strategies, an Arlington, Va. direct mail and communications consulting firm. The firm has agreed to resolve the investigation without a criminal proceeding in accordance with the terms and conditions of a three-year agreement that includes payment of a $40,000 fine.
During the 2022 GOP primary, Republican voters received a series of mailers touting Burns over Keene Mayor George Hansel as the most pro-Trump choice in the GOP field. While campaign ads declaring an “America First” candidate isn’t unusual in a GOP primary, the mailers did not come from a GOP candidate. They were sent by Reynolds DeWalt, a Democratic political mail shop based in New Bedford, Mass.
According to the findings of the investigation, the “Robert Burns for Congress” mailers were sent on behalf of their client, House Majority Forward. House Majority Forward was founded in March 2019 as an affiliated 501(c)(4) of the House Majority PAC (HMP), a super PAC.
Deliver Strategies and Reynolds DeWalt’s documentation utilized a designation tied to House Majority PAC, though ultimately the responsible entity was House Majority Forward.
While Deliver Strategies originally designed a mailer that included a return address and disclaimer, it “received instructions from House Majority Forward that the mailers should contain no return address, disclaimers, or union bugs,” the agreement states.
Reynolds DeWalt was originally represented by Elias Law Group LLP. Marc Elias was the Democratic attorney best known for his work as Hillary Clinton’s attorney who helped bankroll research that led to the now-infamous dossier on alleged ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russian government operatives.
Reynolds DeWalt subsequently retained counsel at Shaheen & Gordon, P.A., the Attorney General’s Office reports.
According to Politico, “House Majority PAC is Democrats’ largest outside group focused on House races, and it has close ties to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. It will spend tens of millions of dollars to wrest back control of the House from the GOP. It raised $76 million in 2023, and $45.9 million through May 31 of this year.”
In 2022, the PAC had close ties to then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
“Today’s resolution underscores our commitment to upholding the law and protecting the integrity of our democratic processes. With the execution of this settlement agreement, we are sending a clear message that all individuals and entities must adhere to the required transparency standards under New Hampshire law and that violations of these standards will be investigated thoroughly and result in serious consequences,” said Attorney General Formella. “Robust enforcement of our laws is essential for maintaining public trust in our electoral system. The agreement with Deliver Strategies highlights the importance of compliance with political advertising requirements to protect voters by giving them information required under the law about who is responsible for political communications.”
The effort by the agents of House Majority Forward and its agents to hide the source of the mailers led to more violations of New Hampshire law.
For example, Deliver Strategies wanted to be named as the “mail owner,” but the mail house, Reynolds DeWalt, didn’t believe that was allowed. “As such, in reviewing the mailer, Reynolds DeWalt production staff mistakenly concluded that ‘Robert Burns for Congress’ was the client and listed him as such.”
A Deliver Strategies agent reviewed the paperwork and signed off on sending the mailers falsely declaring Burns as the source of the mailers.
Hansel, the Republican candidate Democrats hoped to knock out of the race with the illegal ads, called the D.C. PAC’s actions “exactly the kind of BS that makes people hate politics and doubt the integrity of our elections.”
“I’m thankful that AG Formella helped bring these details to light, but it doesn’t change the fact that Democrats were successful in 2022 by cheating and scamming the voters of New Hampshire. Want to protect democracy? Nancy Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries should issue a formal apology to the voters of New Hampshire with a promise to do better.”
Influence Watch calls Deliver Strategies “a left-of-center direct mail and communications consulting firm that principally serves Democratic Party candidates, left-leaning political action committees, and labor unions. Clients include notable Democratic Party politicians at all levels of government, and left-leaning organizations and labor unions like the AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood, and the League of Conservation Voters.”
Burns, the GOP candidate who was boosted by the Democrats’ illegal mail, said in a statement, “The Democrats were caught impersonating my campaign and today they were finally punished! Democrats need to cheat and deceive voters in order to win elections. We need a return to integrity in our elections!”
Burns is currently running in the hotly-contest Executive Council District 4 GOP primary.
New Hampshire GOP state party chair Chris Ager said he isn’t surprised by the finding that the national Democratic Party was behind the illegal mailings.
“Voters are rightfully concerned about the Democrat Party’s dishonest and attempts to undermine our elections. We won’t let that happen again in November.”
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