FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Laura Hamburg/cell 621-0906
Email: laura@bullhornrag.com
Jan. 14, 2004
BIO-TECH CONSORTIUM HIDES WHO IS FOOTING THE BILL FOR CAMPAIGN AGAINST MEASURE H
The first official spending reports show the multinational corporations outspent the local Measure H campaign by more than 50 to 1. Opposition money paid for out-of-county attorneys, unethical push-polling and industry-backed focus groups.
The citizen-led effort to put Mendocino County on the map as the first county in the nation to protect crops against genetically modified organisms is up against a consortium of outside biotech corporations that are attempting to hide how they are bank-rolling the opposition, recent reports show.
Official opposition to a GMO-Free Mendocino comes from the Sacramento-based agri-chemical and biotechnology industry group called the California Plant Health
Association, according to campaign finance reports released today (Wednesday Jan. 13) by the Mendocino County Clerk and the Secretary of State. The reports detail the money campaigns have spent and raised through the period ending December 31, 2003.
The statements detail each campaign’s finance records – the names of individuals and organizations that donate $100 or more to a campaign and how that money was spent.
But in an effort to confuse the voters, the California Plant Health Association failed to record who is paying for the attacks against Measure H. Instead the group recorded all of their expenses as debt – a sneaky campaign trick employed by groups attempting to shield their financing, said Joe Lewis Wildman, a Ukiah campaign consultant who is currently running for Mendocino County Supervisor.
If they record everything as debt, then they don’t have to say where their money is coming from,” Wildman said. “It’s nothing more than a dishonest tactic, a way of hiding the money so the voters won’t learn the truth about the funding.”
So far, the industry group reported $59,366.92 in debt to four high-powered polling, lobby and law firms. More than half of that money -- $34,366 -- went to the Sacramento-based law firm of Olson, Hagel & Fishburn, to pay for the industry’s failed December lawsuit, attempting to censor ballot language in favor of Measure H.
The industry group also paid $7,650 to a Bay Area research group to conduct one focus group – held in Ukiah in mid December. The firm -- Nichols Research Group -- paid 10 Mendocino County residents more than $100 each in unmarked envelopes for a two-hour “focus” group on the pretense of “reading the temperature of Mendocino County voters.”
Instead, it was a two-hour negative slam against Measure H,” said Anna Marie Stenberg, who lives on the Mendocino coast. “They used half-truths, incomplete quotes and blatant lies to sway our opinion against Measure H. The people who talked to us refused to tell use who they were working for and wouldn’t even give us their last names.”
It is unclear however, from the opposition’s reports who exactly is paying for the recent county-wide blitz of negative push-polls on unsuspecting Mendocino County voters. The Houston-based firm that is making the calls – Promark Research – will not divulge whom it is working for and the firm is not listed on the spending reports.
Instead, the opposition lists a $25,000 debt to Woodward & McDowell, a Burlingame political consulting and PR firm. The lobby group is infamous for its work on behalf of the Tobacco Institute and its fights against California propositions to acquire ancient redwoods, clean water initiatives and efforts to tighten up pollution laws.
While it is likely the Burlingame lobbying firm paid the Houston-based Promark Research group to conduct the push-polls, voters may not learn the truth as long as the opposition campaign continues to list expenses as debt.
Meanwhile, Promark’s polling tactics -- and the organization footing the bill (the California Plant Health Association) -- are currently under investigation by the American Association of Public Opinion Research for unethical polling practices.
They led me to believe I was participating in a legitimate and neutral poll. But by the end of the conversation, I was completely offended at the way they twisted information and tried to change my mind with phony statements against Measure H,” said Ukiah resident Sharon Kiichli. “I am not surprised the push-poll cost so much money. It was very carefully worded, and obviously conducted by a firm that knew how to sway voters’ opinions.”
In contrast, the Measure H campaign carefully detailed all expenses and contributions – the majority of which came from Mendocino County residents and businesses contributing $100 or more each. In addition, the campaign received 120 smaller donations from local resident and businesses averaging $25each.
Two local businesses donated $4,999 each: Frey Vineyards, a family-owned vineyard that has helped put Mendocino County on the international map for outstanding conventional and organic winemaking, and Ukiah Natural Foods, a cooperative grocery store owned and operated by more than 4,000 local residents.
Contributions supporting Measure H that came from outside the county included $200 from the Alice Walker Revocable Trust – a trust headed up by Alice Walker, world-renowned author and poet famous for the novel “The Color Purple.”
In total, the citizen’s committee supporting Measure H raised $14,407 through Dec. 31st. Spending for the period totaled $1,261 – in contrast to the opposition’s $59,366.92
A chunk of that YES on Measure H money -- $311 -- went to pay for court fees after the California Plant Health Association sued the proponents of Measure H in a failed effort to censor the March 2 election ballot before it even went to press. It’s interesting to note the California Plant Health Association paid more than $34,000 (compared to $311!) to sue the proponents of Measure H, said campaign treasurer Allen Cooperrider.
The rest of the money raised by the YES on Measure H campaign went to pay for such things as a series of educational guidebooks called “Genetic Engineering, Food, And Our Environment,” authored by Philo resident Luke Anderson.
If approved by voters in the March election, Measure H will prohibit the "propagation, cultivation, raising and growing of genetically modified organisms in Mendocino County." It is not a labeling law. And Measure H does not affect food products found in the aisles of grocery stores or livestock feed.
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