Under the direction of the disclosure-challenged Pat Hynes Sean Mahoney has surrounded himself with a group of advertising and political consultants who all share a common thread. They were all at some point (or still are) part of American’s for Job Security (AJS) and are connected to Mahoney and his Potemkin campaign.
Stephen DeMaura–from Cross Target Poll fame, is the current head of AJS. Pat Hynes, according to at least one source, is still listed with the Virginia Secretary of State as an AJS director but regardless has been a director with the group; Hynes is of course also involved with CrossTarget, and in the employ of Mahoney to the current tune of at least $32,000.00. Dave Carney is a former top staffer at AJS and the current CEO of Norway Hill Associates. Norway Hill has netted over $28,000.00 from the Mahoney campaign for consulting and printing so far. Michael Dubke, former head of AJS, runs Crossroads Media which is apparently in the same suburban Washington Office Park as AJS; Crossroads has been paid over $569,000.00 by Mahoney for advertising and consulting–mostly Radio and television I would guess. Dubke, interestingly enough, is valued as an attack ad guy, which explains a spin off from Crossroads–Target Point Consulting which appears to focus on micro-targeting and research, probably for negative campaign strategies. Target point’s customers are a well kept secret, so we can hypothesize that Crossroads funnels money to them for research it uses in its ad campaigns for it’s customers, of which Mahoney is a big one. And oh, look–Mahoney went negative.
Keep following the money–it get’s better.
Paul Hodes August recess has afforded him the opportunity to engage in what he is calling his Wake up Washington Tour. My first thought was…who is sleeping in the State of Washington and why does Paul Hodes want to wake them up? As it turns out, he’s talking about the District of Columbia and how to deal with "Business as usual."