Today, Seven Days’ Off Message has a story about dueling finance claims by the two sides of the F-35 debate.
On the one hand, you’ve got Nicole Citro of the Green Ribbons (pro) campaign making this claim:
Together, she reckons, business sources accounted for “around half” of the Green Ribbons campaign’s total take of “a little more than $20,000.” Citro says the rest of the money came from “hundreds” of work a day Vermonters who either made small donations or bought marked-up merchandise such as hats and T-shirts emblazoned with pro-F-35 slogans.
Okay. I’ll take her word for that, but clearly $20,000. is not the end of the funding story, so more money was coming from somewhere. If not the Green Ribbon Campaign, then who else paid for a fleet of costly advertising?
Why demure and deflect?
We know that Ernie Pommerleau, got very busy with his checkbook, out of the goodness of his heart. He paid for that junket for Frank Cioffi, the Governor and the rest of the in-crowd to bop down to Florida for a look-see.
I’m sure that he has nothing personal to gain from siting the F-35 at Burlington Airport. He’s just a patriot as opposed to anyone who thinks the siting of the planes in Burlington is a terrible idea; and that includes a couple of former Guardsmen/women.
Proponents such as he and Citro were actually motivated by a desire to “stand up for the Guard,” Pomerleau says. F-35 opponents, he charges, were “demonizing” the 1100 Vermonters who serve with the Green Mountain Boys.
Okay. Perhaps that was just a little over the top. Don’t oversell it, Mr. Pomerleau.
Of course, in this age of “balanced” reporting (aka, false equivalency) Seven Days is careful to say that the opponents spent money, too; and themselves, have yet to give a full accounting.
Operating under the “umbrella” of Burlington Peace & Justice, a local non-profit, details of their separate financing are not broken out in BP&J’s tax records, which cover all of the affiliate organizations that operate under that same umbrella.
Roger Bourassa, treasurer of Stop the F-35, volunteers to sit down with journalists and give a full accounting; which seems like a pretty fair offer.
‘Wonder if bloggers can sit in.
Who has more claim to the “grassroots” designation? You tell me.
Stop the F-35 appears to have just two big backers.
The perennial deep-pockets of Ben Cohen yielded $12,000. to $15,000.
Nothing mysterious there. Cohen is an unabashed “do-gooder,” a class of windmill tilters for whom I must confess great personal affection and affinity.
The other big contributor wishes to remain anonymous, giving $12,000. in cash and paying $8,000. for website services. It sounds like that pretty much all disappeared into legal fees.
When you go up against the kind of power block that supported this project, that kind of money doesn’t go very far.
And speaking of the power block, it is also reported that one sustaining donor to the Democratic Party is redirecting his/her monthly contribution of $100. to Stop the F-35; so the push to site the plane has not been without some collateral damage to the power block’s base.
Stop the F-35 isn’t giving up yet. The group is appealing the site approval; and appeals are money and energy sponges.
Believe me, I know. It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it.
And the Stop the F-35 Coalition isn’t giving up – at least not in terms of getting its message out, which Andreoli says has consistently been, “Love the Guard, hate the plane.” It’s aiming to raise another $75,000 in 2014.
Hear that, Mr. Pomerleau?
See you in court with Old Glory waving!