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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

FLS: Screw Up, Lose, and Spin

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  November 27th, 2012 at 10:55 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

On January 2, 2009, I wrote about FLS Connect. FLS Connect received over $1 million from the National Republican Campaign Committee in 2008. It was also, back then, the third largest recipient of expenditures from the Republican National Committee, netting around $30 million.

As I wrote then, “Rich Beeson is the Political Director of the RNC. Before going to the RNC (and after leaving the RNC I’m sure), Beeson was a partner at FLS.” Beeson went on to be the Political Director for Mitt Romney in charge of the now famous ORCA program collapse.

But let’s go back to what I wrote in 2009. Remember the much touted and beloved voter vault program?

The RNC, which did all the hard work of putting together the much touted Voter Vault program sold the data to FLS and now has a very pricey lease back from FLS. Voter Vault is also pretty much crap these days. After all that investment and now a costly lease back program, I’m told the data isn’t that reliable any more. . . .

Here’s the thing: according to some friends inside the RNC, no other phone vendors were allowed to bid on the work that FLS got. None. Now, the rates don’t seem out of line, though there is some suspicion from a few friends at the RNC that FLS charged more for calls not connected to the campaign. (I don’t know what the live call rate was billed at)

I don’t know Rich Beeson. I don’t know anything about FLS Connect, though I’m sure they are a good vendor if the President used them.

But does it not seem wholly improper that the Political Director of the RNC gave a multi-million dollar contract to his own company without opening bidding to anyone else? He told National Journal he wasn’t getting anything for it. But come on — the guy was a partner at the firm and will probably head back there if he isn’t there already. He’s getting a benefit. It’s just delayed.

In fact, we see this pattern now that we saw with Rich Beeson then. Republican consultants are claiming they are not getting any sort of money for all those ad commissions, mail commissions, etc. They’re just doing it for free or some such. This is all so familiar.

But here’s where it gets better.

Beeson was a partner at FLS. The FLS stands for Feather, Larson, and Syndhorst. As an aside, it is hilarious that the FLS Connect website looks like something out of MS Frontpage ’98.

Rich Beeson left FLS and went to the RNC and wound up going to serve as Mitt Romney’s Political Director.

Jeff Larson, the L in FLS, left his partnership at FLS to become the Chief of Staff at the Republican National Committee. He is in that position currently.

On CNN tonight, Reince Priebus announced the RNC will do an “autopsy” on what happened.

So will Rich Beeson’s former partner at FLS, Jeff Larson, who now works at the RNC where Beeson used to work, be involved in this autopsy? Given his position, he would just about have to be.

Incest leads to all sorts of birth defects, in kids and in campaigns.

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  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    Would it have been better if the RNC had delivered on its promise to precinct committeemen to have something like rVotes (http://www.rvotes.com) in the hands of PCs? Of course.

    But at least the RNC delivered GOP Data Center. It worked. I used it. For my precinct. It had much more functionality that Voter Vault. When I needed help, I called their help line and the people were knowledgeable and efficient. I wrote about how to get access to it and use it here:

    http://www.redstate.com/coldwarrior/2012/08/19/rnc-provides-you-a-gotv-tool-for-getting-conservative-vinos-to-the-polls-will-you-use-it/

    One downside: all data that a PC might add to GOP Data Center would be the property of the RNC.

    As a result, I’ll be looking into getting something else to use at my precinct level and in my legislative district. Options are NationBuilder, rVotes and Political Gravity.

    So that the real power in the Party, the precinct committeemen, will not be beholden to the RNC.

    Meanwhile, as soon as our county elections department voter data from the general election has been added to GOP Data Center, I’ll be able to log in and find out how many of the voters we targeted in our precincts in my legislative district actually voted.

    Thank you.
    CW
    http://theprecinctproject.wordpress.com

  • davesinsanantonio

    I wouldn’t trust them to find their butt with two hands. How long have we been blaming the problems with the RNC on the RNC? Decades? They should be totally ignored until they either go away or shape up. I know they won’t go away, but that option still seems more likely than shaping up without major pain. So, as ColdWarrior says, take back the party from the local ground up.

  • gizmo

    between destroying ourselves in public & media, allowing MSM & Libs to set our agenda & defining us,AND thieves like this… why do we need the “other” party”? We obliterate ourselves!

  • papabear

    Romney’s GOTV effort never made contact with my house. I do not think that the lack of contact was aimed at “efficiency” because I had gone to their “victory center”, volunteered, and given them personal information. Quite the contrary. I think it was pure incompetence. I was much more impressed w/the campaign of the 2010 Republican nominee who didn’t win my district (I put a lot of volunteer energy into that campaign).

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    brojohn2,
    Sorry to hear of your bad experiences. Thank you for being involved “in” the Party.

    I hope you will NOT end your efforts inside the Party — that’s exactly what the “establishment” RINOs want you to do. Please continue to recruit additional conservatives to get involved at the county and precinct level as PCs. I imagine there are plenty of vacant PC slots where you are and across Texas. Here in Arizona, we’ve gone from having less than one third of our allotted Republican PC slots filled in 2008 to now having just over 52% of them filled — and almost all of the new PCs are from the tea parties and other conservative groups.

    Bottom line: the reason the Republican Party is not “conservative enough” for some conservatives is because not enough conservatives are “in” the Party — where and how it matters, as voting members of the Party: precinct committeemen.

    Every state’s system is unique. We need to read and analyze the Rules of the Republican Party of the RNC, our state rules/bylaws/whatever they are called, and our county and local district committee rules. And then show up for the local committee meetings and strive to become a voting member of the Party, however that is accomplished in one’s particular state. I’ve tried to compile as much info as I could find for each state at my little blog.

    Thanks again for what you’ve accomplished and I hope you will stay in the fight inside the Party.

    CW
    http://theprecinctproject.wordpress.com