No Fair, They're Delegitimizing Illegitimate Fundraising!

I actually kind of like The Next Right, at times a serious attempt to reconcile the conservative movement with its past and put it on a path to the future. But they're doing themselves a disservice with all the squealing about a recent Talking Points Memo exposé on BMW Direct, a direct-mail firm that appears to exist to bilk donators out of money and stick it in their pocket instead of to the candidates they tout. Their claim is that liberal bloggers don't know anything about direct mail, and that it costs a lot of money in start-up to find donors, called "prospecting" in the jargon.

The problem here is that the candidates in question raised lots of money, sometimes over a number of cycles, and even after solidifying a donor base, the money never reached their campaigns and instead was re-routed to BMW Direct. And the proof comes from talking to some of those candidates.

Dr. Ada Fisher doesn't have much good to say about BMW Direct, the Washington political firm that raised money on behalf of her 2006 bid for a North Carolina House seat.

"They sort of -- what shall I say? -- screwed me," Fisher said in a recent interview.

BMW Direct raised more than $400,000 for Fisher during the last election cycle, but only about $30,000 made it back to her to use in her campaign against U.S. Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC). Sound familiar?

Fisher complained that she never understood where the money raised on her behalf was going. She did not know that many key vendors used by BMW Direct were owned or operated by BMW staffers.

"They make it seem like each of these people is a private entity. But as you listen more and more and you get smarter, you realize they all work together," Fisher said.

BMW's excuse on this is that Fisher was a "special case". I'm sure she was very special for the company's balance sheet, but otherwise, not so much.

The Next Right can whine all they want about it, but it'd be nice if they faced up to the fact that their evangelizing for direct mail is enabling thieves. It doesn't mean that all direct mail is thievery, but BMW Direct is a pretty clear-cut case.