John Hagar’s Uncomfortably Close Relationship With A Top RPV Vendor
By Greg L | 16 April 2008 | RPV | 21 Comments
Creative Direct is one of the top vendors for the Republican Party of Virginia, providing those direct mail services for GOP candidates that fill your mailbox with dozens of campaign mailings every year. None of these contracts are actually bid in order to ensure RPV gets value with the contributions they receive, but are awarded on a “no bid contract” basis to a small handful of firms. For Creative Direct, this has been a pretty lucrative business, amounting to $4,043,607 since 2000. With this kind of income stream coming from RPV coffers, it would certainly be advantageous for a direct mail vendor to have a good relationship with the RPV Chairman. After all, it is the RPV Chairman who has the final say on large contracts to vendors for the party funded campaign services provided to many GOP candidates.
Most Republicans would insist that ethically there should never be a business relationship between the RPV Chairman and a vendor for the RPV. It would be critical for the Chairman of the RPV to have complete impartiality in vending matters and to not take money from a vendor, even it that money goes toward that RPV Chairman’s re-election campaign. There’s an obvious potential for at least the appearance of impropriety when the folks making spending decisions get too close to the folks who get the money.
So why then is the re-election campaign of John Hager for RPV Chairman run out of the offices owned by and headquartering Creative Direct at 25 East Main Street in Richmond? Is this the kickback that RPV Chairmen can expect to receive in return for steering business to a vendor? Even if by the slim chance that John Hager is paying to rent this office within Creative Direct’s offices, how does that give the GOP party membership the confidence that there is proper separation between the RPV Chairman and a top vendor for the RPV? How can the donors and the hardworking activists in the party see a financial arrangement such as this and not think that the integrity in RPV’s vendor contracting process has been severely compromised?
John Hagar brags that RPV spent $4.2 million on behalf of Republican candidates under his direction. Lots of that money came in from Republicans from across Virginia in small increments, and was funneled to a select list of preferred vendors that John Hagar approved in order to overwhelm every voter’s mailbox with a truly excessive amount of direct mail. At the same time little if any resources actually supported grass-roots activities in support of Republican candidates, which many might argue would provide significantly greater value than stuffing a voter’s mailbox with the fifteenth piece of redundant direct mail for the week. The RPV Chairman not only decides who gets these direct mail contracts, but the proportion of money that gets spent on direct mail versus other activities.
If you’re a responsible citizen who regularly participated in elections, I know you got a lot of direct mail last election. I got a huge stack of it. Did RPV do anything other than fund mail pieces with the millions of dollars it blew through last election? I sure didn’t notice, but I do notice that John Hagar seems to be benefiting from his close relationship with one of the top vendors to RPV, right at the time when that relationship can help him. This kind of answers in my mind why RPV thinks that direct mail is such a worthy campaign investment, and why such a small handful of vendors such as Creative Direct seem to get so much of this business.
This stinks to high heavens.
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21 Comments
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Very Good Post Greg, I Learned from working on a State Senate Campaign last year, that if a campaign doesn’t use certain creative companies and consultants, than they receive much less aid from the RPV and several statewide PACS and Leadership Committees.
Worst part is, The Majority of the consultants are out of touch with the particular Issues, Nuances, and Dynamics that are different in each district, In Some areas negative attacks work, In other areas they end up hurting the candidates that are running negatively, One example is When George Allen hired a campaign manager from SD, Virginia politics are much different that Midwestern politics.
The Bad thing about the Advertising Agencies the Party uses, is that they don’t have to compete and therefore produce an inferior product, Without the Party’s interference we would see a dramatic increase in Creativity and Savings. If the Party wants to keep VA Red, Than it must radically change the way it conducts itself, The most valuable thing it can do is provide fertile ground for the Grassroots (and Netroots).
As Mike Huckabee proved in Iowa, If you give the Grassroots the tools to succeed, You can stretch the dollar further than you can imagine.
Although this hasn’t been mentioned specifically by Jeff Frederick, this is precisely the reason why a change is needed at RPV. I’m sick of them spending so much on excessive direct mail while ignoring any opportunities to do party building. Now I have a good understanding of why this colossal waste of resources has been going on for so long.
GO JEFF FREDERICK!
We need to look at the political-industrial complex and hold their feet to the fire.
Here are some recent problems with direct mail, TV and radio campaigns in northern Virginia.
State Senator Devolites spent 313,000 on TV services from Stevens Reed Curcio & Potholm. Were the TV ads any good? Who has time to watch TV when everybody is stuck in traffic. Using more grassroots and less TV might have saved her seat.
Senator O’Brien spent 175,000 on radio and TV as well. He used Ten Capitol and Carlyle Gregory as consultants. Again maybe too much money was spent on TV and not enough money on grassroots.
Julie Lucas used a direct mail firm during the primary. She sent out a mailer to google Faisal Gill and to sign up as a delegate. The only problem was that the mailer came after the deadline to sign up as a delegate. I had to wonder about the campaign and the consultant that did that. The money was wasted and she probably lost her campaign because of that. A direct door to door grassroots effort would have likely insured that the delegate applications would have been at peoples house’s before the deadline had passed.
These are low turnout elections. TV and Radio and direct mail is mostly falling on deaf ears and people who will not vote.
People are beginning to understand that buying ads on radio and TV stations to get a few swing voters to switch to “our side” is problematic. Even throwing direct mail at them can be overkill.
Meanwhile the Dems were bringing in hundreds of volunteers to go door to door in these districts effectively targeting the most likely voters.
“There are those of us who think you should spend campaign money on alternative grassroots media and grassroots organizers in these swing districts.
Hire real grassroots people who can deliver the votes. If you dropped your expensive political media consultants and their ads you would have bundles to spend on real organizing. TV is fun and we all want to be on it but you need to show the proof that these media consultants can swing voters to your side via expensive TV ads.”
We could spend money to build the party instead of lining the pockets of expensive consultants so that they can stay in 4 star hotels, have expensive vacation homes etc.
Is this the future father-in-law of Jenna Bush?
This is why the GOP in VA is totally worthless. They are pro-open borders, pro-amnesty, tax raising RINOs. This is why we have Kaine, Webb and Warner. The VA GOP is no different from the Democrat party.
“John Hagar brags that RPV spent $4.2 million on behalf of Republican candidates under his direction”
Actually, much of this money came from the candidates themselves, or the legislative caucuses and was just “pass through” money to use RPV’s mail permit. RPV gets the best available postage rate, so candidates put their money on deposit at RPV to send mail.
It’s dishonest at best for Hager to claim that he put $4.2 million into races last year. It’s like depositing a million bucks at a bank and the bank tells it’s shareholders that it just made another million in profit.
Hager’s got to go. This old school stuff is killing us.
New Hager slogan:
Worked for Mark Warner
Donated to Doug Wilder… Let’s make him GOP Chairman!
Hager’s contributions are all to HIMSELF. He never gives to RPV, or candidates, except a little to Kilgore, and $150 to Mcdonnell. He did give $150 to a PAC to prop up Norment, Stolle, Wampler, Stosch and Chichester after they went against Gilmore’s car tax cut. But I’d say 90% of his total contributions the last 10 years are to himself, if not more. In the last 5 years, he’s given $1000 to GOP candidates.
http://www.vpap.org/donors/results_level2.cfm?key=INP000240003&Year=All&CandFilter=A
I agree that we need new leadership, a more freedom oriented message for voters, more effective recruiting of new voters, and to rebuild our Unit-Precinct organization.
Your “…appearance of impropriety…” screed, shows a basic lack of understanding of business practices. The RPVA is not a government entity, and has no rational reason to use an open-bid process. Quite the contrary, the RPVA is free to develop long term business relationships with people and firms who are proven to be reliable supporters, and who will provide the teams of enthusiastic employees who also support Republican causes, out in the field. The RPVA is free to hire any firm that it deems suitable, and amongst the “old guard” and elsewhere, loyalty is often more highly prized than effectiveness or even competence. Indeed, history is full of stories about how nepotism and cronyism caused the top of many organizations to become cluttered with fools.
This does not mean, however, that all long term relationships in business are based on cronyism. What you see with the “old guard” running with the RPVA is that they have a few folks and firms whom they have longstanding relationships and the RPVA leaders are content to keep doing the same old thing, year after year. the problem is that Virginia is changing and new approaches are needed to meet these emerging challenges. You can’t just do the same old thing and expect new results.
Now, if the “old guard” got their reliable vendors to develop effective outreach programs that would put more Asians and Latinos in the Republican ranks, and that would reorganize and energize our Precinct organizations, then Mr. Hager and his team would have a some basis for continuing in leadership, but they haven’t done anything to react to the changes taking place here in the Commonwealth.
BTW, it really helps to have quality candidates who propose real solutions to the problems we face, and not just retreads spewing the same old, empty platitudes.
Go Jeff……….you can do it!!!!!!!!! I’m praying that Jeff will win and bring his integrity, honesty, solid conservative values and intellect to redirect the RPV.
Marcus & Allen are out of there too. Bolling based his Lt. Gov. offices out of that building as well. Any number of businesses currently use or have used 25 E Main Street as an address. You’re misleading folks here.
Of course what you fail to mention is that the Creative Direct relationship with RPV dates back to at least the Gilmore Administration. So Hager obviously did not walk in and say “give Creative Direct the contracts!” also, if you look at the numbers RPV spent less than HALF of its mail budget with Creative Direct. Several other mail firms, many based in Virginia and direct day-to-day competitors of Creative Direct, pulled in over $1 million from RPV.
Hager through out his time running for office previously used the Millenium Marketing/American Marketing firms with Phillips, Randolph and Cox. I do not know why he is not using them now is beyond the $50k in 2007, but there is not a long standing Hager/Marcus & Allen relationship.
The view that you must use the Marcus & Allen machine to receive help from various GOP bodies began with Gilmore and his attempts to control the party.
Lets put out all the facts as we try to attack and not just be a lap dog for
Hager and his types are part of the arrogant republican party machine that despises grassroots.
When I lived in D.C. and went to ask Hager a question, he asked me first if I lived in Virginia. I said no, and he became too busy to answer a question in the hallways of CPAC.
Now that I am a resident of Virginia, a delegate to the state republican convention, I plan to vote against him.
He obviously doesn’t have the time nor the inclination to deal with party activists.
I have a friend who is in the direct mail business, about 95% Republican campaign issues mailings, he is a former chair of a VA county Republican Committee, and can get no work from the RPV, nearly all of his work is local candidates and out of state, also the production plant is in VA and supplies several hundred jobs in the Shenandoah Valley. He has tried to get some of the RPV work but has been denied. Cost did not seem to be a factor,he said he would meet or beat any price. Who are the partners/owners of Creative Direct?
I looked at their web site, all former R operatives, Ray Allen, etc.
Frederick Is Not The Answer said… “Any number of businesses currently use or have used 25 E Main Street as an address. You’re misleading folks here.”
You are completely failing to understand the distinction here and have missed the point. The other campaigns you refer to are longtime client relationships of Marcus/Allen and/or Creative Direct (The Bolling campaign being managed by Boyd Marcus’ son). That’s all fine. These campaigns have willingly hired on these companies as their vendors with their own money.
The difference with Hager for Chairman being in this situation is that John Hager is the head of an organization funded by hundreds of hardworking individuals who donate toward these direct mail contracts that are handed out in a “backroom, no-bid” fashion. It’s all done according to which vendor has the tightest relationship with the Chairman.
In one particular election cycle, a single piece of RPV purchased direct mail dropped in similar and even the SAME legislative races varied in amounts billed to RPV by as much as 500 percent. Nobody questions the invoices and the money is handed over to the vendor, no questions asked. When you bill RPV for direct mail, they don’t even ask for a receipt from the post office that shows the direct mail pieces were mailed. They just cut a check if you are one of their “preferred” vendors.
Direct mail is the one campaign service that already has the least control and inherent oversight problems by virtue of the process. It’s unconscionable to not have any controls or oversight on the contracting and invoicing segments of the process. We’re talking MILLIONS of dollars here – DONATED dollars.
This isn’t even the worst part. Direct mail vendors who arguably could deliver a superior product at a much cheaper price are locked out of the process. There has been some very heavy-handed intimidation to force these other vendors out of the process so vendors like Creative Direct can continue to feed at the RPV trough and continue the tidy arrangement that keeps the mega-bucks flowing to them.
Many in the party might even look the other way and say this is an ugly, yet necessary part of campaigns. The problem with that thinking is that direct mail vendors are starting to do such a bad job for the GOP in delivering the votes for our candidates that it’s bordering on pathetic. There was evidence all across Virginia that the direct mail STUNK and was a waste of our precious campaign dollars — from cookie cutter text, to retread designs, to missing mail, to missed drop dates, to multiple pieces hitting mailboxes in the 11th hour when it did absolutely nothing to move votes, the story is the same no matter which 2007 GOP campaign you ask. It’s all about the profits now…not winning.
That’s what makes this whole arrangement a huge problem for everyone involved. The fact that the Hager for Chairman campaign is getting a big favor and “pay-off’ by RPV’s main direct mail vendor looks like something that borders on criminal behavior to the rank-and-file membership of the RPV. How do you think the donors would feel about knowing of such an improper arrangement? It’s not the RPV Chairman’s money and it’s not Creative Direct’s money — it’s the DONOR’s money.
So, if those that want to keep the status quo at RPV have nothing to hide or fear in their vendor contracting practices, then they should not mind a little sunshine on the process as GOP State Convention delegates decide who should lead the Republican Party of Virginia into the next few election cycles.
The political consultants and lobbyists are the ones really running the RPV at this point. They are not to concerned about conservative ideology like low taxes and illegal immigration. The consultants are concerned about what large businesses want.
Many of the Republican consultants are the enemy of conservative grassroots activists inside the party. They have a vested interest in protecting the moderate incumbents against conservative activists.
That is why they keep the money away from the grassroots activists and keep political activists in a weakened state.
In fact many of the political consultants have closer ties to the liberal Hollywood elite and their fellow political consultants than to the individual precinct workers and conservative activists in Virginia.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2005/03/republican_strategist_greg_stevens_died_of_overdose/
The political consultants and lobbyists are the ones really running the RPV at this point. They are not to concerned about conservative ideology like low taxes and illegal immigration. The consultants are concerned about what large businesses want.
Many of the Republican consultants are the enemy of conservative grassroots activists inside the party. They have a vested interest in protecting the moderate incumbents against conservative activists.
That is why they keep the money away from the grassroots activists and keep political activists in a weakened state.
In fact many of the political consultants have closer ties to the liberal Hollywood elite and their fellow political consultants than to the individual precinct workers and conservative activists in Virginia.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2005/03/republican_strategist_greg_stevens_died_of_overdose/
I haven’t made a decision in this race, but it seems to me that this has no more merit than accusations that Becky Stoeckel was favorably disposed to Julie Lucas in her challenge to Faisal Gill’s nomination because her (Julie’s) materials were published by Becky’s company.
Objective standards are a b****, huh?
You have your logic backwards…or just jumbled. The situation described in this thread is a person who has millions of dollars worth of contracts that he can approve or deny at his sole discretion. He has created an “appearance of impropriety” (or more — we don’t know that yet) by choosing to run his very competitive re-election campaign out of the offices of one of THE biggest recipient of these contracts since the vending process was initiated by RPV in 1999.
This is more akin to former Congressman Duke’s relationship with defense contractors and similar scandals and not the comparison you are trying to make here.
Jimmy’s just obsessed with the 51st District Convention, to the exclusion of all else.
25 E. Main St., Richmond, VA is the headquarters for Creative Direct, Boyd Marcus and Ray Allen. The State Convention for May 30-31 is being ran out of this office, Hager and Gilmore’s consultants are Boyd Marcus and Ray Allen thus Creative Direct. Matt Wells, political director for Gilmore for Senate is stationed out of 25 E. Main St. Bolling, Gilmore, Cantor and Hager among many others all use the same consultants and come from the same stable. Who wants to get a cut of the Victory campaign in VA with John McCain? Who else…Any way you cut it a lot goes on for the establishment of the republican party out of that site. Follow the money to see who controls the republican party of Virginia. Bob Marshall doesn’t use or need a consultant, Jeff Frederick I don’t know if he uses consultants but his as well as Marshall’s campaigns are built from the grassroots up. If one wanted to control everything in the GOP in Virginia what address would you look up? 25 E. Main St., Richmond, VA.
I am just getting into state politics and will be a delegate at the convention in
Richmond this week.
I didn’t expect to run into a buzz saw over how the RPV is run. Nor did I expect to see how little grassroots participation there is in the state organization. The first sign of this was how easy it was to be made a delegate to the district and state conventions. I would have thought those slots would be awarded to long-time activitists. But as it turns out, there aren’t that many activists, at least no ones willing to be delegates. I hasten to add that the dearth of activists may be the case in my district and not in others.
But in the process of trying to decide on who to vote for in the RPV Chairman race, it has become clear that the party is struggling. Hagar hasn’t been chairman for very long, so it’s a bit of bad rap to blame him for RPV problems. On the other hand I don’t hear any specifics from him that blow me away.
Frederick has now said he will not run for the House if elected chairman, and he has proposed some specfic steps for strengthing the RPV which I like, namely heavy emphasis on grassroot organization, more dynamic use of the internet, and greater efficiency in use of RPV dollars.
I am sad to see internal battles within the GOP apartus at any level. Hagar is a good man with extensive contacts. Frederick is a hard charger with a proven grassroots organizing record. Who to choose? For it will come down to which man can grow the party, define a clear message, and win elections.