Dan Reilly is the Republican candidate for State Representative in District 72. His opponent is incumbent Representative Amy Rice, a person who has distinguished herself as a progressive voice for Aquidneck Island. In 2006, Rice won a nail biter of an election against Republican John Robatille, who now works in the press office for Governor Don Carcieri.Despite the closeness of the last election, Reilly faces a number of issues making his race more of an uphill battle.
Those issues are multiplying.
The key issue faced by Reilly campaign was the fact that his parents were reported to be the biggest individual tax cheats in Rhode Island. According to Division of Taxation they owe more than a 1,000,000 dollars in taxes.It is hard to run for State Rep, especially as a Republican, when your parents owe the state big bucks.Now it also appears that Candidate Reilly has used a far right wing campaign consulting company employing some less than savory folks – against the advice of his own political party.
Reilly confirmed for the blog that he signed a deal with a company called Opinion Factor.Based in Utah, the company recently opened an office in Warwick. The company uses RIC professor Victor Profughi to do its poll analysis, lending it some home town weight.The company employees a man named Scott Deutsch and according to an anonymous tipster this is where things go bad. Mr. Deutsch, who refused to answer questions for this blogger has an extensive criminal record.The Rhode Island Judiciary website lists a number of different matters, including a number of felony and drug related charges .Additionally Opinion Factor lists a man named Bart de Bont, as its vice president and Chief Operating officer. Mr. de Bont who has an extensive legal past including charges of forgery, counterfeiting, and embezzlement. (you can do a search by linking HERE).
Reilly paid Opinion Factor $3,465 for consulting services, including phone calls. When I inquired about his knowledge of the backgrounds of Opinion Factor’s principals in Rhode Island he told me that he decided to use them even though the State Republican Party had warned him not to use the company because of the background of Deutsch and de Bont. He had apparently signed a contract and did not want to try and get out of it. He told me that State GOP Executive Director Marc Pappas was the person who told him not to use the company because of the background issue. Mr. Pappas, as I reported earlier, would not answer questions about Opinion Factor or Mr. Reilly’s comments. Gio Cicione, Chairperson of the State GOP, described my inquires into the matter as "bugging his guys."
In an interesting twist, Deutsch at Opinion Factor is listed as the "corporate Liaison to the Republican National Committee and John McCain 2008." In a flyer you can see here, Opinion Factor tells potential clients "We work directly with the RNC and voter vault so our project managers actually KNOW the system." They claim they have a "vested interest in seeing our fellow conservatives achieve victory in November."
One can only wonder what those "vested interests" are.
There is no allegation that Opinion Factor has engaged in any illegal activity here in Rhode Island. But what does it say about a candidate’s judgment if they are told that the people they are using to do political work are people that they shouldn’t be associating with, but they do it anyway?
If the Rhode Island GOP has the judgment to stay away from these guys they must be REALLY bad.