AUTHOR’S NOTE #1: This is an update to a previous blog post about Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Nation Consulting’s ties to Republican front groups.
AUTHOR’S NOTE #2: I have made edits to the blog post in order to ensure that the blog post is 100% accurate.
Since my last blog post about Nation Consulting’s ties to Republican organizations, I’ve had an individual point out to me via a Facebook group that Coalition for the New Economy (CftNE), a group that opposes government-owned broadband internet services in areas where the private sector operates broadband services, had paid DCI Group, a mostly right-wing public relations, lobbying, and consulting firm, a total of $666,957 for work that DCI Group did for CftNE as an independent contractor, per a 2012 IRS 990 filing by CftNE (you can find that filing here; the information I mentioned in this paragraph comes from page 9 of the PDF file). CftNE was led by Thad Nation at the time of the filing; Nation is also the founder of Nation Consulting, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based consulting firm.
While DCI Group supported the effort to allow openly-LGBT people to serve in our nation’s Armed Forces, something which should have been done sooner, a lot of the other things they’ve been involved with is, in my opinion, clearly against the best interests of the American people.
DCI Group has been behind anti-climate change campaigns, including an infamous YouTube video in 2006 that spoofed the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth, in which Gore, who was Vice President of the United States during the presidency of Bill Clinton, talked about how serious of a threat climate change is to this planet. While DCI Group has never actually acknowledged its role in the Gore parody, multiple media outlets reported that a Yahoo! email from the same person who uploaded the YouTube video originated from a computer registered to DCI Group. DCI Group’s officials include, among many others, Doug Goodyear, the CEO of the firm and a former political director of the Colorado Republican Party, and Craig Stevens, who worked on two Republican presidential campaigns and also worked for Tommy Thompson when he was U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under Republican President George W. Bush. Perhaps the worst thing that DCI Group has associated itself with is the former military junta in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar, also known as Burma. DCI Group conducted public relations work on behalf of the Burmese junta from 2002 to 2003. The Burmese junta was known for flagrant human rights violations, including the politically-motivated house imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi. DCI Group’s work with the Burmese junta became a major controversy in the 2008 presidential election here in the U.S., as Goodyear worked with the McCain campaign prior to the media publishing reports about DCI Group’s work with the Burmese junta.
It’s 100% clear to me that Thad Nation, who is the founder of Nation Consulting and either is or was the head of CftNE, plays both sides of the street politically. While their founder, Thad Nation, has at least indirectly funded right-wing organizations, Nation Consulting, which Nation himself founded, also employs Jason Rae, who also happens to be a Democratic National Committee (DNC) member and a candidate for Chairperson of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW). That is an inconvenient truth for Rae, as it’s at least an apparent conflict of interest, if not an outright one, for Rae to be DPW chair and working for a firm led by someone who either is or was also the head of a different organization that gave money to Republican and Republican-leaning organizations simultaneously.
The Progressive Midwesterner 
Aarons work doesnt link jason to the kochs it links nation to ALEC. i have no doubt that jason had no clue what was going on with all of thads other businesses. aaron has correctly stated that nation does indeed play both sides and that ALEC’s influence in WI may go deeper. Unfortunately jason chose not to sever his relationship with nation before he ran for chair and now the only right thing is for him to withdraw and run another day. hes young enough.
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Mr Camp:
I would humbly suggest that you do your due diligence regarding the background and progressive credentials of Mr. Jason Rae.
Suggesting as you have in your recent posts that somehow because Mr. Rae is employed by Nation Consulting, that he is not progressive, and even worse, has ties to the Koch Brothers, is not just irresponsible, but also wholly false.
As a professional operative, former blogger, journalist, commentator and talk show host; I have major responsibility for formally vetting candidates for endorsement (i.e. it is my job). I would suggest that your defacto linking Mr. Rae to his employers’ political leanings is a false assertion.
Further, as someone who knows Mr. Rae’s background, financial interests, political and policy positions, and his network of affiliations, I easily can say he could be considered the most progressive candidate in the race to succeed Mike Tate as Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.
Your amateur ‘linkage’ of Mr. Rae to the Koch Brothers is nothing more than slander. If you are inclined to do the right thing, you will print a retraction for your character assassination of someone who has, from day one, stood for progressive values, has run on those values, and lives those values.
In closing, you are way off the mark, and need to fix this. If you care about getting it right — fix this.
Sincerely,
Scott B. Foval
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