Lincoln Strategy Group

Lincoln Strategy Group is the new name of the political consulting and PR firm previously known as Sproul and Associates.

In June 2008, "a joint committee of the McCain-Palin campaign, the RNC and the the California Republican Party, made a $175,000 payment to the group Lincoln Strategy ... for purposes of 'registering voters.'" The contract was controversial, as the firm (under its previous name, Sproul and Associates) "has been investigated on multiple occasions for suppressing Democratic voter turnout, throwing away registration forms and even spearheading efforts to get Ralph Nader on ballots to hinder the Democratic ticket."

Nathan Sproul, who was formerly the executive director of the Arizona State Republican Party, founded Sproul and Associates in 2002 and is based in Tempe, Arizona. Sproul and Associates has worked in 21 different states for various city, state, congressional, and national campaigns. Sproul specializes in campaign/public affairs management, get-out-the vote efforts, ballot initiative management, media and public relations.

Controversy over 2004 presidential work
Sproul is a private company who hired Voters Outreach of America to work on a national canvassing project (sometimes referred to as "America Votes," but unrelated to the liberal leaning 527 group with that name) was accused of fraud aimed at preventing Democrats from voting in the 2004 U.S. elections. Voters Outreach of America is run by Aaron James in Nevada.

One Nevada worker hired by Voters Outreach of America, Eric Russell, "said he was instructed to register only Republicans, and that he saw a supervisor tear up completed registration forms from Democrats." "As best I can tell, the incident he [Russell] alleges didn't happen," Sproul said. "It caused great discomfort for me, my family and my business.

West Virginia worker Lisa Bragg told Salon.com a similar story: "Workers were asked to congregate outside local convenience stores and pretend to be nonpartisan political pollsters interested in the nuances of local opinion. ... But if the respondents to this pretend poll said that they were Bush supporters, canvassers were told to offer to help them register to vote. If they said they were Kerry supporters, the canvassers would politely walk away." In Pennsylvania, workers were told to ask if undecided voters considered themselves pro-life or pro-choice. "If the voters were pro-life, they were to be registered. [But, the employee script read:] 'If they are pro-choice, say thank you and walk away.'"

2004 Arizona Republican Party Executive Director Bill Christiansen stated "Nathan Sproul is a victim of shamelss statements by the Democrats who will say anything to win".

Nathan Sproul was the former Executive Director of the Arizona Republican Party. Sproul and Associates was paid more than $8,000,000 [] by the Republican National Committee in 2004.

Sproul and Associates had managed an earlier campaign to repeal Arizona's popular Clean Elections system, an effort in which it got 280,000 signatures. "No Taxpayer Money for Politicians," the effort to repeal Clean Elections, did not go unnoticed by the opposing campaign: "Even though their measure repealed Clean Elections, canvassers would say either that the measure didn't alter Clean Elections in any way, or that it actually helped Clean Elections. Bob Grossfeld, the Democratic political consultant, secretly videotaped one canvasser peddling this lie."

Personnel
From news accounts:
 * Nathan Sproul
 * Jessica Pacheco, former Arizona Chamber of Commerce lobbyist
 * Garrick Taylor, "former Arizona GOP spinmeister"

Contact
Sproul & Associates 80 East Rio Salado Parkway, Suite 814 Tempe, AZ Phone:(480) 303- 7175 Website: http://www.sproulassociates.com Email: info AT sproulassociates.com

Related SourceWatch articles

 * U.S. election irregularities in 2004

External resources

 * Voters Outreach of America's incorporation documents, Nevada Secretary of State.

External articles

 * Max Blumenthal, "http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Voters_Outreach_of_AmericaAlterNet, October 15, 2004.
 * Mark Crispin Miller and Jared Irmas, "Team Bush paid MILLIONS to Nathan Sproul-and tried to hide it!", June 30, 2005: Sproul received total payments from the RNC adding up "to a whopping $8,359,161--making it the RNC’s eighth biggest expenditure of the 2004 campaign." Michael Retzer, as RNC Treasurer, made the payments.
 * Farhad Manjoo, "Sproul Play," Salon.com, October 21, 2004.
 * Dennis Welch, "Arizonan is GOP's top voter sign-up guru- and gets complaints from Democrats", Associated Press via Tucson Citizen, October 27, 2004.