{"id":1034913,"date":"2024-06-06T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1034913"},"modified":"2024-06-07T16:19:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T16:19:27","slug":"icymi-the-bulwark-swindlers-hijacking-and-blackmail-inside-the-kennedy-campaigns-natural-law-party-meltdown-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-bulwark-swindlers-hijacking-and-blackmail-inside-the-kennedy-campaigns-natural-law-party-meltdown-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: The Bulwark: \u2018Swindlers,\u2019 \u2018Hijacking,\u2019 and \u2018Blackmail\u2019: Inside the Kennedy campaign\u2019s Natural Law Party meltdown in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1031397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png 1500w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?resize=300,100 300w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?resize=768,256 768w, https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png?resize=1024,341 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>New reporting this morning from The Bulwark reveals how RFK Jr.\u2019s campaign may have violated various campaign finance laws in an attempt to gain ballot access. In attempting to form an alliance with Florida\u2019s fringe third-party group, the Natural Law Party, the RFK Jr. campaign offered to exchange money in a deal that went sour. The campaign later offered $30,000 to be paid via a donor outside of the normal FEC reporting process.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This follows RFK Jr. aligning himself with other fringe third parties including the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/20\/us\/politics\/rfk-jr-michigan-ballot.html\"><em>Michigan Natural Law Party<\/em><\/a><em> and the American Independent Party &#8211; <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2024\/05\/02\/rfk-jr-california-ballot-american-independent-party\/\"><em>which has a (decades-long history of right-wing, racist beliefs<\/em><\/a><em>. Additionally, RFK Jr. sought ballot access through the <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/politics-features\/rfk-kennedy-alaskan-independence-party-1235002060\/\"><em>Alaskan Independence Party<\/em><\/a><em>, a party that has advocated for seceding from the U.S.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebulwark.com\/p\/rfk-natural-law-party-meltdown-florida\"><strong>The Bulwark<\/strong><\/a><strong>: \u2018Swindlers,\u2019 \u2018Hijacking,\u2019 and \u2018Blackmail\u2019:Inside the Kennedy campaign\u2019s Natural Law Party meltdown in Florida<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By: Mark Caputo<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cIt seemed this was the Year of the Third Party,\u201d said Wendt, the former chair of Florida\u2019s Reform Party affiliate. \u201cThis would be the year where we would be able to make an impact.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>So Wendt started the process of reconstituting <strong><em><mark style=\"background-color:#fcb900\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">the long-defunct<\/mark> Natural Law Party <\/em><\/strong>of the United States with the Federal Election Commission and he resurrected its Florida branch. He planned to hold a convention and nominate Kennedy for president so that RFK could appear on the Florida ballot as the Natural Law Party candidate.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kennedy\u2019s campaign loved the idea. <strong><em>And the two sides started talking money. <\/em><\/strong>Wendt signed a $10,000-a-month consulting contract with Kennedy\u2019s campaign on February 24.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bureaucratic delays and mistakes turned into <strong><em>mistrust.<\/em><\/strong> A bitter rift grew. Wendt was<em> <\/em>ultimately paid nothing<em>.<\/em> And he lost control of\u00a0 the Natural Law Party of the United States, which was taken over by Kennedy allies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wendt, a 39-year-old Lyft driver, wants the national Natural Law Party back in his control. He calls the <strong><em>Kennedy campaign <mark style=\"background-color:#fcb900\" class=\"has-inline-color\">unethical \u201cswindlers.\u201d<\/mark> <\/em><\/strong>Kennedy campaign officials fired back, accusing Wendt of illegally \u201chijacking\u201d the national party and trying to \u201cblackmail\u201d the campaign, and suggesting to him that his actions amounted to \u201cextortion.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cIf you meet a member of our team in Tallahassee on Wednesday morning and withdraw the filing with them in person at the Elections Division, clearing the way for us to submit it on site once you withdraw yours,<strong><mark style=\"background-color:#fcb900\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\"> I will attempt to arrange for a donor of ours, whom I know, <em>to pay you the $30,000<\/em><\/mark><\/strong> you would have received for one month of consulting, including the sign on bonus and severance fee,\u201d Brana wrote.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In interviews with the Bulwark, four independent election law attorneys who reviewed the contract were divided over <mark style=\"background-color:#fcb900\" class=\"has-inline-color\">the degree to which it <strong><em>violated various campaign-finance laws<\/em><\/strong><\/mark> designed for transparency.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Stuck in the middle of the conflict was Darcy Richardson, who has been involved in third-party politics since 1978. [&#8230;] Like Wendt, Richardson said, <mark style=\"background-color:#fcb900\" class=\"has-inline-color\">\u201c<strong><em>I\u2019ve soured on the Kennedy campaign. . . . I haven\u2019t been impressed by his campaign or the people he surrounded himself with. His whole campaign staff is made up of neophytes who don\u2019t know the first thing about politics, the mechanics of how it works, what it takes.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/mark>\u00a0 [&#8230;] After 48 years of being a \u201cdie-hard third-party guy,\u201d Richardson said, <strong><em><mark style=\"background-color:#fcb900\" class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">\u201cI think I\u2019m going to vote for Biden.\u201d<\/mark><\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Richardson faults Wendt for not clearly communicating with the Kennedy campaign\u2019s Brana and getting into a hostile relationship with him, but he also said<mark style=\"background-color:#ffffff\" class=\"has-inline-color\"> <\/mark><mark style=\"background-color:#fcb900\" class=\"has-inline-color\"><strong>the contract that the Kennedy campaign drafted was \u201ckind of shady\u201d and \u201csuspicious.\u201d<\/strong><\/mark> The other two election-law experts I spoke with, a Democratic lawyer and a Republican lawyer, neither involved in the presidential race, also labeled the contract <strong><mark style=\"background-color:#fcb900\" class=\"has-inline-color\">\u201cshady.\u201d<\/mark><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cMy concerns are what Kennedy will do for the Natural Law Party. <strong><em><mark style=\"background-color:#fcb900\" class=\"has-inline-color\">I didn\u2019t hear anything in our last conversation about what Kennedy or his \u2018cause\u2019 will do to make the situation better for America,\u201d<\/mark> <\/em><\/strong>Wendt said in a text message to Brana memorializing the conversation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New reporting this morning from The Bulwark reveals how RFK Jr.\u2019s campaign may have violated various campaign finance laws in an attempt to gain ballot access. In attempting to form an alliance with Florida\u2019s fringe third-party group, the Natural Law Party, the RFK Jr. campaign offered to exchange money in a deal that went sour. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1034913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ICYMI: The Bulwark: \u2018Swindlers,\u2019 \u2018Hijacking,\u2019 and \u2018Blackmail\u2019: Inside the Kennedy campaign\u2019s Natural Law Party meltdown in Florida - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-bulwark-swindlers-hijacking-and-blackmail-inside-the-kennedy-campaigns-natural-law-party-meltdown-in-florida\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-06T18:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-07T16:19:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/War-Room-Master-Image.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Claire DePree\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-bulwark-swindlers-hijacking-and-blackmail-inside-the-kennedy-campaigns-natural-law-party-meltdown-in-florida\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-the-bulwark-swindlers-hijacking-and-blackmail-inside-the-kennedy-campaigns-natural-law-party-meltdown-in-florida\/\",\"name\":\"ICYMI: The Bulwark: \u2018Swindlers,\u2019 \u2018Hijacking,\u2019 and \u2018Blackmail\u2019: Inside the Kennedy campaign\u2019s Natural Law Party meltdown in Florida - 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