Tag Archives: campaign director

ORCA a Set Up?

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Readers of this site know that I suggested there might have been a Democrat mole in the Romney campaign intent on sabotaging it from the inside.

Conspiracy theory? Hardly. Take a look at what the Daily Caller found out about the much vaunted ORCA program that was to get out the vote for Romney. Then you have to ask yourself if the gang from Chicago would have any scruples about taking down an enemy. If you think they would, you best start getting the cookies ready for Santa on Christmas Eve.

By the way, the group behind the ORCA was The Checkmate Company. Pointed choice of a name, isn’t it?

The Daily Caller:

A mysterious company associated with Project ORCA, the failed election reporting tool meant to aide the Romney campaign’s Election Day “get out the vote” efforts, disappeared from the Internet shortly after November 6th.

An Oct. 25 ORCA training email from former Romney campaign director of voter contact Dan Centinello, obtained by The Daily Caller from an ORCA volunteer, contained a link that sent volunteers to TheCheckmateCompany.com to view a training video on the system.

That link is now dead, and the website disappeared from the Internet as early as November 9, according to a report by Infoworld’s Robert X. Cringley.

The Checkmate Company also could not be found through a search on business search engine Manta.com, suggesting that the site was not a registered business.

Ars Technica reported that according to internal campaign sources, ORCA was built internally by staff and volunteers. The Checkmate Company, a former senior staffer within the Romney campaign told TheDC, was the umbrella organization within which staff and volunteers involved with ORCA were organized.

Former digital director Zac Moffatt told The Daily Caller that ORCA was a project of the political department of the campaign, not the digital department. Both Moffatt and former campaign digital rapid response director Lenny Alcivar also pushed back against accusations that ORCA was a disastrous failure.

While the TheCheckmateCompany.com is offline, cached copies exist and are searchable via Google. One copy from November 3 reveals a link with a broken image that leads to Internet Information Services for Windows Server, a Microsoft web server. Another cached copy of the site from November 4 reveals a telephone assistance number that is now no longer in service.

According to StatsDomain.com, it is estimated that the site was hosted on one server, which is consistent with previous reports of ORCA’s estimated specifications.

The domain name TheCheckmateCompany.com was registered August 16 through Domains by Proxy, concealing the true identity of the domain’s owner. A Twitter account associated with the phantom company was registered on August 16.

Looks suspicious, doesn’t it?

Boxing Day Round Up

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Here are a few noteworthy items for consideration on this day after Christmas.

It’s Who You Know: President Obama has nominated Kevin McNulty to the U.S. District court in New Jersey. McNulty just happens to be married to Fran, sister of Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Wonder if there is any connection there, hmm?

A Day That Will Live in Infamy: Really? That’s what campaign director for Newt Gingrich compares his disqualification from the Virginia primary ballot to. Yes, “Newt and I agree the analogy is December 1941,” Michael Knull writes. Did I miss something? How many died in this fiasco?

Is This the Beginning: The China Daily says “China’s biggest provincial borrowers are deferring payments on their loans just two months after the country’s regulator said some local government companies would be allowed to do so… Hunan Provincial Expressway Construction Group is delaying payment on 3.11 billion yuan in interest, documents governing the securities show this month.” And they’re not alone. China’s second largest debtor is doing the same thing, as are two others among the 11 largest debtors. Doesn’t sound like China’s economy is as solid as they say.

What’s Next, Burkas?: The Orlando Sentinel reports that CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) has succeeded in getting the Department of Defense to allow students to wear an Islamic head scarf (hijab) or a turban to participate in Jr. ROTC. CAIR wrote to Defense chief Leon Panetta who OK’d it after CAIR objected when a student at Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, Tenn., was forced to transfer out because she wanted to wear a hijab while marching in the September Homecoming Parade.