Image Credit: Congressman Andy Ogles / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
Shenanigans continue ahead of the August 1st primary in Tennessee. A recent mailer was sent out by a single-candidate super PAC in support of Courtney Johnston attacking District 5 U.S. Representative Andy Ogles. The group responsible calls themselves “Conservatives with Character” but a look at their donors tells a different story.
Earlier this year, the group spent $141,000 on a combination of ads on local television stations and the web criticizing Ogles. According to OpenSecrets, as of July 31st, 2024, the group has spent $640,627 in support of Johnston.
The mailer that was sent out last week claims that Ogles failed to pay his property taxes nine times citing a Williamson County Property Tax Search that shows that Ogles paid late. This same claim during his 2022 campaign for District 5 led to a defamation suit against a different political action committee.
Conservatives with Character’s treasurer is former state lawmaker Randy Stamps who backed former state House Speaker Beth Harwell in the 2022 GOP primary for District 5.
Stamps donated $500 to Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. back in April. Kennedy declared independence from the Democratic Party in early October last year after ending his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The PAC has attracted several donors who lean more left and would not typically be labeled conservative. The Best of Tennessee Action Fund, described as nonpartisan, formed by pro-choice lawyer Chloe Akers, and Republican fundraisers Kim Kaegi and Tom Ingram gave Conservatives with Character a total of $290,009.10 in June according to this quarterly FEC report.
Best of Tennessee has supported Democratic House Representatives Sara Kyle, Justin Pearson and Yusuf Hakeem, and Republican Senators Todd Gardenhire, Patsy Hazlewood, Jon Lundberg, and Becky Massey whose names you may recognize from The Tennessee Conservative’s RINO Reports covering the last three years.
Some of the same donors gave money to both Best of Tennessee Action Fund and Conservatives with Character. These include American Paper & Twine’s Robert Doochin, who has donated to both Republicans and Democrats alike.
Kevin Crumbo, Interim Finance Director for Metro Nashville Government gave $5,000 to Conservatives with Character. A look at his donations to political candidates shows that he overwhelmingly supports Democrats as does James Flautt, a key executive at Asurion LLC.
Sam Reed of Jigsaw Consulting, a lobbying firm, donated $10,000 to the group, with the company’s related Jigsaw PAC giving another $5,000. Reed, along with associates Beecher Frazier and Greg Hinote have all regularly donated to Democratic causes and Jigsaw PAC donates to Democratic candidates and organizations including the Metro Nashville Minority Caucus, now Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, and Senator Heidi Campbell.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
7 Responses
What confuses me is that Citizens for Prosperity is attacked in a significant way for supporting candidates in TN … except for their HUGE support for Ogles. Candidates receiving their support are criticized as not conservative due to their support … except for Ogles
Before become a politician, Ogles was in charge of Citizens for Prosperity here in TN
Ogles has key staff who were formerly Citizens for Prosperity
His phone banking is lead and managed by Citizens for Prosperity as are other parts of his ground game etc
Why is the involvement of Citizens for Prosperity, personal in his staff and his campaign, and their tremendous financial support + his direct connection/background with them ignored (hidden?) by this outlet and others?
Ignoring his connections to and direct support by Citizens for Prosperity while highlighting the lesser support other candidates have received from this same group as a negative is raising questions about fairness and motivation of coverage
Either support from Citizens for Prosperity is a bad thing and is covered as “outside” PAC spending for all candidates or it’s no so bad and the criticism is merely spin
Which is it? Should we conservatives steer clear of candidates connected to and supported by Citizens for Prosperity or not?
Please help voters and clarify
Thank you
Perhaps I can help CTCV. Citizens For Prosperity is a libertarian-conservative organization. Thus its emphasis is on the “limited government” part of conservatism. Naturally, it wants to see as many children as possible out of the grips of government schools and leftist indoctrination centers so the organization is very much in favor of the only way to bring that about, i.e. vouchers, so it supports state and local candidates in favor of vouchers. Andy Ogles (Heritage-100%), on the other hand, is running for a federal office against an open and notorious tepid conservative so OF COURSE, CfP is supporting Andy as should every conservative in the Fifth District.
I think you’re VERY confused. There’s NO mention in the article of “Citizens for Prosperity”.
I’m guessing your comment is a canned comment that you post to attack Ogles.
“Conservatives with Character” is very fishy – the kind of people who stay in the shadows and try to manipulate elections. The kind of people who are self-serving. The kind of people I don’t trust. The kind who disgust me. I think you’re bad for America and try to get people elected who you can control.
Example > I got a flyer from “Conservatives with Character” that gave the impression that Trump endorsed Courtney Johnston. I read it closely and it said Courtney Johnston endorsed Trump.
You guys make me more supportive of Ogles. I’m not paid to write this and I don’t work for Ogles and I won’t benefit in any way from this comment.
No, here’s the truth.
Conservatives with character is neither.
The Democrats and rinos can’t say anything without lying or “shading “the facts.
These are the people out to destroy Tennessee and turn it into another California. It always starts this way…
Does anyone else notice that these negative campaign adds about Republican candidates that air on commercial television just have a sinister feeling to them? and you can tell they are full of propaganda funded by the liberal left regardless of what the paid for by “xxxxx” name says. In fact, the name of the group that pays for the add is usually the opposite of their values (in other words: a lie). It feels like propaganda and since it is on the liberal TV stations, you know it is. Similar to the adds by Ferrell Haile attacking Chris Spencer; they too have a feeling of Propaganda Lies. It appears he has a lot of PAC money to help him look good (they want him in power – why?). It is getting to where the candidate who is the most vilified on TV is the one you should vote for because the truth dies on TV.
I believe the first commenter meant Americans for Prosperity
Ogles headed their Tennessee office and they are heavily supporting him in the election
I look up the claims from all mailers and ads I see to know the facts. Sometime the ads are wrong, sometimes they are correct but have been dramatized to catch voter’s attention.
Look up the claims or the links on the ads to know the facts about the candidates for yourself. Sadly, some negative ads are telling the truth
Never based my belief or disbelief on mere feelings … smh