The Idaho group that’s pushing Proposition 2 is being kept afloat by large infusions of cash from out-of-state organizations controlled by Howard Rich, a wealthy political activist in New York.
Records released yesterday by the Idaho Secretary of State’s office show that This House is MY Home, the chief proponent of Proposition 2, received $75,000 of its $76,764 in contributions from June 3 to September 30, 2006, from America at its Best, a Rich-funded organization.
Internal Revenue Service records show that America at its Best operates from a residential address in Fairfax, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., but the organization’s Idaho filings list its address as a post office box in Kalispell, Montana.
Records filed with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission show that nearly all of America at its Best’s funds come from three Rich-led organizations: Americans for Limited Government, in Chicago; Club for Growth State Action, also in Chicago; and the Fund for Democracy, in New York City. The three organizations have given more than $4 million to America at its Best this year alone.
In the first nine months of this year, This House is MY Home raised $412,000 from Rich-backed organizations and $1,804 from other contributors, including at least eight Idahoans.