Freshman Democratic Congressman Tom Perriello of Virginia received at least five forged letter purportedly from constituent groups including Creciendo Juntos, an Hispanic advocacy group in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the local branch of the NAACP, urging Perriello to vote against the American Clean Energy and Security Act, or the Waxman-Markey “cap and trade” climate bill.
The letters to Creciendo Juntos came from DC “grassroots” lobbyist firm Bonner & Associates. A representative of the firm said that the person responsible has been fired and apologized for the “mistake.”
Tim Freilich, a member of Creiendo Juntos’ executive committee found such a characterization absurd, stating in a letter to Perriello’s office:
They stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it. They forged a letter and sent it to our congressman without our authorization. It’s this type of activity that undermines Americans’ faith in democracy.”
Likewise, M. Rick Turner, president of the local Charlottesville chapter of the NAACP said he was “appalled” of the misrepresentation of the organization from letters faxed to Perriollo’s office from a fax machine inside the Arlington, Virginia headquarters of Professional Risk Management Services. A representative of that firm said she had no idea why such a fax would have been sent from her office, and that at least 60 people have access to the fax machine in question.
A Congressional investigation over the forgeries has been called.
This fraud on Congress shows that some opponents of clean energy have resorted to forgery and theft to block progress,” said ACES co-sponsor Edward Markey in a statement. “This is an appalling abuse, and Congressman Tom Perriello deserves great credit for seeing through it and casting a vote that will create clean energy jobs in Virginia and throughout the United States.”
I posted an article earlier today about the forged letters on RedGreen andBlue.org
Sources and Further Reading
Daily Progress