Today is the ninth day (for review, see parts eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two and one) in which I look at Unity08′s 4th Quarter donors, straight down in order from top to bottom of Unity08′s 4th Quarter IRS report, and provide some context to help you decide whether Unity08′s claim that its donors are “everyday Americans and “people like you.”
Here is today’s bunch:
1. Ronald Williams, $200 donation. Williams is described by the IRS report as retired, and he lives in a 2,100 square foot house with an estimated value of $892,574. San Jose is a pretty expensive place to live in, and Mr. Williams lives in one of the less expensive areas of San Jose. Although a $892,574 wouldn’t be a cheap place here in Ohio, it is a little cheap for the California coast. Within that context, Ronald Williams lives in situation that is typical. Yes, he’d qualify as an “everyday American.”
2. Yvonne Ackerman, $5,000 contribution. Yvonne Ackerman is listed as retired, and neither her name nor her address nor her street is listed in the phone book, mapquest, google, zillow, public records or any other database I know of. I can find addresses of “46 Deer Run” in New York and Connecticut, but not in Massachusetts. However, there IS a Yvonne Ackerman who lives in Boca Raton, Florida, at the same home address as Don Ackerman — a $1.7 million dollar home in a country club community measuring over 7,100 square feet who also is a $5,000 donor to Unity08. Is that just a coincidence? No — a Feb. 23, 2007 e-mail to me from Unity08 Chief Operating Officer Anya T. Harris confirms that donor Yvonne Ackerman is married to donor Don Ackerman. Neither of these two have a standard of living like those of most Americans.
3. John Hoey, $5,000 donation. The combination of Hoey’s address in the Unity08 report and Fundrace records show that John Hoey was recently the President of “Progressus Therapy Educate, Inc.” The same John Hoey is now the President and Chief Executive Officer of the YMCA of Central Maryland. Hoey is also on the board of directors of the National Aquarium and the Baltimore Workforce Investment Board. Hoey lives in a 2,332 square foot condominium in the Residences at the Colonnade in Baltimore.
4. Jack Valenti, $5,000 donation. Jack Valenti, who was a live-in adviser to President Lyndon Baines Johnson from 1963 to 1966, says of himself:
I have, in my lifetime, known just about every president, prime minister, president of other countries, congressmen and senators.
Valenti headed up the Motion Picture Association of America, for which he worked as a lobbyist meeting with DC politicians for nearly four decades (so much for Unity08 not being bankrolled by lobbyists). Valenti garnered an annual $1.35 million salary for his lobbyist work.
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People like you? Judge for yourself. There are still many of donations left to go through. Look for more tomorrow.
[Postscript: Fortune blogger Matt Miller reports that longtime movie industry lobbyist Jack Valenti has joined the Unity08 Founders Council. This is unconfirmed by Unity08, but if true it represents yet another lobbyist being brought into the leadership of this ostensibly anti-lobbyist organization.]
