Firm Pretending To Be Hispanic Non-profit Lobbies Conservative Legislation To Congressman

Freshman Democratic congressman Tom Perriello — whose Virginia district leans Republican — faced a tough decision last month over whether to support the climate change bill. As he was weighing the issue, he got a letter from Creciendo Juntos, a non-profit group in his district that focuses on issues of importance to Hispanics. The letter urged Perriello to oppose the bill because it could raise low-income members’ utility bills.

The person who sent the letter has not been identified, but he or she was employed by a Washington lobbying firm called Bonner & Associates.– a pioneer in “strategic grassroots/grasstops” lobbying whose clients have included Citicorp, Aetna, PhRMA, Dow Chemical etc.

After being notified of the bogus Creciendo Juntos letter, staffers in Perriello’s office dug through the letters, e-mails and faxes Perriello received about the bill — the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 — and found five more forged letters, these purportedly from the Albemarle-Charlottesville branch of the NAACP.

So mail fraud or a simple exercise of First Amendment rights?

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/local_govtpolitics/article/letters_sent_to_perriello_called_fakes._area_advocates_names_forged_by_d.c./43439/