posted by Justin Hart | 8:47 AM |
permalinkOK, its time to debunk some of the more ridiculous things going around the blogosphere by anti-Romney forces:
Claim: Ron Lindorg and his family are the in pocket of Mitt Romney and therefore they were the source of the WW anti-Mormon calls to help his campaign.
This is silly and false:
- Ron Lindorf, the founder of Western Wats, completely divested his interests in the company in 2004.
- Ron Lindorf did not found the BYU Business School. However, Ron Lindorf is affiliated with the Center for Entrepreneurship which is affiliated with the Marriott School of Management. After retiring from WW, he now teaches a class or two at the business school.
- Ron's sister in law, wife of Ron's brother, Paul, is used to establish this close connection with WW. Paul retired from WW over 5 years ago in 2002. He has not been affiliated with the company in any way since that time.
Claim: Western Wats is based in Utah, filled with Mormons and many of them have given money to Romney and they instigated the call to help him.
This is stretching things altogether:
- Western Watt's current CEO is not a Mormon.
- Perhaps as many as 6 employees have given money to Mitt Romney. Statistically, that's even low by Utah standards (the company employs 1500 people)
- American Capital Strategies sold WW in December of 2006.
- Niel Hahl (another name to come up in the news) has not been on the board of directors since Dec. 2006. He is not directly affiliated with WW in any way.
- WW is owned by a private equity firm located in the Northeast.
- Not a single board member is Mormon, including the CEO as previously mentioned and the Chairman
Claim: It must have been the Romney camp. Why would an opposing campaign use a Utah-based Mormon-rich firm to conduct the calls?
- WW employs 1500 people across the country
- WW has numerous call centers across the country (not just in Utah)
- If you are a political entity wanting to conduct a survey or collect data WW would be one of the first firms you would call
- WW has conducted research for numerous Fortune 500 firms
- As previously notes, firms associated with other campaigns HAVE used WW in the past
- WW conducts 7000 projects a year. My estimate of a dozen projects is flat wrong. At any given moment they are conducting HUNDREDS of projects.
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