The Art Robinson campaign is denying allegations outlined below that it is out of money and that $75K mysteriously just “went missing” from its accounts. In an email, Andre Provoncha, a Virginia import working for Robinson’s campaign, writes that “funding allegations are completely false.” Provoncha also refused to explain why, if the campaign is solvent, paid canvassers utilizing a mobile app called Ground Game and contracted to work through November 4 were terminated September 21 after just one week without notice. “We don’t comment on the relationship with our vendors,” wrote Provoncha on September 30, before referring me to the company in charge of the canvassing, Flying JPK Enterprises, Inc.
 Flying JPK Enterprises, Inc is a corporation formed in 2010 owned and operated by former state legislator, Jeff Kropf. More recently, Kropf was the chairman of the Oregon chapter of Americans For Prosperity and and he also founded a non profit organization known as Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation along with other small businesses, all of which appear to be run from his residence in Sublimity, Oregon.
According to Guidestar, Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation raised $327,238 for years 2011-2012. During that same period, Kropf paid himself $142K in salary as the executive director.
The use of paid canvassers is not unusual during election season but it wasn’t until late summer that job solicitations to canvas for a US Congressional District 4 candidate offering up to $15/hr including bonuses began that included rural Coos County. The offers were published on Craig’s List and other online sources. In August, during the Coos County Republican Central Committee meeting, the job announcement named Art Robinson as the candidate in question.
Joanna and Matthew Maedche, a young married couple and experienced political activists, however, heard about the job opportunity from another source. Matt Mathis representing a small start up company called Safari Communications, LLC contacted the Maedches and offered to relocate the couple in order to manage the new Robinson team in Coos County. Matt Maedche had just completed a similar campaign run by Safari for another candidate and trusted Mathis. The couple put their belongings into storage, packed a few necessities and along with their four year-old daughter headed to Coos Bay on September 10 with the expectation of starting work immediately.
Things began to unravel the moment they arrived. First, the promised relocation funds were not available after all. Second, the promised 4th District management job had been given to someone else. Maedche would have to settle for being team leader for Coos County. Third, they would be working for Flying JPK rather than Safari and the mileage reimbursement was now less than originally promised. If all that wasn’t enough, the start date was five days later than promised because Breanna Giles, the individual given Maedche’s job, wasn’t prepared. The couple were running out of resources fast and were camping at Bastendorff Beach to save money.
Independent contracts were eventually signed between Flying JPK and four canvassers to cover Coos Bay. The Maedches, Cintia Henry and a one other person who prefers to remain anonymous executed contracts however Giles never returned copies as promised. The only contract copy retained by the team is one in which Giles neglected to take with her. The team was further provided with a script and four Galaxy tablets loaded with the Ground Game software and began canvassing on September 15 along routes designated by Giles.
Neither Mathis or Giles have responded to calls or emails.
The Allegations
Curiously, Mathis continued to liaise with Maedche and Giles and on September 21 contacted Maedche warning him to expect a call from Giles because Flying JPK was losing its contract “due to Art’s irresponsible spending habits.” Giles came to Coos Bay to meet with the couple wanting them to sign an early termination agreement and threatened to withhold payment until the document was signed. Maedche refused to sign and pressed for more information as to why the canvassing was ending after only one week. According to the Maedches, Giles indicated the Robinson campaign was broke and that $75K had gone missing inexplicably, all claims Provoncha denies.
Giles collected the four Galaxy tablets and left all four Coos Bay canvassers jobless and broke although Flying JPK has since made partial payments according to Maedche. The Maedches are now effectively homeless and bunking in with Henry and all four former canvassers are actively looking for jobs.
“I believed in Art and the things he stood for,” remarked Matt Maedche during an interview. “But Art left us high and dry.”
The Curious Details
It might be easy enough to dismiss the Robinson camp’s responsibility in this matter as simply a case of a naive young couple taking too much on faith or being duped by an overeager Mathis or working for an under capitalized company, except for the curious way the campaign has responded.
Upon hearing of this story and after obtaining documents, text messages and copies of emails supporting the plight of the canvassers I emailed the Robinson campaign on September 26th and explained that “I would like to confirm whether the Robinson campaign contracted directly or indirectly with the firm Flying JPK.” The next morning I received a phone call from Andre Provoncha telling me they were working on my request and would have an answer for me by Monday afternoon. When I hadn’t heard anything by 4:30 on Monday, I called Provoncha who now claimed that it was not the policy of the campaign to “comment on the relationship with our vendors.” Only after I pressed him for several minutes and pointed out it was a matter of public record did he concede that Art Robinson for Congress had a contractual relationship with Flying JPK Enterprises. A couple of hours later I received a clarification email from Provoncha.
“Flying JPK was contracted with the Art Robinson campaign to provide canvassing services until their contract was recently concluded. To our knowledge, all of the canvassers were paid upon completion of work.
Funding allegations are completely false.”
In addition to contacting the campaign I left a message for Jeff Kropf. Kropf did not return my call but on Tuesday, September 30 Kropf emailed me at an address he must have obtained from Provoncha.
Flying JPK was contracted with the Art Robinson campaign to provide canvassing services until our contract was recently concluded. All of our canvassers were immediately paid in full upon completion of our effort and all checks were processed by our bank with the exception of one check which was sent in the mail and has not been cashed. We are verifying the address of that particular contractor to make certain we sent it to the correct address. We have not been contacted by anyone regarding non-payment, so any allegation of such is completely and factually false.
Kropf also volunteered information about Mathis.
Safari Communications is in no way associated with Flying JPK Enterprises Inc. Matt Mathis was a contractor with Flying JPK just like other contractors whose contracts ended when Flying JPK’s contract was concluded with the Robinson campaign. It is my understanding that Matt has formalized his own separate endeavors with Safari, but that was not related to or in any way part of the Flying JPK effort for the Robinson campaign. Again any allegation to the contrary is false and probably from someone misinformed.
Kropf claims no affiliation to Matt Mathis beyond independent contracts, however, a phone number still used by Mathis two days ago and a voice mail answered by “Lt Matt Mathis” is associated via a Facebook page with a site called Project Liberty, bearing the following “© Copyright 2013 Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation. All rights reserved. 1/1/2014”
Provoncha has refused to explain why the Flying JPK contract concluded six weeks early citing the same, “Again we don’t comment on the relationship with our vendors.” Still, Provoncha’s response implies that the reason for the early termination has to do with its apparently close “relationship” with Flying JPK and ignores the obvious question of whether the campaign ran out of funds to complete the canvassing.
As to the actual financial health of Robinson’s campaign, we will have to wait until October 15 to review federal reporting but all indications seem to support the Maedche’s understanding that the campaign is seriously short on funds.
Meanwhile, the canvassers have put up a GoFundMe page to try and recoup some of their losses and pay this months rent. Please help by clicking here
Art Robinson? Please. I value my right to vote, and the ability to at least have some say in how my money is spent to EVER place a vote for the likes of Robinson. His entire act is contrived. Tell-the- people-what-they-want-to-hear Robinson.
Couldn’t agree with you more. Let me repeat that I don’t believe he has any desire to win, I believe he runs for name recognition to pump up donations to his non-profit.
I think the real issue here is that these people actually left everything to work for something they believed in and were rudely mislead. The fact that these peopleake it a routine to build nonsense non profits to simply pay themselves a hefty salary and run frivolous campaigns for the same reasons should be criminal meanwhile leaving families jobless and facing homeless? People who they should be celebrating what they foolishly believed in. Take the money they deserve out of the question and concentrate on the wrong doings of a crooked politician no follow through straight ignorance what do you want the public to do sit by and watch these politicians think they have people under their thumb or give the public a fighting chance and bring the lies to light the issues as you say ray are what lies within the issues you refer to are just muttering bull to get everyone’s mind away from the topic at hand so ray how about discussing intelligently what went wrong here instead of attempting to veer away from topic with muttering non sense
Especially if it turns out that Robinson runs solely to raise funds in order to hire his friends and family and with no serious interest in winning.
I don’t know if this was an open question, but I think Palin is just a dumb-ass cute girl from Wasilla who isn’t smart enough to be a danger to anyone but her own self, but this Art Robinson, in my personal opinion only of course, is a danger because he’s got enough smarts to BE dangerous to others. What does this say about the Republican Party of Oregon for Gawds’ sake? How embarrassing is it that a major party actually votes for these wackos? I mean really, the man is goofey, and people vote for him, where are the sane members of the Republican Party of Oregon? What a sad, sad situation to find ourselves in. Nuklear waste in our foundations, my gawd, with a straight face? And then to sit and lie, when we’ve already seen it?? Yup, just what Oregon needs. Just my pea pickin personal observations of course.
Purveyors of misinformation are all dangerous, regardless of whether they have a degree or a pedigree. People like Robinson and Palin hurt everyone, including themselves.
Ray has become Peanuts’ teacher, blah blah blah………….
But I’d love to share MY personal favorite from The Wacky,Wacky,Weird, Wild World of Art Robinson. (my personal opinion only boys) You boys should have learned what Art learned from the following encounter. Never pick a fight with a woman who is smarter than you. Geesh. Enjoy my absolute favorite Art Robinson piece of all time, except for George Carlin, who would have a field day with these faux politician wanna=beeeees’, http://youtu.be/K8Fzi9rWEAc
Actually quite embarrassing for Oregon red necked conservatives all the way to town.
So who do you think is the nuttiest? Sarah Palin or Art Robinson?
Don’t get angry with me that you wrote a paper-thin attack piece. Take some accountability for your own lack of substance and scruples in using these poor people to try and smear someone rather than debate their ideas. You didn’t even put your own money where you copious mouth was. *Sigh* It’s like this whole cult of Hillary thing. Everyone’s ‘Ready for Hillary’ without listening to any of her policies. While Bernie Saunders and Elizabeth Warren (and Jim Webb now) are getting lambasted for discussing liberal priorities, it’s the Wall Street wing who insist that we all play the politics of celebrity and personality-bashing rather than concentrating on trying to save this country from lurching further into oligopoly and sham-democracy.
Oh, the Koch Brothers! Why not write a new blog post on the wonderful expose done in Rolling Stone the other day? THIS is what you guys should be doing more off rather than lowering the conversation.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-koch-brothers-toxic-empire-20140924
Feel free to dictate content on your own blog
I also note that, despite the different (?) array of commentators on this thread, all so annoyed and throwing around such heated rhetoric, the gofundme page currently has $0 pledged. It’s like they don’t even believe their own crap that they write. Anyway, enough of this nonsense, back to debating actual issues I go…
Sigh……Koch Suckers.
So anyone who disagrees must be a “conservative”? Just throw around invective and don’t deal with the substance of the claims? Oh, to have a thoughtful liberal like Ron Wyden in this race rather than this personal craap we have to put up with.
It is said, there is a fine line between genius and insanity, any thoughtful reader can see which side the Robinson Clan lives on. Please, instead of shooting the messenger, why don’t you “conservatives” on this blog answer the simple question? It shouldn’t be too hard, you’re all over the place on this one subject. Seems to me, no one knows what they’re doing, as M said, if this is the way Robinson runs his campaign, we don’t need him anyplace IN Oregon. What a joke this campaign has become. My personal opinions only boys, you be throwing around the “sue” word? Really? The last groan from a losing argument I’d say. Oh, and the comments about this “foolish” family that moved for a limited job? You assholes don’t know what life is like today for poor people. Your arrogant comment shows you are clueless to life in America today. Your riches won’t protect you from what’s coming boys. This young family deserves to be compensated, and to hell with the rest of you paid stooges working for Art Robinson.
What I think is fascinating is this pattern of using non-profit organizations as a way to earn a salary. Kropf took more than 43% of the donations and grants as a salary… to do what??? Robinson pulls in donations and grants and pays himself and his son more than $100K each annually. Robinson is literally a PAID climate change denier
A random guy working for a contractor said something about him losing $75,000. I am sure someone who bought a Burger King hamburger said something about the CEO to someone else too. I wouldn’t exactly take it for gospel. And no, we don’t manage people who work for contractors. That’s why you contract, for goodness sake. That’s THE VERY POINT. This really is tiresome character assassination gutter journalism. I look forward to you all putting your brains to something worth considerably more of your time.
Actually this article is about the issues of his campaign he promotes jobs yet takes them away if he does this to people working on his own campaign then what will he do for the public you can’t tell me that he doesn’t know a good manager knows who he pays and manages and if his own people say he “lost” 75000 dollars what will he do with the peoples money and if he says he promotes allowing bigger paychecks and bring jobs back then why does he take them away by the misuse of his funds.
“My” candidate? Now I think it might be you who is making assumptions. My politics and Art Robinson’s are far from the same! You could probably have told that from my list of policy priorities that I would like to see debated. If you judge your candidates by simply how well they run their campaigns then you must love almost every incumbent in politics today, from Bernie Saunders to Rand Paul. After all, they run their campaigns so well, they must run the country well too! Clearly that’s quite an eccentric position. No, what you are doing is perpetuating a political conversation in this country that is high on cheap point-scoring and celebrity-style personality-bashing, rather than focusing on ideas, policy and things that actually affect real people. No wonder people are sick of politics, politicians and journalists. Rather than knowing the intricacies of whether Mr Robinson wants to contract with one canvassing operation or another, most would rather know his view on middle-out economics, reviving the timber industry, attracting good jobs, national security etc. Be the change you want to see. Start talking about real issues, for a change.
Read the rest of my blog, we discuss many “real issues” but this particular post is about what happened to these people. Period. If you want to debate specific issues I suggest you start your own topic here https://mgx.com/forums/forum/welcome/
You are reaching and I think you know it. I have no idea why the campaign would want to discuss strategy with a liberal blogger, and I am not sure why they should be responsible for private conversations with people who are vendors of theirs. My business uses Apple Computers: I have no idea about conversations in Apple HQ about their HR function either. And if I decided to switch to a PC, for whatever reason, I don’t think I’d need to email all of Apple’s employees saying why.
I am a registered Democrat and I find this whole thing whack. Can we please talk about the issues? No one has imprisoned anyone on Wall Street over the biggest recession since the 1930s. Median wages have been flat in real terms for decades. ISIS rampages across the Middle East. I am sick of this mud-throwing nonsense. There are huuuge differences between DeFazio and Robinson on POLICY. Let’s debate them.
Are you saying Robinson will only tell the truth to conservatives? So the rest of his possible constituents are left in the dark.
Besides, I didn’t ask anything about campaign strategy. Also, since I am neither a Republican or a Democrat why would I want to engage in a debate about the differences between Peter and Art. The post is really about whether Robinson runs his campaign well and if not why should we expect more from him in Congress.
Finally, in my opinion, your candidate only runs to raise money. He has no expectation or genuine interest in actually winning, that’s obvious from how he handled this little matter with the canvassers.
I think they knew it was part time but were promised till November fourth the real issue is that the canvassers believed in the canadite were robbed from what they believed in and they got smart and started uncovering the real truth. I think the issue isn’t about the money but discovering that what they believed in was lies and the public has the right to know
Right. If Robinson’s campaign will avoid simple questions like “why did you stop canvassing if you still have plenty of money?” then what else is Robinson capable of misleading the public about?
On our graduation rate: “For the class of 2012, Oregon’s on-time graduation rate was second-lowest among the states, behind Nevada.”
http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2014/02/oregon_graduation_rate_barely.html
On the economy and the middle class:
http://www.oregonlive.com/money/index.ssf/2013/10/oregon_jobs_shifting_away_from_middle-class_wages_new_state_report_shows.html
These are the real issues. Have you ever done canvassing for a campaign before? It’s hourly contract work. It isn’t a permanent position. I don’t know the vendor or the ins and outs, but if you move your family because of some part-time, hourly work for a campaign which ends in a month, I think blaming others shows a certain lack of character. I think trying to use this to make money and to score cheap political points rather than debate the issues shows the true intent of those associated with this article.
Nothing you posted here explains why the campaign is covering up for Flying JPK. What are they hiding and why?
If you are a Robinson supporter or even part of the campaign then how about trying to make things right and donate. Actually do what this politicians say they are supposed to do for the people and make it right on behalf of the campaign
I think these issues are very important due to the fact that Robinson’s platform is jobs and education he and his associates left two families facing homelessness if these issues should not be brought to the fore front of journalism then what should be? This article is very accurate and it seems to me that just because it wasn’t in Robinson’s favor doesn’t automatically make this false search the internet the truth is inside doesn’t take a college education to spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing just takes a little research
Whenever someone throws out “lawsuit” you know they are desperate. If he wants to be angry with anyone it should be the people running Art’s campaign for handling this whole thing so badly. Why not simply be forthcoming? “We stopped canvassing because….”
Wow, so much incredibly inaccurate here. I wouldn’t be surprised if this manages to get you a lawsuit. The attempts to hit the Robinson campaign also seems very far-fetched: one of their vendors did something of which they could have no knowledge, so it must be their fault! I am surprised Mr Provoncha was so accommodating. Gutter journalism when we should be discussing issues facing Oregon, like our terrifyingly bad ranking in graduation rates and our poor economy.
Care to be specific?