via The Reid Report by jreid on 10/9/10
Javier Manjarres, who writes a popular blog, The Shark Tank, which promotes conservative candidates like Allen West, David Rivera and Marco Rubio, was outed by an anonymous, but clearly very well connected Twitterer calling him- or herself MIAPolitics on Friday as being not just pro-Rubio, but actually on the Rubio payroll. Manjarres responded via Twitter that he does not work for Rubio:
For the record, no, I do not work for the DNC and never have (he also asked whether I might have “some fabricated check stub,” and added, “hahahaha…”
…and the answer to that is also “no.” haha… ha…? He also responded to another Tweeter, again saying “I do not work for Rubio.” But the Reid Report did do a bit of digging through the Rubio FEC filings, and found the following in the report the campaign filed just before the primary:
The company, Shark Tank Media LLC, was formed by Manjarres in February. It does not yet have an employer identification number, which makes it interesting to figure out how Manjarres opened a business bank account that would allow him to get paid… but I digress.
Now, of course the $5,000 payment could be for advertising, (UPDATE: as of Saturday evening, there are Marco Rubio ads on Javier’s site in a banner at the top) … and under “purpose of disbursement” it does say “media.”
And it should be noted that there’s nothing improper or illegal about a campaign hiring a blogger to work for them — fellow Senate candidate Kendrick Meek hired one of Florida’s most prolific liberal bloggers, Kenneth Quinnell for a time, to be his new media outreach director. But when Kenny was blogging for Kendrick, he disclosed it. Manjarres has at times been critical of Rubio campaign strategy, and hasn’t come across as a shill, but it is interesting that at least in the primary, he was allegedly a paid Rubio operative.
MIA Politics, again, via Twitter, has alleged that what Manjarres did for Rubio during the primary was to attend Charlie Crist events and videotape them, both to see who was attending, and to look out for issues that might help or hurt the Rubio campaign. For instance, he’d hear chatter about immigration, and help Rubio hone his anti-illegal immigration credentials in front of the tea party crowd. But again, that is the apparently informed speculation of one anonymous Twitterer…
UPDATE: Manjarres has reportedly told Adam Smith of the SP Times that the money that came from Rubio, and additional sums from Rick Scott, were for ads. However, going through the Rubio FEC reports from July 2009 to the most recent one, just before the August primary, the payment purpose “media” turns out to be pretty rare.
In fact, there are only a handful of instances where the payment purpose was “media”: nearly $23,000 in two reports for Thompson Creative in Dothan, Georgia, which may or may not be this print and web design company; over $1,169,442 to the advertising firm Scott Howell & Company in Dallas, TX, which produces TV ads for Republican candidates including Meg Whitman in California and Linda McMahon in Connecticut; $11,784 to Maverick Picture Co in Washington D.C., which I don’t think is related to Madonna-founded Maverick films, and which I couldn’t find online; plus in the first quarter 2010 filing, there was $12,114 and $14,089 for Osprey Production and Post out of Chapin, SC, and two $10,000 outlays to Paladin Public Affairs in Tallahassee. What’s interesting about these outlays, is that none of them is for “advertising,” except in the instance of Scott Howell, in which “advertising” doesn’t mean buying ads, it means producing them…
Indeed, Rubio’s online ads have been pretty ubiquitous, even turning up on liberal blogs like RawStory.com. But there are no other line items in any of his FEC filings that appear to be for the purchase of advertising, other than the “media” entry for The Shark Tank. That could mean nothing, or it could mean that MIA Politics is closer to the truth. As for now, Manjarres continues to deny to TRR that he has ever worked for Rubio.
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