Nobody's paying a political consultant. If you want some clarity on that issue, the individual that you believe to be a "paid political consultant" happens to have been Ron's Political Director in Iowa for his '08 campaign. Please elaborate as to why it would be a bad idea to have him on board with this project?
I'm in complete agreement that we need familiar faces to be associated with this organization in order for it to solicit serious donations to our cause. It's a bit of a catch-22, however. You can't get people on board without something up and running, but in order for it to be up and running, you have to have familiar faces on board.
This isn't exactly the case, as I do see ways to get things started. I've talked with Maresco about this in some detail, and he is certainly trusted in the community, and he has said he is willing to be involved. I'm not sure, however, he has the ability to effectively handle the financial reporting and bookkeeping required. Another hurdle is the fact that someone that's well respected in the community must 1) be willing to volunteer their time, and 2) be capable of / have experience in handling finances. All of our expenditures will be made transparent, and multiple people will likely have access to this information, so I don't see it to be too big of an issue, but I do see the concern here.
PS - Tangent, I admire your skepticism and zeal in that regard, but nobody is getting any cut of anything. Teacherone is helping with the web development. We received chip-in donations to go toward web development. The only expenditure so far has been purchasing a cheap Joomla site template, which is looking top-notch, and once Teacherone and I finish it, will be a site that would otherwise cost well over 1k that we put together for $59 and our time. There will be some expenses incurred in the future, specifically the development of a real-time moneybomb module and payment processing platform, but that will be tackled when the time comes.
