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The Democratic Party is all but defunct in Alabama. That has left traditionally Democrat-aligned groups like the Alabama Education Association (AEA) to concoct elaborate schemes to funnel money into Republican primaries to influence elections without voters realizing. This election cycle, deceptively-named groups like The Alabama Foundation for Limited Government and Stop Common Core PAC, which conservatives would probably be inclined to agree with at first blush, in reality appear to be little more than a money laundering operation.

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RELATED: Deceptively-named Alabama Foundation for Limited Govt. working with Obama allies

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But in spite of all the action in Alabama being in the Republican primary, it would be foolish to think that the left’s “community organizing” machine is just sitting back and letting it happen.

In 2013, Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Mark Kennedy and his Executive Director, Bradley Davidson, broke away from the deeply-indebted State Party and launched a new group called the Alabama Democratic Majority. Their goal was to break the stranglehold Republicans now have on Alabama. The group was only able to raise a little over $18,000 and hasn’t given a penny to any candidates.

Several weeks ago Davidson told the Anniston Star that the Alabama Democratic Majority was essentially disbanding. In it’s place, Davidson announced that he and Kennedy were re-launching a group called Empower Alabama, which had been founded in 2006 by former Democratic U.S. Senator Donald Stewart, but had been dormant since spending a little over $100,000 during the 2008 election cycle.

Unlike the short-lived Alabama Democratic Majority, Empower Alabama clearly has significant funding and has tapped into Organizing for Action, the non-profit entity formed by President Obama’s political advisors that consists of the grassroots infrastructure built during his Presidential campaigns.

Empower Alabama has staffed up quickly with several former Obama campaign staffers and veterans of other well-known liberal activist groups. Here are just a few examples:

• Lestian McNeal was a Field Organizer for Obama for America, then became a National Volunteer Trainer for Organizing for Action. He’s now a north Alabama field organizer for Empower Alabama.
• Kenneth Rebella was a field organizer in Iowa for Obama’s 2012 campaign. He is now Empower Alabama’s Regional Field Director for East Alabama.
• Micah Morris worked for Planned Parenthood for three years where she “organized for reproductive rights… [That’s the] cornerstone of how I view my work and how I view the potential of what we can do here in Alabama,” she said during a recent speech in north Alabama. “We can win here.”
• Jenna Patterson struggled with the decision “to leave a place where I could marry my wife legally,” Washington, D.C., where she worked in the Obama Administration’s Justice Department. She ended up deciding to move to Alabama to run Empower Alabama’s Calhoun County field operation.

A quick look at Empower Alabama’s Facebook page shows them already active across the state registering voters ahead of the upcoming June 3rd elections.

Alabama has open primaries, meaning that voters don’t have to officially register with one party or the other and can decide to vote in either primary at the ballot box. So left-leaning groups are undoubtedly excited about the prospect of Empower Alabama getting traditionally Democratic voting blocs to the polls on June 3rd to influence the GOP primaries.

Whether they are ultimately successful in swaying any races will come down to voter turnout. If Republicans turn out in strong numbers, Empower Alabama and their allies won’t be able to overcome it. But without a hotly-contested governor’s race at the top of the ballot and no competitive congressional races anywhere outside of central Alabama, they’re banking on Republicans sitting at home on election day thinking their vote won’t matter.

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There are elected officials and candidates who are respected greatly, even by people who don’t agree with them — leaders with the courage of their convictions, individuals with a backbone.

Just look at what Ted Cruz has done in recent months.

Even James Carville, the Democrat consultant who led Bill Clinton’s political operation, called him “the most talented and fearless Republican politician of the last 30 years.” Carville doesn’t agree with Cruz, not by a long shot, but he respects him. “He ain’t squishy, not in the least,” Carville said.

Then there are politicians who will tell people whatever they want to hear to get elected or to accomplish their agenda once in office.

One national publication devotes an entire section of their website to fact-checking these folks. They rank their lies or misstatements using “pinocchios.” Little white lies get one pinocchio, whoppers like some of President Obama’s recent comments get up to 4 pinocchios.

Enter Heather Sellers, Republican candidate for Alabama House of Representatives in HD74. She has vowed to make cutting crime a top priority in Montgomery and attacked her primary opponents for being soft because “the word ‘crime’ fails to appear anywhere on the candidates’ websites or brochures.”

We’ll give Sellers one pinocchio for that one.

The legislature has very little to do with local crime issues, and she knows that, but chose to make it a center piece of her campaign anyway, attacking her opponents along the way. However, to her credit, the word “crime” does not appear on her opponents’ websites. It’s not exactly a lie, but it’s not entirely ingenious either.

Then Sellers attended a candidate forum hosted by the Alabama Education Association (AEA).

She promptly stated during the left-leaning group’s event that she would do away with Republicans’ school choice reform bill. Not only that, she said she would repeal the Rolling Reserve Act, a bill that caps spending, forcing the government to live within its means. Alabama’s Education Budget has avoided proration and painful mid-year cuts because of that bill, and gone on to repay hundreds of millions of dollars to the Education Trust Fund’s Rainy Day Account.

Running as a fiscal conservative and education reformer while opposing those two conservative positions? That’ll get you at least two, if not three pinocchios.

Both of Sellers’ positions outlined above are AEA-endorsed positions. Yellowhammer has written extensively about AEA’s fights against conservatives and their partnerships with national liberal groups, including the Obama Administration’s political wing, Organizing for Action.

So, why in the world would Sellers, a Republican primary contender, suddenly go all-in with the state’s most prominent liberal force?

To put it simply, the Sellers campaign saw a chance to take advantage of the AEA’s hatred of one of their opponents.

Sellers and fellow Republican candidate Charlotte Meadows have been neck and neck in recent polls. AEA despises Meadows because of her advocacy for school choice, and has spent roughly $50,000 over the last several weeks attacking her on TV and in mailers. Sellers saw an opening, and has totally sold-out to AEA to take Meadows down and skate through to the runoff.

Conservative groups have taken notice over the last week an tried to come to Meadows’ aid. The Alabama Forestry Association, which Yellowhammer named one of the Top 5 Conservative Groups in the state, has endorsed Meadows, as did David Keene, past president of the NRA and longtime Chairman of the American Conservative Union.

I called Sellers over the weekend in hopes of asking her about her recent campaign decisions and newly-announced policy positions. Before I had a chance to ask her any questions, she politely asked for a few minutes to take care of some things at home and said she would call me right back. That was the last I heard from her.

A little over a week ago I received a phone call from Sellers’ husband, Rick, who is running her campaign. He was upset over this paragraph from a previous Yellowhammer article:

Meadows is under fire from the AEA because of her support of the Alabama Accountability Act. She is running against fellow Republicans Heather Sellers and Dimitri Polizos, both of whom have said they would not have voted for the bill — either for policy reasons or because of concerns with the process by which it was passed.

Rick felt that Yellowhammer had unfairly portrayed Heather as sympathetic to AEA’s cause. He explained to me that their family has done as much, or more, than anyone in the state to fight the AEA over the years. I disagreed that Yellowhammer had been unfair to Sellers, but took the criticism to heart. The conversation ended on a positive note, and I honestly thought that I may have read their campaign wrong.

But over the last week, everything I suspected has been confirmed.

I have a lot of respect for the Sellers’ political activism over the years, and I believe they have by and large been a positive force for Republican and conservative ideals. I also think they are good and decent people.

But something has happened in this race. The Sellers have sold-out in an effort to get elected. Any attempt to say otherwise deserves the maximum, four pinocchios.

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Alabama Education Association (AEA) political operatives, including AEA chief Henry Mabry, spent this past Saturday and Sunday in Birmingham attending Democracy for America’s “Campaign Academy,” a workshop for liberal-progressive community organizers.

Democracy for America (DFA) was founded in 2004 by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

According to Wikipedia, “Democracy for America has helped elect over 600 progressives into office, including President Barack Obama, while building their membership to over a million like-minded progressives across all fifty states.”

Other candidates DFA has heavily backed in the past include Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, who narrowly missed being named the U.S. Senate’s most liberal member by the National Journal, and the U.S. Senate’s first self-proclaimed socialist, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Here is some background on a few of the DFA representatives who were brought in to train the AEA:

Matthew “Mudcat” Arnold:

According to his bio, Mudcat has “designed sophisticated organizing operations for MoveOn.org, the Sierra club, and a host of other non-profit and labor clients.”

Michael Cook:

Cook is a former member of Bill Clinton’s campaign staff. He has also been executive director of the Arkansas Democratic Party and chief of staff to a Democrat Lt. Governor of Arkansas.

Franco Caliz

Caliz’s bio proudly states that he was “a passionate progressive even at age 14,” at which point he cut his teeth in the “world of political organizing with John Kerry’s presidential campaign.”

Breakout sessions during the workshop included finance strategy, developing a campaign message, targeting your universe, get out the vote (GOTV).

The AEA’s partnership with Democracy for America comes on the heels of their decision to work with Obama’s political operation to help them turn out voters in legislative races in 2014, even in Republican primaries where AEA is actively recruiting and funding candidates.

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The country got its first glimpses on Monday of President Barack Obama’s advocacy group Organizing for Action’s climate change push.

“Gravity exists. The Earth is round. Climate change is happening. #ScienceSaysSo,” Obama tweeted to his 35.1 million Twitter followers.

Gravity exists. The Earth is round. Climate change is happening. #ScienceSaysSo

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 12, 2013

That tweet and a slate of scheduled events and protests are just a few things OFA has lined up for what they have dubbed “Action August,” during which they will promote the president’s agenda across the country, especially with regard to climate change.

Organizing for Action launched their Alabama efforts today starting with Alabama’s 4th Congressional District representative Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville.

In an argument caught on camera by the Cullman Times, OFA environmental activists and a local group called “Friends of Coal” debated the truth about global warming in front of Aderholt’s Cullman office.

“Everyone I know is sick,” one unidentified environmental activist said. When asked if she blamed coal she responded by saying, “I’m blaming it on everything.”

“What you’re talking about and promoting is not natural,” she continued. “Breaking the bones of mother earth is not natural.” She said she preferred wind power to fossil fuels.

Witnesses on site told Yellowhammer the small group had come to give Aderholt the Climate Change Denier “award,” but he was not in the office at the time of their visit.

Aderholt later responded, saying he sees the global warming push as an indication that the president has misplaced his priorities.

“President Obama’s political organization Organizing for Action’s mission is a perfect example of the disconnect between the Obama Administration’s policies and America’s sluggish, jobless recovery,” Aderholt said. “While Obama’s Organizing for Action is showing concern about the climate change debate, hardworking Alabamians and I are concerned with our nation’s dismal jobs climate.”

Aderholt expressed concerns that the Administration’s climate change push could have a devastating impact on the automobile industry, especially in Alabama, the nation’s third largest automobile manufacturer.

He also cited overburdensome environmental regulations and the President’s refusal to approve the Keystone Pipeline as other ways the Administration’s environmental policies are hurting the economy.

“The only climate we should be talking about today is this country’s stalled economic and jobs climate. It is time for groups like Organizing for Action to understand the continued impact of this President’s policies and that they directly produced the worst economic recovery in modern history.”

Yellowhammer state political reporter Adam Thomas contributed to this report

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Barack Obama told a crowd of his most loyal grassroots advocates gathered at a Washington, D.C. hotel on Monday that he needs their help. With his second term agenda stalled, the president is hoping his advocacy arm can pressure Republicans in Congress into being more willing participants in his march toward Progressive Utopia.

Obama’s former campaign apparatus, Organizing for America, has transitioned to become Organizing for Action (OFA), a non-profit entity with the goal of promoting the president’s agenda.

The thought of the president turning his grassroots campaign success into legislative muscle was at one time concerning to Republicans, but since its launch, OFA has been little more than a blip on the political radar. The Washington Post reported in June that the group had already halved its fundraising goal after donations trickled in at a much slower pace than expected.

However, the president’s team is hoping to get things back on track with what they are dubbing “Action August.” The initiative will launch on Obama’s birthday, August 4.

“We will be celebrating and defending and promoting ObamaCare across the country,” OFA executive director Jon Carson told the assembled group on Monday.

ObamaCare has faced numerous setbacks since its initial passage in March of 2010.

Most recently, the administration chose to delay until after the 2014 elections the portion of ObamaCare that requires companies that employ 50 or more workers to offer coverage or face fines. Republicans have since called for a delay on the individual mandate as well, and ObamaCare continues to be one of the most unpopular major pieces of legislation ever passed into law.

According to POLITICO, “the grassroots events will also put pressure on reluctant lawmakers on the immigration bill — a proposal that was passed by the Senate, but faces an uphill battle in the GOP-controlled House.

Alabama’s own Sen. Jeff Sessions was the leading conservative voice against the Gang of Eight’s immigration proposal in the Senate, and several members of Alabama’s congressional delegation have pledged to fight its passage in the House.

But after the recent dust up with environmentalists at the Alabama Public Service Commission, OFA’s Alabama group is hoping to sieze on an opportunity to promote the president’s global warming agenda as well.

“OFA volunteers across the country are holding ‪#climate‬ change deniers in Congress accountable,” OFA-Alabama posted on their Facebook on Monday along with a picture of a climate change house party. “OFA’s action on climate change is just getting started. With Action August just around the corner, the time to get involved is now,” the picture’s caption states.

Yellowhammer noted in May that Alabama’s school employees union, the AEA, is planning to work with OFA so they can utilize their field staff during 2014 legislative races.

With OFA’s upcoming partnership with Alabama’s most well-funded leftwing political organization — AEA — and their well-timed push for increased environmental regulations, it will be interesting to see if OFA-Alabama can begin to gain some traction. Recent history suggests it will be difficult. According to the Washington Post, “Many of [OFA’s] efforts have been centered in liberal strongholds and Democratic-leaning swing states, with little impact on more conservative areas.”

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Related:
1. AEA plans to hire Obama political operation for 2014
2. Brooks, Roby and Rogers vow to fight ‘Gang of 8’ bill in the House

What else is going on?
1. Stand your ground laws under attack nationally as a result of Zimmerman
2. Shelby advocates for Huntsville-based space program, asks for more accountability
3. Bentley picks up Forestry Association endorsement
4. Power points, prayer controversy & protestors: just another day at the PSC
5. The Byrne Identity: The front-runner with the target on his back

The National Republican Senatorial Committee last week announced Alabama native Michael Joffrion as their new Southeast political director.

According to Roll Call, “Joffrion will oversee the committee’s efforts to topple Democratic incumbents in Arkansas, Louisiana and North Carolina, as well as hold on to retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ GOP-held seat in Georgia.”

In 2010, Joffrion was the Political Director for the Alabama Republican Party. He is also a graduate of Hoover High School and Auburn University, so his Alabama roots run deep.

Republicans are cautiously optimistic about their chances to regain control of the U.S. Senate in 2014. Democrats will be defending 21 seats compared to 14 for the GOP. Several Democrat stalwarts have opted for retirement rather than slugging it out one more time. Montana Senator Max Baucus, Iowa’s Tom Harkin and Michigan’s Carl Levin have all announced they will not be seeking re-election.

D.C. insiders say that Republicans will be going all-in for the Senate this cycle because the tables will be turned in 2016 when Democrats will only have 10 seats up for re-election compared to 24 for the GOP.

Joffrion will be a central player in the Senate GOP’s political operation. We caught up with him over the weekend. Here’s what we found out…

Yellowhammer
How did running the field operations for the Alabama Republican Party prepare you for the Romney campaign, and now the NRSC?

Michael Joffrion
My three years at the ALGOP were beneficial in preparing me for the Romney campaign and my new position with the NRSC by giving me the opportunity to build a political department from scratch. My previous experience was as a field rep for the RNC and the Giuliani campaign in Iowa, so Speaker Hubbard and [then-ALGOP Executive Director] John Ross put a lot of faith in me to bring a target state-like quality political department to Alabama. At the ALGOP I learned how to manage a staff, identify and target swing voter universes, sell a Victory program to stakeholders, and how to budget for a department.

I think one of the hardest parts of running a department or a campaign is staff management. All the other skills can be taught, but managing staff can only be learned from experience. My time at the ALGOP was the perfect environment to learn in because of the management style of John Ross and the quality staffers I had under me. If it weren’t for those two aspects, I wouldn’t have been ready to manage 86 people in North Carolina for the Romney campaign.

Yellowhammer
North Carolina, where you were state director for Mitt Romney, stood out as a bright spot on election day in 2012. What was the difference in North Carolina that allowed Romney to win a state Obama had carried four years prior?

Joffrion
I think we were able to flip North Carolina in 2012 for a few reasons.

1. North Carolina was not taken for granted in 2012. In 2008, the McCain campaign didn’t treat it like a target state until August, and at that point it was too late. This cycle, we were fully staffed up in NC by mid-May and we matched the intensity and organization that OFA had.

2. We prepared for early voting the moment we launched the campaign in NC. In 2008, the Republicans were caught off guard by how well OFA was able to turn out their base before election day and it created such a massive vote deficit, the McCain campaign couldn’t overcome it on election day. This time, reducing the early vote difference was our number one priority as an organization. We didn’t focus on turning out high propensity voters during early voting, instead we spent the overwhelming majority of our resources on turning out the low propensity voters. By simply turning out voters earlier who are going to vote on election day no matter what, you are only playing a shell game for positive media stories. Instead, we have to turn out people who might not vote on election day. This cycle, we succeeded in doing that and had a sizable reduction in our vote deficit going into election day.

3. In many target states, the long slog of a primary season hurt us due to having to run far to the right until the end of April. In North Carolina, that wasn’t the case due to the makeup of the electorate.

Yellowhammer
How are technological advancements changing the way grassroots operations are run?

Joffrion
I think technological advancement has affected political operations more than any other area of campaigns. It has progressed so far and so fast that the 2004 campaign technology looks like a rotary dial phone compared to the smart phone that is the 2012 campaign technology. The biggest advancement is in the ability to capture and analyze thousands of pieces of data on individual voters. Where the Republicans have fallen behind is with analytics and implementation. While we still have remarkably accurate micotargeting data, we have to take the next step with it like OFA has.

Yellowhammer
Democrats failed recently to recruit choice senate candidates in several key battleground states — including Georgia, which is one of the states where you will be working. What issues do you think are contributing to Democrats’ candidate recruitment troubles?

Joffrion
The NRSC has gone about candidate recruitment in a very different way than the Democrats. Democrats haven’t been able to recruit candidates in states where they recently boasted they’d compete, mainly TX, WV, ME, GA, KY, SC & TN. Other than Maine, the other states were won by Romney and have more conservative electorates; as a result, they have tried to recruit candidates who don’t fall in step with the Obama/Reid/Schumer agenda. They have been unsuccessful so far, with [Georgia Representative] John Barrow and [South Dakota Representative] Stephanie Herseth Sandlin headlining those failures.

Yellowhammer
How do you feel about the GOP’s chances to win the majority in the U.S. Senate in 2014?

Joffrion
We work each and every day to win the majority. Anything less is a failure. The Democrats’ entire 2014 map is on defense, forcing them to spend resources on candidates with weak numbers. In my experience, it takes a lot more energy to be on defense instead of offense and we are entirely on offense. The map is good for Republicans this cycle. The seven red states are a given, but we will also be competitive in New Hampshire, Iowa, Michigan, Colorado, and Minnesota.

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What else is going on?
1. Sessions warns immigration proposal will depress wages ‘for maybe 20 years-plus’
2. Study shows Birmingham’s city government is gigantic
3. Bentley will not shut the door on Medicaid expansion
4. Alabama TEA Party Group Sues IRS
5. House GOP pushing health insurance mandate for illegal immigrants

The board of directors for the Alabama Education Association has purportedly approved $4 million to be taken from their reserve account to be dedicated to what they are calling “The Grand Plan for 2014.”

According to sources familiar with the AEA’s political operation, the $4 million is over and above what will be spent out of their A-VOTE PAC, the primary vehicle they use for political expenditures. The money will be used to fund a voter turnout program that will include voter identification and other grassroots efforts on behalf of AEA-backed candidates.

Sources say that the AEA will also be working with Barack Obama’s political operation, Organizing for Action (formerly known as Organizing for America), so AEA can utilize their field staff. OFA is a non-profit entity that was formed by Obama’s political advisors for the purpose of continuing to tap into the grassroots infrastructure built during his Presidential campaigns.

The president’s advisors hoped OFA would give them an unprecedented advocacy arm to help advance Obama’s second term agenda. Their efforts to this point have fallen flat.

OFA’s first major focus was on helping the President convince the Senate to expand background checks for gun sales. They failed. They have since moved on to climate change, and other issues that play to the liberal base.

To put it bluntly, OFA has little to no ability to move the needle in a conservative state like Alabama.

According to the Washington Post, “Many of [OFA’s] efforts have been centered in liberal strongholds and Democratic-leaning swing states, with little impact on more conservative areas.”

With almost all of the action being in Republican primaries in 2014, it will be interesting to watch how the AEA allocates its resources and utilizes OFA.

AEA recently fired their longtime PR manager, David Stout. Stout is well-known in political circles for penning the teachers’ union’s propaganda publication, The AEA Journal. Insiders say the publication will now be produced by Matrix, LLC, the state’s top Democrat political consulting firm.

(This post has been updated to read that AEA will “work with” rather than “hire” OFA)

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What else is going on?
1. Bentley Signs Gun Bill into Law
2. Cap-and-Trade by Other Means
3. Leftwing Washington Post Writer finds Sessions-Bashing Friend in AL.com
4. Apple CEO (& Auburn Grad) Tim Cook Bashes U.S. Tax System
5. EXCLUSIVE: Shelby Discusses His Economic Development Vision for Alabama