The One Man Interest Group

I’ve been watching some so-called non-political efforts to attack Gov. Daniel’s agenda through the courts (now that the Democrats have all but abandoned their nominee).

It’s led me to look at some other “groups” in and around Indiana.  Our favorite thus far has been the Indiana Home Care Task Force.  A friend of HA passed on the attached document, passed out by this “task force”, to us (seen at the bottom of the post).  It was being circulated in Kokomo (and most likely in a number of other places) in an attempt to encourage welfare recipients to complain to the Feds about FSSA.

But when you Google the Indiana Home Care Task Force you don’t find a website.  There is no reference to what constitutes a member of this organization.  However, you get a lot of references to John Cardwell, who seems to be using this “task force” to cause problems all over the state.  But clearly the Indianapolis Star and others who have quoted Cardwell have failed to do their homework.  It turns out the “task force” is a one-man shell game only the founders of Enron could have accomplished.  Let’s look at the closest thing we could find to a membership roster as reported in the Kokomo Perspective: Legislative Commission coming to Kokomo:

Within the Task Force, organizations such as United Senior Action, Indiana Alliance for Retired Americans, ACLU, The Generations Project, and Hoosiers First have taken a leading role in addressing the privatization issue.

I took a look at these groups out of interest.

(Read more after the leap)

• The Generations Project and Hoosiers First are two heads of the same Cardwell body (read about John Cardwell- previously discussed in an earlier post).
• The President of the Indiana Alliance for Retired Americans (IARA) is also the board Chair of The Generations Project.
• John Cardwell on the board of IARA.
• Also on the board of IARA is Jim Wallihan, Chair of United Senior Action (USA) who also shares staff with Cardwell of The Generations Project.
• Cardwell’s wife, Nancy Griffin, is on the USA board.

If you have a hard time following this see the ENRON flow chart above.  It appears that of the members listed above Cardwell is in direct control of at least 2 and wields considerable influence over an additional two.

So how is it that Cardwell can run around the state purporting to be a leader of a massive group of concerned citizens?  We understand that the Indianapolis Star is shy a few reporters these days but couldn’t they have taken the hour it took for us to discover these connections?

Clearly not.

Last week we said that Cardwell was eligible to join the anti-Mitch cabal.  He’s now a full member.