Tim Mooney

Tim Mooney is a former partner of ARNO Consulting, which has been accused of ballot fraud in multiple states. Mooney is the national coordinator for Save Our Secret (SOS) Ballot and has been specifically cited as in charge of their signature gathering efforts.

Mooney is partner in Silver Bullet, LLC, a petition circulating firm founded in 2008. One of his partners in Silver Bullet is Chuck Warren, who was interviewed by the FBI about his role in the alleged illegal wiretapping of a Provo, Utah Councilwoman.

The National Chairman of “SOS Ballot,” Earnest Istook, a former Oklahoma Congressman, has credited Mooney and Warren with originating the campaign effort.

2009

Tim Mooney, as national coordinator for SOS Ballot, has hired his own firm, Silver Bullet LLC to collect signatures for “SOS Ballot,” a deceptive, misleading and frivolous multi-state ballot initiative and referenda campaign based in Las Vegas. Mooney has refused to identify who is funding his work for SOS Ballot.

2008

Tim Mooney, as a partner of ARNO Political Consultants, was the spokesperson for a South Dakota initiative to end short-selling. The initiative was backed by Patrick Byrne, CEO of online retailer of Overstock.com and a longtime financial supporter of right-wing initiatives. Mooney worked on the South Dakota initiative, and Byrne backed it, despite the fact that Mooney is based in Arizona and Byrne lives in Utah.

"Mooney recruited state Rep. Hal Wick, R-Sioux Falls, to serve as chairman and treasurer for the ballot committee, South Dakotans for Securities Reform." Wick told a reporter that he had no idea where AESR got its funds and that Tim Mooney had sole charge of the finances for the ballot committee. (South Dakota Municipalities, June 2008)

The sole report filed by SDSR shows a donation of $77,091.61 from American Entrepreneurs for Securities Reform with expenditures totaling the exact same amount. While these expenditures are listed (for example – advertising, consulting, salaries, etc), they are not itemized to show what company was paid for the consulting or what exact amount. (state.sd.us Campaign Finance Disclosure filed February 1, 2008, and accessed July 2, 2009)

2005

A Mooney authored memo surfaced in 2005 that detailed how ballot measures could be used to allow “the use of unlimited non-personal money for political positioning advantages.” He later admitted that the memo secured the financial support of Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, who once said he wanted to use a silver bullet against the National Education Association. The effort was also supported by Florida State Representative Adam Hasner, who is one of the leading backers of SOS Ballot in his state and hired a public relations firm known for its connections to the “Intelligent Design” movement.

2001-2005

Mooney worked for Las Vegas-based Capitol Strategies in the early 2000s, which had two listed officers, Chuck Warren and Steve Wark. During that time, Wark and Mooney worked together on a number of projects, including raising money and gathering signatures for Ralph Nader’s 2004 presidential campaign and running Get Out the Vote operations for the 2004 Bush Cheney campaign in Florida.

Capitol Strategies had its business license revoked in 2005 by the state of Nevada.

2002

In April of 2002, Mooney was fired from his position as campaign manager with Lynette Boggs McDonald’s congressional campaign because of his “lack of full attention.”

1990-1996

Tim Mooney was the co-founder of the Southwest Policy Group and worked there from December 1990 to May 1996. The firm’s clients included Phillip Morris, the Tobacco Institute, and Americans for Tax Reform.

During this time period Mooney also incurred several federal and state liens for failing to pay his taxes.

1993

In 1993, Mooney was the Arizona State Director for the National Federation of Independent Business, an organization that opposed passage of the “Family and Medical Leave Act.” That was also the same year that the Arizona NFIB sponsored a bill to hide corporate financial records from the public.

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