San Diego Politics Blog

Earlier this week this blog reported on the website www.howardisaliar.com which accuses Howard Kaloogian of collecting money for the recall campaign against Gray Davis, but not using the funds to collect signatures.

After I made my post on this website I was contacted by 2 representatives from the Howard Kaloogian for Congress campaign.  They stated that the allegations were not only false (they claim that Kaloogian’s recall committee was the first to file with the Secretary of State of California and the first to register an online website that collected "several hundred thousand signatures on recall petitions") but that the anti-Kaloogian website was being run by operatives associated with Brian Bilbray’s congressional campaign without any proper attribution to the campaign.

Kaloogian’s representatives say the howardisaliar website dishonors the hundreds of thousands of people who they claim downloaded petitions from the www.recallgraydavis.com website Kaloogian operated.  They pointed me to a column by George Will and a transcript from the CNN program Crossfire (along with dozens of other citations) as their proof that Kaloogian was active early in the recall effort and considered a leader in the recall campaign by the media and political observers.  They also provided statements from individuals involved in the recall effort (including State Senator Tom McClintock, State Assemblyman Ray Haynes, talk show host Melanie Morgan and others) which say that Kaloogian played an integral role in the recall campaign.  In my own web surfing I had found many stories that cited Kaloogian as a leader in the recall including this North County Times article.

The allegations made by these Kaloogian staffers about the howardisaliar website are relevant because the website in question contains no identification that it is sponsored by or approved by Brian Bilbray’s campaign.  Therefore, the Kaloogian campaign staffers argue, Brian Bilbray’s campaign has not only engaged in dirty politics, but the Bilbray campaign has also done so in violation of FEC regulations.

The Kaloogian campaign representatives say the Howard is a Liar website is designed and operated by Gregory Hill.  They claim that Hill is associated with Congressman Darrell Issa and Brian Bilbray’s campaign.  Issa is identified on Bilbray’s campaign website as serving as Bilbray’s Campaign Chairman.

According to Kaloogian’s campaign, the anti-Kaloogian website first appeared when Kaloogian waged an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate in 2004.  Apparently the recall campaign engendered bad blood between the Issa recall committee and Kaloogian’s recall committee.  A story by Dan Smith of the Sacramento Bee confirms this rift.  Issa’s consultant was at the time, and apparently still is, Republican strategist Dave Gilliard.  According to the Flash Report, Gilliard is now serving as the consultant for Brian Bilbray’s congressional campaign.

The Kaloogian campaign representatives say at the time of the Senate campaign that Gregory Hill proudly listed the www.howardisaliar.com website as his creation.  I am unable to confirm this, but a cache of Gregory Hill’s old website does indeed refer to "Howie Kaloogian" and does in fact link his name to the howardisaliar website.  Hill it seems worked for Darrell Issa’s recall committee which was called "Rescue California."

Hill also appears tied to Gilliard’s consulting firm which is now Bilbray’s consulting firm.  In a post on his website, Hill talks about being home from work on the 48th congressional district race.  Gilliard ran the campaign for the Republican candidate in the 48th congressional district candidate, John Campbell.

Kaloogian’s staffers say that at a 2004 Republican convention in Burlingame, California, Issa strategist Phil Paule was spotted pasting "Howard is a liar" stickers on Kaloogian signs.  And they pointed out that not only did Hill work with Paule on Issa’s "Rescue California" but Hill also designed Phil Paule’s website.

Paule says he is now working on "Team Bilbray" which isn’t good for "Team Bilbray" since the howardisaliar website claims in the text at the very bottom of the page that it is not connected to any campaign.  ("Paid for and operated by a private citizen" reads the disclaimer). 

Gregory Hill previously listed on his personal website that he designed the website for Bilbray’s consultant, Dave Gilliard, as well as Darrell Issa’s Rescue California website.

And now the final link between Brian Bilbray’s team and the howardisaliar website.  Notice the domain servers for the howardisaliar.com website, the Gregory Hill website, and Brian Bilbray’s campaign website.  They are all the same.

The registrant information for howardisaliar.com:

Registrant Contact

Name: Internet Domains    Department
Address: PO Box 1016
Sacramento, CA  95812
US
Email Address: domains@steeljaw.net
Phone Number: (916)303-1042

Domain servers in listed order:

ns1.steeljaw.net
ns2.steeljaw.net

And the registration information for GregoryHill.net:

Registrant Contact

Name: Internet Domains    Department
Address: PO Box 1016
Sacramento, CA  95812
US
Email Address: domains@steeljaw.net
Phone Number: (916)303-1042

Domain servers in listed order:

ns1.steeljaw.net
ns2.steeljaw.net

And finally the domain servers listed for brianbilbrayforcongress.com:

   Domain servers in listed order:
      NS1.STEELJAW.NET
      NS2.STEELJAW.NET

Given that the Republican Party today filed a complaint with the FEC because they claim Democrat candidate, Francine Busby, has violated FEC regulations, I inquired if Kaloogian’s campaign planned to file a similar complaint against Brian Bilbray’s campaign.  I was told that a decision on whether to file a formal complaint would be decided in the near future.

Like I said, this race for the 50th is certainly getting interesting!