Anti-Pojman Site Apparently Created by Company Linked to Empower Texans

Note: This story was originally published on The Quorum Report. Join us there daily for coverage of Texas politics and government. 

9.28.14 pojman

The site JoePojman.org accuses the pro-life activist of “being used by establishment powers.”

The conservative website recently launched with the express purpose of attacking a longtime pro-life advocate has apparent links to the conservative group Empower Texans and many of the candidates the group endorses. The site takes aim at Texas Alliance for Life Executive Director Joe Pojman with the claim that he is “being used by establishment powers to cover the tracks of politicians who are weak on life.”

Republican politicians who have been in the crosshairs of Empower Texans like Rep. Bennett Ratliff and Rep. J.D. Sheffield are attacked on the site as being “pro-choice.”

JoePojman.org first came to our attention this past week and it has now been pointed out that the Austin-based new media company that apparently created it, Vici Media, has a client list that includes Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, which of course is an arm of Empower Texans.

The company has also done work for many of Empower Texans’ endorsees like Rep. Scott Turner for Speaker, Rep. Jonathan Stickland, Texas Senate candidate Konni Burton, and others. Those clients can be found on the company’s website. The site critical of Pojman does not currently indicate who developed it or who is paying for it or who created it.

Vici Google Cache

This screenshot shows a development phase version of JoePojman.org, which includes a Vici Media company URL. You can click the image to see a larger version.

However, Pojman provided Quorum Report with a couple screen shots of the site as it was in its development phase. Those pictures show that Vici Media was preparing the site to go online. You can click the image to the right to see a larger version, by the way.

Requests for comment were not returned by Vici Media founder Ryan Mauldin.

Midland oilman Tim Dunn’s spokesman Michael Quinn Sullivan, who is also the president of Empower Texans, said he would assume it is true that the company that set up the anti-Pojman site has done work for his group as well. Sullivan has flatly denied any involvement in the attacks on Pojman.

“I cannot possibly keep track of, or spend time worrying about, what other clients/work our vendors have,” Sullivan said in an email. “I suspect AT&T and Southwest Airlines also do business with lots of folks we endorse and folks we don’t.”

AT&T and Southwest, however, do not tout the endorsements of Texas political professionals like conservative campaign consultant Luke Macias, who said that Vici Media “delivers top shelf results every single time and give their customers a phenomenal experience along the way. They’re the top media company in Texas politics.”

Campaign finance experts QR consulted about the website said that it does not appear to be political advertising – because it’s not meant to have an impact on an election – so, it doesn’t require any disclosure.

Kyleen Wright, President of Texans for Life Coalition, said the increased crossfire within the pro-life community is disturbing.

“These kind of anonymous, ad hominem attacks are unseemly, disappointing and only serve to delight our political opponents,” Wright said. “Whoever these people are, for all their bravado, firing from the shadows is pretty cowardly.”

Copyright September 24, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved. Reprinted with permission. 

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