Updates
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Hart to Hart
In "Hart Ache" (Outfront, July/August 1997), Mother Jones uncovered allegations that Benjamin Hart, the Christian Coalition's former direct-mail vendor and a confidant of its former executive director Ralph Reed, had been overbilling the right-wing group for his services. We also reported that Hart had tried unsuccessfully to filch a copy of the coalition's donor database. According to a lawsuit the coalition filed against Hart in November, he got the next best thing—the coalition's mailing list.
The suit accused Hart's firm, Hart Conover, of using an unauthorized copy of the list to solicit funds for two rival conservative groups run by Hart and asked for $350,000 in punitive damages.
Two former coalition employees have said that Reed gave Hart the list, but Reed and the coalition have denied that charge. So, has Hart, who confidentially settled with the coalition in February, finally worn out his welcome? "I can't say at this point," coalition spokesman Arne Owens told Mother Jones. "We are not using him now."
Generation Mex
In "The Sleeping Giant Awakes" (January/February), Dale Maharidge argued that neither political party is prepared to capture the emerging Latino vote in California. But the California Republican Party is taking steps to change that. In February, Mike Madrid, a Mexican American who recently graduated from Georgetown University, where he studied Latino voting trends, was named the state party's political director. Madrid says he intends to capitalize on Latinos' social conservatism, and that he intends to focus on "Generation Mex," or younger Latinos. Madrid's message to Democrats: "Be very afraid. We represent the future of the Latinization of California."
Monsanto Pays Up
More on our January/February 1997 story "A Growing Concern": Monsanto has begun paying settlements to Mississippi farmers who claimed the company's genetically engineered Roundup Ready cotton seeds failed to perform. The company also has taken 100,000 bags of the seed off the market.
