Andrew Sullivan notes today that one of the biggest financial supporters of the Yes on 8 campaign is Elsa Prince Broekhuizen, who has pumped $450,000 into the campaign. Broekhuizen is the mother of Blackwater founder and owner Erik Prince and Bush Pioneer Betsy DeVos. She’s also quite the patron of the religious right.
At first blush, the two groups don’t have a whole lot in common besides neighboring real estate in the political spectrum. But as Blackwater continues its unwanted presence in San Diego (spawning aspirants to the throne in Hemet), Michigan resident Broekhuizen is just a big fish in the flood of out-of-state money trying to buy their way into a change to California’s constitution.
This particularly hits San Diego as the repeated recipient of unwanted outside attention. San Diego was targeted by the national GOP as a test case for turning urban areas Republican which led to the destruction of an entire progressive generation in San Diego. We’ve been battling against Blackwater’s presence and a disinterested city government for two years. And in concert with the, erm, disconcerting video on the right, The Call will be welcoming to to 100,000 peopleto Qualcomm Stadium on Saturday for "[c]orporate prayer and fasting for the protection of traditional marriage and the soul of our nation." I’ll be there so you don’t have to be.
Look, Dave is right: This is about harming same-sex couples. But the other long-term implications are starting to show themselves. The Republican Party musters its national resources to turn San Diego red and succeeds for a full generation.
Blackwater decides to take your tax dollars- laundered through the Bush Administration, the Iraq War and the privatization of the military- and force its way into California while expanding and diversifying its portfolio to include a private navy and security contracts for Latin American governments.
And now the same national big money forces of the religious right- whether it’s the Mormon Church or Erik Prince’s mother, this has the potential to turn into a disturbing trend. That the extreme right wing of this country can nationalize an issue and force its will on California. If this keeps working, I don’t want to contemplate what’ll come next.
There’s one week to go. You can contribute to the No on 8 campaign through Equality For All at the Calitics ActBlue page and help push Equality For All past $1 million raised on ActBlue. And you can get involved through the No on Prop 8 website. For example, I know during Saturday’s "The Call" event, there are plans for doing real calling in San Diego and throughout the state.
full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign
Cross posted from Calitics





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Blackwater in bed with the Mormons?
(Sorry, image be gone.)
There really is nothing so low they won’t have their hand in it.
$450,000 from Elsa Prince Broekhuizen … $409,000 from the ”Concerned Women of America” … Wads of money from Dobson’s outfit, the first payment of $50,000 started this whole thing off …
We need to seriously look at banning the use of out-of-state money in California elections.
You think this is Blackwater’s money??? Haha, do your research…
Her former husband, Erik’s father, started Prince Manufacturing, which after his death was sold for over 1 billion dollars.
All anyone has to do to see where these jerks are coming from is substitute your ethnic group of choice and the rhetoric is extremely redolent of Jim Crow days.
DeVos is also the Amway family, IIRC
Verrry smarmy connections going on here.
I reported all of this about the Blackwater/ Elsa prince connection to the Prop 8 campaign yesterday in Teddy Partridge’s post “Maria Shriver Will Vote No On Prop 8″ in the comments…..
I also read that the ATF is contracting Blackwater to raid medical marijuana facilities across Southern California. It is reported that the heavy handed Blackwater thugs not only confiscate the legalized medical marijuana and close down these centers put also routinely ransack them and destroy everything in the offices to setback any chance of these offices to resume operation.
Hahaha “reported”, sure… You made a vague connection without doing research or having any knowledge of where the dollars came from. Way to go gumshoe!
Kinda like Obama and ACORN… oh, nevermind, wrong radical blog….
Blackwater and Amway. There’s a dark union.
I should have said commented not reported, sorry. I did include an article that documented this and pointed out the Blackwater connection in my headline of the comment.
Guess it depends on your definition of smarmy.
This sounds like the plot of a bad horror flick. Beelzebub and Mephistophales take human form and lead two super-rich families to dominate American politics and usher in the age of darkness.
Thanks, Lucas, for making the connections between Blackwater’s push in San Diego and Elsa Prince’s huge donations to the Prop 8 cause. I don’t know what a Michigan grandma thinks she’s doing bothering us here in California. As my own grandmother used to say when her grandkids got into each others’ business: “Tend yer own affairs.”
Do whatever you like wherever you live, Grandma Blackwater. But leave us Californians alone. Or maybe we’ll come to Michigan to write hate of Dutch Reformed into your state’s constitution.
we threw these idiots out of the city and county twice, and now they’re back to buy our body politic. why us? why do they want to force themselves into THIS city? over 30 yrs, out of state rethugs, working with bribable local oligarch political bosses of both parties, have seized and destroyed our city council, county supervisors, city charter, city munipical pensions (to the point that the municipal coffers are now effectively bankrupt), our public schools (thanks to the odious DC operative Alan Bersin), our safety (by gutting homegrown lawenforcement, gave us vigilente border militias from Michigan, Utah, Arizona and Ohio, and now with the likes of Blackwater), and they put a triple-tiered Berlin wall through the middle of the city to boot (after the Dept of Homeland Security barred the ability of any
local government or court to impose conditions or limits on it’s construction).
so I’m just going to say it: GO HOME. leave us alone. go away. or at least go to the OC or Fresno where the masses might actually like you.
The Gay Marriage ban initiatives and the anti-abortion ones are part of a religious war. Religious wars know no boundaries, that’s why these crusaders find it perfectly acceptable to donate large sums of money to fund these things from anywhere and everywhere. They believe they are doing God’s work and the whole world is fair game. Their various Christian Ministries all over the world prove that as well.
The Bush family resents being left off of your list. They would also like to remind you that they ushered in an age of darkness in 1981 with the crowning of St. Reagan.
Sounds like more success of the R model. Enuf of the locals ready to revolt yet?
The issue is a non-californian donating to a california issue, which is a real issue that should be reported. However, drawing a connection to blackwater and failing to mention that she has her own personal wealth is misleading and poor reporting.
I don’t think you have to apologize for anything
marshen October 27th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
“Reported … commented.” Doesn’t matter, it’s a distinction without a difference.
Good catch
Divorce is a bigger threat to marriage than anything else. Will these wealthy families now work to end the liberal divorce laws signed by St. Reagan when he was governor of CA?
God Bless You Lucas. rec. dear gaia, I have enough trouble with two or three of ‘em at a time at my restaurant, can’t imagine a whole stadium full.
hope we’ll get word on how it goes
1,809 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen LucasOConnor and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
Bingo…great catch Brother Lucas, this ol’ Scadanavian has been yellin’ at the top of his lungs that the Iraq War is nuthin but a launderin’ scam ta create a corporate mercenary army responsive to the political cadres of fascist outliers like the Alaska Independence Party and the theocons…the civil shock troops or “Brown Shirts” if you will, are the Aryan Nation, the KKK and the militias in Idaho, Montana, Utah etc. This is real and it’s all in place with the deployment of the 1st Batallion of the 3 rd Infantry on American soil.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, WE ARE GUNNA BE CALLED OUT, THERE IS NO PLACE TA HIDE!!
Scamway..Mi, Prince..Mi, KKK..Mi, Repub Party..Mi. I seem to detect a pattern.
Add to that… “was married to a rich husband and has her own nest egg to give away”
Michael Moore…Mi
Thanks for backing me up john. I was just mentioning that I posted this earlier on FDL, I was’nt trying to take away anything from LucasOConnor.
What about that little Obama militia of high school kids?
jeez, bob shrum slapping mr. rogers around on tweety right now. totally calling him out on the lies. lie lie lie!
How many of them own assault rifles?
They couldn’t afford them yet, they were waiting for an increase in school funding.
There will always be nutjobs in the country. Just don’t play into the conspiracy theories that they run the world.
Yes redeeming feature of Mi..ironic huh!
the locals are disenfranchised and numb. the problem has a lot to do with geography and a historical of
corrupt/easily-cooptable (from outside) local government. and it hasn’t just been republicans. Bersin, Clinton’s border czar, union-breaker, school-destroyer and all around thug probably did more damage to San Diego than any other single person… complete with his odious 1990s speeches where he extolled the threat to American “civilization” posed by Mexican wasteland and called his adopted city a “warzone” with him sent in to
make war upon it. with our patchwork of military bases, border ports, and vast tracts of Federal land, we have little control over our own fate.
sometimes I think that the only way out is for CA to gain control of it’s own borders… to the east.
Ian up at the Mothership on the financial
rip-offbail-out.Sorry.. I meant to say characterized Mexican immigration as creating a local wasteland.
oh.. and don’t forget that or USA was one of the ones Gonzo fired for refusing to capitulate further to shrub’s cooption of local prosecutorial authority
I guess nobody “diggs” bad reporting. Nice selective research Lucas, way to leave out the facts.
There’s apparently a problem with the Digg here at Oxdown as there are actually six Diggs on this diary.
Diggs just don’t seem to show here.
You comment about the diggs, but don’t say anything about the failure to mention her own personal wealth? Quality reporting going on here folks….
spotlighted to Marcus Stern, Dean Calbreath, and Jerry Kammer – San Diego Union Tribune
Well gee, why don’t you make up your mind. I was pointing out that there are Diggs on this diary.
And there is a word limit on a Digg precis, so there is pertinent information that may be left out.
The fact that the mother of the founder of Blackwater is independently wealthy and used her own money is really more of a strawman argument.
Yes she has money. Yes she gave it to fund Prop 8. Yes her son established Blackwater and is trying to meddle in CA politics as well. The connection between these facts is actually much closer than any connection you can show between the Obama campaign and ACORN, no matter how you may try to do so.
If I cited the same type of crap that lucas cited then I could “prove” Obama’s connection to ACORN. But you would just say that my sources weren’t valid….
Thanks for the warning Lukas as I live right by the stadium; wonder how they are going to get 100,000 though since the stadium capacity is 70,561.
San Diego has always been a Republican stronghold because-mainly- of the military being based here but East County has now become the home of the ‘religionists’ much like Mesa,AZ is home to the majority of Mormons in AZ.
Would you believe that San Diego County has had the SAME Republican Board of ‘supervisors‘ for the last 13 years?
Please, not in Orange County either. We don’t want them here, and we’re not nearly as red as we used to be… more of a purpley color these days.