Network linked to David Brock groups Media Matters, American Bridge…
A network of union-funded groups from Little Rock to Washington, D.C., working to raise the minimum wage in Arkansas have been implicated in a lawsuit alleging that operatives in the state forged notary signatures in order to get the question on November’s ballot.
The lawsuit, which has reached the Arkansas Supreme Court, is challenging the validity of a ballot question to raise the state’s minimum wage. Details in the complaint provide a window into connections between the seemingly disparate organizations.
Those organizations are ostensibly run by Arkansans, but public records suggest that they are part of a coordinated political effort with ties to a network of Washington-based Democratic groups supportive of Hillary Clinton.
Steve Stephens, the Republican donor and activist behind the lawsuit, suspects that they are using the minimum wage issue to bolster grassroots organizing efforts ahead of a Clinton presidential run.
The ballot question proposes to raise Arkansas’ minimum wage from $6.25 to $8.50 per hour by 2015. It landed on the ballot after a local group succeeded in gathering the required number of signatures from Arkansas residents.