The anonymous texts were sent from email addresses rather than other phones. Anti-Obama texts traced to activist

A Virginia-based communications firm has denied wrongdoing — but not responsibility — for a spate of unsolicited anti-Obama text messages that hit hundreds of cellphones Tuesday.

The Internet domains tied to the texting campaign were masked during the text flurry, but on Wednesday GoDaddy.Com unmasked them, suspended them for “spam and abuse,” and revealed that the owner is ccAdvertising of Centreville, Va.


Early Wednesday, the domain registrant was ccAdvertising COO and failed Virginia state Senate candidate Jason Flanary, but by afternoon the registrant name had been changed to G. Joseph. The CEO of ccAdvertising is Gabriel Joseph III. Both Joseph and his firm have frequently been in the news in connection with questionable advertising practices on behalf of conservative politicians and causes.

The anonymous texts were sent from email addresses, rather than other phones — a loophole in spamming and autodialing laws that the FCC is considering closing. All political communications, however, are required to include a declaration identifying who paid for or approved the message.



Neither Flanary nor Joseph returned calls seeking comment on Wednesday, but a man answering the phone at ccAdvertising referred POLITICO to a statement on the company’s website, saying that “is all you’re going to get.”

“In the more than 12 years since its founding and currently, ccAdvertising has scrupulously complied with all laws and regulations affecting its activities," according to the unsigned statement. "It appears that statements currently being made about ccAdvertising are largely motivated by partisan political considerations.”

The firm’s website lists clients including Grover Norquist’s powerhouse advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform, as well as Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Rep. Kay Granger, (R-Texas). CcAdvertising has also worked with McDonald’s and Burger King, according to the client list.

The company has posted a letter of praise on its site from Quest Fore Inc. Chairman Ken Cuccinelli, father of Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II, a GOP candidate for governor next year.



The Romney campaign distanced itself from the controversy. “We have nothing to do with these texts and we don't know where they're coming from,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul told POLITICO.



Many of the messages, which violated FEC regulations because they didn’t include information on their origins, were vitriolic. They included attacks on President Barack Obama related to his support of gay marriage, abortion rights and Planned Parenthood.

They included “Obama stole $716 Billion in Medicare. We cant [sic] trust Obama to protect our seniors,” “VP Biden mocks a fallen Navy Seal during memorial. Our military deserves better,” and “Obama believes killing children is a right until the umbilical cord is cut.”



Flanary, 33, is a member of the board of directors of the Fairfax County, Va., Chamber of Commerce and an ex-Marine whose now-defunct campaign website claims he was assigned to protect President Bill Clinton at Camp David for two years.

Last year, when The Washington Post endorsed his opponent for state Senate, the newspaper described him as “a conservative pollster who thinks cannibalizing funding for schools and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse — in one of the best-governed states in the nation — is the answer to paying for new roads and bridges.”

Joseph and his firm have earned a reputation for questionable political tactics. In 2009, POLITICO reported he was called out by then-Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska for sending a fundraising mailer to Republicans across the country claiming to be supporting Palin’s possible 2010 reelection bid. Palin said she was not associated with the effort, and much of the money raised was spent on services from ccAdvertising, his own firm.

CcAdvertising is also featured prominently in a petition to the FCC filed by Revolution Messaging earlier this year asking the agency to declare Internet-to-phone text messaging to be a form of autodialing. The mode is not covered under the Technology Consumer Protection Act, and critics view it as an end-run around the law prohibiting text spam.

Scott Goodstein of Revolution Messaging said ccAdvertising has been using the tactic since 2010, typically in the waning days before elections.



“They have sent millions of unauthorized text messages from untraceable Internet sites that are false and misleading,” said Goodstein, the external online director for the Obama 2008 campaign. “While ccAdvertising has claimed many things over the years — from new secret-sauce technology to even the First Amendment — what they are not doing is opting people into these text programs or paying people for the spam they are knowingly putting on their phones. This technology is not email. It uses a person’s cell number without their permission and cost users money.”



The FCC is taking comments on Goodstein’s proposal through Nov. 23, and the public can visit PocketSpammers.com to submit one.

According to ccAdvertising’s website, the firm conducts automated phone polls for candidates and also has delivered several robocalls for various clients. One robocall available on the site has Norquist telling Oregon voters to vote against a tax-related ballot initiative. Another features then-Rep. Blunt’s voice dictating a phone survey about franking.

The anti-Obama texts sent this week did not go to particularly strategic targets — several hardcore Democrats were among them, as were children and residents in states where either Obama or Romney aren’t closely contesting the race.



Recipients took to Twitter and Facebook to decry them, including a lesbian who received a text urging her to oppose same-sex marriage. Jonathan Weisman, the congressional correspondent for The New York Times, tweeted that his 13-year-old daughter received one.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 11:00 a.m. on October 31, 2012.