By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on May 22, 2022
Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Katie Britt has found a political paramour in perennial Alabama "dirty tricks" operative Joe Perkins. Britt, a Republican, and Perkins, a Democrat, have developed a closet political relationship that is satisfying their mutual lust for power and influence.
The clandestine nature of the secret Katie Britt-Joe Perkins political union is designed to: (a) hoodwink unsuspecting Republican voters in Alabama, (b) surreptitiously extend retiring Alabama U.S. Senator Richard Shelby's shelf-life via a surrogate political puppet arrangement with Britt, and (c) evade detection by the Federal Election Commission ("FEC").
Earlier this month, Joe Perkins' 39-year-old daughter, Taylor Lea Perkins, claimed that her famous father subjected her to ten years of serial acts of incest when she was a young child. Joe Perkins has not publicly commented on Ms. Perkins' allegations of incest against him.
Perkins and his political consulting firm, Matrix, LLC, are currently under state and federal investigations in Florida in connection with laundered contributions to ghost political candidates in various state legislative races and other political shenanigans.
Perkins' former CEO, Jeff Pitts, is suing him in a Florida state court on various counts of extortion, racketeering, and abuse of the legal process. Perkins is also suing Pitts in an Alabama state court on various tort claims relating to alleged business opportunities for Matrix.
Perkins is a Known Federal Election Lawbreaker
In 1992, Perkins confessed in writing to breaking federal campaign financing laws. Perkins also signed a Conciliation Agreement with the FEC in which he pledged to forego political consulting work in future federal elections.
Perkins' confession occurred while he was under an FEC investigation for funneling money from his consulting business into the 1985 Congressional campaign of Roy Johnson, who is his longtime friend and a convicted felon. Perkins devised a scheme to give phony bonuses to several of his employees who, in turn, made same-day contributions to Johnson's campaign in their individual names and for the same amount as their bonus.
Perkins escaped a criminal prosecution for this illegal campaign financing scheme only because the applicable statute of limitations had run out on the unlawful campaign contributions before the U.S. Department of Justice was in a position to indict him for his role in the scheme. However, Perkins and the employees who participated in the illegal scheme were fined for their violations of federal election laws.
Joe Perkins is Doing It Again
Despite the FEC's permanent ban on Perkins' participation in federal elections, Perkins and Matrix are at it again. This time, Perkins is providing professional services to the Katie Britt campaign that have not been disclosed on Britt's campaign financing disclosure forms.
Perkins' services include: (a) providing the campaign advice on overall strategy, (b) furnishing the campaign opposition research on Britt's opponents, (c) planting positive stories about Britt and negative stories about her opponents in captive media outlets like the Alabama Political Reporter and Yellowhammer News, and (d) promoting Britt's campaign on various social media platforms. These services are the same ones Perkins' political clients pay him to provide.
Perkins is an expert at using "dirty tricks" to promote or undermine political campaigns. He has unlimited access to Alabama Power Company's financial coffers, without invoicing. Perkins often uses this vast reservoir of ratepayer money to fund his "dirty tricks" operations -- all with the blessing of Mark Crosswhite, Alabama Power's CEO.
Perkins has used false or misleading media messaging to attack Britt's opponents. He has also utilized staff personnel from Matrix to conduct opposition research and assist in planting negative news stories. Perkins pays his staff for these services, clearly making his work an act of providing "things of value" to the Britt campaign.
Perkins appears to have also planted a multitude of stories in The Alabama Political Reporter. Perkins provides this blog with essential, ongoing funding, in yet another attempt to hide his contributions to the Britt campaign.
The Alabama Political Reporter has published at least 28 articles that are either supportive of Britt and/or critical of her opponents. At least 14 of these articles are clearly supportive of Britt. None of them are critical of her. Another 14 articles are critical of Britt's opponents, Mike Durant and Mo Brooks. None of the articles are supportive of Durant or Brooks. A large number of these articles originated on Perkins' personal Facebook page.
In 2022, Yellowhammer News, which depends on Alabama Power Company as a financial lifeline, ranked Joe Perkins Number 13 on its annual listing of power and influence players in Alabama.
Britt Has Failed to Disclose Perkins' Professional Services
To date, the Britt campaign has failed to disclose the beneficial services that Joe Perkins and Matrix have rendered to it. Federal election laws require the Britt campaign to disclose these services as either paid vendor services or as "in-kind" professional services contributed by Perkins/Matrix to the Britt campaign.
The Britt campaign's failure to report Joe Perkins' "dirty tricks" services for its benefit appears to be a clear violation of federal election laws.
What is more, it is unclear whether the Britt campaign sought and received permission from the FEC to accept the consulting services of this confessed federal election lawbreaker and permanently banned political consultant.
One of Perkins' favored "dirty tricks" entails a political money laundering scheme in which he provides professional services to a preferred political candidate like Katie Britt, but the payment for these services comes from a third-party like Alabama Power. This nefarious scheme may be in progress with the Britt campaign.
Perkins' long personal relationship with U.S. Senator Richard Shelby and Scott Coogler, the Chief U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Alabama, has emboldened him to continue plowing his "dirty tricks" trade in federal elections, despite his 1992 written commitment to the FEC that he would not engage in political consulting activities in the future.
Perkins is also a "hunting buddy" of Shelby and Coogler. He has also provided political consulting services to Shelby on a regular basis. Katie Britt is Shelby's former chief of staff, and Shelby views himself as her political "Godfather."
Like former President Bill Clinton, Richard Shelby has lived his entire adult working life on the modest salary he earned as a public official. Yet, Shelby is leaving office in January of 2023 as one of the richest men in U.S. Senate history. Like Bill Clinton, Richard Shelby has never publicly explained how he could legitimately amass the super-wealth needed to become a bona fide member of America's privileged class of "One Percenters" from a life-long government-paid salary.
Epilogue
Political insiders acknowledge that Katie Britt is the handpicked "establishment" candidate in Alabama's U.S. Senate race. She had to run as a Republican candidate to have a realistic chance at winning the race in this "Red State." Britt is owned "lock, stock, and barrel" by Joe Perkins, Richard Shelby, Alabama Power Company, the Drummond Company, Regions Bank, and other members of the old-guard political oligarchy that runs Alabama.
Katie Britt is not worried about any law enforcement probes of her Senatorial campaign in Alabama because Senator Richard Shelby handpicked all three of the U.S. Attorneys in the state. None of them will make a move to enforce federal campaign financing laws against a Shelby-backed political puppet who is the beneficiary of Joe Perkins' secret "dirty tricks." This is particularly true in the Northern District of Alabama where Scott Coogler is Chief Judge and Lloyd Peeples is the office's "Criminal Chief."
Peeples is a failed pizza restaurant operator who has lived off of federal taxpayer dollars since 2017, thanks to Richard Shelby's political largesse. Peeples is the "gatekeeper" who protects the oligarchy's political "untouchables" from federal criminal prosecutions in the Northern District of Alabama.
The Katie Britt campaign believes it is acceptable in Alabama to use the political services of a confessed federal election lawbreaker like Joe Perkins. The campaign apparently believes that the stain on Joe Perkins name and brand will not matter to Republican voters in Alabama.
Only time will tell whether the Katie Britt campaign is right in this regard.
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