Conspiracy in Connecticut

I thought we had it bad in Jersey:

But, bad as this is, Connecticut may be worse; check out Jon Pelto:

The situation as of 2012:

• As of today, Alex Troy serves as the Chairman of the Board for Achievement First’s Amistad Academy and the Elm City College Preparatory School.

• Jonathan Sackler is a member of Achievement First’s Board of Directors and 50CAN’s Board of Directors.

• William Berkley remains Chairman of Achievement First and Andrew Boas is Chairman of Achievement First – Bridgeport.

• Brian Olson is chairman of ConnCAN’s Board of Directors while Andy Boas and John Irwin III also continue to serve on ConnCAN’s Board.

• Over this same time period, Jonathan Sackler and his wife have been major benefactors of these various efforts.  Sackler’s foundation has donated at least $435,000 to the Amistad Academy and $250,000 to ConnCAN Inc.

• Sackler also donated $60,000 to the National Alliance for School Choice and more than $112,000 to the Black Alliance for Educational Options.

• Interestingly conservative columnist RiShawn Biddle who is listed as a consultant to the CT Parent’s Union (the group running the March 14^th rally at the Connecticut State Capitol) also lists the Black Alliance for Educational Options as one of his other clients.

• It was Biddle who last month spoke at a Minnesota Tea Party training workshop on Education Reform.

• In addition, Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J. is a Director on the Black Alliance for Educational Options Board.  Mayor Booker is also a member of ConnCAN’s Advisory Board. [emphasis mine]

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Cory Booker - the guy right in the middle of my chart above?

Yep:

• Stefan Pryor was Deputy Mayor under Booker until he left that job to come to Connecticut to become Malloy’s Commissioner of Education.

• The individuals who are directly associated with Achievement First and ConnCAN (either as board members or senior staff) are also very active campaign contributors.  Over the past five years these individuals have donated at least $689,000 to political candidates and political action committees at the federal level and have given another $34,000 or so to candidates and PACs here in Connecticut.

Oh, man, how am I going to fit all these people on to my chart...

I feel for Jon; you try to keep this stuff straight, and you just can't. These people have created a web on connections that's nearly impossible to map out. Thank the lord he's up in CT trying; we'll keep the faith down here.

As always, thanks to jcg in the comments for pointing this out.