Update [2006-11-7 23:38:34 by txj]: Chip Gately, the president of emotive, LLC, is an officer in Arizona corporation GPS VENTURES, L.L.C.. Three of the five GPS Ventures' officers are principals of the DCI Group:

* CHRISTOPHER A. HOLT
* CHARLES A GATELY
* THOMAS J. SYNHORST
* DOUGLAS M GOODYEAR


The remaining officer, Jack A. Padovano, is an officer for FYI Messaging, another Arizona "public affairs" front company for the DCI Group. FYI's officers are:

* CHRISTOPHER A. HOLT
* JACK A PADOVANO
* THOMAS J. SYNHORST
* DOUGLAS M GOODYEAR

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Although a full accounting has not been completed, Allen's campaign paid emotive, LLC $6000 on 6/26/06 according to their expenditure filings with the FEC.

Matthew Dybwad, Director of Creative Strategy for emotive, worked previously as the "Creative Director for TSE Enterprises in partnership with DCI Group" and "has been working at the intersection of politics and the Internet for seven years with companies such as New Media Communications," according to his bio on the company web site.

TSE Enterprises was founded by Thomas Stock, who along with DCI CEO Thomas J. Synhorst, has used the web to revolutionize astro-turfing. In an early example, Stock and Synhorst crafted phony letters of support for Microsoft, and sent them to U.S. attornies general from Americans for Technology Leadership during the computer software giant's federal anti-trust case. At least two of the letters were reportedly from dead people.

The DCI Group has been implicated in several large-scale attempts to disrupt voter turn-out using deceptive phone calls. Most recently, James Tobin, a former DCI employee, was convicted of telephone harassment charges stemming from attempts to disrupt the 2002 New Hampshire senate race.

Tobin worked at the DCI Group with Allen's campaign manager LaCivita, and a third DCI Group employee Brian McCabe. McCabe is the head of Progress for America, founded by Tony Feather, a close associate of Karl Rove, to "capture some of the soft money that the political parties will be barred from accepting after Nov. 6, [2002]" according to an article in the Washington Post.

In 2000, Synhorst and Feather, using yet another PR firm (FLS-DCI), were accused of push-polling voters who favored John McCain over President George W. Bush during the Republican presidential primary.

Lastly, New Media Communications is an Ohio-based Republican-only web design firm owned by Michael L. Connell, a long-time computer and GOP Internet "guru" with close ties to the Bush family. New Media has been called the "Bell Labs of the Republican Party."

However, in 1990 Connell was fired from the campaign staff of Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) for his involvement in what Coats would label a "clearly unethical" vote tampering scheme on behalf of another Republican candidate Mike Pence, in his race against Democrat challenger Phil Sharp.

According to the Indiana Post-Tribune:

"Connell gave Matrixx Marketing of Ogden, Utah, an anti-Sharp script that was read to thousands of Indiana voters for two days before [the] election. The script, which attacked Sharp on various issues, was read to voters who responded that they supported Sharp rather than Republican challenger Mike Pence in the 2nd District congressional race."

Connell and New Media are responsible for GeorgeWBush.com, over 20 state GOP web sites, and countless GOP campaign and issues sites. Connell developed voter and delegate tracking database software for George HW Bush in the late 80's, spear-headed Florida Governor Jeb Bush's Internet campaign, and has deep roots sunk into J. Kenneth Blackwell's Ohio Secretary of State web site, including a "dashboard" that provides real-time election tallies as they are received from counties.