Image Credit: electmichele.com
The Tennessee Conservative Staff-
An unregistered, out-of-state political operative has been revealed in the investigation of attack ads directed at current Rep. Michele Reneau (R-Signal Mountain-District 27) during a heated 2024 primary race against former Hamilton County Rep. Patsy Hazlewood.
Back in September of 2024, Reneau filed a complaint with the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance against a group who ran political attacks on her campaign for the D-27 House seat and “seemingly” spent over $1,000 on political attack efforts, without being registered as a political action committee (PAC) in Tennessee.
Reneau wrote that the group’s activity took place the week prior to the August 1st primary election and she was made aware of at least two attack ads on Facebook that were connected to a page called “No Michele Reneau.”
The ads and Facebook page itself were traced back to a website, www.nomichelereneau.com.
This website is no longer active but was still in use at the time Reneau filed her complaint.
“It puts out false information about me,” wrote Reneau, “citing being too dangerous for TN (based on affiliation with Weston A Price Foundation). The information is untrue.”
Reneau also noted in her complaint “an unverifiable disclaimer” located at the bottom of the political attack ad that read, “Paid for by citizen engagement forum not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee. Nomichelereneau.com.”
Another political attack ad was dispersed by this “Citizen Engagement Forum” via a video text ad message to potential voters in D-27.
Mailers with the unregistered disclaimer “Paid for by Civic Engagement Forum,” were also sent out as an attack on Reneau’s campaign. This time, with a Hudson, Wisconsin, return address.
These mailers painted Reneau as a dangerous, extreme, right-wing conspiracy theorist who believed wearing a tin foil hat could cure Covid-19.
Reneau later told the Registry that towards the end of her primary race, she had to spend over three days in “constant communication” with voters over the validity of these attack ads, explaining that they had been sent out by an illegitimate political group.
She did ultimately win the D-27 primary race by 138 votes.
A basic estimation of cost for attack ads run on Reneau by the unregistered group are broken down as such: website domain, registration and hosting ($200), video production ($100), text video message to 3,500 households at $0.50 per text ($1,750), mailers to 3,500 households at $0.70 per mailer ($2,450), and two Facebook ads directed at D-27 running for two weeks ($400).
Reneau’s estimation of 3,500 households for the numbers above is a “conservative” estimate based on the approximate number of targeted D-27 voters who voted in 3 of the last 4 primaries leading up to the 2024 primary election.
However, Reneau stated in her complaint that she did also have people who were not 3 out of 4 primary voters notify her that they received the texts or mailers as well.
The Civic Engagement Forum, registered as a national nonprofit, and the Wisconsin return address listed on the attack ad mailers have since been tied to AxCapital Campaign Finance Compliance Consultant, Thomas Datwyler.
Datwyler has acted as campaign treasurer for many Republican political candidates including U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Kingsport) and U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Columbia).
This is not the only Registry of Election Finance investigation that Datwyler has been caught up in.
He was also involved in an investigation that took place following a collusion complaint filed by Sen. Ken Yager (R-Kingston-District 12) against East Tennessee Conservatives, a PAC that financially backed now Sen. Bobby Harshbarger’s (R-Hawkins and Sullivan Counties-District 4) 2024 campaign to the tune of $520,000 in independent expenditures.
Datwyler ran Bobby Harshbarger’s campaign while simultaneously working for his mother, Diana Harshbarger.
Yager submitted a letter withdrawing his request for an investigation before the results of a subpoena into the East Tennessee Conservatives complaint were made public.
When Reneau filed her complaint, Registry staff said they were unable to find identifying information on the Citizen Engagement Forum.
However, former board member Tom Morton who led the charge for the investigation into Yager’s complaint about the Harshbarger campaign recognized the Wisconsin address that Reneau noted in her complaint.
According to Morton, the return address listed on mailers sent out by the so-called “Civic Engagement Forum” was the same address associated with the East Tennessee Conservatives PAC and Datwyler himself across various other filings.
Datwyler has confirmed his position as treasurer for the Civic Engagement Forum but maintains that he knows nothing about Citizen Engagement Forum.
On behalf of Datwyler’s group, an attorney submitted a settlement proposal to the Registry.
This proposal offered a $2,500 civil penalty payment for “having failed to register as a PAC or make disclosures in the race.”
Registry Chair Tom Lawless said that as a campaign professional, Datwyler “should have known better” and that he was “personally offended by this crap.”
According to Lawless, the group has not yet followed through on retroactively filing its disclosures which is a routine requirement of candidates and committees prior to closing things out by paying a civil penalty.
Registry attorney Lauren Topping said that subpoenaed information has clarified Datwyler’s involvement in and operation of both the Citizen and Civic groups in question.
When Topping inquired whether the wrong disclaimer had accidentally been used on some of the unregistered PAC’s materials, she did not receive a response.
Topping went on to say that there was “the possibility that these kind of shenanigans were intended to mislead the public.”
