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Blueprint NC: How A Shadowy Left-Wing Hydra Plans A Targeted Attack On NC Republicans

Confidential memo outlines a plan to

By: LaborUnionReport (Diary)  |  February 22nd, 2013 at 08:30 PM  |  54
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Blueprint NC - Organizations
On Thursday, the Charlotte Observer ran a story about a leaked confidential memo released by a below-the-radar shadow group called Blueprint NC. The confidential memo revealed a left-wing plan to attack North Carolina’s governor and other conservative leaders. According to the Observer’s piece, the confidential memo was from Bluepint NC’s Communications Coordinator Stephanie Bass and addressed to its “partner groups.”
As part of a two-year plan to “Eviscerate, Mitigate, Litigate, Cogitate, and Agitate,” the memo outlines a strategy to target Republican Governor Pat McRory and other conservative leaders:
  • “Crippl(e) their leaders (McCrory, Tillis, Berger etc.)”
  • “Eviscerate the leadership and weaken their ability to govern.”
  • “Pressure McCrory at every public event.”
  • “Slam him when he contradicts his promises.”
  • “Private investigators and investigative reporting, especially in the executive branch…”
If you’ve never heard of Blueprint NC, you’re not alone. The semi-private group seems dedicated to keeping a low public profile, according to its website:
Blueprint has been created as a strategic initiative – focused on creating collaborative change and not focused on a public identity beyond our partners. Blueprint does not seek recognition for itself, but prefers that its partners be recognized for the good work that they do. [Emphasis added.]
In 2010, Blueprint NC’s “partners” were  identified by the Civitas Institute which revealed a conglomeration of national and state “progressive” organizations—including the AFL-CIO’s A. Philip Randolph Institute, as well as the anti-life group NARAL.
  • Read Blueprint NC’s secret memo in its entirety here (or below).
In fact, Blueprint NC’s Director, Sean Kosofsky, is a NARAL alum, according to this bio:
Sean Kosofsky is currently the Director of Blueprint North Carolina. He is the former Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice NC, and has been an active visible LGBT leader since 1994. He was the Director of Poliyc for 12 years for Michigan’s leading LGBT rights organization, Triangle Foundation.
Blueprint NC also appears to be very well funded. The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, which was established in 1936 as a memorial to the youngest son of the founder of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, gave Blueprint NC $850,000 for “general operating support” in 2010.
The Foundation is apparently still giving Blueprint NC money—to the sum of $400,000, according to a report in Friday’s Observer.
However, due to the light being shined on Blueprint NC’s strategy (and, consequently, the Foundation), that support may now be in jeopardy:
Leslie Winner, executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, said she was “surprised and disappointed” by the actions of Blueprint North Carolina.
“(Z. Smith Reynolds) believes in robust debate on issues of public importance, (it) does not support attacking people,” Winner said. “We were disappointed to learn that Blueprint is advocating this strategy…
“We are taking this seriously. We are determining our options and our obligations. We will get to the bottom of it.”
The Foundation is providing $400,000 of Blueprint’s nearly $1 million budget, Winner said.
It is hard to fathom how a progressive foundation that doles out hundreds of thousands of dollars to an organization like Blueprint NC to coordinate Left-wing activist strategies and tactics can claim ignorance to Blueprint NC’s tactics.
It is even harder to fathom when it appears Blueprint NC and its “partners” appear to be simply carrying out the “social jusctice and equity” goals of the Foundation.
According to Civitas Institute, the Foundation’s executive director is indirectly tied to Blueprint NC:
It should also be noted that the Z Smith Reynolds Foundation which has given $425,000 to Blueprint and $2.7 million to the Justice Center which housed Blueprint, was headed succesively by Tom Ross the current UNC system President and Leslie Winner a former Democratic state senator and UNC VP.
Amid the controversy, Blueprint NC’s director Kosofsky is blunt as to the strategy the secret memo revealed:
“If you want to impact the effectiveness of a lawmaker … one way to do that is to find out where they’re weak and use that to your advantage,” [Kosofsky] said.
Here is how the group describes itself on its website:
Blueprint NC is a partnership of public policy, advocacy, and grassroots organizing nonprofits dedicated to achieving a better, fairer, healthier North Carolina through the development of an integrated communications and civic engagement strategy. Ultimately, Blueprint aims to influence state policy in NC so that residents of the state benefit from more progressive policies such as better access to health care, higher wages, more affordable housing, a safer, cleaner environment, and access to reproductive health services.
We are determined to change the public policy debate in this state, and are dedicated to becoming more effective and prolific speakers and writers about progressive ideas and values. We are determined to engage more citizens in the public dialogue, because we believe that the strongest democracy hears from all people, not just those with the loudest voices or the shiniest megaphones.
[Perhaps it would be much easier for the group to simply state its goals as: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."]
Regardless of what transpires with Blueprint NC, if it suddenly disappears off the radar screen, one thing is certain, much like the “downfall” of ACORN, more groups like it will spring up to replace it…until they too have the light shed on them.
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“Truth isn’t mean. It’s truth.”
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