The Courage Cup Scandal

When the Washington Post reported that Greg Ball established a political action committee called Citizens United for Ethical Growth (CUEG) to funnel money from a charity which he also founded into his assembly race, the assemblyman denied the charges and slammed the paper. "The story is completely garbage," he told the North County News.

But it wasn't. The record is clear: Greg Ball funded his 2006 assembly bid with money donors thought would be spent to improve kids. It was a scam three years in the making.

In 2003, Ball founded the PAC, Citizens United for Ethical Growth, explicitly to raise funds for his future assembly race, but concealed this true purpose from donors. Instead, he cast the organization as a group dedicated to "smart growth" and environmentally-friendly development.

In 2004, Ball organized a charity polo match called "the Courage Cup" and promoted it as a fundraiser for kids in inner city Philadelphia, to provide them with an opportunity to learn to ride horses and play polo. However, in 2005, Ball used the charity to raise funds for his future assembly race by selling tickets to the Courage Cup's "Golden Mallet Tent" through CUEG. Ball claimed afterwards that there was a disclaimer on the ticket website. "The disclaimer was so clear," he told the North County News. "I'm still waiting for someone to tell me that the disclaimer wasn't there."

A disclaimer was there. It stated: "Profits arising from money raised by the Golden Mallet Tent will go towards supporting Citizens United for Ethical Growth (www.cueg.net, A Political Action Committee dedicated to promoting smart growth, Environmentally Sensible Policies, and Sustainable Development)."

But CUEG's financial disclosures—as required by law—clearly show that all of the organization's expenditures and donations were actually intended for Ball's assembly race all along.

Why not just tell donors the truth?

"I thought the money was going to kids," Courage Cup attendee Andrew McKenna told the Washington Post when the paper told him that his name was found in Ball's campaign finance records. "I'd be pretty [infuriated] if I found out this was for a political race."

"It was billed as a fundraiser to get kids involved with polo," Britt Jung, another attendee told the Post, after expressing surprise at being found among CUEG's donors.

It doesn't end there though:

In 2007, now a freshman assemblyman, Ball engaged in a bitter public dispute with Andrea Rogers and Keri Ann Meslar, to whom gave charge of Courage Cup in 2006. Ball wanted to be in charge of the organization again, but Rogers and Meslar didn't want anything to do him. They told the Post that Ball "ran a frat-party type" event that raised only $1,000 each year for charity and left behind sloppy records and unpaid bills.

After Rodgers and Meslar established Courage Cup as a legal charitable organization in the state of Virginia during Ball's absence, in January 2007, Ball e-mailed several thousand local polo enthusiasts claiming that he was hosting the real Courage Cup and posted an open letter on couragecup.com denouncing Rodgers and Meslar for attempting to "hijack" his "intellectual property" by "stealing" Courage Cup. (Rodgers and Meslar had moved the official organization's site to couragecup.org in mid-2006).

"A lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into making the event a success," he declared. Rodgers and Meslar responded with a press release outlining Ball's failures, and went on to host the fourth Courage Cup—without Ball's involvement—that June.

Ball only dismantled his Courage Cup site and took down his open letter after the Washington Post ran its story on June 12, 2007.

In its coverage, the Post asked a simple, but fundamental question: Why did Ball, a busy freshman assemblyman, want to keep running a charity party several hours from his home district?

The authors conclude: Perhaps because it helped him win his seat.