Shady Firm 'Shadow' Reportedly Behind Iowa Caucus Chaos

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Feb. 03, 2020

A shady firm named "Shadow" which was paid by both the Iowa Democratic Party and Pete Buttigieg's campaign reportedly developed an app said to be responsible for the delayed election results in the Iowa caucus.

From The Huffington Post, "This Is The Buzzy Democratic Firm That Botched The Iowa Caucuses," subheadline, "Shadow, a Democratic digital firm, created the app that was supposed to deliver quicker caucus results":

The tech arm of ACRONYM, a Democratic digital nonprofit group that has rapidly expanded in recent years, was responsible for building the Iowa caucus app that contributed to delays in reporting Monday night's results in the first vote in the party's presidential race. Multiple Democratic sources, including one of the presidential campaigns, confirmed the app’s creator.

State campaign finance records indicate the Iowa Democratic Party paid Shadow, a tech company owned by ACRONYM, more than $60,000 for "website development" over two installments in November and December of last year. A Democratic source with knowledge of the process said those payments were for the app that caucus site leaders were supposed to use to upload the results at their locales.

ACRONYM founder Tara McGowan and a spokesman for the group did not immediately respond to phone calls requesting comment.

McGowan is a big Buttigieg supporter and is allegedly married to one of his advisers.

the CEO of the company that owns Shadow lol https://t.co/0eIlvpHY82
— Tim 🕊🌿🐊 (@timtakestime) February 4, 2020

MAYOR PETE IS RUNNING 😍😍😍 https://t.co/DNUyILImWM
— Tara McGowan (@taraemcg) January 23, 2019

Here's the payments Shadow received from Buttigieg's campaign:

The Intercept's Lee Fang was one of the first to break the news on the "Dem dark money/superPAC hybrid":

Nevada Dem federal account paid Shadow $58k in August, Iowa Dems state account paid Shadow $63,183 in two payments over Nov & Dec, suggesting app wasn't developed until just months ago? Both caucus states. Shadow is a spin-off from PACRONYM, a new Dem dark money/superPAC hybrid.
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) February 4, 2020

The final poll before the caucus performed by the Des Moines Register showed Bernie Sanders was a favorite to win but it was scrapped allegedly because, as FiveThirtyEight reports, "the Buttigieg campaign got word that at least one survey respondent had been read an incomplete questionnaire that did not include Buttigieg's name."

We can confirm the final results of the unreleased Iowa Poll:

Sanders 22%

Warren 18%

Buttigieg 16%

Biden 13%

https://t.co/deTryUiHgt
— Clare Malone (@ClareMalone) February 4, 2020

With the results delayed, all the Democrats decided to just give their own "victory speeches."

Thanks to the convenient delay in results, everybody gets a victory speech. In hers, Warren falsely claims “it’s too close to call.”
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) February 4, 2020

MSNBC hack @JoyAnnReid just now, as the results of Bernie's victory are withheld from the American public:

"This was a great night for Michael Bloomberg."
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) February 4, 2020

Deep state favorite Pete Buttigieg went ahead early Tuesday morning and just declared himself the winner:

Iowa, you have shocked the nation.

By all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious. #IowaCaucuses
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) February 4, 2020

The official results as Pete Buttigieg declares himself victorious in Iowa: pic.twitter.com/isUMd4lxgM
— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) February 4, 2020

Pete Buttigieg managed to spike the most important poll which showed him in third the day before the caucus. He seems to have some ties to the company that developed the App that is supposed to count the vote totals. He is now declaring victory before ANY results are reported.
— Nando (@nandorvila) February 4, 2020

UPDATE:

Behind the app that delayed Iowa’s voting results is a dark money operation funded by anti-Sanders billionaires. @MaxBlumenthal looks at its top donor, Seth Klarman, a Buttigieg backer who has dumped money into pro-settler Israel lobby groups. https://t.co/IsE7TPsBrl
— The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) February 4, 2020

Dem group behind Shadow distanced itself from the Iowa caucus developer. But they share office space, briefings & resources. The team is made up of former Hillary campaign staff tied to Mayor Pete and have privately expressed hostility to Bernie https://t.co/dzVwXc8eOw
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) February 4, 2020

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