Howard Rich deputy a signatory of anti-public school pledge

So for the past few days, we’ve been discussing Julie Hershey, the newest Education Oversight Committee member, whose name showed up for a brief period (4 years, at least) on the anti-public school pledge of the Alliance for Separation of School and State.

But she’s not the only interesting person on the pledge. You may have also seen Paul Farago’s name on this blog a few times.

Farago is an acupuncturist who recently moved from Oregon to North Carolina, and he’s also a director of Howard Rich’s “Americans for Limited Government.” (.pdf) He’s no stranger to writing South Carolina candidates $1000 checks, maximum contributions that are usually bundled with other $1000 checks from Rich’s myriad LLC’s.

But checks aren’t the only thing Farago knows how to sign. He’s also listed as a signatory of the pledge, “I proclaim publicly favor ending government involvement in education.” Like Julie Hershey, his name has been listed as a signatory since at least as far back as 2004, according to archived versions of the website.

Farago contributed $16,000 total to voucher/tax credit candidates in 2006, and it looks like he’s given that much in the primaries alone this year.

It's a lot of money.

Farago contributions 2008
$1,000 Edwin Rumsey
$1,000 Trey Whitehurst
$1,000 Mike Fair
$1,000 Lee Bright
$1,000 Joey Millwood
$1,000 Heyward Hutson
$1,000 Zina Manning
$1,000 Katrina Shealy
$1,000 Greg Ryberg
$1,000 Sheri Few
$1,000 Raymond Russell, Sr.
$1,000 Curtis Brantley
$1,000 Scott Singer
$1,000 Roger Nutt
$1,000 Ralph Davenport
$1,000 Dee Compton