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Entrepreneur Michael Connell played key role in GOP politics, known for his charitable works
By Lisa A. Abraham
and Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal staff writers
Published on Sunday, Dec 21, 2008
He shook hands with presidents in Washington and paupers in El Salvador. He founded multimillion-dollar companies and a Knights of Columbus chapter.
In his 45 years, Michael Connell built powerful relationships and touched lives, rising like a rocket in national politics and playing key roles in Republican campaigns with his ''IT guru genius'' and Web site vision.
In the wake of his death in an airplane crash Friday night near Akron-Canton Airport, Mr. Connell's legend grew as his name was tossed around by conspiracy theorists connecting him to presidential adviser Karl Rove and the controversial presidential election of 2004.
In Bath Township, friends and family visited the Connell home on Ira Road throughout the day Saturday. Mr. Connell and his wife, Heather, had been married about 18 years and have four children between the ages of 10 and 17.
Family spokesman Todd Westover said Mr. Connell was a devoted father and husband, whose vision for business was exceeded by his charitable work.
''He had a passion for everything he did and he did it with grace and dignity and 100 percent,'' Westover said. ''He spoke more highly of the Knights of Columbus and with more passion toward his charity work than his business. He was just very special.''
Mr. Connell, founder and chief executive of New Media Communications in Richfield, died instantly when the single-prop airplane he was piloting crashed into a vacant house about three miles short of the Akron-Canton Airport.
State Highway Patrol Lt. Eric Sheppard said Mr. Connell's plane was in communication with the airport control tower just before the crash, but he could not detail whether the radio transmissions were calls for help.
''We have no reason to believe at this point it was anything other than an unfortunate crash,'' Sheppard said.
Charles Starkey, a former Navy pilot and director of safety for a Cleveland-area private jet company, said Friday night's cloud cover and misty, cold conditions presented challenges for even the most experienced pilots.
In a 30-minute time frame around the crash, the weather deteriorated quickly as visibility around the airport diminished from nine miles to a little over one mile with a low ceiling.
In such cases, pilots typically are forced to rely on the plane's instruments rather than their own vision, which can contribute to crashes, Starkey said.
''It's easy to get disoriented, especially if you're not very experienced at it,'' he said. ''You've got to ignore the various things your body can be telling you and rely on your instruments. It's very challenging.''
Associates described Mr. Connell as a devout Catholic, and a devoted family man. The Connell family is well known at St. Hilary Church in Fairlawn, where they are members and their children have attended classes.
Mission trip
In 2005, the Connells began organizing an annual mission trip to El Salvador from the parish. It was known as the Serving Christ Through His Poor, El Salvador Mission.
The organization's Web site details how the group has built numerous houses and a youth center, and helped to install water and sanitation systems in the village of Mizata.
Heather Connell is president of the mission and Mr. Connell was chairman of the board.
Joe McShannic, a vascular surgeon for Summa Health System, said Mr. Connell started the mission single-handedly.
''It was all his idea. He started it from the ground up. Every year it got bigger and bigger and we were able to do more and more,'' McShannic said.
McShannic said the Connell children routinely go on the mission trip with their parents.
''He was a great guy, a natural born leader, a very spiritual man, and obviously, a great family man,'' he said. ''He was the life and soul of this mission.''
In addition, McShannic said Mr. Connell just last year started a council of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's service organization, at St. Hilary's, where he served as grand knight. In its first year, the council had more than 100 members join, making it one of the largest in Ohio.
''Mike has touched so many people. He had plans to do so much more,'' McShannic said.
Political interests
Mr. Connell, an Illinois native and University of Iowa marketing graduate, was a GOP go-to guy while still in his 20s. He understood the power of the Internet in its infancy.
He got his first taste of political campaigns in 1986, working on the re-election bid of Iowa Rep. Jim Leach. His work caught the eye of George H.W. Bush's campaign, which hired him. Once Bush became president, Mr. Connell took a job with the Department of Energy, where his information technology work proved prominent.
Mr. Connell continued to work on GOP efforts and eventually served as press secretary for Rep. Martin Hoke of Lakewood.
Bob Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, said Mr. Connell has been on the scene for a number of years.
''He did a lot of work for the Republican Party, the McCain campaign, some of our county organizations and the Republican National Committee,'' Bennett said.
Conspiracy theories
It was Mr. Connell's work in information technology for Republicans that garnered him a national reputation and eventually involved him as a witness in a federal lawsuit alleging election tampering.
Mr. Connell's role as a witness has erupted a storm cloud of conspiracy theories about his death on left-leaning Internet blog sites.
Mr. Connell was subpoenaed in the 2006 case against former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, alleging that voter fraud helped steal Ohio votes and swing the 2004 election for President George W. Bush.
One of Mr. Connell's companies ran computer servers for Ohio on Election Night.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that by 9 p.m. on Election Night 2004, the results were switched from the state server to one set up by Connell's, in the former Pioneer Bank Building in Chattanooga, Tenn. It is alleged the same server was used to bundle and remove White House e-mails regarding the 2005 federal prosecutor firing scandal.
Mr. Connell tried to fight the subpoena, but a judge ruled against it and he gave a deposition on Nov. 3.
It was through the fight over the subpoena that attorneys who brought the case learned that Mr. Connell and his wife had allegedly been threatened with federal prosecution by Rove.
Bob Fitrakis, one of the Columbus attorneys who filed the lawsuit, a former Green Party candidate for president and a political blogger known for his conspiracy theories on election stealing in Ohio, said word of Mr. Connell's death ''sent a chill down my spine.''
When the threats came to light, Fitrakis said he and co-counsel Clifford Arnebeck reported them both to the federal court and to the U.S. attorney general.
''There is concern on my part and I hope it spills over into an exhaustive investigation,'' Fitrakis said. ''He was the Bush family's IT guru. He had tremendous knowledge and information.''
Fitrakis said in the deposition that Mr. Connell discussed the apparatus he had put in place in Ohio in 2004 and other areas. Fitrakis said those involved in the suit were hoping that Mr. Connell's deposition would lead them to Rove.
Jason Mauk, executive director of the Ohio Republican Party, discounted the conspiracy theories.
''I don't think Mike had nearly as much to do with that as the tin-foil-hat community would believe,'' he said.
IT man
But Mauk didn't downplay Mr. Connell's role as the country's leading IT man for Republican politics.
''Mike worked very hard every day to get the Republican Party to keep pace with the rapidly developing world of online communications,'' Mauk said. ''Mike was a pioneer in using technology to identify voters and mobilize volunteers. He was using the Internet to develop new media tactics years before the Obama campaign made it popular.''
Through New Media Communications, Mr. Connell developed Web sites for state, national and county Republican parties and candidates as well as e-mail platforms for them, Mauk said.
''We worked with Mike to overhaul our Web site and he made it one of the most successful state party sites in all of the country. We won an award for it,'' he said.
New Media Communication's Web site boasts a client list that includes Bush-Cheney 2000 and 2004 campaigns, McCain-Palin 2008, and dozens of other ranking Republicans and Republican-leaning organizations.
Mauk called the blog traffic that has erupted over Mr. Connell's death ''sad.''
''He was a great guy. I can't speak highly enough about him,'' Mauk said. ''To know Mike was to know his family.''
He shook hands with presidents in Washington and paupers in El Salvador. He founded multimillion-dollar companies and a Knights of Columbus chapter.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 08:55 PM, 12/21/2008
I am just shocked to hear of the death in a plane crash in Ohio of Michael Connell, a Bush GOP operator who had been subpeoned to testify against Karl Rove. Anymore I am very suspicious of mysterious plane crashes. Remember Paul Wellsone and his dying in a plane crash. And then there was John F Kennedy who also is said to have died in a mysterious plane crash. Plane crashes seem to be the preferred way of eliminating threats in government conspiracies. In this crash the infamous Rove is involved. Looks tooo suspicious to me.
Posted 01:28 AM, 12/22/2008
Mike Connell was a great man. Generous, kind, giving, he really cared about people. He lived his faith. We are stunned that he has been taken from us. Our hearts go out to his family during their time of grief. Anyone who knew Mike personally could see what a wonderful person he was. We are a saddened community, a church, a family with this loss.
Tallmadge, Oh
Posted 01:47 AM, 12/22/2008
Has anyone read this story yet?
Bush Insider Who Planned To Tell All Killed In Plane Crash, Non-Profit Demands Full Federal Investigation
http://www.prisonplanet.com/bush-insider-who-planned-to-tell-all-killed-in-plane-crash-non-profit-demands-full-federal-investigation.html
Interesting...
Posted 09:03 AM, 12/22/2008
I live within a half mile of the site of the plane crash and on Friday night at 6pm the weather was nasty - cold, very low clouds, foggy, misty. It was an accident and for those hung up on conspiracy theories drop it. As a Navy pilot said in the original story, it was a very challenging night for flying for any experienced pilot. Drop the conspiracy theories, get over your hatred for Bush and say a prayer for the wife and kids who lost their husband and father at Christmas time...
Akron, OH
Posted 09:08 AM, 12/22/2008
@Kathleen - and your point is what? That you can't keep these sites to yourself while the family grieves? How unfeeling and inconsiderate. Obviously you never met Mike or you would have some respect for his family. A woman lost her husband, her best friend and terrific father to their 4 children in a terrible accident - which is what it is unless the FAA finds otherwise so please have some respect for Mike's family and friends and stop posting your conspiracy thoughts
pittsburg, pa
Posted 12:30 PM, 12/23/2008
Maybe a REAL local of the Akron-Canton Airport ,Can explain the weather that Twilight .
All the weather reports i've checked say it was VFR and mr. Connell was flying IFR The 1997 Piper Saratoga was equiped with the latest avionics
And i'm sure he's flown into that airport with the hood under instrument flight .
So ,a real local just how bad was the weather.
Tallmadge, Oh
Posted 01:35 AM, 12/24/2008
Mike Connell was Karl Rove's computer wiz. He was also the key witness in the ongoing 2004 presidentialelection fraud lawsuit in Ohio. Some believe Connell engineered the fraud under Rove's direction. Last summer, Rove warned Connell to ignore court ordersto testify in the case and threatened him with consequences if he appeared in court. Just before the 2008 vote, an Ohio judge ordered Connell to appear in court and he did. He answered questions for two hours. Now, less than two months later, he is dead. Plane wreck. Unknown cause.
Details: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/508.html
cincinnati, oh
Posted 11:27 AM, 12/27/2008
How could such a nice guy be involved in such questionable ethics? This is much bigger than one man.It is about our country.
Elections have consequences. If Gore or Kerry had been elected, many American soldiers might still be alive,our country would not be facing the hardships it is facing, and the future of many citizens would not be as bleak as it is.
As you reflect up the events of this coming year,consider how brave it would have been for this good man to have spoken up sooner and changed the fate of our nation.
His death is meaningless.It could have stood for something.Now is just stands for a cover-up.
We are all in charge of our own fates.We can make the choice to do the right thing or not.Its very simple.
Posted 06:03 PM, 12/28/2008
People are reporting that he was involved in Bush stealing the election because he believed the republicans would end abortion.
They are painting him as one who would subscribe to the philosophy of "the ends justify the means".
It would be helpful to have these recent depositions made public so everyone can see what actually went on.
We have been studying elections in Ohio and elsewhere ever since the passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), this law was rammed through along with many others by the Republicans when they had total control. It changed in drastic and fundamental ways how elections are conducted and the access of the public to voting records and counting procedures - in most cases precluding the publics right to know the counting of our votes and the handling of the actual vote ballots.
We simply want to ensure a fair election. That's why these issues CANNOT be dropped.
I'm sorry for the death of this gentleman, but his testimony and position regarding his role in elections must be studied in detail.
NYC, NY
Posted 11:50 AM, 12/29/2008
I've been watching the coverage of this story and this article neglected to mention the national media blackout of the Connell saga (other than CBSNews online and international press). This should become a part of this dialogue because any news story being scrubbed should beg the question - why?
As a student of media manipulation, I can also report that this article, while somewhat balanced is likely a product of a PR firm rehabbing Connell's image - note the "Family spokesman" changing the emphasis of Connell's entire life from business to charity, and reporting-yet-inconclusive cherrypicked facts that support the accident theory. We cannot know from existing data whether this was an accident or not and it shouldn't be debated till the NTSB or FAA reports.
Also, labeling Fitrakis a "conspiracy theorist" is editorially dismissive - he is one of the prosecuting attorneys in the case and has been proving his case all along. In fact, a Huffington Post senior editor had issued an apology on Friday after calling Fitrakis' watchdog website and others the same thing.
Putting the body of well documented allegations against Blackwell, Rove and company in a section called "Conspiracy Theories" also smacks of bias. The article also selectively leaves out that Connell was webmaster for the Bush Campaign and Swiftboat Vets site at the same time he was hired to run the official Ohio vote count website - that in itself is a red flag begging for hearings and we should all suspend speculation about his death for now. Both Connell and his wife voluntarily spoke to Raw Story so I'm not sure that site should be called a "left-leaning" conspiracy site, and it was Republican fraud expert Stephen Spoonamore that described Connell as conflicted over how his expertise was being abused by others, prompting his brave decision to explain his role in the 2004 vote.
cambridge, OH
Posted 11:10 PM, 12/29/2008
Amerigus-
I can see your point. However, I think it's important to realize this type of shoddy reporting is not new or isolated but is endemic to the American press as a whole for a very long time.
One can go back to "General Smedley Butler" episode and before . When the press can denigrate a Commandant of the Marine Corps and get away with it, really nothing is out of its reach.
And they are incredibly thorough. The evidence of electronic voting machine not being reliable has been available since the beginning (2003), yet the press didn't start widely reporting this until about 2007 - nearly always mentioning "conspiracy theory", although factually the opposite is true - it is a conspiracy theory that voting machines work reliably.
Now with very little press left (only 5 media companies total), they share most stories and are continuing to lay off personnel thus cutting resources for news.
a total, built in media freeze out, not just of investigative journalism, but everything - except sports.
cambridge, OH
Posted 11:13 PM, 12/29/2008
does anyone have the link to Mr. Connell's obituary? Or perhaps this is it, but the tree above states"homepage>local news>"
NYC, NY
Posted 12:28 AM, 12/31/2008
Don't believe it - good investigative journalism is all around us. The CBSNews.com report of the Connell death and controversy was not only balanced, it was "mainstream".
I can't say the same for Ohio.com's piece above, but it did include some of the major allegations troubling Connell and his clients Blackwell, Rove and you-know-who.
What we see in the above, however is troubling in journalism nationally - the blurring of reporting and opinion. For Ohio.com to call Bob Fitrakis a conspiracy theorist in what is supposed to be an accurate account of an ongoing controversy show an unfortunate editorial bias.
Once versed in the facts and scope of information surrounding vote fraud in Ohio 2004, reasonable people would not be as dismissive as these hasty, deadlined "news" reporters. They do, however have large built-in audiences, so they should be nudged politely to be more thorough after we call them on not actually reading through the links.
