HOH’s One-Minute Recess: Santorum’s Jonas Brothers Connection
Every vote counts, as GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum found out this week when he fell short of winning the Iowa caucuses by eight votes. So it must be heartwarming to know he could nail down the votes of New Hampshire's Jonas Brothers fans, particularly the ones who saw the 2009 movie "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience."
According to Santorum's August financial disclosure forms, the former Pennsylvania Senator did $125,000 worth of work for the Clapham Group, a Christian public relations firm based in Virginia. Mark Rodgers, Santorum's senior adviser and former chief of staff, is also a principal for the firm.
Who did we among the group's clients? Why, none other than "Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience"! Yay!
And what is the Clapham Group? Well, according to its website, it is a public relations consulting group "committed to promoting the good, true and beautiful in the public arenas of politics, policy and pop culture."
The firm takes its name from a small faith-based community of wealthy English people who lived outside of London in the late 18th and early 19th centuries called the Clapham Group, also known as the Clapham Sect or the Clapham Saints. They hated slavery, child labor and bull fighting and were key advocates of the Victorian mores that swept England during that time.
Fun fact: They also founded Freetown, Sierra Leone.
The PR firm, however, does PR stuff and boasts many clients that "usually fall into one of three categories: Culture, Community, or Compassion."
We, for one, agree that "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience" is a film that encapsulates all the culture, community and (com)passion America has to offer.
The Clapham Group, and we hope Santorum, created some sort of website called the fanfamilyexperience.com (note to Clapham: link doesn't work) because "fan family" is what the Jonas boys call their fans, their family or both.
They also reached out to youth pastors, "girl networks" and — wait for it! — home school associations. Yep, this has Santorum all over it!
The Santorum campaign has not returned our request for comment.
A Democratic operative we spoke to, however, snarked, "The guy who almost won the Iowa caucus was a shill for the Jonas Brothers? Really? I cant tell if this a joke or not. Maybe I should Google it ... oh wait ..."
Check out the Jonas Brothers New Hampshire FanFamily Experience. Extra points if you spot Rick, the oldest Jonas brother.
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