Elon Musk’s difficult recruiting efforts on behalf of Donald Trump and the Republican Party are now under way in Southern California, with two women accused of knocking on the doors of embattled Republican lawmakers and defrauding them of wages and expenses. Facing a lawsuit filed by a person.
The lawsuit alleges that Musk’s America Pac, which spent more than $100 million on this year’s election campaign, “intentionally violated California labor law” by paying the plaintiffs less than promised and refusing to make up the difference. “I violated the law,” he said.
The women, Tamiko Anderson and Patricia Kelly, were hired last month and promised an hourly wage of about $25, according to their lead attorney, to help rally votes for Michelle Steele, who represents the Orange County battleground district. He says he promised to do so. South of Los Angeles.
It wasn’t until the women started working that they realized they were paid based on the number of homes they visited, according to the suit. The complaint further alleges that he was not reimbursed for work-related expenses, including the use of a personal cell phone to track his movements along designated routes.
Musk’s ground campaign may have ignored as many as a quarter of the homes his recruiters claim to have visited in Arizona and Nevada, a Guardian report and a second Wired report say. It has been under repeated scrutiny in recent days following the reports that have come to light. Recruiters hired in Michigan were not told which campaign they were participating in until they signed up.
The Orange County lawsuit, also first reported by Wired, does not reveal how much the women earned less than expected or how much their cost claims were unsuccessful. Larry Lee, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said they did not have a signed contract for the work, only a “piece of paper” detailing the hourly rate they should expect.
But Ryan Hancock, a prominent national labor lawyer at Willig, Williams & Davidson in Philadelphia, said that’s no reason to view the lawsuit as some kind of political stunt just days before the Nov. 5 election. That’s what it means. He said such lawsuits often lack sufficient detail when first filed and are later amended and fleshed out. “This appears to be a legitimate case based on the employer’s failure to pay compensation owed under state and federal law,” Hancock said.
Musk’s Pack is one of several defendants named in the lawsuit, along with recruitment and payroll company Liberty Staffing Services. Blair Group, a national recruiting firm; Congresswoman Michelle Steele’s re-election campaign.
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However, the camp quickly denied any connection with this recruitment campaign. “The Steele campaign knows nothing about these individuals,” the spokesperson said. “They didn’t work for the Steele movement, and they don’t work for it.”
Packs like Mr. Musk’s typically operate independently of candidates’ campaigns, under rules that make it illegal to coordinate their activities. When asked why he named the Steele camp as one of the defendants, Lee, the plaintiff’s attorney, said, “I have no intention of commenting.”
