DeFazio: La Belle Dame Plus Mercer, Merci!

(With posthumous apologies to John Keats.)

Rep. Peter DeFazio’s district: the District Bob Mercer and his family
poured cash into via means both above-board and NOT so above …

i. Lawd, I was born a gamblin’ man

Robert Mercer, as we learned in “Peter DeFazio and the Daughters of Mercer,” is more than just a hedge fund co-manager. His company specializes in complex data-mining to trade virtually anything using “mad scientist” computer algorithms.

And, on April 2, 2010, Mercer and two of his daughters (of New York City and its outlying region) donated the maximum of $2400 to Art Robinson’s primary campaign in Oregon. Part of an out-of state money-bomb to get Robinson the GOP nomination, consisting of a large number of like-minded “contributors.”

And we know that his daughter, Heather Sue Mercer was the famous Duke University place-kicker in the mid-1990s who sued Duke for Title IX discrimination and won a judgement of $2,000,001 in Federal Court ($1 in damages, $2,000,000 in punitive damages.) And that Heather Sue Mercer is a high-stakes poker player, attending (among others) the World Series of Poker.

The Mercer sisters (from their website)
Heather @ middle

Well, as it turns out, it’s a family affair as well (sort of like the three sisters’ Cookie Shop, http://www.rubyetviolette.com). Poker, I mean.

Robert L. Mercer, the fellow who spent $200,000 (and NOT the $300,000 that many news outlets have garbled) to half-fund “Concerned Taxpayers of America” to buy anonymous ads attacking Peter DeFazio (D, Ore.) in Oregon’s Fourth Congressional District is ALSO a high stakes poker player.

Bob Mercer, left, and Peter Brown, right, from the Wall Street Journal

(click link to understand WHAT Mercer actually DOES)

And here’s the same Bob Mercer, kind of, evidently engaged in the same hobby behavior as his company does professionally:

So, is this the same guy? Hmmm.

2010 41st Annual World Series of Poker

Event #57: No-Limit Hold’em Championship
REMAINING PLAYERS AFTER DAYS: 2A & 2B
AMAZON
Entries: 7319 Remaining Players (at EOD): 2557 Places Paid: 747
Buyin: $10,000 Prize Pool: $68,798,600
RANK PLAYER CITY / STATE / COUNTRY CHIP COUNT ROOM / TABLE / SEAT

562  Robert Mercer SAINT JAMES, NY

And here:

1522 Heather Sue Mercer NEW YORK, NY, US 41,300 AMAZON / 357 / 7
1523 Robert Mercer SAINT JAMES, NY, US 122,200 AMAZON / 374 / 4

And, from another source, we are supplied with Robert L. Mercer:

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 10:10 am
Post subject: WSOPC Caesars Atlantic City – End of Day 1

2009/2010 World Series of Poker Circuit
Caesars Atlantic City
Event 10
End of Day One Standings

Buy-In $4,900 (+250)
Game No-Limit Hold’em Championship
Number of Entries 174
Net Prize Pool $817,022
First Place Prize $264,715 (plus $10,000 entry into 2010 WSOP Main Event)
Places Paid 18
Players Remaining 72

End of Day One Standings
Note: Players will redraw for new table and seat assignment on Day Two

58 Robert L. Mercer St. James, NY 36,300

When you check business listings on Long Island, you find this:

Robert L Mercer

18 Apricot Road
Mount Sinai, NY 11766-1800 map
Phone: (631) 331-4765
Website:Information not found

About Robert L Mercer

Robert L Mercer is a private company categorized under Unclassified and located in Mount Sinai, NY. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of 190,000 and employs a staff of approximately 2.

Robert L Mercer Business Information
Location Type Single Location
Annual Sales (Estimated) 190,000
Employees (Estimated) 2
SIC Code 7389, Business Services, NEC
NAICS Code 561990, All Other Support Services
Products, Services
and Brands
Information not found
State of Incorporation Information not found
Years in Business 4

And this:

Five Star WPT Championship – End of Day 1 Chip Counts, Shawn Buchanan Leads

Hendon Mob Forum Index -> Mob Poker Forum
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Reporter
Quads

Joined: 14 Dec 2003
Posts: 2310

Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:06 pm Post subject: Five Star WPT Championship – End of Day 1 Chip Counts, Shawn Buchanan Leads

59 HEATHER MERCER 110,375 47 7
60 NIKOLAY EVDAKOV 109,300 57 1
61 ROCK CLOUTIER 108,600 52 1
62 ROBERT COOPER 107,750 53 8
63 JOSEPH CORDI 107,600 58 7
64 BRUCE YAMRON 107,375 52 5
65 STEVEN LANDFISH 107,175 56 3
66 JONATHAN LITTLE 107,000 60 5
67 BENJAMIN FINEMAN 105,550 63 3
68 MICHAEL WATSON 104,450 59 1
69 GEORGE KING 103,775 60 4
70 MARK FLOWERS 103,300 51 2
71 JONATHAN KANTOR 102,700 53 7
72 BRUNO FITOUSSI 101,575 62 3
73 JOHN OSHEA 101,575 63 5
74 ROBERT MERCER 100,400 48 7

There you have it. But the thing that troubles me in all of this is less the recreational monkey-business of Robert Mercer of Renaissance than the nature of Mr. Mercer’s business, which seems the same thing. As we shall see, the political betting is related.

And here’s his picture from that poker tournament:

World Series of Poker Day 1 – Robert L Mercer

Yup. Same Guy.

ii. From Uncle Sam to Anton Pavlov

Once upon a time, when I was working feverishly on another story, a strange side story came to light, one which time prohibited me from writing about, but a story about a little state and a lot of cash and the purchase of a congressional seat …

And Robert Mercer.

But that’s enough for today.

Courage.

=================

UPDATE: The Mercer-DeFazio blog series now runs long enough for a Table of  Contents:

• Where Are All The Crusading Newspaper Editors? (29 September)
• DeFazio’s Tormentors Canned by Republican Senatorial Campaign (17 October)
• Peter DeFazio and the Daughters of Mercer (22 October)
• A Mercer-fully Short Investigative Report (31 October)
• DeFazio: La Belle Dame Plus Mercer, Merci! (9 December)
• Because “Cudgel For Growth” Wouldn’t Sound as Warm and Fuzzy (14 December)