Really? Corruption in the political process due to dark money? But Key Questions is one of a handful of SuperPACs, liberal and conservative, funded entirely or almost entirely by dark money groups, FEC records show, obscuring the origin of the money they are putting into 2014 races. A SuperPAC called the Government Integrity Fund Action Network, which has spent more than $1 million on ads supporting Tom Cotton, the Republican Senate candidate in Arkansas, is entirely funded by the Government Integrity Fund, a dark money group. And Alaska SalmonPAC, a SuperPAC that’s spent more than $1.4 million to support Democratic Sen. Mark Begich and oppose his opponent, has received almost all of its funding from the League of Conservation Voters, which doesn’t disclose its donors. It’s not illegal for SuperPACs to be funded entirely by dark money unless a nonprofit is effectively acting as a straw donor, helping the real source of a contribution avoid disclosure, said Paul S. Ryan, senior counsel for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. Otherwise, such donations are kosher at the federal level, he said, even if “voters are getting no useful information about where the money’s coming from.” Nonetheless, Ann Ravel, an FEC commissioner and the former chairwoman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, said she saw such maneuvers as troubling end runs around disclosure requirements for SuperPACs. “It creates a difficulty in determining whether there’s corruption in the political system,” she said. nationalmemo/secret-donors-behind-superpacs-funneling-millions-midterms/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Controlled%20Group&utm_campaign=%5BControlled%5D%20Morning%20Memo%20%28New%29%20-%2011.4
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 13:21:27 +0000