Again, their obvious purpose is to elect candidates. Politico said "the groups -- including American Action Network, which shares a downtown Washington office with the Crossroads groups, as well as Americans for Prosperity and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- aim to capitalize on voter dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress.
"Some of the groups also intend to take advantage of a January Supreme Court decision that loosened laws governing what types of contributions can be used to air election ads directly targeting candidates."
Efforts to solve these problems with new disclosure legislation fell one vote short last week in the Senate, with Republicans refusing to let the measure come to a vote. The campaign finance bill would have required nearly all organizations airing political ads to disclose their top donors and the amounts they paid.
It would have also banned a variety of
political activity by entities holding a government contract worth more
than $10 million and corporations where foreigners own more than a
majority of voting shares.
- Our watchdog campaign, Protect Our Elections, has put out rewards of $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Karl Rove and Tom Donohue, the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce.
- On Aug. 4, we received a letter from a purported Chamber of Commerce insider who compares Tom Donohue to Jack Abramoff, Michael Scanlon and Bernie Maddoff. The insider alleges fraud, campaign finance violations and financial impropriety.
In a letter on behalf of our coalition, I urged the FBI and DOJ to conduct an investigation of Tom Donohue and the Chamber based on this letter.
- We have requested the Department of Justice investigate the "shadow RNC," American Crossroads. In a letter on behalf of the coalition, I suggest formation of a campaign finance task force that investigates these groups, sets up a tip line to encourage information on violations of law, requires preservation of records and monitors their activities.
- We have urged the Federal Elections Commission to find that these groups are doing the work of a political party and issue an opinion that applies campaign finance limits to their actions.
- We have gotten the grassroots involved asking them to write the DOJ to investigate American Crossroads and similar groups and to write their legislators urging an investigation.
For now, the best antidote to this crime against democracy is for voters to be alert.
"Voter beware" needs to be the thought when advertisements are seen from advocacy groups during this election season. And voters should warn other voters that there is an ongoing crime against democracy and they should be wary of political advertising.
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