The American Crossroads strategy is not only built on the failure of Michael Steele, but Citizens United which opened up unlimited campaign spending by corporations. During a July broadcast on Fox News Rove acknowledged that the American Crossroads groups would benefit from the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that ruled corporations could donate unlimited amounts of money to political organizations which can purchase unlimited amounts of political advertising. The "Shadow RNC" of Rove and Company seeks to elect candidates loyal to the GOP's wealthiest donors.
American Crossroads is building a campaign team. It "is currently hiring operatives with state-specific campaign knowledge to bolster the operation." It is spending millions on advertisements in key House and Senate races. They have already aired advertisements in the Ohio, Colorado and Nevada senate races and have targeted 11 Senate races -- Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arkansas, Colorado, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois and WashingtonState. American Crossroads will be hiring a media consultant and pollster to develop a tailored message for each campaign.
The election watchdog group for which I serve as spokesperson, Protect Our Elections, is seeking an Advisory Opinion from the FEC finding that American Crossroads is subject to the same rules that govern the RNC since it is functioning as political party. We have also written the Attorney General urging him to make a public statement that all electoral activities will be closely monitored, requiring organizations involved in elections or issue advocacy related to elections to preserve all documents and emails, set up a task force to monitor, investigate and prosecute illegal electoral activities, set up a tip line for whistleblowers to report campaign finance violations and impanel a grand jury to investigate these matters during the campaign season. The actions of Rove and Company should be examined as a coup d'Ã ©tat of the Republican National Committee.
At the same time that the RNC is being minimized and the less regulated American Crossroads is taking over party functions, corporations are getting heavily into the mid-term elections. The Chamber of Commerce, led by Rove ally Tom Donohue, seeks to spend as much as either political party on the mid-term elections $75 million focusing on 10 senate races and 40 House races. The Chamber has already weighed in on Senate contests, spending more than $4 million so far in Massachusetts, Arkansas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio with California next. The Chamber is the largest corporate player leading 15 conservative organizations planning on spending $300 million in the mid-term elections.
I recently received a letter from an insider-whistleblower at the Chamber of Commerce in response to a reward offered for information leading to the prosecution and conviction of the Chamber's president, Tom Donohue. The whistleblower described how the Chamber promises business donors that it will protect their identity and describes fraud, campaign finance violations and financial impropriety that could be proven with a criminal investigation. We have shared this information in a letter to the Department of Justice and urged them to conduct a criminal investigation of the Chamber.
Individual industries are also planning to spend big. The Center for Public Integrity reports that five insurance giants, Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp., Humana Inc., United HealthCare Inc. and WellPoint Inc., plan to spend $20 million on close House races. The coal industry is also planning on spending millions to influence races in Kentucky and Tennessee.
On the Democratic side, the political party apparatus is holding its own in fundraising, and the Dems will get their usual support from union and other Democratic leaning groups. The Service Employees International Union will spend $44 million on the mid-term elections. The AFL-CIO is planning on spending more than $50 million and is focusing its efforts on six states: California, New York, Illinois, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania. But the Republicans have adapted to Citizens United more quickly, in part due to necessity created by the shortcomings of Michael Steele. As a result concentrated corporate funding will dwarf unions and others allied with the Democrats.
And, with the failure thus far of the Congress to pass the DISCLOSE Act voters will not be told who is funding advertising campaigns. The Chamber has a history of this deceptive approach, creating front groups that sound like citizen groups but which are really funded by concentrated corporate interests. As a result Americans may need to learn a new Latin phrase, one that goes along with caveat emptor, buyer beware; the new phrase when it comes to voting -- caveat suffragium, voter beware. Due to the massive spending by concentrated corporate interest's deception will even more so become the foundation of American elections.
Kevin Zeese is executive director of Prosperity Agenda (www.ProsperityAgenda.US) and spokesperson for Protect Our Elections (www.ProtectOurElections.org).
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