Anonymous Campaign Donors Unmasked
And the more you learn, the more mysterious and inscrutable it gets.
In California, two ballot initiatives last month would have a) prevented unions from using dues money for political contributions, and b) derailed Jerry Brown’s tax plan. An anonymous dark money group from Arizona — Americans for Responsible Leadership — had donated $11 million to these two initiatives. They both lost.
On November 5th, the day before the election, a court ruled that Americans for Responsible Leadership had to reveal its donors. Transparency at last! The rock was lifted. Hiding and cowering underneath the rock was…drumroll…Americans for Job Security.
WTF?!?
As the linked article puts it:
“Behind one anonymously financed and neutrally-named group was simply another anonymously financed and neutrally-named group. Like some kind of dark money Russian doll.”
And it gets even more labyrinthine. The $11 million spent by Americans for Responsible Leadership (or was it Americans for Job Security?) had been funneled through another group: The Center to Protect Patient Rights.
And when you lift up the rock to see who’s financing The Center to Protect Patient Rights, hiding underneath the rock is…another rock. And when you pick up THAT rock, you find…
(to be continued)
Labels: Americans for Job Security, Americans for Responsible Leadership, anonymous campaign donors, dark money, The Center to Protect Patient Rights
posted by Tom Harper @ 10:31 AM
4 Comments:
The malefactors of great wealth behind these phony front organizations might want to reckon with a dynamic that tends to kick in as these schemes proliferate. The more phony front organizations money is channeled through, the greater the chance of sticky fingers skimming off money, or diverting it entirely. It can become very hard for even the people behind ithe schemes to track and impossible to fully audit where all the money went.
It begins to read like a Robert Ludlow Bourne novel...sans kick-ass kick boxing and the Sig Pro, or Glock or whatever the deuce his gun is/was. But for sure, with all the layers of deceit.
Compliments of the U.S. Supreme Court. Kinda makes you want to have those judges elected doesn't it? But then you remember the civil rights movement and why judges are appointed for life.
SW: That's a very good point. The more layers and front groups, the easier it is for money to be skimmed and diverted. I've seen a few news stories describing exactly that. "No honor among thieves" as they say.
jadedj: LOL, all the layers of deceit without the action.
Mr. C: It's mind-boggling, or nauseating, to imagine the political ads we'd be swamped with if Supreme Court justices had to run for election. It would make the mud-slingingest presidential race look like a friendly contest between two small-town supervisors.
Post a Comment
<< Home