Behind the Clinton Campaign: Dark Money Allies, Part 2
Sunday, 06 December 2015 00:00 By Melissa Yeager and Libby Watson, Sunlight
Foundation | News Analysis
Also see: Super PACs, Dark Money and the Hillary Clinton Campaign, Part 1
We already examined Clinton's biggest super PAC supporters earlier this
week, Priorities USA Action and Ready PAC, plus her official campaign PAC.
Now we're going to dive deeper into the dark money supporting Clinton: the
money in groups that don't have to disclose their donors, and the money that
moves from those groups to super PACs that support Clinton.
The groups we're looking at here are all founded by David Brock, a Clinton
enemy-turned-ally who runs a number of liberal super PACs and nonprofits.
Some of these groups are directly supporting her; others aren't, but have
donated to the groups that do support her. In addition to the groups we've
outlined here, Brock is also on the board of Priorities USA, and he's
president of a group called the American Independent Institute, which funds
"individual journalism projects, with an emphasis on exposing the nexus of
conservative power in Washington." Just a few weeks ago, Brock bought the
progressive news site Blue Nation Review, which will now be headed by Peter
Daou, Clinton's former digital strategist and founder of the Hillary Men
project. In 2014, Brock became chairman of the board of the ethics watchdog
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which is now
located at the same offices as all the groups listed below.
All the groups listed below are located in the same offices: 455
Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
For this post, we used Sunlight's Real-Time Influence Explorer, which allows
you to view campaign filings as soon as they hit the Federal Election
Commission. We also looked at various groups' IRS 990 forms, which often
only become available more than a year after they're filed.
American Bridge 21st Century (Super PAC)
Brock established American Bridge 21st Century in 2010. Much of its activity
comes in the form of opposition research against Republican candidates - for
example, a recent post on its website attacks Marco Rubio's record as an
instructor at Florida International University. It also sends trackers to
follow Republican candidates on the campaign trail, recording "almost every
public utterance by prominent Republican politicians, using both DC-based
researchers and a national network of professional trackers." So far this
cycle, it has raised $6.2 million and spent $5.2 million. While it has spent
on races in the past, it hasn't directly spent on any races so far this
cycle. Most of its major expenses this year have been on staff and
fundraising.
Until May 2015, Bridge had several staff dedicated solely to pushing back on
attacks against Clinton as part of a project called Correct the Record, but
that split off as a separate super PAC. This division of labor - opposition
research at Bridge, pro-Clinton defensive work at Correct the Record - has
been described by Brock himself, discussing his decision to leave Bridge for
Correct the Record:
I essentially had to make a decision. Do I want to be involved in
supervising and handling the research against the Republican candidates? ...
Or do I want to be involved in some combination of defense and offense for
Hillary Clinton?
Notable donors this cycle to Bridge include American Bridge 21st Century
Foundation (more on that in a minute), which gave $1.2 million;
philanthropists George Soros and Steve Silberstein, who gave $1 million and
$200,000, respectively. NextGen Climate Action Committee also contributed
$250,000. We've written extensively about how this 501(c)(4) is funded
almost entirely by hedge fund manager and environmentalist Tom Steyer.
American Bridge has paid the executive vice president of Media Matters,
Angelo Carusone, $3,000 a month for management consulting since January
2014.
American Bridge 21st Century Foundation (501(c)(4))
American Bridge 21st Century Foundation is another 501(c)(4) organization,
also known as a dark money group. It runs Bridge Project, which says it's
"dedicated to opposing the conservative movement's extreme ideology and
exposing its dishonest tactics." The site has a database, "Conservative
Transparency," that allows users to search for conservative donors,
recipients and organizations. Featured donors include the Koch brothers and
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.
The hilarious part (if you find dodging transparency hilarious) is that the
group has an entire database for uncovering the money behind conservative
causes, documenting spending from their 990s, and blogging about
conservative donors, but it does not disclose its own donors on that
website, or anywhere else. We reached out to American Bridge for comment on
this, and will update this post if we receive anything from them.
On that note: The foundation arm of American Bridge 21st Century has donated
a lot of money to the Bridge super PAC, which does have to disclose its
donors. In the first six months of 2015, the foundation gave $1.2 million to
the super PAC. In 2014, they donated $2.5 million. That's $3.7 million
dollars funneled from the foundation to the super PAC in just the last two
years - with donors safe in the knowledge that their names won't be
disclosed to the public.
Correct the Record (Super PAC)
Correct the Record was originally part of the American Bridge super PAC, but
was spun off in May 2015 to be its own super PAC. It's headed by Brad
Woodhouse, the past president of American Bridge 21st Century and former
communications director of the Democratic National Committee. Correct the
Record is located in the same offices as Media Matters and American Bridge;
as National Journal pointed out, "When long¬time Demo¬crat¬ic op¬er¬at¬ive
Brad Wood¬house left his job head¬ing one su¬per PAC to lead an¬oth¬er, he
didn't even change desks." Most of Correct the Record's staff used to work
at the super PAC arm of American Bridge, according to FEC filings.
The FEC has stated that it only regulates Internet activity when it is
"communication placed on another person's website for a fee." So, Correct
the Record says it actually can communicate with the campaign because all of
its activity is on its own website. (This underscores the so-called
"Internet "blind spot" that we pointed out a couple weeks ago.)
In theory, Correct the Record could coordinate with the campaign, then
coordinate with the other super PACs. We don't know if that is true, and
even if it was, it's doubtful the FEC would do anything about it. But
Campaign Legal Center's Paul Ryan has described the group's activity as
"creating new ways to undermine campaign regulation."
The New York Times has reported that Brock, who officially left American
Bridge for Correct the Record when it was formed, is "focused on paying
attention to the activities of Correct the Record and Media Matters, which
will play the biggest role in defending Mrs. Clinton throughout the
campaign."
Since it was formed in May, Correct the Record has raised $1.4 million from
some of the same donors as American Bridge - big donors Steve Silberstein,
Joan Cooney and Barbara Lee have donated to both. Correct the Record was
only active for about a month before its first and only FEC filing, so we'll
know more about their finances in January. (Yes, super PACs go six months
without divulging donor information some years.) The Clinton campaign itself
is Correct the Record's single biggest contributor, at $275,615.
Correct the Record also has a joint fundraising committee with Priorities
USA, called American Priorities, but it's raised no money and spent only
$1,200.
Franklin Forum (PAC)
The Franklin Forum is a nonprofit "communications organization that provides
media training and support, including message development and speaker
promotion, to strengthen top progressive messengers and messaging."
They also have a PAC, Franklin Forum PAC, which raises money from several of
the same donors as American Bridge: Paul Egerman, Barbara Lee and Stephen
Silberman have donated to both. The PAC's single biggest expense was $60,000
given to American Bridge, which supports Clinton, in November 2014, and
spent directly on a few races in 2014: Mark Warner, Ami Bera and Shenna
Bellows' campaigns all received contributions from the PAC. Most of their
expenses are in-kind contributions to non-federal candidates.
Media Matters (501(c)(3))
Media Matters For America (MMFA) is a media watchdog organization,
"dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting
conservative misinformation in the U.S. media," founded by David Brock in
2004. Since 2013, Bradley Beychok has been president of the organization; he
was previously Campaign Director at American Bridge. It's a 501(c)(3),
meaning it can't conduct political activity on behalf of a candidate. This
means MMFA can't explicitly advocate for Clinton's election, but it can (and
does) publish material about Clinton: for example, posts criticizing media
coverage of her, or highlighting positive coverage. Long-time Clinton
adviser James Carville works for them, and fellow Clinton aide Sidney
Blumenthal was also reportedly paid $200,000 a year by the organization.
Unlike PACs and campaigns, MMFA doesn't have to disclose its donors or what
it pays most of its staff (only executives and top-paid staff) because it's
a 501(c)(3). Correct the Record and American Bridge both pay rent to Media
Matters for their office space.
According to its 2013 IRS 990 form, the most recent one available, David
Brock draws an annual salary of $280,060 from Media Matters.
American Democracy Legal Fund (527 organization)
The American Democracy Legal Fund is a 527 organization set up in September
2014 to, according to its website bio, "hold candidates for office
accountable for possible ethics and/or legal violations." The group files
legal complaints against Republican candidates for violating election law:
For example, they filed a complaint with the FEC in October over Jeb Bush's
super PAC, Right To Rise, claiming "illegal coordination" between the
campaign and the super PAC.
The group has only received two contributions: $50,000 from American Bridge,
and $25,000 from the National Education Association. It's worth noting that
while they're alleging illegal coordination between GOP campaigns and super
PACs, the group is chaired by Brad Woodhouse, president of Correct the
Record, which is (supposedly legally) coordinating with the Clinton
campaign.
The Bonner Group (Nonprofit Fundraising Firm)
This one is a little different. The Bonner Group is a fundraising consulting
firm that raises money for American Bridge and Ready PAC, which we know from
FEC filings, and other groups like Media Matters, which was reported by The
New York Times. Bonner solicits donations for these groups, who then pay
Bonner a sizable cut - in the first six months of 2015, American Bridge
super PAC paid Bonner $593,007. So we have no idea how much of American
Bridge, Media Matters or Ready PAC's money comes through Bonner Group
fundraising, but we do know that Bonner makes a lot of money off it, and
that David Brock thinks he's getting "the best fund-raising product for the
lowest cost." Media Matters' 2013 990 form reported they paid $1.4 million
for fundraising services.
The New York Times report on The Bonner group notes that Brock and Mary Pat
Bonner, who runs the Bonner Group, share a house in the Hamptons.
Like we said last time, there's still a lot we don't know about these
groups' finances: We won't have the relevant FEC filings for the second half
of 2015 until January. And the 501(c)(4) nonprofits involved in the campaign
won't file 990 forms covering this cycle until likely 2017, well after
voters have cast their votes. Even then, we still won't know who donated to
those groups because 501(c)(4)s don't have to disclose their donors. And
while the FEC is gridlocked, any enforcement action is unlikely. All of this
leaves voters in the dark about exactly who is spending some pretty big
money to support Hillary Clinton.
In interest of transparency: Libby Watson, who contributed to writing this
post, was formerly an employee of Media Matters.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not
be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
LIBBY WATSON
Libby Watson is a staff writer at the Sunlight Foundation. Originally from
England, she graduated from American University with an MA in Political
Communication in 2014. Before Sunlight, Libby was a researcher at Media
Matters, where she monitored cable and online news. She has written for New
York Magazine, Broadly and The Atlantic.
MELISSA YEAGER
Melissa Yeager is a senior staff writer at the Sunlight Foundation.
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Behind the Clinton Campaign: Dark Money Allies, Part 2
Sunday, 06 December 2015 00:00 By Melissa Yeager and Libby Watson, Sunlight
Foundation | News Analysis
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Also see: Super PACs, Dark Money and the Hillary Clinton Campaign,
Part 1
We already examined Clinton's biggest super PAC supporters earlier
this week, Priorities USA Action and Ready PAC, plus her official campaign
PAC. Now we're going to dive deeper into the dark money supporting Clinton:
the money in groups that don't have to disclose their donors, and the money
that moves from those groups to super PACs that support Clinton.
The groups we're looking at here are all founded by David Brock, a Clinton
enemy-turned-ally who runs a number of liberal super PACs and nonprofits.
Some of these groups are directly supporting her; others aren't, but have
donated to the groups that do support her. In addition to the groups we've
outlined here, Brock is also on the board of Priorities USA, and he's
president of a group called the American Independent Institute, which funds
"individual journalism projects, with an emphasis on exposing the nexus of
conservative power in Washington." Just a few weeks ago, Brock bought the
progressive news site Blue Nation Review, which will now be headed by Peter
Daou, Clinton's former digital strategist and founder of the Hillary Men
project. In 2014, Brock became chairman of the board of the ethics watchdog
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which is now
located at the same offices as all the groups listed below.
All the groups listed below are located in the same offices: 455
Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
For this post, we used Sunlight's Real-Time Influence Explorer, which allows
you to view campaign filings as soon as they hit the Federal Election
Commission. We also looked at various groups' IRS 990 forms, which often
only become available more than a year after they're filed.
American Bridge 21st Century (Super PAC)
Brock established American Bridge 21st Century in 2010. Much of its activity
comes in the form of opposition research against Republican candidates - for
example, a recent post on its website attacks Marco Rubio's record as an
instructor at Florida International University. It also sends trackers to
follow Republican candidates on the campaign trail, recording "almost every
public utterance by prominent Republican politicians, using both DC-based
researchers and a national network of professional trackers." So far this
cycle, it has raised $6.2 million and spent $5.2 million. While it has spent
on races in the past, it hasn't directly spent on any races so far this
cycle. Most of its major expenses this year have been on staff and
fundraising.
Until May 2015, Bridge had several staff dedicated solely to pushing back on
attacks against Clinton as part of a project called Correct the Record, but
that split off as a separate super PAC. This division of labor - opposition
research at Bridge, pro-Clinton defensive work at Correct the Record - has
been described by Brock himself, discussing his decision to leave Bridge for
Correct the Record:
I essentially had to make a decision. Do I want to be involved in
supervising and handling the research against the Republican candidates? ...
Or do I want to be involved in some combination of defense and offense for
Hillary Clinton?
Notable donors this cycle to Bridge include American Bridge 21st Century
Foundation (more on that in a minute), which gave $1.2 million;
philanthropists George Soros and Steve Silberstein, who gave $1 million and
$200,000, respectively. NextGen Climate Action Committee also contributed
$250,000. We've written extensively about how this 501(c)(4) is funded
almost entirely by hedge fund manager and environmentalist Tom Steyer.
American Bridge has paid the executive vice president of Media Matters,
Angelo Carusone, $3,000 a month for management consulting since January
2014.
American Bridge 21st Century Foundation (501(c)(4))
American Bridge 21st Century Foundation is another 501(c)(4) organization,
also known as a dark money group. It runs Bridge Project, which says it's
"dedicated to opposing the conservative movement's extreme ideology and
exposing its dishonest tactics." The site has a database, "Conservative
Transparency," that allows users to search for conservative donors,
recipients and organizations. Featured donors include the Koch brothers and
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.
The hilarious part (if you find dodging transparency hilarious) is that the
group has an entire database for uncovering the money behind conservative
causes, documenting spending from their 990s, and blogging about
conservative donors, but it does not disclose its own donors on that
website, or anywhere else. We reached out to American Bridge for comment on
this, and will update this post if we receive anything from them.
On that note: The foundation arm of American Bridge 21st Century has donated
a lot of money to the Bridge super PAC, which does have to disclose its
donors. In the first six months of 2015, the foundation gave $1.2 million to
the super PAC. In 2014, they donated $2.5 million. That's $3.7 million
dollars funneled from the foundation to the super PAC in just the last two
years - with donors safe in the knowledge that their names won't be
disclosed to the public.
Correct the Record (Super PAC)
Correct the Record was originally part of the American Bridge super PAC, but
was spun off in May 2015 to be its own super PAC. It's headed by Brad
Woodhouse, the past president of American Bridge 21st Century and former
communications director of the Democratic National Committee. Correct the
Record is located in the same offices as Media Matters and American Bridge;
as National Journal pointed out, "When longtime Democratic operative
Brad Woodhouse left his job heading one super PAC to lead another, he
didn't even change desks." Most of Correct the Record's staff used to work
at the super PAC arm of American Bridge, according to FEC filings.
The FEC has stated that it only regulates Internet activity when it is
"communication placed on another person's website for a fee." So, Correct
the Record says it actually can communicate with the campaign because all of
its activity is on its own website. (This underscores the so-called
"Internet "blind spot" that we pointed out a couple weeks ago.)
In theory, Correct the Record could coordinate with the campaign, then
coordinate with the other super PACs. We don't know if that is true, and
even if it was, it's doubtful the FEC would do anything about it. But
Campaign Legal Center's Paul Ryan has described the group's activity as
"creating new ways to undermine campaign regulation."
The New York Times has reported that Brock, who officially left American
Bridge for Correct the Record when it was formed, is "focused on paying
attention to the activities of Correct the Record and Media Matters, which
will play the biggest role in defending Mrs. Clinton throughout the
campaign."
Since it was formed in May, Correct the Record has raised $1.4 million from
some of the same donors as American Bridge - big donors Steve Silberstein,
Joan Cooney and Barbara Lee have donated to both. Correct the Record was
only active for about a month before its first and only FEC filing, so we'll
know more about their finances in January. (Yes, super PACs go six months
without divulging donor information some years.) The Clinton campaign itself
is Correct the Record's single biggest contributor, at $275,615.
Correct the Record also has a joint fundraising committee with Priorities
USA, called American Priorities, but it's raised no money and spent only
$1,200.
Franklin Forum (PAC)
The Franklin Forum is a nonprofit "communications organization that provides
media training and support, including message development and speaker
promotion, to strengthen top progressive messengers and messaging."
They also have a PAC, Franklin Forum PAC, which raises money from several of
the same donors as American Bridge: Paul Egerman, Barbara Lee and Stephen
Silberman have donated to both. The PAC's single biggest expense was $60,000
given to American Bridge, which supports Clinton, in November 2014, and
spent directly on a few races in 2014: Mark Warner, Ami Bera and Shenna
Bellows' campaigns all received contributions from the PAC. Most of their
expenses are in-kind contributions to non-federal candidates.
Media Matters (501(c)(3))
Media Matters For America (MMFA) is a media watchdog organization,
"dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting
conservative misinformation in the U.S. media," founded by David Brock in
2004. Since 2013, Bradley Beychok has been president of the organization; he
was previously Campaign Director at American Bridge. It's a 501(c)(3),
meaning it can't conduct political activity on behalf of a candidate. This
means MMFA can't explicitly advocate for Clinton's election, but it can (and
does) publish material about Clinton: for example, posts criticizing media
coverage of her, or highlighting positive coverage. Long-time Clinton
adviser James Carville works for them, and fellow Clinton aide Sidney
Blumenthal was also reportedly paid $200,000 a year by the organization.
Unlike PACs and campaigns, MMFA doesn't have to disclose its donors or what
it pays most of its staff (only executives and top-paid staff) because it's
a 501(c)(3). Correct the Record and American Bridge both pay rent to Media
Matters for their office space.
According to its 2013 IRS 990 form, the most recent one available, David
Brock draws an annual salary of $280,060 from Media Matters.
American Democracy Legal Fund (527 organization)
The American Democracy Legal Fund is a 527 organization set up in September
2014 to, according to its website bio, "hold candidates for office
accountable for possible ethics and/or legal violations." The group files
legal complaints against Republican candidates for violating election law:
For example, they filed a complaint with the FEC in October over Jeb Bush's
super PAC, Right To Rise, claiming "illegal coordination" between the
campaign and the super PAC.
The group has only received two contributions: $50,000 from American Bridge,
and $25,000 from the National Education Association. It's worth noting that
while they're alleging illegal coordination between GOP campaigns and super
PACs, the group is chaired by Brad Woodhouse, president of Correct the
Record, which is (supposedly legally) coordinating with the Clinton
campaign.
The Bonner Group (Nonprofit Fundraising Firm)
This one is a little different. The Bonner Group is a fundraising consulting
firm that raises money for American Bridge and Ready PAC, which we know from
FEC filings, and other groups like Media Matters, which was reported by The
New York Times. Bonner solicits donations for these groups, who then pay
Bonner a sizable cut - in the first six months of 2015, American Bridge
super PAC paid Bonner $593,007. So we have no idea how much of American
Bridge, Media Matters or Ready PAC's money comes through Bonner Group
fundraising, but we do know that Bonner makes a lot of money off it, and
that David Brock thinks he's getting "the best fund-raising product for the
lowest cost." Media Matters' 2013 990 form reported they paid $1.4 million
for fundraising services.
The New York Times report on The Bonner group notes that Brock and Mary Pat
Bonner, who runs the Bonner Group, share a house in the Hamptons.
Like we said last time, there's still a lot we don't know about these
groups' finances: We won't have the relevant FEC filings for the second half
of 2015 until January. And the 501(c)(4) nonprofits involved in the campaign
won't file 990 forms covering this cycle until likely 2017, well after
voters have cast their votes. Even then, we still won't know who donated to
those groups because 501(c)(4)s don't have to disclose their donors. And
while the FEC is gridlocked, any enforcement action is unlikely. All of this
leaves voters in the dark about exactly who is spending some pretty big
money to support Hillary Clinton.
In interest of transparency: Libby Watson, who contributed to writing this
post, was formerly an employee of Media Matters.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not
be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Libby Watson
Libby Watson is a staff writer at the Sunlight Foundation. Originally from
England, she graduated from American University with an MA in Political
Communication in 2014. Before Sunlight, Libby was a researcher at Media
Matters, where she monitored cable and online news. She has written for New
York Magazine, Broadly and The Atlantic.
Melissa Yeager
Melissa Yeager is a senior staff writer at the Sunlight Foundation.
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By Libby Watson, Melissa Yeager, Sunlight Foundation | Report
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