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Nonprofits Are The New 527s
Underlying that Boston Globe story I just noted is a salient fact: outside groups are increasingly taking the form of 501(c)(4) groups this year.
What does it mean? Well, for the groups it means they can take any amount of contributions from virtually any source, including corporations, provided that their ads never cross the line into explicit advocacy -- i.e. "vote for candidate X this election." And the groups never have to disclose their donors, which makes everyone involved happy. That's much more freedom than 527 organizations, like the Swift Boat Vets for Truth, had in the last election.
As David Corn reported earlier this year, the Supreme Court loosened the restrictions on 501(c)(4)s at the same time that the FEC was cracking down on 527s, making them an irresistible model.
Recently, a new 501(c)(4) demonstrated how free the groups are to operate. As we reported last week, a group called the American Future Fund has been running ads supporting Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN). The ads have the look and feel of a campaign ad, so much so that the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party filed a complaint with the FEC charging that the American Future Fund is breaking the law by claiming that it is not a political committee.
Dave Kochel, a spokesperson for the group, said that AFF is not worried: "The law is pretty clear. As long as you're not advocating the election or defeat of a particular candidate, and the ad is crafted in a way that's informative on the issues, you're on solid ground."
Steve Weissman of the Campaign Finance Institute agreed. As long as the ad avoids certain buzzwords, doesn't mention the election, doesn't "build up the person more than the issue," he said, then AFF's ads were unremarkable for a 501(c)(4).
In a recent report, the Campaign Finance Institute sized up the growing field (pdf) of 501(c)(4) nonprofits on both the right and the left. So far, the Campaign To Defend America, with its McSame ad, has made the biggest splash on the left. The field is growing even faster on the right -- in part, Weissman said, because Republicans tend to like the (c)(4) model because it allows corporate contributions and Republicans tend to be "more sensitive" about donor disclosure.
Will it be the American Future Fund, Freedom's Watch, Common Sense Issues, the DCI Group's successor to Progress for America, or some other as yet uncreated vehicle that will emerge as the Swift Boat Vets of the 2008 election? Stay tuned.
Josh
Zachary
Holtzman Vogel is operating American Future Fund and Iowa Future Fund as I posted at the TPM Cafe last week. Alex Vogel is also a partner in Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti. The Mehlman is Kens' brother, Bruce.
Alex N. Vogel and his wife, Jill Holtzman Vogel, top Republican operatives, were also behind the American Center For Voting Rights and the Free Enterprise Coalition. ACVR and FEC raised more than $5 million from unidentified donors to promote suppression of Democrastic voters through redistricting and disenfranchisement.
An Iowa Future Fund document filed with the Iowa Secretary of State in February listed Eric Peterson as president, secretary and director.
A couple of us are trying to determine if Eric Peterson is tied to Bruce Rastetter, a major player in the ethanol industry.
April 7, 2008 7:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just checked the Iowa Secretary of State website and the images of the American Future Fund and Iowa Future Fund registrations filed by Holtzman Vogel have been deleted along with the image of the IFF fictitious name resolution filed by IFF president, Eric Peterson.
Anticipating such a move, I saved all three images and if anyone wants copies, email me at mrspanstreppon-at-hotmail.com.
As of this morning, my Daily Kos and TPM Cafe posts about American Future Fund and Iowa Future Fund were in the top ten links if you googled "American Future Fund" and "Iowa Future Fund." Now the links have disappeared from every search engine.
I'm telling you that Alex and Jill Holtzman Vogel are among the dirtiest of dirty Republican operatives. They have big plans for American Future Fund and I'm annoying the shit out of them.
April 7, 2008 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
In fairness, I should point out that the Iowa Secretary of State is no longer providing access to any document images. Still in all, it is some coincidence that the SoS took this action now.
April 7, 2008 9:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember the Progressive Policy Council, the mysterious 501(c)(4)? In October 2006, Paul Kiel asked TPM MR readers for help in identifying who was behind the campaign mailers sent to Pennsylvanians comparing the similarities between Rick Santorum and Bob Casey.
The only person identified with the Progressive Policy Council was Jason Torchinsky of Holtzman Vogel. Torchinsky was also associated with the American Center For Voting Rights.
I just took a look at the 2006 990 filed by the Progressive Policy Council at the Foundation Center's 990 Finder. Revenue for the year was $255,000.
The Council's officers are:
Mike Devanney
Corrin Merritt
Craig Snyder
Devanney appears to be a Pennsylvania Republican operative who worked on PA governor candidate, Bill Scranton.
Merritt and Snyder are partners in Ikon Public Affairs, a political consulting firm.
No word on who put up the $255k on Rick Santorum's behalf.
April 7, 2008 10:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Looks like my last comment disappeared along with some others.
Remember the Progressive Policy Council, the mysterious 501(c)(4) that sent out campaign mailers in the fall of 2006 comparing the similarities between Rick Santorum and Bob Casey?
Paul Kiel could find one person associated with the Council, Jason Torchinsky of Holtzman Vogel. Torchinsky, btw, was also associated with the American Center For Voting Rights.
I took a look at the Council's 2006 990 and it had $255k in revenue.
The officers are:
Mike Devanney
Craig Snyder
Corrin Merritt
Devanney is a PA Republican consultant. Snyder and Merritt are partners in Ikon Public Affairs, a consulting firm.
No word on who came up with the $255k and so much for 501(c)(4)s being social organizations.
April 7, 2008 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
That Google burying act is seriously messed up... I can find a direct link to your diary when I Google "wanderindiana site:dailykos.com" (it comes up third in the list, for pete's sake) but when I try to find it any other way, it's like it has vanished.
The other thing -- the title returned in that G search is only Daily Kos: State of the Nation, when it should return the diary title as the link.
If it was just one site, I'd believe it was something to do with dKos or TPM's archiving system, but it's both.
I can still get the images from Iowa's SoS corporations search for Iowa Future Fund, though.
April 8, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
My IFF/AFF TPM Cafe post is now at the top of the list if you google "american future fund" and the "iowa future fund".
Maybe the Iowa SoS was doing housekeeping yesterday. This morning, you could once again bring up document images.
I posted more about the Progressive Policy Council at the TPM Cafe and Daily Kos.
April 8, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
After re-reading the FEC complaint filed by Minnesota Dems, I noticed that Nicole Schlinger is listed as the American Future Fund president. Schlinger is also the president of Capitol Resources, Inc. also dba as Campaign Headquarters, located in Brooklyn Iowa. Capital Resources raises money for Republican candidates.
According to a LinkedIn profile, Schlinger was the finance director of the Iowa Republican Party and most recently worked for the Romney campaign which paid her approximately $200k.
The Syracuse alumni newsletter has an article about Schlinger with a photo of her with a young George W. Bush (see p.10).
American Future Fund doesn't sound vey much like a social welfare organization.
April 8, 2008 10:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
The p.o. box number for the American Future Fund on the FEC complaint is that of Nick Ryan, former Rep. Jim Nussle's long time campaign manager. Ryan ran Nussle's 2006 failed gubernatorial campaign.
Ryan is registered as an Iowan lobbyist whose sole client is Bruce Rastetter, a major player in the ethanol industry.
According to FEC records, Nick Ryan is now an executive with Summit Capital Group, one of Rastetter's companies.
In all probability, Eric Peterson, Summit Farms business manager, is Eric Peterson, Iowa Future Fund president. Summit Farms is also owned by Rastetter.
The next question is whether the ethanol industry has made a substantial financial commitment to American Future Fund. Rastetter is on the board of the Renewable Fuels Association.
April 9, 2008 10:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps we can look at this as the neo-con and neo-liberal employment act. One would expect high salaries and unlimited expense accounts bolstered by bizillonairs largess. Of course liberals have their bizillonairs also.
April 7, 2008 7:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Complaining to the FEC is useless. With Spakovsky's nomination blocking the filling of the other FEC seats (see here: http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/press-3122.html) , they're not going to do any business until Bush is COMPLETELY out of office in 9 months. And guess what? Bush is the LAST person on the face of the planet that wants to limit these groups, otherwise his party would have absolutely no chance at all in the General Election.
The only hope the Democrats have is taking these groups to Federal Court, if that's possible, for a cease and desist order.
April 7, 2008 7:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Complaining to the FEC is useless. With Spakovsky's nomination blocking the filling of the other FEC seats (see here: http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/press-3122.html) , they're not going to do any business until Bush is COMPLETELY out of office in 9 months. And guess what? Bush is the LAST person on the face of the planet that wants to limit these groups, otherwise his party would have absolutely no chance at all in the General Election.
April 7, 2008 7:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Its gonna be an ugly summer and fall, regardless. We need to wrap up the primary and focus on McCain. As long as Hillary and Barack fight each other the right-swifters will bite their tongues. They already sense a shift toward Barack. The uptick in background noise is evident in the conservative blogs and radio shows.
Time to circle the wagons...
April 7, 2008 7:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is where the internets come in.
Looking at just a few Form 990s for 501(c)(3)s, it becomes clear how wingnut welfare operates, circulating money to orgs that emerge for single-campaign or single-issue purposes, or go in and out of hibernation.
Time to assemble a database built on public documents to show who's running and funding the (c)(3)s and (c)(4)s.
April 7, 2008 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like Jill has been busy skullduggering for the Cheney/Bush cabal:
April 7, 2008 9:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Could you post a blog explaining this further in the election cafe?
The more people involved the better. It would be a great way to channel the interest generated by this election into something very useful and TRANSPARENT for public/MSM usage.
527's are still a serious wildcard this election. Only transparency will level the field. Tit for tat advertisement will not work. Perhaps direct deconstruction and source of information rebuttals will better address these bastards.
April 7, 2008 10:32 PM | Reply | Permalink