Saudi-Led Oil Lobby Group Financed 2012 Dark Money Attack Ads

[midnight]

New disclosures retrieved today, showing some of API’s spending over the course of last year, reveal that API used its membership dues (from the world’s largest oil companies like Chevron and Aramco) to finance several dark money groups airing attack ads in the most recent election cycle.

Last year, API gave nearly half a million to the following dark money groups running political ads against Democrats and in support of Republicans:

• $50,000 to Americans for Prosperity’s 501(c)(4) group, which ran ads against President Obama and congressional Democrats.

• $412,969 to Coalition for American Jobs’ 501(c)(6) group, a front set up by API lobbyists to air ads for industry-friendly politicians, including soon to be former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA).

• $25,000 to the Sixty Plus Association’s 501(c)(4), which ran ads against congressional Democrats.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/171529/saudi-led-oil-lobby-group-financed-2012-dark-money-attack-ads

So many reasons to get this money out of our elections.

[bhikkhu]

1. Exactly - its only a matter of time before China, or whoever, buys the presidency

and current laws wouldn't even allow us to find out until it was too late.

As long as money is speech, there's no equality between those who have it in excess and the rest of us, and no practical definition between "foreign speech" and domestic.

[DJ13]

2. Removing money from politics is a national security issue