(Opinion) Tax documents show how secret money infects campaigns on both sides

[nitpicker]

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/campaign/261257-tax-documents-show-how-secret-money-infects-campaigns-on-both

Tax documents show how secret money infects campaigns on both sides

By Stephen Spaulding, contributor
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New tax documents released last week confirm what we've known for years: Sophisticated political operatives on the right and the left continue to use phony social welfare organizations to pump tens of millions of anonymous dollars into our elections. They are used solely because of the secrecy that they provide to donors. This kind of money becomes a barrier to the sort of responsive government that we deserve, and is made possible by lax enforcement of rules that are sorely in need of reform.

Patriot Majority USA, a "social welfare" 501(c)(4) organization that supports Democrats, spent 40 percent of its $34 million in expenditures influencing campaigns in 2014, according to an analysis last week by the Center for Public Integrity (CPI). It is one of the most flagrant spenders of secret political cash to influence campaigns. Half of its $30 million in total contributions in 2014 came from only five anonymous donors — including one contributor who gave $8.25 million, and six others who contributed $1 million or more each. Because labor unions are required to file certain disclosure forms with the Department of Labor about their spending, CPI could confirm that a handful of labor unions contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the organization. Still, most of Patriot Majority USA's millions came from undisclosed sources.

Meanwhile, Crossroads GPS — a 501(c)(4) with close ties to Karl Rove — reported to the Federal Election Commission that it spent over $26 million on political expenditures in the 2014 midterms. The Huffington Post reported last week that 80 percent of the $69 million that it raised came from only 11 secret donors of $1 million or more. In fact, "the largest two donations to [Crossroads GPS] were $20.6 million and $14.5 million." But its own political spending is only half of the story. According to Crossroads GPS's tax return, released last week, it granted an additional $13.6 million to other groups active in politics, including the National Rifle Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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The law says that these social welfare groups are supposed to operate exclusively for the promotion of social welfare — not on political campaign intervention. Yet a handful of groups, including the three discussed above, have exploited vague regulations to spend over $470 million in election-related expenditures, funded by anonymous sources, since 2010. Political lawyers sometimes cited these rules, enacted over a half-century ago, to claim a loophole that allows secret spending so long as it's not an organization's primary purpose.
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