Sheldon Whitehouse Invited Three Dark Money Critics To Testify to Congress.
Quote:All three witnesses invited by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) to testify at a hearing on the destructive impact dark money has had on the Supreme Court have significant ties to liberal dark money groups.
Whitehouse is scheduled to preside over a Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday afternoon on "What's Wrong with the Supreme Court: The Big Money Assault on Our Judiciary." Among the witnesses he called is Ben Jealous, who is currently the president of People for the American Way, a liberal group that does not disclose its donors. Jealous will be joined by Michael Klarman of Take Back the Court, a judicial advocacy group that does not identify its donors, and Lisa Graves of the Center for Media and Democracy, a liberal watchdog group that discloses some donors, but takes a significant portion of its funding from sources that conceal contributions.
The hearing is Whitehouse’s latest attempt to push dark money groups to disclose their donors. Although he frequently attacks the role of dark money in politics, Whitehouse himself has relied on groups that conceal their donors throughout his tenure in the Senate.
Take Back the Court does not identify who bankrolls the group in its tax forms. The Center for Media and Democracy has identified some of its donors, but a significant portion of its cash has come from sources that conceal contributions, such as the Schwab Charitable Fund.
The Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board notes that the hearing will likely be used to advance Whitehouse's Amicus Act, which would require groups that file briefs in Supreme Court cases to disclose their donors. Whitehouse has consistently attacked conservative dark money groups, particularly those who work on Supreme Court fights. He and other Senate Democrats have demanded such groups release lists of their funders.
But despite these attacks, Whitehouse and Democrats rely on a host of dark money groups for support in judicial fights. Demand Justice, a left-wing group that fights Republican court nominations, is sponsored by the Sixteen Thirty Fund. The fund is a subsidiary of Arabella Advisors, which manages a network of funds that raised $715 million in anonymous cash for left-wing causes in 2019.
Demand Justice recently joined a larger coalition called Unrig the Courts, which includes seven other dark money groups, including Take Back the Court. The coalition seeks to add seats to the Supreme Court, impose term limits on justices, expand the lower courts, and create "improved ethics and transparency requirements."
"It's impossible to take Senator Sheldon Whitehouse seriously on the issue of dark money when liberal groups raise, spend, and benefit from more dark money than other organizations," Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, told the Washington Free Beacon. "As he rails against conservatives, liberal organizations such as the ACLU and NAACP are fighting in court to protect donor privacy. Mr. Whitehouse may have a gavel and chair, a subcommittee, but he's living in a world all his own."
The battle over dark money and the Supreme Court has erupted due to the push from Whitehouse and Democrats. Sutherland's group launched a six-figure ad buy Wednesday hitting Whitehouse over his dark money ties.
Whitehouse's office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
RE: Sheldon Whitehouse Invited Three Dark Money Critics To Testify to Congress.
This is what happens when dems take over the majority, if only by a narrow thread. Democrats care only about elections, because that is the only way for them to get what they want, which is power--over you, over me, over everybody. Republicans have their heads wedged firmly up their asses when it comes to elections. It's not a situation with a happy ending.
RE: Sheldon Whitehouse Invited Three Dark Money Critics To Testify to Congress.
Quote:The 2020 election saw more than $1 billion in “dark money” spending at the federal level, a massive sum driven by an explosion of secret donations boosting Democrats in a historically expensive cycle.
That’s according to an estimate from OpenSecrets. The billion-dollar sum includes a whopping $660 million in donations from opaque political nonprofits and shell companies to outside groups. In 2020, dark money groups preferred to bankroll closely-tied super PACs rather than spend the money themselves — politically active nonprofits that do not disclose their donors reported roughly $88 million in direct election spending to the Federal Election Commission. The remainder of the total is made up of spending on “issue ads” targeting candidates online and on the airwaves.
Democrats have consistently called for closing loopholes in campaign finance law that allow secret donors to bankroll pricey political ads. But that hasn’t stopped them from using secret funds to win elections. Of donations and spending reported to the FEC, liberal groups directed more than $514 million in dark money into the 2020 election, overshadowing around $200 million that boosted Republicans.
Liberal dark money groups overshadow conservatives
Anonymous donors poured record amounts of money into groups backing President Joe Biden in the 2020 contest, leaving the public without a full accounting of who helped him win the White House.
Biden’s presidential bid attracted around $174 million in support from anonymous donors, more than six times the $25.2 million in dark money contributions and spending boosting President Donald Trump’s unsuccessful re-election effort.
After years of dark money overwhelmingly boosting Republicans, this marks the first presidential election cycle where dark money benefited Democrats. That’s a continuation from the 2018 midterm elections when Democrats benefited from more dark money than their Republican counterparts at the federal level for the first time since Citizens United.
The 2020 election attracted record amounts of donations from dark money groups to political committees like super PACs. These groups are required to reveal their backers, but they can hide the true source of funding by reporting a non-disclosing nonprofit or shell company as the donor. By using this tactic, dark money groups can get around a 2020 court ruling that attempts to require nonprofits running political ads to reveal their donors.
Super PACs funded almost entirely by dark money groups spent around $38 million combined during the 2020 election cycle. Political committees at least partially funded by contributions from untraceable sources poured a record $2 billion into 2020 elections.
Groups aligned with Democratic or Republican party leadership account for around $3 in every $10 of dark money in 2020 elections. Party-tied dark money groups directed around $320 million into ad spending and political contributions to allied super PACs. With this much secret money, the public is left in the dark about which wealthy donors may have gained influence with party leaders, who dominated negotiations over COVID-19 legislation and other priorities over the last year.
RE: Sheldon Whitehouse Invited Three Dark Money Critics To Testify to Congress.
Quote:Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.) spoke Wednesday on the dangers of ‘dark money' groups funding Congress, at an event funded by the Center For American Progress and the American Constitution Society—both of which have received funding from dark money organizations.
During his talk, titled, "The Supreme Corp: How Corporate and Right-Wing Interests Captured The U.S. Supreme Court," Whitehouse accused right-wing institutions of securing favorable court decisions by propping up potential appointees to District Courts and the Supreme Court with dark money.
"Big Republican donor interests are at work all around the court, and much of their work is hidden from the public. We must shed light here," he said. "The big influencers are hiding behind dark money channels and a lot of transparency is needed."
CAP recently published a review by Whitehouse outlining 73 Supreme Court decisions in which the Rhode Island senator makes the case that the court unfairly decided in favor of Republican interests.
CAP was founded in 2003 by Hillary Clinton ally John Podesta as a left-wing policy think-tank, and is funded in part by the New Venture Fund, a dark money group founded by former President Bill Clinton appointee Eric Kessler. The New Venture Fund gave CAP between $100,000 and $499,999 in 2018, according to CAP's website.
Along with ACS, CAP has also been funded by Democracy Alliance, the largest Democratic dark money group. Since billionaire George Soros founded it in 2005, Democracy Alliance has invested $1.83 billion in various progressive causes. Its influence covers more than 150 left-wing organizations, including Media Matters for America, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. It has also helped fund the growing anti-Trump movement, aiding smaller groups such as the Center for Popular Democracy, Center for Community Change, and Swing Left.
Whitehouse has also been connected personally to Democracy Alliance in the past, on the occasion of the publication of his 2017 book, Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy. Whitehouse toured the book with Gara LaMarche, the president of Democracy Alliance. La Marche is also the chair of the New Press, which published Whitehouse's book.
"I think if Thomas Jefferson and James Madison came back here now and looked around they'd be stunned at a lot of different aspects of our lives," Whitehouse told LaMarche during his book tour, according to a report in the Westerly Sun. "But I think one thing that would really astound them would be the fact that corporations have such a big role in our democracy."
RE: Sheldon Whitehouse Invited Three Dark Money Critics To Testify to Congress.
(03-11-2021 04:53 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote: This is what happens when dems take over the majority, if only by a narrow thread. Democrats care only about elections, because that is the only way for them to get what they want, which is power--over you, over me, over everybody. Republicans have their heads wedged firmly up their asses when it comes to elections. It's not a situation with a happy ending.
Democrats’ approximate share of the popular vote in the last 7 presidential elections. GOP nominee in parenthesis.
That’s a remarkably narrow range of outcomes, against a remarkably diverse range of opponents. Factor out the juiced turnout for FirstBlackPresident in 2008, and it’s always within the same 3% range.
That strongly suggests to me that it doesn’t really matter what the political parties say or do in a campaign: The same basic coalition of people is going to vote D no matter what. And after all this time (Clinton first took office as President over 28 years ago), anyone who is paying attention knows what the Dems stand for and what they’re going to get if the Dems win.
RE: Sheldon Whitehouse Invited Three Dark Money Critics To Testify to Congress.
(04-21-2021 07:08 PM)Native Georgian Wrote: anyone who is paying attention knows what the Dems stand for and what they’re going to get if the Dems win.
But I'm not sure how many are truly paying attention. "Keep 'em dumb, keep 'em poor, keep 'em dependent on handouts, and you will keep 'em voting democrat."
Perhaps more importantly, I'm not sure how many have any idea what republicans stand for. I certainly lean more R than D, and I don't. I know what I wish republicans stood for, but I'm not sure what they really do stand for.
What I do know is what democrats stand for, and that's a country where I don't want to live.
RE: Sheldon Whitehouse Invited Three Dark Money Critics To Testify to Congress.
(04-21-2021 07:59 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:
(04-21-2021 07:08 PM)Native Georgian Wrote: anyone who is paying attention knows what the Dems stand for and what they’re going to get if the Dems win.
But I'm not sure how many are truly paying attention. "Keep 'em dumb, keep 'em poor, keep 'em dependent on handouts, and you will keep 'em voting democrat."
Well, if they’re not paying attention, whose fault is that?
Quote:Perhaps more importantly, I'm not sure how many have any idea what republicans stand for.
If they’re paying attention, they have some idea. They may not carry all the details around in their head, they may not watch the daily bitchfests on cable news (how can anyone, regardless of outlook, stand to listen to those shows?), but if they’re paying just a little attention, they have some idea.
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[NEWS] Sheldon Whitehouse Invited Three Dark Money Critics To Testify to Congress.
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