It didn't take long after the primaries here in Pennsylvania for the newest class of political hitters to move in, this time in support of two vulnerable GOP congressmen with districts covered (or partially covered) by the Philadelphia television market. The "American Action Network", a 501(c)4 non-profit "action tank", is airing an ostensibly pro-jobs/fiscal responsibility ad touting the job-creation and tax limiting actions of Congressmen Jim Gerlach and Charlie Dent (that's PA-06 and PA-15, respectively.) What ties this pair together is the fact that both face serious Democratic challengers.
I've written about the actions (and dangers) of 501(c)4 non-profits as the 527 groups of the coming election cycles before (both this year and for the 2008 elections.) This is an even more direct intrusion into the political process than the two cases I've covered in the past, verging on direct candidate endorsement. Bad as that idea is by itself, for some real fun let's look both at the ad and who's behind it.
First, here's the ad itself as it appears on the American Action Network's YouTube site:
The small business, middle-to-upper middle class appeal of this ad is pretty obvious. It looks to capitalize on those indistinct fears of the typical Teabagger-leaning conservative: job loss via off-shoring and/or immigration, "excessive" government spending, and (of course) taxes. Having hit the proper buttons to activate latent teabag sentiments, the ad's ideological purpose is done. From here, it gets a bit more interesting as it uses these hot-buttons to recommend Gerlach and Dent specifically under the guise of "calling to thank" them as Teabagger-approved picks.
This is actually critical to both candidates, as they are establishment Republicans (though certainly right-wing) and doubtless feel they need the endorsement if they hope to rally the base. Dent had even wrangled the public backing of one of these groups just before the primary. They'll need such backing, since both face stiff opposition come November. Gerlach is, of course, matched against our own Orange to Blue candidate, Manan Trivedi, while Dent faces popular Bethlehem mayor John Callahan, both very strong contenders for these seats.
So, now that we know the what and why of this early attack by the right-wing, let's take a look at the who and how of this ad and what it means in the context of upcoming campaign ads and the (nasty) potential of 501(c)4 organizations.
The American Action Network has what is a typical organization/mission statement (part of it's required non-profit corporation status per IRS regulations) that emphasizes a public policy advocate role. 501(c)4s, like several other categories of non-profit, are barred from any direct candidate endorsement. As I have noted before, this still gives them very wide latitude for political action. How wide that latitude is can be seen in the current ad; it's use of the "call to thank them" formula with only the vaguest hint of what policies (as opposed to ideological positions) might warrant such thanks. This is the problem, that almost anything can be hidden under a cloak this broad, allowing 501(c)4s to act as virtually endless fonts of advertising for candidates outside of campaign finance law. It's a mechanism rife with nasty potential, since the IRS rules for 501(c)4s don't require that donors of any size be reported or made public. It's essentially a well of private and anonymous cash that makes Nixon's "slush fund" look positively benign by comparison.
What makes this particular 501(c)4 rather interesting in the who sense is it is a rare case where we actually know some of the names behind it. Just take a look at the list of the organization's Board of Directors:
Fred Malek, Chairman, Network Board, and Chairman, Thayer Capital Partners
Senator Norm Coleman, CEO, American Action Network and Forum
Senator George Allen, President, George Allen Strategies, LLC.
Isaac Applbaum, founding General Partner, Opus Capital
Maria Cino, Vice President of Government Affairs, Pfizer Inc.
Dylan Glenn, Senior Vice President, Guggenheim Advisors
Ambassador Boyden Gray, former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union
B. Wayne Hughes, Jr., Founder and Senior Vice President of American Commercial Equities Inc.
Senator Mel Martinez, Partner, DLA Piper
Congresswoman Susan Molinari, Senior Principal, Bracewell & Giuliani
Congressman Jim Nussle, President and CEO, The Nussle Group
Congressman Tom Reynolds, Senior Strategic Policy Advisor, Nixon Peabody
Ambassador Gregory Slayton, President and CEO, NRX Global
Congressman Vin Weber, Managing Partner, Clark and Weinstock
The list of right-wing names is fairly impressive, starting with none other than Norm Coleman as CEO (and you wondered what happened to him after the Senate run, didn't you?) That this entire enterprise is an action of the GOP itself, disguised as a "policy advocacy organization" seems pretty clear. So now we know exactly how the GOP is going to bypass campaign finance law and we know how they're going to do it.
Question is, what are we going to do about it?