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A Quick Dip Into the Deep, Well-funded Dark Money of Hillary's SuperPACs
Last edited Sat Apr 2, 2016, 11:28 AM - Edit history (1)
Hillary has TEN SuperPACs backing her run for president~
Ready for Hillary PAC (hybrid super PAC)
Ready PAC (hybrid super PAC, formerly Ready for Hillary)
Hillary for America (candidate PAC)
Priorities USA Action (super PAC)
Correct the Record (super PAC)
American Bridge 21st Century (super PAC)
American Bridge 21st Century Foundation (501(c)(4))
American Independent Institute (501(c)(4))
Media Matters (501(c)(3))
The Bonner Group
Ready PAC (hybrid super PAC, formerly Ready for Hillary)
Hillary for America (candidate PAC)
Priorities USA Action (super PAC)
Correct the Record (super PAC)
American Bridge 21st Century (super PAC)
American Bridge 21st Century Foundation (501(c)(4))
American Independent Institute (501(c)(4))
Media Matters (501(c)(3))
The Bonner Group
Greenpeace found “$3,250,000 in donations from large donors connected to the fossil fuel industry to Priorities Action USA,” the main Super PAC backing Clinton’s campaign.
Hillary has been actively coordinating with this superPAC.
See~Hillary Clinton Says She Does Not Coordinate With Super PAC She Reportedly Raised Money For
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/hillary-clinton-says-she-does-not-coordinate-super-pac-she-reportedly-raised-money
AND, here is a list of the BIG MONEY donors attempting to purchase our govt through Priorities Action USA~
https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cmte=C00495861&cycle=2016
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THEN, we have the interesting transition of "Ready for Hillary" to "Ready PAC".
Ready for Hillary raised $77 MILLION before she even announced. Which means that she could legally raise money with the superpac that wasn't officially a superpac yet because she hadn't become a candidate yet. It was after she announced, the transition to Ready PAC occurred.
https://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2015/12/01/super-pacs-dark-money-and-the-hillary-clinton-campaign-part-1/
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ALSO worth noting, Clinton herself is SuperPAC "Correct The Record" biggest contributer, as pointed out in the following article~
Correct the Record was originally part of the American Bridge super PAC, but was spun off in May 2015 to be its own super PAC. It’s headed by Brad Woodhouse, the past president of American Bridge 21st Century and former communications director of the Democratic National Committee. Correct the Record is located in the same offices as Media Matters and American Bridge; as National Journal pointed out, “When longtime Democratic operative Brad Woodhouse left his job heading one super PAC to lead another, he didn’t even change desks.” Most of Correct the Record’s staff used to work at the super PAC arm of American Bridge, according to FEC filings.
The FEC has stated that it only regulates Internet activity when it is “communication placed on another person’s website for a fee.” So, Correct the Record says it actually can communicate with the campaign because all of its activity is on its own website. (This underscores the so-called "Internet “blind spot” that we pointed out a couple weeks ago.)
In theory, Correct the Record could coordinate with the campaign, then coordinate with the other super PACs. We don’t know if that is true, and even if it was, it’s doubtful the FEC would do anything about it. But Campaign Legal Center’s Paul Ryan has described the group’s activity as “creating new ways to undermine campaign regulation.”
The New York Times has reported that Brock, who officially left American Bridge for Correct the Record when it was formed, is “focused on paying attention to the activities of Correct the Record and Media Matters, which will play the biggest role in defending Mrs. Clinton throughout the campaign.”
Since it was formed in May, Correct the Record has raised $1.4 million from some of the same donors as American Bridge — big donors Steve Silberstein, Joan Cooney and Barbara Lee have donated to both. Correct the Record was only active for about a month before its first and only FEC filing, so we’ll know more about their finances in January. (Yes, super PACs go six months without divulging donor information some years.) The Clinton campaign itself is Correct the Record’s single biggest contributor, at $275,615.
https://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2015/12/03/behind-the-clinton-campaign-dark-money-allies/
The FEC has stated that it only regulates Internet activity when it is “communication placed on another person’s website for a fee.” So, Correct the Record says it actually can communicate with the campaign because all of its activity is on its own website. (This underscores the so-called "Internet “blind spot” that we pointed out a couple weeks ago.)
In theory, Correct the Record could coordinate with the campaign, then coordinate with the other super PACs. We don’t know if that is true, and even if it was, it’s doubtful the FEC would do anything about it. But Campaign Legal Center’s Paul Ryan has described the group’s activity as “creating new ways to undermine campaign regulation.”
The New York Times has reported that Brock, who officially left American Bridge for Correct the Record when it was formed, is “focused on paying attention to the activities of Correct the Record and Media Matters, which will play the biggest role in defending Mrs. Clinton throughout the campaign.”
Since it was formed in May, Correct the Record has raised $1.4 million from some of the same donors as American Bridge — big donors Steve Silberstein, Joan Cooney and Barbara Lee have donated to both. Correct the Record was only active for about a month before its first and only FEC filing, so we’ll know more about their finances in January. (Yes, super PACs go six months without divulging donor information some years.) The Clinton campaign itself is Correct the Record’s single biggest contributor, at $275,615.
https://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2015/12/03/behind-the-clinton-campaign-dark-money-allies/
........So, what ARE the chances that if Hillary were to become our president, she would choose a Supreme Court Justice nominee willing to overturn Citizens United & ending all this Dark Moneyed SuperPAC killing off our democracy?
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