These non-profit front groups that Republicans are using to hide the donations of their arch conservative donors with business interests before the government is undermining democracy further, making it more dominated by concentrated capital. It is pitiful to see the manipulation of voters with anonymous and misleading advertising.
Karl Rove has really moved Republican Party operations into these front groups — everything from advertising to message development to get out the vote efforts — so that the election finance laws — which require reporting the source of donations — do not apply. This is a misuse of non-profit status as the tax laws do not allow non-profits to be primarily engaged in electoral work. These non-profits are behaving as political committees and should be treated as political organizations.
We were pleased that the IRS was asked to investigate these non-profit front groups by the Chairman of the Finance Committee, but fear that will not be enough. It will help because donors who want to remain anonymous cannot be completely sure they will be anonymous. We’re still pushing the Federal Elections Commission and Department of Justice to take action. They could both make a difference. Unfortunately, the FEC was set up to be a do-noting agency with three Republicans and three Democrats on the Commission. The Department of Justice could make a tremendous difference.
