The Daily Beast: This Mysterious New GOP Dark Money Group Raises All Kinds of Red Flags

05.16.2024 / By Mini Racker & Roger Sollenberger
The Daily Beast: This Mysterious New GOP Dark Money Group Raises All Kinds of Red Flags

“501(c)(4s) are social welfare organizations that increasingly have been misused to spend money for political purposes,” Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, told The Daily Beast. “Under the IRS tax code, they don't have to disclose their donors. And so that's why they've become a popular vehicle for people who are trying to use dark money to influence political outcomes.” Watchdog groups have argued for years that the decision of three Republican commissioners to deadlock votes on enforcement have prevented increased transparency. Scherb suggested that the deadlocks “seem to give a green light to straw donor schemes.” “If they know that there's no action,” he said, “Or if they know that there's, at most, going to be a slap on the wrist, it sends a signal that there can kind of be the Wild West again of campaign finance laws.”

“501(c)(4s) are social welfare organizations that increasingly have been misused to spend money for political purposes,” Aaron Scherb, director of legislative affairs at Common Cause, told The Daily Beast. “Under the IRS tax code, they don’t have to disclose their donors. And so that’s why they’ve become a popular vehicle for people who are trying to use dark money to influence political outcomes.”

Watchdog groups have argued for years that the decision of three Republican commissioners to deadlock votes on enforcement have prevented increased transparency. Scherb suggested that the deadlocks “seem to give a green light to straw donor schemes.”

“If they know that there’s no action,” he said, “Or if they know that there’s, at most, going to be a slap on the wrist, it sends a signal that there can kind of be the Wild West again of campaign finance laws.”

 

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