www.politico.com/… it is titled "How we killed the Tea Party".
Look like Tea Party and RW PACs solicit millions and then just use it for overhead.
Would you give to a charity if they used 80% or more on overhead?
Politico has done some studies and found that:
POLITICO last year reviewed the activity of 33 conservative PACs for the 2014 cycle. Combined, they raked in $43 million dollars, according to the POLITICO report. Of that, $39.5 million went to overhead including $6 million to entities owned by PAC operators; candidates got $3 million. Another report analyzed 17 conservative PACs from the 2014 midterm. It came up with different numbers than POLITICO, finding that the bottom 10 PACs in terms of the ratio of spending to actual candidate support received $54,318,498 and spent only $3,621,896 supporting candidates.
Wow, what a racket.
The author of the article, Paul Jossey, seems to be a disgruntled true tea party believer acting as a whistle blower. He was a fund raiser for Tea Party causes.
There is no scrutiny over these PACs though. Jossey says:
PACs are not legally obliged to responsibly spend their loot. As former FEC enforcement officer Kenneth Gross stated, “If I have a PAC and want to spend it on a trip to Atlantic City, that’s fine,” provided it’s accurately reported. Unlike nonprofits they are not governed by a board, have no fiduciary duty to their donors and are not subject to IRS audits.
The RW media does nothing to protect their viewers from these scams:
Importantly, the conservative media must police this. Most reporting on these PACs comes from outlets the right generally distrusts, like the New York Times and POLITICO. It’s shameful that MSNBC’s Chris Hayes has discussed these schemes more than most right-leaning outlets. Excepting Erick Erickson, Jonah Goldberg and the Daily Caller, conservative reporting is rare. One commentator speculates professional relationships with PAC operators eschews hard journalism. If true, this taints much lofty talk about conservative values.
There have been a few Tea Party or RW Candidates who have issued cease and desist orders about using their names or outright sued the PACs. Ken Cuccinelli and Allen West are two examples. Even Trump complained. But PACs can get around it.
RW PACs as predators on their tea party movement whom Jossey says 17% of Americans support. Anybody surprised? I really like the get money out of politics meme. I shouldn't complain since I think tea partiers are unhinged but I hate predators.
Good article. Wrong audience. Should be RW media pushing it.