Long-time GOP operative David Carney is hardly a household name like Karl Rove. But among Republican strategists and fundraisers in Washington D.C., Texas, and other states, Carney is well-known as an aggressive and controversial figure who periodically operates under the radar.
Those qualities are also hallmarks of Americans for Job Security — a shadowy advocacy group that Carney, who is in his early 50s, founded in 1997. The group has poured almost $9 million dollars into negative ads this year to help Congressional candidates, putting it in the top tier of GOP-allied groups attracting big donors who want to remain secret.
Part of a broad, new phenomenon shaking up the 2010 mid-term election, Americans for Job Security is one of many well-organized groups that are not required to disclose donors' names as they go on advertising spending sprees in selected races. Beyond that, though, Americans for Job Security's track record suggests it has gone a bit further — proactively offering its help to donors who are seeking to cover their tracks. And its founder has earned a reputation with some GOP heavyweights as a man who sometimes pushes the boundaries of campaign finance limits.
Among Carney's critics is Charlie Black, star GOP lobbyist and strategist. Black met with Carney in late 2009 after Black's sister-in-law, Jane Norton, announced she was going to seek the Republican Party's nomination to run for the Colorado Senate seat now held by Democrat Michael Bennet.
Black , who was also an adviser to Norton's campaign, told the Center for Public Integrity that Carney and Stephen DeMaura, president of Americans for Job Security, came to chat with him one day in autumn 2009 at his lobbying firm, Prime Policy Group, in Washington. Carney "suggested in a meeting with me that if any long-time donors in Colorado wanted to give Americans for Job Security large contributions that they would know what to do with it," Black recalled.
"If my sister-in-law wanted to send large donors from Colorado their way, the implication was that they would use the money to benefit her candidacy," Black said.
Carney's message "sounded like it would be pushing the envelope on the rules against coordination," Black said, referring to Federal Election Commission rules barring candidates' campaigns from working with outside groups that spend money to support them.
Neither Carney nor DeMaura returned multiple calls seeking comment.
Nothing ever came of the meeting, Black says. But, this spring and summer, Americans for Job Security ran hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ads in a drive that helped to sink Norton and make her opponent, Ken Buck, the party's Senate nominee.
Complaint Filed with FEC
Americans for Job Security ultimately spent $976,000 on Colorado ads to help Buck in the primary, according to Public Citizen. The group's name also surfaced in a May complaint filed by a Norton supporter with the Federal Election Commission. In the complaint, Charles Grice, a former Colorado state official, accused Buck's campaign of coordinating with wealthy Colorado businessman Jerry Morgensen, who allegedly pledged at least $1 million to finance independent expenditure ads by Americans for Job Security and two other smaller groups.
In late summer, Grice announced he wanted to withdraw his complaint, saying he preferred Buck to the Democratic incumbent. Asked by the Center about FEC procedures for withdrawing complaints, an FEC press staffer said that "there's no provision in our regulations for withdrawing a complaint once it has been filed." Sources familiar with the complaint say it is almost certainly still pending.
Another Washington GOP operative told the Center that Carney also paid him a visit last year to make a similar proposal to what Black received.
"If you have a candidate, a campaign or an election that needs some help, we can be of some assistance," was Carney's message, according to the GOP source, who said he has known Carney for two decades and spoke on condition of anonymity because of his broad political ties. "What he was suggesting is, if you give us some money, we'll spend it for you."
The source added that Carney "was clearly putting his hands on the young protégé (DeMaura) and anointing him." Similarly, Black emphasized that in his meeting, Carney "did the talking and was speaking for AJS."
The Colorado work done by Americans for Job Security and the allegations of improper coordination are just a slice of the well-funded operations that the group has been engaged in this year.
rest at http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2575/
No comments:
Post a Comment