Ctr for Individual Freedom

===see Mazella
open letter fodder

goes back to Humber nat smokers alliance but current in puerto rico debt:

=We strongly urge you to reject Sohn’s nomination to the FCC and hold our regulators to the highest standard.Sincerely,Center for a Free EconomyAmericans for Tax Reform60 Plus AssociationAmerican CommitmentCenter for Individual FreedomCitizen OutreachConservatives for Property RightsConsumer Action for a Strong EconomyInstitute for LibertyLess GovernmentMarket InstituteIndependent Women’s VoiceEagle ForumAffiliations listed for identification purposes only.==Here’s the full list of signatories:<ul style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" em="em" px="px" padding="padding"><li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/thomas-pyle" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Tom Pyle</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/american-energy-alliance-aea" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">American Energy Alliance</a></li><li>Bethany Marcum, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Alaska_Policy_Forum" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Alaska Policy Forum</a></li><li>Lisa Nelson, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/american-legislative-exchange-council" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">ALEC Action</a></li><li>Phil Kerpen, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Commitment" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">American Commitment</a></li><li>Rick Manning, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Talk:Americans_for_Limited_Government" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Americans for Limited Government</a></li><li>David T. Stevenson, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Caesar_Rodney_Institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Caesar Rodney Institute</a></li><li>Andrew F. Quinlan, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Center_for_Freedom_and_Prosperity" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Center for Freedom and Prosperity</a></li><li>Jeffrey Mazzella, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/05/03/climate-denial-firm-trump-dakota-access-keystone-xl" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Center for Individual Freedom</a></li><li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/isaac-orr" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Isaac Orr</a>, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Center_of_the_American_Experiment" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Center of the American Experiment</a></li><li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/mark-mathis" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Mark Mathis</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/clear-energy-alliance" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Clear Energy Alliance</a></li><li>David McIntosh, Club for Growth</li><li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/caleb-rossiter" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Caleb Rossiter</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/co2-coalition" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">CO2 Coalition</a></li><li>Stephen Moore, Committee to Unleash Prosperity</li><li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/myron-ebell" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Myron Ebell</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/competitive-enterprise-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Competitive Enterprise Institute</a></li><li>Matthew Kandrach, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/consumer-action-strong-economy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Consumer Action for a Strong Economy</a></li><li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/craig-richardson" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Craig Richardson</a>, E&E Legal</li><li>Mandy Gunasekara, Energy 45 Fund</li><li>Annette Meeks, Freedom Foundation of Minnesota</li><li>Jason Pye, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/freedomworks" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">FreedomWorks</a></li><li>George Landrith, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/frontiers-freedom" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Frontiers of Freedom</a></li><li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/tim-huelskamp" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Tim Heulskamp</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">The Heartland Institute</a></li><li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/heritage-foundation" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Tim Chapman, Heritage Action for America</a></li><li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/amy-oliver-cooke" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Amy Oliver Cooke</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/independence-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Independence Institute</a></li><li><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/MacIver_Institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Brett Healy, The John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy</a></li><li>Kory Swanson, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/john-locke-foundation" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">John Locke Foundation</a></li><li>Seton Motley, Less Government</li><li>Jason Hayes, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/mackinac-center-public-policy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Mackinac Center for Public Policy</a></li><li><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/harry-c-alford" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Harry C. Alford</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/national-black-chamber-commerce" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">National Black Chamber of Commerce</a></li><li><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/National_Tax_Limitation_Committee" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Kirk Uhler, National Tax Limitation Committee</a></li><li>Wayne Winegarden,<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/pacific-research-institute" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;"> Pacific Research Institute</a></li><li>Bette Grande, Roughrider Policy Center</li><li><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Taxpayers_Protection_Alliance" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">David Williams, Taxpayers Protection Alliance</a></li><li>John Tintera, Texas Alliance of Energy Producers</li><li>Kevin Roberts, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/texas-public-policy-foundation" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">Texas Public Policy Foundation</a></li></ul>

no link

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Center for Individual Freedom ("CFIF") today unveiled a national grassroots campaign to rally conservatives in opposition to the Obama Administration's efforts to impose onerous "Net Neutrality" rules on the Internet.  The 'Stop Net Regulation' campaign, launched during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., encourages Americans to get active online through a national petition and by contacting their elected officials.

The campaign features prominent conservatives from CFIF and other organizations, and utilizes a network of social media outlets to educate consumers on the significant harms to economic growth and jobs if federal regulators implement Net Neutrality.

"The unprecedented regulatory power the Obama Administration seeks over the Internet is both unnecessary and dangerous," said Timothy Lee, CFIF's VP of Legal and Public Affairs.  "The type of Net Neutrality regulations the administration seeks to impose on the Internet threaten to cut off tens of billions of dollars in private investment annually, and will cost our struggling economy good-paying American jobs at a time when we can least afford it."

"Consumers are benefiting from rapid and ever-increasing Internet-based innovation," said CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella.  "The Obama Administration's proposed Net Neutrality rules threaten to grind that innovation to a screeching halt."

Economic studies released last month show Net Neutrality regulations will dramatically impact job growth and economic recovery efforts and will lead to significant decreases in private investment by Internet companies.

"'Stop Net Regulation' will serve as the hub for the growing movement of conservatives across the country opposed to the federal government regulating the Internet," Mazzella said.  "Hundreds of thousands of American jobs depend on private investment by Internet companies and these new regulations stand directly in the way of the nation's economic recovery."

For more information, visit www.StopNetRegulation.org.

Founded in 1998, the Center for Individual Freedom is a constitutional and free market advocacy organization with hundreds of thousands of activists and supporters nationwide.

www.CFIF.org

SOURCE Center for Individual Freedom

RELATED LINKS

http://www.cfif.org

http://www.stopnetregulation.org/

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Center for Individual Freedom ("CFIF") today unveiled a national grassroots campaign to rally conservatives in opposition to the Obama Administration's efforts to impose onerous "Net Neutrality" rules on the Internet.  The 'Stop Net Regulation' campaign, launched during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., encourages Americans to get active online through a national petition and by contacting their elected officials.

"The unprecedented regulatory power the Obama Administration seeks over the Internet is both unnecessary and dangerous," said Timothy Lee, CFIF's VP of Legal and Public Affairs.  "The type of Net Neutrality regulations the administration seeks to impose on the Internet threaten to cut off tens of billions of dollars in private investment annually, and will cost our struggling economy good-paying American jobs at a time when we can least afford it."

"Consumers are benefiting from rapid and ever-increasing Internet-based innovation," said CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella.  "The Obama Administration's proposed Net Neutrality rules threaten to grind that innovation to a screeching halt."

For more information, visit <a class="linkOnClick" data-include="84705392" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.stopnetregulation.org/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 131, 126); text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">www.StopNetRegulation.org</a>.

Founded in 1998, the Center for Individual Freedom is a constitutional and free market advocacy organization with hundreds of thousands of activists and supporters nationwide.

SOURCE Center for Individual Freedom

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<a title="Link to http://www.stopnetregulation.org/" href="http://www.stopnetregulation.org/" class="linkOnClick" data-include="84705392" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 131, 126); text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;">http://www.stopnetregulation.org/</a>

<div><a href="https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/12/03/18903/where-do-ads-shaping-state-politics-come-increasingly-these-outside-players">https://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/12/03/18903/where-do-ads-shaping-state-politics-come-increasingly-these-outside-players</a></div>

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<p helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 28px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;">Learn more about six other national groups playing in the 2015 races:

<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;">The Republican Attorneys General Association, a national organization looking to fill every attorney general seat with a Republican, spent $1.1 million on ads in Kentucky’s race. Its major donors over the past 13 years include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, businessman Sheldon Adelson and the conservative Judicial Crisis Network. Democratic corporate attorney Andy Beshear beat out Republican Whitney Westerfield, despite the group’s support.</li>

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<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;">The Republican State Leadership Committee, a tax-exempt group looking to fill state-level offices with Republicans, spent an estimated $988,000 on ads about the Pennsylvania Supreme Court race, losing all three races to Democrats. Its top donors include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the conservative legal group American Justice Partnership and tobacco company Reynolds American.</li>

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<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;">The Public Integrity Alliance, a nonprofit that can keep its donors hidden, entered the attorneys general races in Louisiana and Mississippi, spending an estimated $213,000 combined airing TV ads targeting Republican Buddy Caldwell and Democrat Jim Hood. Caldwell lost his race, while Hood won. This group based in Arizona played in the 2014 Arizona attorney general primary and expanded its efforts after unnamed activists asked for help, according to its president, Tyler Montague.</li>

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<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;">The Center for Individual Freedom spent more than $748,000 on ads attacking Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell during his fight to hold his position. Caldwell lost to former U.S. Rep. Jeff Landry in an all-Republican runoff. Tobacco executives formed the Virginia-based nonprofit more than 15 years ago to combat government smoking restrictions. The nonprofit, which does not need to disclose its donors, has generally backed conservative candidates across the country, airing ads in the 2014 contests for Arkansas attorney general and Michigan Supreme Court.</li>

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<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;">The Humane Society Legislative Fund, the lobbying arm of the animal rights protection group, supported Vitter in the Louisiana governor’s race by buying an estimated $116,000 worth of ads.</li>

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<li style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;">The Bluegrass Action Fund backed unsuccessful Republican Hal Heiner for the Kentucky governorship, spending an estimated $233,000 on campaign ads. About a third of its donations came from the nonprofit Citizens for a Sound Government based in Lakewood, Colorado, which does not disclose its donors. Its chairman is Alan Philp, the COO of Aegis Strategic, a group funded by David and Charles Koch.</li>

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from camp fin reform

Republican lawmakers trying to hammer out a deal to avert Puerto Rico's looming debt crisis are bristling about attack ads being aired in their home districts by a conservative group that doesn’t disclose its donors.

The Center for Individual Freedom has spent close to $2 million trying to scare off the authors of a plan to restructure the island territory's debt ahead of a bill-writing session Wednesday and Thursday. The ads, which slam the deal as a bailout, support the position of hedge funds that stand to lose billions if Congress allows Puerto Rico to restructure its general obligation debt.

Those hedge funds declined to comment or didn’t respond to requests. The Center for Individual Freedom also did not respond.

Still, lawmakers and lobbyists are buzzing with speculation about the aggressive tactic. And backers of the congressional fix say they’re concerned the assault on members' conservative credentials could peel off support. Several of the House’s more vocal conservative iconoclasts sit on the Natural Resources panel, which has been assigned to write the bill because it has jurisdiction over territories. After a hearing Wednesday, some of those members said they wouldn't support the measure.

Speaker Paul Ryan has expressed his support for the latest draft of the panel’s bill, which would create an oversight board that could step in to restructure debt if the commonwealth’s negotiations with creditors break down. Lawmakers said Ryan is planning to bring the bill to the floor next week after a meeting of the entire Republican caucus Friday.

Lawmakers are racing to come up with a solution that will allow Puerto Rico to stave off default on its $73 billion in debt before payments are due in the coming weeks. The Puerto Rican government last week enacted a payment moratorium that will likely ensure a default on $400 million due May 1 if Congress doesn’t act. The government on Monday proposed a new restructuring of its debt to bondholders, offering a modest raise in the amount it would pay per year on the majority of its outstanding debt.

Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican, told reporters today that Puerto Rico has become the number one issue in his district due to CFIF's ads.

"Who'd have thought the most pressing issue in the First District of Utah would be Puerto Rico?" Bishop said. "The commercials they're running against me have been helpful... Number one, they're over the top, and number two, they have given my phone number out there." Bishop said that's allowed his office to effectively explain the issue to constituents.

CFIF doesn't reveal its donors but has received grants from conservative groups American Action Network and Crossroads GPS, according to disclosures from those organizations.

CFIF dropped $900,000 on airtime on CNN, MSNBC and CNBC, plus more than $500,000 on D.C.-area broadcast and cable, and $86,000 on radio spots in Bishop's district, as well as those of fellow committee members Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) and Cresent Hardy (R-Nev.), according to data compiled for POLITICO by The Tracking Firm. The ads call the bill a bailout tantamount to allowing Puerto Rico to declare Chapter 9 bankruptcy that would also open the door for states to follow suit — which proponents say is untrue. The spots urge viewers and listeners to contact their representatives.

The campaign takes the same position as hedge funds such as Aurelius Capital Management, Monarch Capital Group, Stone Lion Capital Partners, Davidson Kempner and Fundamental Advisors.

Monarch, Aurelius, Fundamental and Davidson Kempner declined to comment. The others didn't respond to requests for comment.

More ads came from a group calling itself Main Street Bondholders, created by the 60 Plus Association, billed as a conservative alternative to AARP. The New York Times reported that 60 Plus was recruited by DCI Group, a Republican firm specializing in grassroots lobbying, known to critics as "AstroTurfing."

DCI also hired former Rep. Connie Mack to lobby on behalf of Puerto Rico bondholders, whom he declined to name when contacted by POLITICO.

Gerry Scimeca, a spokesman for 60 Plus, said it has "thousands of active donors who fund our projects" and declined to elaborate. DCI Vice President Craig Stevens didn't answer requests for comment.

Holders of sales tax bonds, who are warring with holders of general obligation bonds over the bill, slammed the ads.

“The Main Street Bondholders group, which claims to represent retail investors despite widely reported ties to hedge funds, is misrepresenting itself to Congress and now miscasting Territories Clause legislation as Chapter 9,” Susheel Kirpalani, a lawyer at Quinn Emanuel representing a group of investors in sales tax bonds, said through a spokesperson.

Even some investment funds that hold general-obligation debt signaled frustration with the ads. OppenheimerFunds, though a major stakeholder, distanced itself from the campaign. "OppenheimerFunds has maintained a constructive tone," spokeswoman Kimberly Weinrick said.

Alejandro Garcia Padilla, the governor of Puerto Rico, weighed in on the controversy himself on Tuesday.

“I'm wishing those ads do not affect the minds and will of the congressmen and women that need to deal with this," he said on a conference call with reporters

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/puerto-rico-debt-crisis-gop-attack-ads-221907#ixzz4EQNmYuan

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<h1 class="print-title" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It Takes Dark Money to Make Dark Money</h1>

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<div class="dek" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Karl Rove's dark-money group doles out $2.75 million to an outfit fighting to keep dark money in the dark.</div>

<p class="submitted" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/authors/andy-kroll">Andy Kroll</a> | Fri Apr. 20, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

When <a href="http://www.crossroadsgps.org/">Crossroads GPS</a> [1], the conservative nonprofit <a href="http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-19/secret-donors-multiply-in-u-s-with-finances-dwarfing-watergate" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">started</a> [2] by GOP political gurus Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, isn't dropping millions of dollars on anti-Obama ads, it's doling out tens of millions more to like-minded groups. "The ATM of the Right," Politico recently <a href="http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=D1E422E9-801D-4A80-9FD6-870A6719B97B" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">called</a> [3] Crossroads. Between May 2010 and December 2011, new tax records show, Crossroads <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-secret-donors-pour-millions-of-dollars-into-crossroads-gps-20120417,0,6124833.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29">gave</a> [4] $4 million to Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform and $500,000 to former Sen. Norm Coleman's American Action Network, among others.

But there was another recipient of Crossroads cash that stood out: the <a href="http://cfif.org/v/" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Center for Individual Freedom</a> [5], which snagged $2.75 million. Among political money experts, CFIF is known for its aggressive legal strategy aimed at toppling disclosure laws at the state level. In other words, Crossroads GPS, which doesn't name its donors, gave millions to another dark-money group whose goals include fighting to keep dark money in the dark.

Spokesman Jonathan Collegio wrote in an email that Crossroads GPS' donations to "effective center right organizations" such as CFIF are intended to "help build an enduring infrastructure on the right—just as labor unions have funded organizations on the Left for decades."

Founded in 1998, the Center for Individual Freedom says its mission is to "protect and defend individual freedoms and individual rights guaranteed by the US Constitution." CFIF <a href="http://cfif.org/v/index.php/the-issues/56-health-care/1291-direct-pay-medicine-a-free-market-approach-to-healthcare-reform-">preaches</a> [6] free-market reforms, opposes government regulations, and <a href="http://cfif.org/v/freedom_line_blog/13455/spectrum-stall-fcc-and-big-labor-impeding-innovation-and-economic-opportunity/">slams</a> [7] labor <a href="http://cfif.org/v/freedom_line_blog/13562/louisiana-teacher-unions-happy-to-sell-out-kids-for-political-gain/">unions</a> [8]. The group blasts President Obama's Affordable Care Act as an <a href="http://cfif.org/v/index.php/commentary/56-health-care/1321-whats-really-at-stake-with-obamacare-legal-battle" style=" font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">assault on freedom</a> [9], wants <a href="http://cfif.org/v/index.php/press-room/1290-conservative-leaders-call-on-president-congress-to-pass-corporate-tax-reform" style=" font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">lower corporate tax rates</a> [10], and demands less government in the lives of Americans. (CFIF did not respond to four requests for comment.)

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Little is known about who funds CFIF. Archival records at the University of California-San Francisco show that CFIF once received financial support (<a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/qws17a00/pdf?search=%22center%20for%20individual%20freedom%22" style=" font-weight: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">PDF</a> [11]) from the National Smokers Alliance, a tobacco industry front group. But that's about all. In its legal filings, CFIF's says its willingness to tackle "controversial" issues means that many of its funders ask to remain anonymous. To that end, CFIF "staunchly and zealously" guards donors' privacy, the group says. Forcing CFIF to reveal those donors would hurt its revenue and "its ability to speak would be impaired." Disclosure requirements cause "irreparable injury," as the group argued in one case, and violate constitutionally protected speech.

Since 2004, CFIF has launched a broad legal campaign to roll back disclosure rules. It has filed lawsuits in Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, arguing that those states' disclosure and reporting laws "chill" the free-speech rights of groups like CFIF. In Center for Individual Freedom v. Carmouche, a federal case filed in Louisiana in 2004, CFIF argued that it "wants to address citizens of Louisiana on matters of public importance, and many in Louisiana want to hear what the Center has to say." Yet Louisiana's laws requiring that groups behind political spending disclose their donors and disbursements "make it impossible for the Center to speak."

More recently, CFIF weighed in on the high-profile <a href="http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation/van_hollen.shtml">Van Hollen v. FEC lawsuit</a> [12] winding its way through the court system. At issue in Van Hollen is a Federal Election Commission loophole that lets donors bankroll so-called "issue" ads without having to disclose their names—a break from years prior. Last month, a federal judge struck down that loophole. The result could mean that the US Chamber of Commerce and Crossroads GPS <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/30/koch-brothers-rove-fec-campaign-donations_n_1392838.html" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">have to reveal</a> [13] more of their contributors. CFIF, which supports the FEC's loophole, joined the Van Hollen case as an "intervenor," which gives it the option of appealing the judge's decision.

Though little known, CFIF is a formidable player, say supporters and critics. It retained <a href="http://www.wileyrein.com/professionals.cfm?sp=bio&id=33#rep">Jan Baran</a> [14], a powerful DC election law attorney, to argue its disclosure cases in Louisiana and West Virginia, both of which it won. Known as the "dean of campaign finance," Baran has argued numerous campaign finance cases before the Supreme Court, including McConnell v. FEC in 2003 and Citizens United v. FEC in 2010.

Paul Ryan, an attorney with the Campaign Legal Center, which supports more campaign finance regulation, calls CFIF's anti-disclosure cases "meritless" but says the group shouldn’t be underestimated. "They don't come across as wingnuts who don't know what they're talking about," Ryan says. "They come across as skilled lawyers who need to be taken seriously."

CFIF's anti-disclosure efforts, Ryan adds, illustrate the latest salvo by conservatives and libertarians in their decades-long attack on campaign finance laws. Joining CFIF in this fight is Republican super-attorney James Bopp Jr., who has multiple disclosure cases in the works nationwide, and the libertarian Center for Competitive Politics. "Challenging disclosure laws," Ryan says, "is the new wave of campaign finance deregulation litigation."

Supporters of disclosure, like Ryan, hold out hope that such laws will survive these legal challenges, even if they make it all the way to Supreme Court. Although the Roberts court has repeatedly struck down political spending limits as unconstitutional, it has written in support of disclosure on multiple occasions. In the Citizens Uniteddecision, for instance, eight of the nine justices <a href="http://www.demos.org/publication/testimony-support-disclose-act-united-states-senate-committee-rules-and-administration">upheld the disclosure rules</a> [15] under challenge; in his written opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy <a href="http://eshoo.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1151:the-prescription-to-citizens-united&catid=5&Itemid=100014">stressed</a> [16] the importance of transparency, which "permits citizens and shareholders to react to the speech of corporate entities in a proper way."

Yet the conservative fight against disclosure laws isn't going away soon, says Fred Wertheimer, a leading advocate of campaign finance regulation with the groupDemocracy 21. "This is part of an effort that's based on the idea that they have a favorable Supreme Court majority," he says, "and they might as well try to take this as far as they possibly can."

</div>

<div class="print-source_url" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Source URL: <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/karl-rove-crossroads-gps-center-individual-freedom">http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/karl-rove-crossroads-gps-center-individual-freedom</a></div>

==

nat smoke alliance  precursor:

<h3 style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin: 15px 5px 2px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Other third-party groups: tobacco industry and Tea Party affiliations</h3>

<div>

</div>

In 2001, Humber announced that the NSA would be dissolved, with some of its funds being transferred to the Center for Individual Freedom(CFIF, <a id="xref-fig-1-8" class="xref-fig" href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/20/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815.full#F1" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); text-decoration: none;">figure 1</a>),<a id="xref-ref-133-1" class="xref-bibr" href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/20/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815.full#ref-133" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 1px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 0; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em;">133</a> <span class="xref-sep" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">,<a id="xref-ref-134-1" class="xref-bibr" href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/20/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815.full#ref-134" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 1px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 0; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em;">134</a> which Humber founded in 1998.<a id="xref-ref-135-1" class="xref-bibr" href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/20/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815.full#ref-135" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 1px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 0; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">135</a> Its mission is to ‘protect and defend individual freedoms and individual rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.’<a id="xref-ref-136-1" class="xref-bibr" href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/20/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815.full#ref-136" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 1px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 0; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">136</a> As of 2012, CFIF's president was former NSA spokesperson Jeffrey Mazzella<a id="xref-ref-137-1" class="xref-bibr" href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/20/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815.full#ref-137" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 1px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 0; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">137</a> <span class="xref-sep" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">,<a id="xref-ref-138-1" class="xref-bibr" href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/20/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815.full#ref-138" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 1px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 0; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">138</a> and CFIF's corporate counsel and senior vice president was former NSA attorney Renee Giachino.<a id="xref-ref-139-1" class="xref-bibr" href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/20/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815.full#ref-139" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 1px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 0; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">139</a> <span class="xref-sep" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">,<a id="xref-ref-140-1" class="xref-bibr" href="http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/20/tobaccocontrol-2012-050815.full#ref-140" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 1px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 0; text-align: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); text-decoration: none; position: relative; top: -0.4em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">140</a>  glantz

==

lied:

<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/how-nonprofits-spend-millions-on-elections-and-call-it-public-welfare">http://www.propublica.org/article/how-nonprofits-spend-millions-on-elections-and-call-it-public-welfare</a>

===<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/print/172771">

</a>

<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/print/172771">http://www.motherjones.com/print/172771</a>

----

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Individual_Freedom">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Individual_Freedom</a>

Center for Individual Freedom ("CFIF") is a nonprofit, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/501%28c%29%284%29" title="501(c)(4)">501(c)(4)</a> corporation based in Alexandria, Virginia. It is a member of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Townhall.com" title="Townhall.com">Townhall.com</a> consortium. CFIF was founded in 1998 and describes its mission as being to "to protect and defend individual freedoms and individual rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution." <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/about_cfif/index.htm">[1]</a>

The CFIF is involved with "strict constructionist" activities regarding judicial and legislative issues. The organization maintains <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Freedom_Line&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Freedom Line (page does not exist)">Freedom Line</a>, a radio interview show and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=We_The_People&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="We The People (page does not exist)">We The People</a>, a grassroots organizing effort dedicated to conservative causes.

In August 2004, the Center for Individual Freedom gained national attention by launching a grassroots campaign against what it called a "tasteless anti-American marketing scheme" from a German subsidiary of the American based Subway restaurant chain. The CFIF claimed that the Germany Subway stores featured advertising that included cartoon parodies of the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center, as well as using derogatory German slurs to describe Americans. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=%5CCulture%5Carchive%5C200408%5CCUL20040804c.html">[2]</a>

<h2>Funding</h2>

On its website CFIF states that it "relies on private financial support from individuals, associations, foundations and corporations." <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/about_cfif/index.htm">[3]</a> However, it does not identify which corporations or foundations financially support it.

The website recently reported that CFIF had abandoned its Foundation due to funding concerns. Funding for the foundation, under IRS law, must generally be separate from the lobbying arm.

In 1999 <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Thomas_Humber" title="Thomas Humber">Thomas Humber</a>, the President and CEO of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/National_Smokers_Alliance" title="National Smokers Alliance">National Smokers Alliance</a>, a <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Front_group" title="Front group" class="mw-redirect">front group</a> originally created with funding from <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Philip_Morris" title="Philip Morris" class="mw-redirect">Philip Morris</a> (PM), wrote to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Lorillard_Tobacco_Co." title="Lorillard Tobacco Co." class="mw-redirect">Lorillard Tobacco Company</a> requesting financial support. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/lwd62d00">[4]</a> Humber wrote to Lorrillard's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ronald_S._Milstein" title="Ronald S. Milstein">Ronald S. Milstein</a> that "I would even like to talk with you about a development project, the Center for Individual Freedom, which might be of interest to Lorrillard's parent or associated companies." The letter confirms the solicitation of funding, but does not confirm that the tobacco company assisted CFIF financially. <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/lwd62d00">[5]</a>

<h2>Contact information</h2>

Center for Individual Freedom

917-B King Street

Alexandria, VA 22314

Telephone: 703-535-5836

Fax:703-535-5838

E-Mail:info AT cfif.org

Web:<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.cfif.org">http://www.cfif.org</a>

<h2>External links</h2>

<ul>

<li>Christina Nucklos, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=88956&ran=1540">Group airs TV, radio ads criticizing candidate</a>", PilotOnline.com, July 10, 2005. (PilotOnline.com is the website for the The Virginian-Pilot).</li>

<li>Susan Jones, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=%5CCulture%5Carchive%5C200408%5CCUL20040804c.html">More Anti-American Images Found at German Subway Stores</a>", CNSNews.com, August 04, 2004.</li>

</ul>

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td colspan="4" class="tobaccoFormHead">Search the Documents Archives of the Tobacco Industry</td></tr><tr><td width="20">

</td><td class="tobaccoFormItem" valign="baseline">Legacy Tobacco Documents Library:</td><td width="10">

</td><td valign="baseline"> </td></tr></tbody></table>

</div>

<div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>:

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Tobaccowiki" title="Category:Tobaccowiki">Tobaccowiki</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Tobacco_documents_organizations" title="Category:Tobacco documents organizations">Tobacco documents organizations</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

---

<h1 class="print-title" style=" margin-bottom: .2em;">It Takes Dark Money to Make Dark Money</h1>

<div class="dek" style=" font-style: italic; margin-bottom: .5em;">Karl Rove's dark-money group doles out $2.75 million to an outfit fighting to keep dark money in the dark.</div>

By <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/authors/andy-kroll">Andy Kroll</a> | Fri Apr. 20, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

When <a href="http://www.crossroadsgps.org/">Crossroads GPS</a> [1], the conservative nonprofit <a href="http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-19/secret-donors-multiply-in-u-s-with-finances-dwarfing-watergate">started</a> [2] by GOP political gurus Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, isn't dropping millions of dollars on anti-Obama ads, it's doling out tens of millions more to like-minded groups. "The ATM of the Right," Politico recently <a href="http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=D1E422E9-801D-4A80-9FD6-870A6719B97B">called</a> [3] Crossroads. Between May 2010 and December 2011, new tax records show, Crossroads <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-secret-donors-pour-millions-of-dollars-into-crossroads-gps-20120417,0,6124833.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29">gave</a> [4] $4 million to Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform and $500,000 to former Sen. Norm Coleman's American Action Network, among others.

But there was another recipient of Crossroads cash that stood out: the <a href="http://cfif.org/v/">Center for Individual Freedom</a> [5], which snagged $2.75 million. Among political money experts, CFIF is known for its aggressive legal strategy aimed at toppling disclosure laws at the state level. In other words, Crossroads GPS, which doesn't name its donors, gave millions to another dark-money group whose goals include fighting to keep dark money in the dark.

Spokesman Jonathan Collegio wrote in an email that Crossroads GPS' donations to "effective center right organizations" such as CFIF are intended to "help build an enduring infrastructure on the right—just as labor unions have funded organizations on the Left for decades."

Founded in 1998, the Center for Individual Freedom says its mission is to "protect and defend individual freedoms and individual rights guaranteed by the US Constitution." CFIF <a href="http://cfif.org/v/index.php/the-issues/56-health-care/1291-direct-pay-medicine-a-free-market-approach-to-healthcare-reform-">preaches</a> [6] free-market reforms, opposes government regulations, and <a href="http://cfif.org/v/freedom_line_blog/13455/spectrum-stall-fcc-and-big-labor-impeding-innovation-and-economic-opportunity/">slams</a> [7] labor <a href="http://cfif.org/v/freedom_line_blog/13562/louisiana-teacher-unions-happy-to-sell-out-kids-for-political-gain/">unions</a> [8]. The group blasts President Obama's Affordable Care Act as an <a href="http://cfif.org/v/index.php/commentary/56-health-care/1321-whats-really-at-stake-with-obamacare-legal-battle">assault on freedom</a> [9], wants <a href="http://cfif.org/v/index.php/press-room/1290-conservative-leaders-call-on-president-congress-to-pass-corporate-tax-reform">lower corporate tax rates</a> [10], and demands less government in the lives of Americans. (CFIF did not respond to four requests for comment.)

</div>

Little is known about who funds CFIF. Archival records at the University of California-San Francisco show that CFIF once received financial support (<a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/qws17a00/pdf?search=%22center%20for%20individual%20freedom%22">PDF</a> [11]) from the National Smokers Alliance, a tobacco industry front group. But that's about all. In its legal filings, CFIF's says its willingness to tackle "controversial" issues means that many of its funders ask to remain anonymous. To that end, CFIF "staunchly and zealously" guards donors' privacy, the group says. Forcing CFIF to reveal those donors would hurt its revenue and "its ability to speak would be impaired." Disclosure requirements cause "irreparable injury," as the group argued in one case, and violate constitutionally protected speech.

Since 2004, CFIF has launched a broad legal campaign to roll back disclosure rules. It has filed lawsuits in Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, arguing that those states' disclosure and reporting laws "chill" the free-speech rights of groups like CFIF. In Center for Individual Freedom v. Carmouche, a federal case filed in Louisiana in 2004, CFIF argued that it "wants to address citizens of Louisiana on matters of public importance, and many in Louisiana want to hear what the Center has to say." Yet Louisiana's laws requiring that groups behind political spending disclose their donors and disbursements "make it impossible for the Center to speak."

More recently, CFIF weighed in on the high-profile <a href="http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation/van_hollen.shtml">Van Hollen v. FEC lawsuit</a> [12] winding its way through the court system. At issue in Van Hollen is a Federal Election Commission loophole that lets donors bankroll so-called "issue" ads without having to disclose their names—a break from years prior. Last month, a federal judge struck down that loophole. The result could mean that the US Chamber of Commerce and Crossroads GPS <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/30/koch-brothers-rove-fec-campaign-donations_n_1392838.html">have to reveal</a> [13] more of their contributors. CFIF, which supports the FEC's loophole, joined the Van Hollen case as an "intervenor," which gives it the option of appealing the judge's decision.

Though little known, CFIF is a formidable player, say supporters and critics. It retained <a href="http://www.wileyrein.com/professionals.cfm?sp=bio&id=33#rep">Jan Baran</a> [14], a powerful DC election law attorney, to argue its disclosure cases in Louisiana and West Virginia, both of which it won. Known as the "dean of campaign finance," Baran has argued numerous campaign finance cases before the Supreme Court, including McConnell v. FEC in 2003 and Citizens United v. FEC in 2010.

Paul Ryan, an attorney with the Campaign Legal Center, which supports more campaign finance regulation, calls CFIF's anti-disclosure cases "meritless" but says the group shouldn’t be underestimated. "They don't come across as wingnuts who don't know what they're talking about," Ryan says. "They come across as skilled lawyers who need to be taken seriously."

CFIF's anti-disclosure efforts, Ryan adds, illustrate the latest salvo by conservatives and libertarians in their decades-long attack on campaign finance laws. Joining CFIF in this fight is Republican super-attorney James Bopp Jr., who has multiple disclosure cases in the works nationwide, and the libertarian Center for Competitive Politics. "Challenging disclosure laws," Ryan says, "is the new wave of campaign finance deregulation litigation."

Supporters of disclosure, like Ryan, hold out hope that such laws will survive these legal challenges, even if they make it all the way to Supreme Court. Although the Roberts court has repeatedly struck down political spending limits as unconstitutional, it has written in support of disclosure on multiple occasions. In the Citizens United decision, for instance, eight of the nine justices <a href="http://www.demos.org/publication/testimony-support-disclose-act-united-states-senate-committee-rules-and-administration">upheld the disclosure rules</a> [15] under challenge; in his written opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy <a href="http://eshoo.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1151:the-prescription-to-citizens-united&catid=5&Itemid=100014">stressed</a> [16] the importance of transparency, which "permits citizens and shareholders to react to the speech of corporate entities in a proper way."

Yet the conservative fight against disclosure laws isn't going away soon, says Fred Wertheimer, a leading advocate of campaign finance regulation with the group Democracy 21. "This is part of an effort that's based on the idea that they have a favorable Supreme Court majority," he says, "and they might as well try to take this as far as they possibly can."

</div>

<div class="print-source_url">Source URL: <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/karl-rove-crossroads-gps-center-individual-freedom">http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/karl-rove-crossroads-gps-center-individual-freedom</a></div>

Links:

[1] http://www.crossroadsgps.org/

[2] http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-19/secret-donors-multiply-in-u-s-with-finances-dwarfing-watergate

[3] http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=D1E422E9-801D-4A80-9FD6-870A6719B97B

[4] http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-secret-donors-pour-millions-of-dollars-into-crossroads-gps-20120417,0,6124833.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29

[5] http://cfif.org/v/

[6] http://cfif.org/v/index.php/the-issues/56-health-care/1291-direct-pay-medicine-a-free-market-approach-to-healthcare-reform-

[7] http://cfif.org/v/freedom_line_blog/13455/spectrum-stall-fcc-and-big-labor-impeding-innovation-and-economic-opportunity/

[8] http://cfif.org/v/freedom_line_blog/13562/louisiana-teacher-unions-happy-to-sell-out-kids-for-political-gain/

[9] http://cfif.org/v/index.php/commentary/56-health-care/1321-whats-really-at-stake-with-obamacare-legal-battle

[10] http://cfif.org/v/index.php/press-room/1290-conservative-leaders-call-on-president-congress-to-pass-corporate-tax-reform

[11] http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/qws17a00/pdf?search=%22center%20for%20individual%20freedom%22

[12] http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation/van_hollen.shtml

[13] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/30/koch-brothers-rove-fec-campaign-donations_n_1392838.html

[14] http://www.wileyrein.com/professionals.cfm?sp=bio&id=33#rep

[15] http://www.demos.org/publication/testimony-support-disclose-act-united-states-senate-committee-rules-and-administration

[16] http://eshoo.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1151:the-prescription-to-citizens-united&catid=5&Itemid=100014

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=

<ul>

BRIEF FOR APPELLANT

———————————

Reid Alan Cox, Of Counsel Jan Witold Baran

Renee L. Giachino, Of Counsel Thomas W. Kirby*

CENTER FOR INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM

Caleb P. Burns

113 South Columbus Street WILEY, REIN & FIELDING

Suite 310 1776 K Street, NW

Alexandria, VA 22314 Washington, DC 20006

Telephone: (202) 719-7000

Harry Rosenberg *Lead Counsel

Christopher K. Ralston

PHELPS DUNBAR, LLP

365 Canal Street, Suite 2000

New Orleans, LA 70130-6534

Telephone: (504) 566-1311

"The Center for Individual Freedom is an Alexandria, Virginia based U.S. lobbyist and policy advocacy organization founded on the principle of securing individual freedoms as embodied in the United States Constitution and state constitutions. It was founded in 1998 and tends to focus on neoconservative and Republican/libertarian[citation needed] values."

"Center for Individual Freedom

Center for Individual Freedom has reported spending a total of $2,519,788 on independent campaigning through October 2010, with 100% benefiting Republican candidates."

1. The Center for Individual Freedom, represented by:

Jan Witold Baran, Esq., Wiley, Rein & Fielding

Thomas W. Kirby, Esq., Wiley, Rein & Fielding

Caleb P. Burns, Esq., Wiley, Rein & Fielding

Reid Alan Cox, Esq., Center for Individual Freedom

Renee L. Giachino, Esq., Center for Individual Freedom

Christopher K. Ralston, Esq., Phelps Dunbar, LLP

Harry Rosenberg, Esq., Phelps Dunbar, LLP

Mary Ellen Roy, Esq., Phelps Dunbar, LLP

2. The State of Louisiana; Paul J. Carmouche, District Attorney, 1st Judicial

District; Robert Roland, Chairman, T.O. Perry, Jr., Vice-Chairman, John W.

Greene, E.L. Guidry, Jr., R.L. Hargrove, Jr., Michael J. Kantrow, Sr., Joseph

Maselli, Henry C. Perrett, Jr., Ascension Delgado Smith, Dolores Spikes,

Edwin O. Ware, III, of the Louisiana Board of Ethics and the Supervisory

Committee for Campaign Finance, represented by:

Raymond Gray Sexton, Esq., Louisiana Board of Ethics and its individual

members

Charles H. Braud, Esq., Office of the Attorney General

————————————/S/

Harry Rosenberg

<a href="http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/legal_issues/legal_activities/litigation/louisiana-brief.pdf" rel="nofollow"> </a><a href="http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/legal_issues/legal_act" rel="nofollow">http://www.cfif.org/htdocs/legal_issues/legal_act</a>…

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Steve

November 4, 2011 at <a href="http://www.slabbed.org/2011/11/04/a-man-can-not-serve-two-masters-a-pair-of-stories-to-illustrate-the-point/#comment-2339">5:59 pm</a>

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<div class="reply"><a class="comment-reply-link" href="http://www.slabbed.org/2011/11/04/a-man-can-not-serve-two-masters-a-pair-of-stories-to-illustrate-the-point/?replytocom=2339#respond" onclick="return addComment.moveForm(" div-comment-2339="div-comment-2339" respond="respond">Reply</a></div>

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</li>

Let me cut to the chase—Phelps Dunbar has attacked the Louisiana Ethics laws for the sole purpose of taking over the judical branch of government in the state. More on this later…

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Steve

November 5, 2011 at <a href="http://www.slabbed.org/2011/11/04/a-man-can-not-serve-two-masters-a-pair-of-stories-to-illustrate-the-point/#comment-2340">2:50 am</a>

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<div class="reply"><a class="comment-reply-link" href="http://www.slabbed.org/2011/11/04/a-man-can-not-serve-two-masters-a-pair-of-stories-to-illustrate-the-point/?replytocom=2340#respond" onclick="return addComment.moveForm(" div-comment-2340="div-comment-2340" respond="respond">Reply</a></div>

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</li>

Group funding GOP campaigns had its origins backing tobacco

Democratic Rep. Allen Boyd of Florida is the target of attack ads paid for by the Center for Individual Freedom, founded in 1998 to counter restrictions on smoking.

October 24, 2010|By Kim Geiger and Tom Hamburger, Tribune Washington Bureau

Reporting from Tallahassee, Fla. — Rep. Allen Boyd of Florida has marshaled some key advantages for his seventh reelection race: He has outraised his GOP opponent, and has the rare distinction of being a Democrat endorsed by both the National Rifle Assn. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

But Boyd also voted in favor of the healthcare overhaul this year, and like other Democratic incumbents now faces a barrage of attacks by little-known conservative groups funded by anonymous donors.

The latest came last week from an organization called the Center for Individual Freedom, created more than a decade ago by former tobacco industry executives who sought to counter government restrictions on smoking.

Now headquartered in the top floor of a townhouse in Alexandria, Va., the center recently launched more than $2 million worth of ads in the districts of nine vulnerable Democrats, including Boyd, with more possible in coming days.

The group is no longer associated with tobacco or smoking.

<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/24/nation/la-na-hidden-donors-20101024" rel="nofollow"> </a><a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/24/nation/la" rel="nofollow">http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/24/nation/la</a>…

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</li>

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Ctr for Individual Freedom

Attachments