Republ Governors' Assoc RGA

16 tagssee alec=koch alypse, 3-4 midwest govs
see RGA2 age of trumpcongrats primary on raga and dark $evil pending of MI flint $ shuffleoriginally just best practices?pruitt runs RG AG=
 <span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">[[http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/republican-governors-association-perry-michigan
<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">The 20 Biggest Donors of the 2012 Election [2]
<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">RGA:
<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">[Read more of our coverage of political dark money. [3]
<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:#ffff00;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Created in December 2009 and shut down shortly after the election, RGA Michigan 2010 had come out of nowhere to spend [4] nearly $8.4 million—54 percent more than any other PAC had poured into any election in Michigan history. Ninety-six percent of the group's donors lived outside the state, and its top three funders included Texas homebuilder Bob Perry, Koch Industries' <span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:#ffff00;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">David Koch,<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:#ffff00;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> and New York City hedge fund CEO <span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:#ffff00;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Paul Singer.<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:700;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">On the other side of the ledger, RGA Michigan 2010 had given $5.2 million to the Michigan Republican Party—no surprise there—but, mysteriously, it had also funneled $3 million into the campaign coffers of Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Robinson, the executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, began to connect the dots. He remembered the phone calls from reporters in Maine and Florida asking if Robinson knew why money from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce had ended up with PACs in their states. The state's Chamber, which usually spent more than $1 million on TV ads during Michigan elections, officially didn't spend a dime on ads in 2010, according to Robinson. But it had given an unprecedented [4] $5.37 million to a national organization that, Robinson now realized, was at the root of the anomalous spending he'd uncovered: the Washington, DC-based Republican Governors Association.
<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:#ffff00;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">During the midterms, while many campaign finance observers were fixated on the proliferation of super-PACs and shadow-spending groups, the RGA spent [5] $132 million—more than the five biggest conservative super-PACs and 501(c) groups combined. It was instrumental in electing a slate of GOP governors—Wisconsin's Scott Walker, Ohio's John Kasich, Georgia's Nathan Deal, and Iowa's Terry Branstad, among others—who hastened to crack down on public-sector unions and roll back environmental regulations.<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;"> These electoral successes were fueled in part by the creative campaign finance strategy that Robinson began to piece together.
<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Since 2008, he explains, the RGA has used a network of at least 15 state-level PACs to shuffle campaign cash around the country. Doing so serves a couple of purposes. First, it enables the RGA to scrub the identity of a donor to avoid image issues. For instance, Rick Perry taking $3 million from a Texas oil baron might be controversial, but if that baron gives $3 million to the national RGA, which then diverts the money to RGA Michigan PAC and then to Perry? Harmless.
<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">The RGA's cash shuffle also allows it—and its corporate allies—to skirt campaign finance laws. For instance, in Michigan, corporations can't donate directly to candidates or political parties. But the state's Chamber of Commerce donated millions to the national RGA, which then directed some of the money to its PACs in Florida and Maine, where no such corporate-money bans exist. Why would a Michigan group want its money flowing to races in other states? Chamber CEO Rich Studley told [6] Maine Public Radio that its members supported funding "pro-business" candidates outside Michigan.
<span style="font-size:13.999999999999998pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';color:#000000;background-color:transparent;font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre;white-space:pre-wrap;">Robinson has a different theory. During the 2010 election cycle, the Michigan Chamber donated more than $5 million to the RGA. In turn, the RGA's Michigan PAC directed $5.2 million—contributions that largely came from individuals outside the state—to the Michigan Republican Party. Robinson believes that, through this roundabout process, the Chamber's corporate money was swapped out with individual contributions, allowing it to be deployed in Michigan in a more potent form. (The Chamber acknowledges that the RGA called the shots on where its money was spent. Studley says his group's political spending "has been in full compliance with all Michigan and federal laws." The RGA did not respond to a request for comment on this practice.... <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13064/flint-casualty-right-wing-government-experiment">https://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13064/flint-casualty-right-wing-government-experiment</a>arn p<h1 class="page__title title" id="page-title" style="line-height: 1.4em; margin: 10px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 0px;">Flint Is a Casualty in the Right Wing's War on Local Democracy</h1><article class="node-13064 node node-news-article view-mode-full clearfix" style="padding: 0px 17.5938px 17.5938px;"><header>Submitted by <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/users/35501/arn-pearson" title="View user profile." class="username" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Arn Pearson</a> on <time pubdate="" datetime="2016-03-31T06:04:56-05:00">March 31,</time></header></article>This month's hearing in Congress about the crisis in Flint, Michigan shed more heat than light on the decisions that poisoned the water more than 100,000 residents rely on to drink and bathe, including nearly 30,000 children and teens. Democrats focused their ire on Governor Rick Snyder, while Republicans predictably tried to deflect blame onto the Environmental Protection Agency as part of their long-standing campaign to eliminate the agency responsible for regulating polluters.But two Members of Congress honed in on the real culprit in the debacle: Governor Snyder's "emergency manager" law that stripped Flint of any local democratic control and put its fate in the hands of unaccountable executives hand-picked by Snyder."Did that emergency management system fail under your leadership in this matter?" asked Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), demanding a yes or no response from Snyder."That would be a fair conclusion," Snyder eventually conceded."This is a failure of a philosophy of governance you advocated," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA). "A city in America... is on its knees because of your emergency manager's decision to save $4 million. And now it's going to cost a lot more to clean up."Is this really happening in the world's leading republic?<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Funding the War on Local Democracy</h2>Governor Snyder's controversial emergency manager law is a cornerstone of the Right Wing's war on labor and local democracy in Michigan, which has been orchestrated by a network of "think tanks" and committees backed by the billionaire DeVos family, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Kochs, and other politicos.Thanks to record spending by outside groups in 2010 and $6 million of Snyder's own fortune, the Republican Party in Michigan joined 11 other states in capturing the governor's mansion from the Democrats and flipped the Michigan House, giving the party a lock on political power for the first time since 2002.The Republican Governors Association Michigan 2010 PAC dominated the playing field to become the "largest political action committee in the history of Michigan politics," according to the <a href="http://mcfn.org/pdfs/reports/MCFN2010_CitGuide.pdf" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">Michigan Campaign Finance Network</a>.Through an elaborate shell game, 98 percent of the $8.4 million raised and spent by the RGA MI 2010 PAC came from outside Michigan, while Michigan donors gave the national Republican Governors Association (RGA) $8.6 million, including $5.4 million from the state Chamber of Commerce.The RGA MI 2010 PAC then contributed $5.3 million to the state Republican Party, and sent off $3 million to back Rick Perry's bid for a third term as governor of Texas, while the national RGA spent $3.6 million on sham issue ads attacking Snyder's Democratic opponent. Still with me?All in all, the RGA raised and redistributed $114 million to PACs in at least 15 states, helping to elect a <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/republican-governors-association-perry-michigan" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">slate of right-wing governors</a>, including Wisconsin's Scott Walker, who moved quickly to attack public sector unions.Right-wing billionaires and their corporations played a big role in raising all that money. Records on Open Secrets show that the DeVos family, Amway, and its parent company, Alticor, pumped $1.9 million into the RGA's 2010 political operation.David Koch personally gave $1 million, while his brother William chipped in $100,000 and Koch Industries another $50,000. The Kochs have since become RGA's #1 source of cash, bankrolling the RGA to the tune of $5.3 million during the 2014 election cycle.Paul Singer also ponied up $1.4 million. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson gave a million that year, and News America, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. that owns the pro-Republican outlet Fox News, sprung another $1.3 million.<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">DeVos Dynasty Targets Michigan</h2>Although Snyder—a business executive and venture capitalist—campaigned as a moderate Republican who promised to run the state like a business and create jobs, the deep pockets driving the Republican surge had more ambitious ideas.Their goals: break the unions, scrap public sector labor contracts, and privatize government services.Dick DeVos, son of billionaire businessman and Amway co-founder Richard DeVos, took a first crack at this agenda when he spent $35 million of the family fortune to run for governor in 2006. He lost badly, but he didn't let up.In 2009, DeVos helped his close ally, Ron Weiser, get elected as chair of the Michigan Republican Party, where he was able to coordinate the party's 2010 landslide victory. By 2014, political observers were calling the DeVos family Michigan's "<a href="http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2015/10/report_devos_family_michigans.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">most potent interest group</a>," and their spending on in-state candidates and political committees had increased to $4.9 million.After Snyder's election, DeVos-backed groups like the Mackinac Center for Public Policy were poised to help move his legislative agenda forward.Launched in 1987, the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mackinac_Center_for_Public_Policy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Mackinac Center</a> is one of the nation's largest state-based, right-wing pressure groups promoting "free market," pro-business policies. It is an active member of the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Portal:State_Policy_Network" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">State Policy Network</a> (SPN) and the <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> (ALEC), two important cogs in the Koch machine.Mackinac has long been one of the key groups leading the Michigan charge for the big ticket items on DeVos' right-wing wish list, including breaking the back of organized labor.Ronald Reagan may have <a href="https://reaganlibrary.archives.gov/archives/reference/9.1.80.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">once said</a>, "[w]here free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost," but that's just crazy-liberal talk as far as the Mackinac Center is concerned.As a <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Mackinac staffer</a> told a state legislator in 2011: "Our goal is [to] outlaw government collective bargaining in Michigan."Mackinac's activities have been fueled by DeVos as well as money from the Koch network of billionaires. Between 2010 and 2012, the Mackinac Center received $1.5 million from the DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund, preferred investment vehicles of the Koch donor network, and four DeVos foundations kicked in another $560,000 between 1998 and 2011.However, those totals public do not reveal how much billionaire cash Mackinac has received through checks from personal trust accounts or from corporations, which are not publicly reported.<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Mackinac at the Root of Sweeping Emergency Manager Powers</h2>Once sworn in, Snyder wasted no time in making one of the most audacious power grabs in the country.On March 16, 2011, while thousands protested outside, he signed Public Act 4 into law, giving him the ability to take near-total control over financially struggling municipalities through appointed "emergency managers."Few could have been more pleased than the DeVos family and their confederates at the Mackinac Center.The provision for emergency financial managers dates back to a 1988 Michigan law, but those managers wielded limited power.Mackinac's Louis Schimmel called for loosening limits and expanding managers' powers as early as 2005, and the group reprinted his article in January 2011. They argued that: "The state's policy prescription for fiscally floundering cities should be to appoint[] far more powerful emergency financial managers than they have in the past."Mackinac pressed for sweeping authority for emergency managers to assume the powers of elected city councils and mayors, break union contracts, and revise municipal charters, while getting legal immunity from any liability for the results of their actions.Snyder's emergency manager law included all four of those changes, and the Mackinac bunch patted themselves on the back while singing the law's praises.Concerned citizens and critics, however, denounced it as "financial martial law."Other cities around the country have had emergency managers, including New York City in the 1970s, but their powers were limited to financial matters.The Snyder-Mackinac approach to the law was dramatically, exponentially different. It gave unelected and unaccountable managers chosen by the governor near total control over all city decisions—including things like where a city gets its water.<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;">Snyder's First Emergency "Tyrant"? A Mackinac Guy</h2>Snyder chose the architect of the expanded emergency powers—Mackinac's Louis Schimmel—to be the first person he appointed as an emergency manager, installing him as the potentate for Pontiac, Schimmel's home town.Within months, Schimmel had fired key city officials and privatized the entire public works department. The Pontiac City Council still held their weekly meetings, packed with angry citizens, but they had no authority to make any decisions.When asked by a local radio station if the emergency manager law made him a dictator, <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/michigan-emergency-manager-pontiac-detroit" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Schimmel replied</a>: "I guess I'm the tyrant in Pontiac then, if that's the way it is."Schimmel didn't get any argument from state court judge Rae Lee Chabot, who reversed the manager's action to cut Pontiac's pension board in half, a decision that ignored the legal requirements of Michigan's Open Meetings Act."[I]t looks like a dictatorship," <a href="http://michiganradio.org/post/judge-rules-against-pontiac-emergency-manager-pensions#stream/0" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Chabot said</a>.<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">State-Controlled Pontiac Outsources Water to Indicted Corporation</h2>Shortly before Schimmel took control of Pontiac using the law he helped create, his predecessor as emergency manager of Pontiac, Michael Stampfler, flexed his muscles under Snyder's new law and outsourced the city's water treatment to United Water Services.Watchdog Chris Savage <a href="http://www.eclectablog.com/2011/06/breaking-michigan-efm-outsources-water.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">broke the story</a> on Eclectablog."This is big news," he wrote, because the giant for-profit water company had just been indicted by a federal grand jury in 2010 on 26 felony counts of conspiracy and Clean Water Act violations for its mishandling of water services in Gary, Indiana. (The company's workers have since been acquitted of criminal charges in the Gary case, but United Water paid $645,000 in civil fines under a consent agreement in 2014.)Schimmel completed the outsourcing process in November 2011 by firing key public works employees and turning full control over to United Water.Before long, consumer complaints over water quality, outages, and sewer backups started piling up. It took nearly three years before Oakland County, where Pontiac is situated, announced that it was taking over operations.All the warning signs were there for Flint.Savage <a href="http://www.eclectablog.com/2011/06/breaking-michigan-efm-outsources-water.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">summed up</a> the problem well:<blockquote sites="sites" all="all" themes="themes" prw="prw" images="images" blue-quote-mark.png="blue-quote-mark.png" px="px" no-repeat="no-repeat" scroll="scroll" rgb="rgb" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" padding="padding" style="margin: 10px 0px; background-image: url(" background-position="background-position" initial="initial" background-size="background-size" background-repeat="background-repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip">Emergency Financial Managers are generally good at what they do. They are typically trained as accountants and business optimizers. They know how to trim and cut and lean out organizations to squeeze every last drop of profits out of them. Unfortunately for the residents of Michigan, things like parks, public safety and the protection of natural resources don't produce profits and generally are presented as 'costs'…When we begin to put a price tag on the very things that make our cities, society and state good, safe, livable and lovable, while putting CPA-like EFMs in charge, you can expect that these things will suffer in order to save money, even if it puts our citizens at risk."</blockquote><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Democracy? What Democracy?</h2>Citizens and public employees in Michigan were not having it.Following extensive protests, opponents sprang into action and quickly gathered more than 200,000 signatures to qualify a voter initiative, Proposal 1, for the November 2012 ballot to repeal Snyder's expanded emergency manager law.Stand Up for Democracy, the ballot committee backing Proposal 1, received 91 percent of its funding from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Michigan Council 25, according to the <a href="http://mcfn.org/pdfs/reports/MCFN_2012_Cit_Guide_final_rev..pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Michigan Campaign Finance Network</a>.Opposition to Proposal 1 was led by Bob LaBrant, Senior Counsel at the Sterling Corporation, a leading Republican PR firm, and the former director of political and legal campaigns at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce for 34 years. LaBrant's ballot committee, called Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, focused its strategy on a court fight to bump Proposal 1 off the ballot. That effort ultimately failed, and the group spent little on campaigning against the measure.On November 6, 2012, 53 percent of Michigan's voters cast ballots to repeal Snyder's emergency manager law. But that didn't stop Governor Snyder and his backers.Barely one month later, Snyder pushed a slightly revised bill through the lame duck legislature and restored the sweeping powers of his emergency managers.Only this time, he <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2012/12/13/1169517/-Michigan-House-passes-new-version-of-emergency-law-repealed-by-voters" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">added an appropriation</a> which, under Michigan law, prevents it from being subject to referendum. Check and mate.Kevyn Orr, who later became emergency manager for Detroit, <a href="http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/07/kevyn-orr-michigans-em-law-is-a-clear-end-around-the-prior-initiative-that-was-rejected-by-the-voters-in-november.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">sent an email</a> to the Detroit Free Press saying, "Michigan's EM law is a clear end-around the prior initiative that was rejected by the voters in November. ...[A]though the new law provides the thin veneer of a revision it is essentially a redo of the prior rejected law."The new law did contain what critics call a "<a href="http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/02/a-comprehensive-look-at-michigans-newest-emergency-manager-law-now-with-stability-choice.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">choose your poison</a>" provision, allowing municipalities to choose between an emergency manager, bankruptcy, arbitration, or a consent agreement.Not on the table for cash-strapped cities reeling from the collapse of the auto industry and the impact of free trade agreements: any state largesse like the <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/05/13/173952/michigan-tax-cuts/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">86 percent corporate income tax cut</a> that Snyder handed Michigan businesses in 2011, worth an estimated $1.7 billion per year.The resurrection of Snyder's emergency manager law wasn't even the most dramatic thing to happen in the 2012 lame duck session.According to Mother Jones, DeVos and his close allies—who led a $23.2 million campaign to defeat another voter initiative, Proposal 2, aimed at enshrining collective bargaining in the state constitution—had <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/devos-michigan-labor-politics-gop" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">devised a plan</a> to ram through "right-to-work" legislation before anyone knew what hit them.They pitched the plan to legislative leaders and a Snyder aide on November 20, and by early December unleashed an ad campaign using a new group, the Michigan Freedom Fund, closely tied to Dick DeVos.Snyder surprised the public by calling the measure to a vote on December 6, and five days later the birthplace of modern industrial unions became a "right-to-work" state.The following May, at the State Policy Network's <a href="http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/19187" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">annual meeting</a> in Oklahoma City, Dick DeVos and the Mackinac Center were recognized for their leadership in the legislative fight to win passage of the "right-to-work" law in Michigan. As reported by <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/12/12325/state-policy-network-stealth-network-dramatically-influencing-state-law" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">PR Watch</a>, Dick's wife Betsy DeVos personally presented SPN's highest award to Mackinac's president, Joseph Lehman.Mackinac's blog noted that it had been pushing for "right-to-work" since 1990 and had posted more than 500 "articles, blog posts, special essays and news [clips] generated by Mackinac Center analysts" backing the legislation.The victory didn't come cheap.The big players of Michigan's right wing had <a href="http://mcfn.org/press.php?prId=172" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">spent millions</a> to defeat Proposal 2, an attempt to protect union rights in the state.That funding included $9.2 million from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, $5.5 million from the Michigan Alliance for Business Growth, $2 million from the DeVos family, and $2 million from Sheldon and Miriam Adelson.The Michigan Freedom Fund spent <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/9/michigans-governor-sides-with-right-to-work/?page=all" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">another $1 million</a> on the post-election ad campaign leading up to legislature's adoption of the "right-to-work" law.The Mackinac Center had an annual budget of <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mackinac_Center_for_Public_Policy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">$4.4 million</a> as of 2012. Aside from checks to groups that do not disclose their major donors, the DeVos family spent more than <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/devos-michigan-labor-politics-gop" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">$44 million</a> in publicly reported funding on the Republican Party, party committees, and candidates in Michigan between 1997 and 2013.<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Expanded Emergency Management Comes to Flint</h2>Plagued by the loss of 90 percent of its industrial workforce, disinvestment, and depopulation, Flint was facing a severe financial crisis by the time Governor Snyder took office.<div class="clearfix">Since then, Snyder has appointed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_emergency_in_Michigan#List_of_emergency_managers" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">four emergency managers</a> to seize control of the city's assets and run Flint's local affairs.Flint voters elected a new mayor on November 8, 2011, but a state review panel declared a "local government financial emergency" the same day, and Snyder had installed his first emergency manager, Michael Brown, by December 1.The next day, Brown dismissed more than half a dozen key city administrators and Flint's elected officials had their pay and benefits removed.In January 2012, angry Flint residents joined a protest near Governor Snyder's home. AFSCME filed suit and managed to get a restraining order on Brown, but Brown was back by April in time to unveil his budget, which included cuts in nearly every department and a tax hike.Jack McHugh at Mackinac claimed in a March 2012 column that municipal budget problems were a "cancerous fiscal malpractice," and he argued that Snyder's emergency manager expansion provided the "rigorous 'chemotherapy'" needed "to sustain the necessary functions of tapped-out school districts and local governments."In Flint's case, the cure turned out to be worse than the disease.Frustrated with expensive water service from Detroit and frequent rate increases, Flint and surrounding Genesee County had joined nearby cities in 2010 to form the new Karegnondi Water Authority. The plan was to obtain water directly from Lake Huron once a new pipeline was complete. (That is now projected to be June 2016.)The Flint City Council voted for the new water source in March 2013, albeit symbolically as it had no power, and the emergency manager and state treasurer approved a plan to switch water supplies a few weeks later.That's when the trouble started.<h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;">"Flint Residents Can Taste History"</h2></div><div></div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://scholars.org/sites/scholars/files/torres-spelliscy_what_do_corporations_have_to_hide-glimpses_of_dark_money.pdf">https://scholars.org/sites/scholars/files/torres-spelliscy_what_do_corporations_have_to_hide-glimpses_of_dark_money.pdf</a></div><div>
</div><div>What do Corporations Have to Hide? Glimpses of Dark Money May 31, 2016 </div><div>
</div><div>Ciara Torres-Spelliscy Introduction </div><div>
</div><div>Playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda told the graduates of the University of Pennsylvania, “[e]very story you choose to tell, by necessity, omits others from the larger narrative.”1 This is true. But American elections are missing a key part of the story: exactly who is funding political ads. Between 2010 and 2014, there was $600 million of dark money spent in federal elections alone. But now that corporate money is allowed in politics through perfectly legal independent expenditures, the open question remains, why is corporate money going dark? Post-Citizens United, the press has shown a renewed interest in hidden corporate political spending.2 They have reported on inadvertent and court ordered disclosures by corporations. These reports provide an admittedly limited glimpse into what corporations are doing on the down low and allows us to start to explore what exactly are corporate political spenders hiding and why. Because of the brevity of this piece a definitive account of all that is hidden in the realm of corporate political spending is not possible. But this piece can offer a starting point for both discussion and further research. Defining the Modern Dark Money Problem Here “dark money” does not refer to the excellent book by Jane Mayer of the same title, but rather, it refers to untraceable political spending.3 Dark money is money that has been routed through an opaque nonprofit — thus concealing its true source from voters and investors alike. The source of dark money could be from individuals, unions, associations, nonprofits or for profit</div><div>
</div><div> 1 Lin-Manuel Miranda, Full Transcript: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Commencement Speech at UPenn, HEARST (May 16, 2016 5:23 pm), https://heatst.com/entertainment/full-transcript-lin-manuel-mirandas-commencent-speech-at-upenn/. 2 Kathy Kiely, Former IRS Official Sees Dark Money Scandal Brewing As demonstrators continue weeklong protest on Capitol Hill, an expert talks about the toll Citizens United is taking, MOYERS & CO (Apr. 12, 2016), http://billmoyers.com/story/former-irsofficial-sees-dark-money-scandal-brewing/; Michael Isikoff, Secret $1.5 million donation from Wisconsin billionaire uncovered in Scott Walker dark-money probe, YAHOO NEWS (Mar. 23, 2015); Karoli Kuns, How Dark Money Shields Political Donors, NEWS WEEK (June 30, 2015), http://www.newsweek.com/how-dark-money-shields-political-donors-348852; Most expensive midterms EVER: The power of Citizens United and anonymous 'dark money' revealed as spending nears $4billion, AP & REUTERS (Nov. 4, 2014), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2819897/Most-expensive-midterms-power-Citizens-United-anonymous-darkmoney-revealed-spending-nears-4billion.html#ixzz48kE7j11f. --Discussion Draft--Not for citation-- 2 businesses. </div><div>
</div><div>Here I will focus on dark money from for profit businesses.4 Dark money is also used to shape policy between elections. Corporations do not have a constitutional right to spend money darkly. If anything, corporations have no right to privacy at all.5 But corporations have been clever at exploiting the gaps in regulation between the IRS and elections regulators, which make dark money possible.6 As I explain in my new book Corporate Citizen?, corporate dark money was a problem that predated Citizens United v. FEC (2010).7 Arguably, corporate dark money was the original sin in Watergate.8 The reason for keeping the corporate money raised by the 1972 reelection campaign of Richard Nixon secret was easy enough to discern. (1) There was a gap in the law which failed to require disclosure for months in early 1972; 9 thus Nixon’s fundraisers thought they could get away with hiding it. And (2) corporate contributions to the campaign were illegal.10 S</div><div>...</div><div>Leaks </div><div>
</div><div>Dark money can be spent in state or federal elections. Most leaks have dealt with spending at the state level. For instance, the Alabama House Republican Caucus, which is a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, inadvertently provided their Form 990 Schedule B to reporters, which listed 16 contributor names and their contribution amounts. 23 The companies on the list included, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, and Alabama Power as well as FedEx Corp.’s PAC.24 </div><div>
</div><div>The Republican Governors Association (RGA) is a 527, which reports its donors to the IRS.25 But the RGA made more of its funding opaque by creating dark nonprofit affiliates like the Republican Governors Association Public Policy Committee.26 </div><div>
</div><div>In 2014 a there was a leak of a document from the Republican Governors Association Public Policy Committee which showed what corporations were giving money to it and at which level.27 Included in this leak were records of bankroll politically active nonprofits in recent years are “energy giant Exelon Corp., health insurer WellPoint Inc. and technology titan Microsoft Corp.” … </div><div>
</div><div>“As part of the investigation, the center created an interactive database with information about each of the donor companies and how much they gave. It can be found at https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/01/16/14121/pulling-back-veil-corporate-contributions”). </div><div>
</div><div>23 Michael Beckel, Documents reveal GOP group’s secret donors, CTR. FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY (Mar. 12, 2014), https://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/03/12/14413/documents-reveal-gop-groups-secret-donors (stating that Rachel Adams, the communications director for Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, accidentally provided journalists with the Alabama House Republican Caucus a version of the group’s Form 990 that the IRS usually only sees. The form is available at http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1005383-alabama-house-republican-conference-inc-2012- irs.html). 24 Id. 25 Andy Kroll, The Republicans' Dark-Money-Moving Machine Inside the GOP group that skirts election rules by shuffling millions across state lines and then "wiping the fingerprints off the money.", MOTHER JONES (Jan./Feb. 2012), http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/republican-governors-association-perry-michigan. 26 </div><div>
</div><div>Paul Abowd, Governors’ groups rely increasingly on 'dark money' affiliates shift to nonprofits obscures donors, CTR. FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY (May 19, 2014), https://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/04/04/12431/governors-groupsrely-increasingly-dark-money-affiliates. 27 Jonathan Weisman, G.O.P. Error Reveals Donors and the Price of Access, N.Y. TIMES (Sept. 24, 2014), http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/us/republicans-corporate-donors-governors.html?r=0 (“Such an error by the Republican Governors Association recently resulted in the disclosure of exactly the kind of information that political committees given tax-exempt status usually keep secret, namely their corporate donors and the size of their checks.”). </div><div>
</div><div>--Discussion Draft--Not for citation-- </div><div>
</div><div>6 privately held corporations and their trade associations that gave at least $250,000 to the RGA including: American Beverage Association, Health Care Service Corporation, Koch Companies Public Sector, Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, Ryan Industries, and USAA. </div><div>
</div><div>The RGA leak also showed publicly traded companies giving at the $250,000 “Statesmen” level including: Aetna, Inc., Centene Corporation, Coca-Cola, Corrections Corporation of America, ExxonMobil, Microsoft, Motorola, Pfizer, Pike Electric, Inc., Range Resources Corporation, Reynolds American, Sanofi, United Health Group, WalMart, WellCare Health Plans Inc., and WellPoint, Inc.28 </div><div>
</div><div>In the same year (2014), the IRS provided additional inadvertent disclosures for this RGA group to the Center for Public Integrity, which included a page of the “Schedule B” list of donors, which the IRS does not require to be made public. The corporate donors included in this IRS disclosure were HCA Inc. ($89,000), and Healthsouth Corp. ($10,500). 29 This secretive funding of the RGA’s Policy Committee is significant because the RGA is typically one of the largest political spenders in state elections across the nation.30 And they are wildly successful at electing governors as there are 34 Republicans in governors’ mansions across the land.3</div><div>...</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>=</div>...Groups like the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/recips.php?cmte=C90016478&cycle=2016" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">45 Committee</a> that were established during the 2016 election have spent multiple millions of dollars on ad campaigns during Trump’s first 100 days in office. Trump’s supporters also include new names like Great America Alliance and Making America Great, whose operations and funding sources are still largely opaque though they’ve spent plenty backing Trump; they will not have to file reports with the IRS until next year, and even then won’t have to publicly name their donors — just some of the benefits of the 501(c) tax status.The nonprofits have publicly jostled to be the Trumpian counterpart to Obama’s OFA; but these groups have much more in common with each other—and the “swamp” of political insiders his campaign <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/11/06/donald-trump-why-you-should-vote-me/93398970/" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">promised</a> to “drain”—than initially meets the eye.For instance, despite holding itself out as a “new” nonprofit launched to support President Trump’s agenda, records show Great America Alliance is actually a refurbished 501(c)(4) that has been around since 2013. An IRS Exempt Organizations Division official confirmed that Great America Alliance was once known as the American Dream Initiative (ADI), a politically active nonprofit with a history of spending undisclosed “dark money” in politics under the guise of issue advocacy.A page from Rove’s playbookGreat America Alliance is not the first politically active nonprofit crafted from the carcass of another group. Notably, the operatives behind dark money behemoth Crossroads GPS appropriated an existing 501(c)(4) and rebranded it: It’s now One Nation. Tax lawyers have <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/05/roves-new-group-isnt-new-and-that-could-be-the-point/" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">speculated</a> that this strategy can expedite the IRS approval process for tax-exempt status, which took Crossroads GPS <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/02/irs-gives-nonprofit-status-to-roves-controversial-dark-money-group/" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">over five years</a>.ADI’s Form 990 from <a href="http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2014/462/767/2014-462767395-0bc44e31-9O.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">2014</a> shows the group paid over $500,000—more than 83% of its total spending in 2014, though it’s supposed to spend less than half its funds on political activities—to <a href="http://www.onmessageinc.com/our-clients/" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">OnMessage Inc</a>. for “media buy and production” of an ad attacking a candidate for Texas attorney general that ran just before a runoff election in that race. OnMessage <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/expends/vendor.php?year=2014&vendor=OnMessage+Inc" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">was paid</a> by over 40 political campaigns, outside groups, and party committees supporting conservative candidates or agendas in each of the last three election cycles. However, only two other nonprofit organizations in the Center for Responsive Politics’ comprehensive database of 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations, 501(c)(5) labor unions, and 501(c)(6) trade groups filing tax returns with the IRS in recent years reported paying OnMessage Inc: the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/political-nonprofits/summary?id=200309803" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Republican Governors Public Policy Committee</a> in 2011 and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=American+Future+Fund&cycle=2016" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">American Future Fund</a> in 2010, which also came under <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3036379/American-Future-Fund-W-Aff.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-height: 1e+06px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">scrutiny</a> for skirting restrictions on political spending.Republican Governors Public Policy Committee  Washington, DC (Legal domicile: DC)<dl class="FactsList -inline u-mb2" style="line-height: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 1.17647rem !important;"><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Parent Organization</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">N/A</dd><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Type</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">Civic Leagues, Social Welfare Organizations, and Local Associations of Employees</dd><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Year Founded</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">2003</dd><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Reported Political Activity to IRS?</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">No</dd><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Period of Last Report</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">Jan 2014 - Dec 2014</dd><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Industry</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">Employer Listed/Category Unknown</dd></dl><dl class="FactsList -inline u-mb2" style="line-height: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 1.17647rem !important;"><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Total number of volunteers</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">0</dd><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Total number of employees</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">0</dd></dl><dl class="FactsList -inline u-mb2" style="line-height: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 1.17647rem !important;"><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Overall FEC-reported spending from Jan 2014 - Dec 2014</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">$0</dd><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Overall Political Spending of all known grant recipients</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">$0</dd><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Recipient Political Spending Attributable to Donor</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">$0</dd><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">FEC-reported spending since last IRS filing</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">$0</dd></dl><dl class="FactsList -inline u-mb2" style="line-height: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-bottom: 1.17647rem !important;"><dt style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: bold; clear: left; float: left;">Longterm Political Activity Ranking</dt><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">108</dd><dd style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0.29412rem 0.58824rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; float: left;">
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</dd></dl>2011<table class="DataTable dataTable no-footer" data-order="[[ 3, " desc="desc" id="DataTables_Table_0" role="grid" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-spacing: 0px; width: 688px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><thead style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit;"><tr role="row" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit;"><th scope="col" class="sorting" tabindex="0" aria-controls="DataTables_Table_0" rowspan="1" colspan="1" aria-label="Recipient: activate to sort column ascending" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.58824rem 0px 0px; vertical-align: middle; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-image: url(" assets="assets" icons="icons" arrow-both-dd5f374084489add793555a117dcadfdeb32f5f601fd37781811813305d0665f.svg="arrow-both-dd5f374084489add793555a117dcadfdeb32f5f601fd37781811813305d0665f.svg" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-position="background-position" right="right" px="px" center="center" border-bottom="border-bottom" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" text-align="text-align" left="left" width="width">Recipient</th><th scope="col" class="sorting" tabindex="0" aria-controls="DataTables_Table_0" rowspan="1" colspan="1" aria-label="Parent Organization: activate to sort column ascending" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.58824rem 0px 0px; vertical-align: middle; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-image: url(" assets="assets" icons="icons" arrow-both-dd5f374084489add793555a117dcadfdeb32f5f601fd37781811813305d0665f.svg="arrow-both-dd5f374084489add793555a117dcadfdeb32f5f601fd37781811813305d0665f.svg" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-position="background-position" right="right" px="px" center="center" border-bottom="border-bottom" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" text-align="text-align" left="left" width="width">Parent Organization</th><th scope="col" class="sorting" tabindex="0" aria-controls="DataTables_Table_0" rowspan="1" colspan="1" aria-label="Type: activate to sort column ascending" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.58824rem 0px 0px; vertical-align: middle; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-image: url(" assets="assets" icons="icons" arrow-both-dd5f374084489add793555a117dcadfdeb32f5f601fd37781811813305d0665f.svg="arrow-both-dd5f374084489add793555a117dcadfdeb32f5f601fd37781811813305d0665f.svg" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-position="background-position" right="right" px="px" center="center" border-bottom="border-bottom" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" text-align="text-align" left="left" width="width">Type</th><th scope="col" class="sorting_desc" tabindex="0" aria-controls="DataTables_Table_0" rowspan="1" colspan="1" aria-sort="descending" aria-label="Amount: activate to sort column ascending" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.58824rem 0px 0px; vertical-align: middle; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: right 5px center; background-image: url(" assets="assets" icons="icons" arrow-down-c35fc70ce261cf0e584639338fa14da4399dcce7ee611a17741976a4ee241cc7.svg="arrow-down-c35fc70ce261cf0e584639338fa14da4399dcce7ee611a17741976a4ee241cc7.svg" border-bottom="border-bottom" px="px" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" text-align="text-align" left="left" width="width">Amount</th><th scope="col" class="sorting" tabindex="0" aria-controls="DataTables_Table_0" rowspan="1" colspan="1" aria-label="Filing End Date: activate to sort column ascending" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.58824rem 0px 0px; vertical-align: middle; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-image: url(" assets="assets" icons="icons" arrow-both-dd5f374084489add793555a117dcadfdeb32f5f601fd37781811813305d0665f.svg="arrow-both-dd5f374084489add793555a117dcadfdeb32f5f601fd37781811813305d0665f.svg" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" background-position="background-position" right="right" px="px" center="center" border-bottom="border-bottom" solid="solid" rgb="rgb" text-align="text-align" left="left" width="width">Filing End Date</th></tr></thead><tbody style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit;"><tr role="row" class="odd" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit;"><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Make Ohio Great <a href="http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2011/200/309/2011-200309803-087df34e-9O.pdf" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out, border 150ms ease-in-out, color 150ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;"><svg enable-background="new 0 0 30 30" height="15" id="Layer_1" viewbox="0 0 30 30" width="15" xml:space="preserve" focusable="false" preserveaspectratio="xMidYMid meet" role="img" aria-hidden="true" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml"><g><path d="M28.595,7.562l-5.438-6.309l-1.078-1.25H9.228c-1.727,0-3.124,1.397-3.124,3.124v3.971H8.04l-0.001-3.21 c0.004-0.971,0.784-1.756,1.752-1.756l10.994-0.01v5.208c0.001,1.939,1.567,3.51,3.507,3.51h3.807L27.91,25.86 c-0.004,0.967-0.784,1.747-1.752,1.754L9.652,27.606c-0.883,0-1.594-0.866-1.6-1.935V24.4H6.114v1.896 c0,1.907,1.277,3.455,2.845,3.455l17.763-0.005c1.726,0,3.124-1.404,3.124-3.126V9.016L28.595,7.562" fill="#434440"><path d="M20.145,25.368H0V6.129h20.145V25.368 M1.934,23.432h16.274V8.065H1.934" fill="#EA4C3A"><path d="M10.314,9.069 c0.305,0.141,0.242,0.328,0.148,1.201c-0.097,0.905-0.414,2.554-1.032,4.173c-0.616,1.622-1.529,3.21-2.325,4.39 c-0.797,1.178-1.478,1.943-1.998,2.386c-0.519,0.441-0.882,0.559-1.115,0.599c-0.233,0.04-0.339,0-0.405-0.117 c-0.063-0.118-0.084-0.315-0.031-0.551c0.053-0.234,0.181-0.51,0.542-0.863c0.36-0.354,0.956-0.785,1.785-1.188 c0.829-0.402,1.891-0.775,2.762-1.031s1.551-0.393,2.146-0.5c0.595-0.108,1.104-0.187,1.604-0.226c0.5-0.04,0.988-0.04,1.467,0 c0.478,0.039,0.945,0.117,1.348,0.216c0.406,0.097,0.745,0.217,1.042,0.402c0.299,0.187,0.552,0.441,0.681,0.726 c0.127,0.286,0.127,0.6,0.021,0.825c-0.105,0.227-0.318,0.364-0.563,0.441c-0.246,0.08-0.522,0.099-0.851,0 c-0.33-0.098-0.712-0.314-1.115-0.599c-0.404-0.284-0.829-0.638-1.381-1.187c-0.553-0.551-1.232-1.298-1.807-2.023 c-0.573-0.727-1.041-1.434-1.358-2.033c-0.319-0.599-0.489-1.09-0.627-1.582c-0.138-0.491-0.244-0.98-0.287-1.422 c-0.043-0.443-0.021-0.837,0.021-1.149c0.042-0.315,0.106-0.55,0.213-0.708c0.106-0.157,0.256-0.235,0.362-0.275 s0.169-0.04,0.234-0.049c0.063-0.009,0.126-0.029,0.222,0c0.094,0.03,0.216,0.104,0.34,0.18" fill="none" stroke="#EA4C3A" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-miterlimit="10" stroke-width="0.75" /></path></path></g></svg></a></td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Make Ohio Great</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">
</td><td class="sorting_1" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">$2,852,001</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">12/31/2011</td></tr><tr role="row" class="even" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit;"><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Take Initiative America <a href="http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2011/200/309/2011-200309803-087df34e-9O.pdf" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out, border 150ms ease-in-out, color 150ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;"><svg enable-background="new 0 0 30 30" height="15" id="Layer_1" viewbox="0 0 30 30" width="15" xml:space="preserve" focusable="false" preserveaspectratio="xMidYMid meet" role="img" aria-hidden="true" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml"><g><path d="M28.595,7.562l-5.438-6.309l-1.078-1.25H9.228c-1.727,0-3.124,1.397-3.124,3.124v3.971H8.04l-0.001-3.21 c0.004-0.971,0.784-1.756,1.752-1.756l10.994-0.01v5.208c0.001,1.939,1.567,3.51,3.507,3.51h3.807L27.91,25.86 c-0.004,0.967-0.784,1.747-1.752,1.754L9.652,27.606c-0.883,0-1.594-0.866-1.6-1.935V24.4H6.114v1.896 c0,1.907,1.277,3.455,2.845,3.455l17.763-0.005c1.726,0,3.124-1.404,3.124-3.126V9.016L28.595,7.562" fill="#434440"><path d="M20.145,25.368H0V6.129h20.145V25.368 M1.934,23.432h16.274V8.065H1.934" fill="#EA4C3A"><path d="M10.314,9.069 c0.305,0.141,0.242,0.328,0.148,1.201c-0.097,0.905-0.414,2.554-1.032,4.173c-0.616,1.622-1.529,3.21-2.325,4.39 c-0.797,1.178-1.478,1.943-1.998,2.386c-0.519,0.441-0.882,0.559-1.115,0.599c-0.233,0.04-0.339,0-0.405-0.117 c-0.063-0.118-0.084-0.315-0.031-0.551c0.053-0.234,0.181-0.51,0.542-0.863c0.36-0.354,0.956-0.785,1.785-1.188 c0.829-0.402,1.891-0.775,2.762-1.031s1.551-0.393,2.146-0.5c0.595-0.108,1.104-0.187,1.604-0.226c0.5-0.04,0.988-0.04,1.467,0 c0.478,0.039,0.945,0.117,1.348,0.216c0.406,0.097,0.745,0.217,1.042,0.402c0.299,0.187,0.552,0.441,0.681,0.726 c0.127,0.286,0.127,0.6,0.021,0.825c-0.105,0.227-0.318,0.364-0.563,0.441c-0.246,0.08-0.522,0.099-0.851,0 c-0.33-0.098-0.712-0.314-1.115-0.599c-0.404-0.284-0.829-0.638-1.381-1.187c-0.553-0.551-1.232-1.298-1.807-2.023 c-0.573-0.727-1.041-1.434-1.358-2.033c-0.319-0.599-0.489-1.09-0.627-1.582c-0.138-0.491-0.244-0.98-0.287-1.422 c-0.043-0.443-0.021-0.837,0.021-1.149c0.042-0.315,0.106-0.55,0.213-0.708c0.106-0.157,0.256-0.235,0.362-0.275 s0.169-0.04,0.234-0.049c0.063-0.009,0.126-0.029,0.222,0c0.094,0.03,0.216,0.104,0.34,0.18" fill="none" stroke="#EA4C3A" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-miterlimit="10" stroke-width="0.75" /></path></path></g></svg></a></td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Take Initiative America</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">
</td><td class="sorting_1" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">$700,000</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">12/31/2011</td></tr><tr role="row" class="odd" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit;"><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Fund for Nevada's Future <a href="http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2011/200/309/2011-200309803-087df34e-9O.pdf" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out, border 150ms ease-in-out, color 150ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;"><svg enable-background="new 0 0 30 30" height="15" id="Layer_1" viewbox="0 0 30 30" width="15" xml:space="preserve" focusable="false" preserveaspectratio="xMidYMid meet" role="img" aria-hidden="true" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml"><g><path d="M28.595,7.562l-5.438-6.309l-1.078-1.25H9.228c-1.727,0-3.124,1.397-3.124,3.124v3.971H8.04l-0.001-3.21 c0.004-0.971,0.784-1.756,1.752-1.756l10.994-0.01v5.208c0.001,1.939,1.567,3.51,3.507,3.51h3.807L27.91,25.86 c-0.004,0.967-0.784,1.747-1.752,1.754L9.652,27.606c-0.883,0-1.594-0.866-1.6-1.935V24.4H6.114v1.896 c0,1.907,1.277,3.455,2.845,3.455l17.763-0.005c1.726,0,3.124-1.404,3.124-3.126V9.016L28.595,7.562" fill="#434440"><path d="M20.145,25.368H0V6.129h20.145V25.368 M1.934,23.432h16.274V8.065H1.934" fill="#EA4C3A"><path d="M10.314,9.069 c0.305,0.141,0.242,0.328,0.148,1.201c-0.097,0.905-0.414,2.554-1.032,4.173c-0.616,1.622-1.529,3.21-2.325,4.39 c-0.797,1.178-1.478,1.943-1.998,2.386c-0.519,0.441-0.882,0.559-1.115,0.599c-0.233,0.04-0.339,0-0.405-0.117 c-0.063-0.118-0.084-0.315-0.031-0.551c0.053-0.234,0.181-0.51,0.542-0.863c0.36-0.354,0.956-0.785,1.785-1.188 c0.829-0.402,1.891-0.775,2.762-1.031s1.551-0.393,2.146-0.5c0.595-0.108,1.104-0.187,1.604-0.226c0.5-0.04,0.988-0.04,1.467,0 c0.478,0.039,0.945,0.117,1.348,0.216c0.406,0.097,0.745,0.217,1.042,0.402c0.299,0.187,0.552,0.441,0.681,0.726 c0.127,0.286,0.127,0.6,0.021,0.825c-0.105,0.227-0.318,0.364-0.563,0.441c-0.246,0.08-0.522,0.099-0.851,0 c-0.33-0.098-0.712-0.314-1.115-0.599c-0.404-0.284-0.829-0.638-1.381-1.187c-0.553-0.551-1.232-1.298-1.807-2.023 c-0.573-0.727-1.041-1.434-1.358-2.033c-0.319-0.599-0.489-1.09-0.627-1.582c-0.138-0.491-0.244-0.98-0.287-1.422 c-0.043-0.443-0.021-0.837,0.021-1.149c0.042-0.315,0.106-0.55,0.213-0.708c0.106-0.157,0.256-0.235,0.362-0.275 s0.169-0.04,0.234-0.049c0.063-0.009,0.126-0.029,0.222,0c0.094,0.03,0.216,0.104,0.34,0.18" fill="none" stroke="#EA4C3A" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-miterlimit="10" stroke-width="0.75" /></path></path></g></svg></a></td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Fund for Nevada's Future</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">
</td><td class="sorting_1" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">$75,000</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">12/31/2011</td></tr><tr role="row" class="even" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit;"><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);"><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/political-nonprofits/summary?cycle=2011&id=452809946" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out, border 150ms ease-in-out, color 150ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;">California Now</a> <a href="http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2011/200/309/2011-200309803-087df34e-9O.pdf" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out, border 150ms ease-in-out, color 150ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;"><svg enable-background="new 0 0 30 30" height="15" id="Layer_1" viewbox="0 0 30 30" width="15" xml:space="preserve" focusable="false" preserveaspectratio="xMidYMid meet" role="img" aria-hidden="true" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml"><g><path d="M28.595,7.562l-5.438-6.309l-1.078-1.25H9.228c-1.727,0-3.124,1.397-3.124,3.124v3.971H8.04l-0.001-3.21 c0.004-0.971,0.784-1.756,1.752-1.756l10.994-0.01v5.208c0.001,1.939,1.567,3.51,3.507,3.51h3.807L27.91,25.86 c-0.004,0.967-0.784,1.747-1.752,1.754L9.652,27.606c-0.883,0-1.594-0.866-1.6-1.935V24.4H6.114v1.896 c0,1.907,1.277,3.455,2.845,3.455l17.763-0.005c1.726,0,3.124-1.404,3.124-3.126V9.016L28.595,7.562" fill="#434440"><path d="M20.145,25.368H0V6.129h20.145V25.368 M1.934,23.432h16.274V8.065H1.934" fill="#EA4C3A"><path d="M10.314,9.069 c0.305,0.141,0.242,0.328,0.148,1.201c-0.097,0.905-0.414,2.554-1.032,4.173c-0.616,1.622-1.529,3.21-2.325,4.39 c-0.797,1.178-1.478,1.943-1.998,2.386c-0.519,0.441-0.882,0.559-1.115,0.599c-0.233,0.04-0.339,0-0.405-0.117 c-0.063-0.118-0.084-0.315-0.031-0.551c0.053-0.234,0.181-0.51,0.542-0.863c0.36-0.354,0.956-0.785,1.785-1.188 c0.829-0.402,1.891-0.775,2.762-1.031s1.551-0.393,2.146-0.5c0.595-0.108,1.104-0.187,1.604-0.226c0.5-0.04,0.988-0.04,1.467,0 c0.478,0.039,0.945,0.117,1.348,0.216c0.406,0.097,0.745,0.217,1.042,0.402c0.299,0.187,0.552,0.441,0.681,0.726 c0.127,0.286,0.127,0.6,0.021,0.825c-0.105,0.227-0.318,0.364-0.563,0.441c-0.246,0.08-0.522,0.099-0.851,0 c-0.33-0.098-0.712-0.314-1.115-0.599c-0.404-0.284-0.829-0.638-1.381-1.187c-0.553-0.551-1.232-1.298-1.807-2.023 c-0.573-0.727-1.041-1.434-1.358-2.033c-0.319-0.599-0.489-1.09-0.627-1.582c-0.138-0.491-0.244-0.98-0.287-1.422 c-0.043-0.443-0.021-0.837,0.021-1.149c0.042-0.315,0.106-0.55,0.213-0.708c0.106-0.157,0.256-0.235,0.362-0.275 s0.169-0.04,0.234-0.049c0.063-0.009,0.126-0.029,0.222,0c0.094,0.03,0.216,0.104,0.34,0.18" fill="none" stroke="#EA4C3A" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-miterlimit="10" stroke-width="0.75" /></path></path></g></svg></a></td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">California Now</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">
</td><td class="sorting_1" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">$50,000</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">12/31/2011</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/political-nonprofits/summary?id=200309803">https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/political-nonprofits/summary?id=200309803</a>2013<table class="DataTable dataTable no-footer" data-order="[[ 3, " desc="desc" id="DataTables_Table_0" role="grid" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-spacing: 0px; width: 688px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><tbody style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit;"><tr role="row" class="odd" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit;"><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">State Government Leadership Foundation <a href="http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2013/200/309/2013-200309803-0a87cf80-9O.pdf" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out, border 150ms ease-in-out, color 150ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;"><svg enable-background="new 0 0 30 30" height="15" id="Layer_1" viewbox="0 0 30 30" width="15" xml:space="preserve" focusable="false" preserveaspectratio="xMidYMid meet" role="img" aria-hidden="true" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml"><g><path d="M28.595,7.562l-5.438-6.309l-1.078-1.25H9.228c-1.727,0-3.124,1.397-3.124,3.124v3.971H8.04l-0.001-3.21 c0.004-0.971,0.784-1.756,1.752-1.756l10.994-0.01v5.208c0.001,1.939,1.567,3.51,3.507,3.51h3.807L27.91,25.86 c-0.004,0.967-0.784,1.747-1.752,1.754L9.652,27.606c-0.883,0-1.594-0.866-1.6-1.935V24.4H6.114v1.896 c0,1.907,1.277,3.455,2.845,3.455l17.763-0.005c1.726,0,3.124-1.404,3.124-3.126V9.016L28.595,7.562" fill="#434440"><path d="M20.145,25.368H0V6.129h20.145V25.368 M1.934,23.432h16.274V8.065H1.934" fill="#EA4C3A"><path d="M10.314,9.069 c0.305,0.141,0.242,0.328,0.148,1.201c-0.097,0.905-0.414,2.554-1.032,4.173c-0.616,1.622-1.529,3.21-2.325,4.39 c-0.797,1.178-1.478,1.943-1.998,2.386c-0.519,0.441-0.882,0.559-1.115,0.599c-0.233,0.04-0.339,0-0.405-0.117 c-0.063-0.118-0.084-0.315-0.031-0.551c0.053-0.234,0.181-0.51,0.542-0.863c0.36-0.354,0.956-0.785,1.785-1.188 c0.829-0.402,1.891-0.775,2.762-1.031s1.551-0.393,2.146-0.5c0.595-0.108,1.104-0.187,1.604-0.226c0.5-0.04,0.988-0.04,1.467,0 c0.478,0.039,0.945,0.117,1.348,0.216c0.406,0.097,0.745,0.217,1.042,0.402c0.299,0.187,0.552,0.441,0.681,0.726 c0.127,0.286,0.127,0.6,0.021,0.825c-0.105,0.227-0.318,0.364-0.563,0.441c-0.246,0.08-0.522,0.099-0.851,0 c-0.33-0.098-0.712-0.314-1.115-0.599c-0.404-0.284-0.829-0.638-1.381-1.187c-0.553-0.551-1.232-1.298-1.807-2.023 c-0.573-0.727-1.041-1.434-1.358-2.033c-0.319-0.599-0.489-1.09-0.627-1.582c-0.138-0.491-0.244-0.98-0.287-1.422 c-0.043-0.443-0.021-0.837,0.021-1.149c0.042-0.315,0.106-0.55,0.213-0.708c0.106-0.157,0.256-0.235,0.362-0.275 s0.169-0.04,0.234-0.049c0.063-0.009,0.126-0.029,0.222,0c0.094,0.03,0.216,0.104,0.34,0.18" fill="none" stroke="#EA4C3A" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-miterlimit="10" stroke-width="0.75" /></path></path></g></svg></a></td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">State Government Leadership Foundation</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">
</td><td class="sorting_1" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">$65,000</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">12/31/2013</td></tr><tr role="row" class="even" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit;"><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Maine People Before Politics <a href="http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2013/200/309/2013-200309803-0a87cf80-9O.pdf" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; background-color: transparent; transition: background-color 150ms ease-in-out, border 150ms ease-in-out, color 150ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block;"><svg enable-background="new 0 0 30 30" height="15" id="Layer_1" viewbox="0 0 30 30" width="15" xml:space="preserve" focusable="false" preserveaspectratio="xMidYMid meet" role="img" aria-hidden="true" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xml="xml"><g><path d="M28.595,7.562l-5.438-6.309l-1.078-1.25H9.228c-1.727,0-3.124,1.397-3.124,3.124v3.971H8.04l-0.001-3.21 c0.004-0.971,0.784-1.756,1.752-1.756l10.994-0.01v5.208c0.001,1.939,1.567,3.51,3.507,3.51h3.807L27.91,25.86 c-0.004,0.967-0.784,1.747-1.752,1.754L9.652,27.606c-0.883,0-1.594-0.866-1.6-1.935V24.4H6.114v1.896 c0,1.907,1.277,3.455,2.845,3.455l17.763-0.005c1.726,0,3.124-1.404,3.124-3.126V9.016L28.595,7.562" fill="#434440"><path d="M20.145,25.368H0V6.129h20.145V25.368 M1.934,23.432h16.274V8.065H1.934" fill="#EA4C3A"><path d="M10.314,9.069 c0.305,0.141,0.242,0.328,0.148,1.201c-0.097,0.905-0.414,2.554-1.032,4.173c-0.616,1.622-1.529,3.21-2.325,4.39 c-0.797,1.178-1.478,1.943-1.998,2.386c-0.519,0.441-0.882,0.559-1.115,0.599c-0.233,0.04-0.339,0-0.405-0.117 c-0.063-0.118-0.084-0.315-0.031-0.551c0.053-0.234,0.181-0.51,0.542-0.863c0.36-0.354,0.956-0.785,1.785-1.188 c0.829-0.402,1.891-0.775,2.762-1.031s1.551-0.393,2.146-0.5c0.595-0.108,1.104-0.187,1.604-0.226c0.5-0.04,0.988-0.04,1.467,0 c0.478,0.039,0.945,0.117,1.348,0.216c0.406,0.097,0.745,0.217,1.042,0.402c0.299,0.187,0.552,0.441,0.681,0.726 c0.127,0.286,0.127,0.6,0.021,0.825c-0.105,0.227-0.318,0.364-0.563,0.441c-0.246,0.08-0.522,0.099-0.851,0 c-0.33-0.098-0.712-0.314-1.115-0.599c-0.404-0.284-0.829-0.638-1.381-1.187c-0.553-0.551-1.232-1.298-1.807-2.023 c-0.573-0.727-1.041-1.434-1.358-2.033c-0.319-0.599-0.489-1.09-0.627-1.582c-0.138-0.491-0.244-0.98-0.287-1.422 c-0.043-0.443-0.021-0.837,0.021-1.149c0.042-0.315,0.106-0.55,0.213-0.708c0.106-0.157,0.256-0.235,0.362-0.275 s0.169-0.04,0.234-0.049c0.063-0.009,0.126-0.029,0.222,0c0.094,0.03,0.216,0.104,0.34,0.18" fill="none" stroke="#EA4C3A" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-miterlimit="10" stroke-width="0.75" /></path></path></g></svg></a></td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">Maine People Before Politics</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">
</td><td class="sorting_1" style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">$50,000</td><td style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0.88235rem 1.76471rem 0.88235rem 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: inherit; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221);">12/31/2013</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/07/3600475/investigation-energy-firms-attorneys-general-fighting-federal-government/">http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/07/3600475/investigation-energy-firms-attorneys-general-fighting-federal-government/</a>Energy firms and state attorneys general have established a secretive alliance in an effort to derail environmental oversight and promote fossil fuels, according to an in-depth New York Times’ <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-alliance-with-attorneys-general.html?smid=tw-share" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">investigation</a> published this weekend. Having reviewed thousands of emails and legal documents and undertaken dozens of interviews, the Times found that “Republican attorneys general have formed with some of the nation’s top energy producers to push back against the Obama regulatory agenda.”<div id="in-content-ad" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="line-height: 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Using Oklahoma as an example, open-records requests revealed that Attorney General Scott Pruitt delivered a letter to the EPA in 2011 accusing the agency of significantly overestimating the air pollution caused by fracking. Pruitt did not mention that the letter was originally written by representatives of Devon Energy, one of the state’s largest oil and gas companies.<p style="line-height: 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The attorney general’s staff had taken Devon’s draft, copied it onto state government stationery with only a few word changes, and sent it to Washington with the attorney general’s signature,” reports the Times.<p style="line-height: 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Devon Energy is a major supporter of the Republican Attorneys General Association, whose mission is electing Republicans to the Office of Attorney General. The company has donated significantly to the campaigns of climate deniers, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/16/1872591/dirty-energy-fuels-climate-change-denier-ken-cuccinellis-campaign/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">giving</a> $800,000 to former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial campaign in 2013. Devon Energy also gave <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/02/20/1614831/lobbying-budgets-of-keystone-xl-opponents-exceeded-that-of-supporters-by-more-than-35-to-1/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">over a million</a> dollars to the lobbying effort in support of the Keystone XL pipeline in 2012. Pruitt is head of the Republican Attorneys General Association, which has collected $16 million this year — nearly four times the amount it collected in 2010.<p style="line-height: 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to the Times, at least a dozen states now have attorneys general working with “energy companies and other corporate interests” that are in exchange providing them with unheard of amounts of political funds. This impact of this effort can be seen in this year’s election results, as Republicans will hold 27 state attorney’s general offices starting in January — the first time they’ve had a majority in recent history.<p style="line-height: 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Times reports that Devon Energy “readily turned to Mr. Pruitt and his staff for help” as part of a broader national effort bringing together powerful energy interests and attorneys general. The establishment of a new Federalism in Environmental Policy task force by the offices of 19 state attorneys general has bolstered attempts to push back on federal actions to reduce ozone pollution, protect endangered species, regulate fracking, and limit greenhouse gas emissions. The scale of this coordination with corporate interests is unprecedented.<p style="line-height: 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Pruitt changed 37 words out of 1,016 when repurposing a letter drafted by Devon lawyers for submission to then head of the EPA, Lisa Jackson, about the agency’s methane regulations. The Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/07/us/politics/documents-attorneys-general-and-the-energy-industry.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">published</a> 80-plus pages of notes and documents showing the extent to which Devon and other energy companies have been working with state attorneys general to fight federal actions.<p style="line-height: 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In responding to questions about his involvement with industry lobbyists, Pruitt said that “it is the content of the request not the source of the request that is relevant.” He went on to say that Devon Energy is an important energy producer and job creator for Oklahoma and that the overreach of the federal government into the regulation of fracking is not only bad for Devon, but also would negatively impact citizens of the state.<p style="line-height: 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A recent <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6192/13.summary" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">study</a> published in the journal Science found that nearly all of the more than 2,500 small earthquakes that have hit Oklahoma in the past five years can be linked to the process of drilling for oil and gas. Spills related to fracking have also <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/31/3466283/olympic-pool-sized-hydrochloric-acid-spill-oklahoma/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">threatened</a>water supplies in the state.<p style="line-height: 1.6em; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.4em 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In another recent display of the coordination between energy firms and state-level Republican politicians, this week the American Legislative Executive Council held their annual closed-door meeting in D.C. They <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/12/05/3599846/getting-turned-away-from-the-alec-conference/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">pushed</a> a number of anti-clean energy initiatives, including a resolution to abolish the EPA.

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subpoena's in John Doe Wisc (eric o'keefe?)--http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/09/12584/leaked-audio-suggests-afp-violated-law-wisconsinLeaked audio from an invite-only Koch donor summit highlighted the role of the billionaire brothers in boosting Scott Walker in Wisconsin -- and suggests that David Koch's Americans for Prosperity Foundation may have violated its charitable status during the state's 2012 recall elections.Phil Cox, Executive Director of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), told a gathering of right-wing donors this summer that Americans for Prosperity (AFP) was a "tremendous partner" and "heavily involved" during Wisconsin's 2012 recall elections. He also thanked David Koch for "his very strong support of the RGA," according to a recording <a href="http://ladylibertine.net/2014/08/27/republican-governors-association-head-says-non-partisan-group-his-strongest-partner/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">obtained by The Undercurrent</a>.AFP spent <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/03/politics/wisconsin-recall-bus-tour/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">at least $10 million</a> touting Walker's policies during the 2012 Wisconsin recalls, much of it from the group's "charitable" arm, which is organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code and barred from any political intervention. AFP's television ads, bus tour, phone banks, door hangers, and door-to-door canvassing during the recall certainly looked like electioneering, but AFP's leaders claimed that its activities had nothing to do with "any candidates, political parties or ongoing races."Yet, if AFP's charitable arm coordinated during the recalls with the RGA, a 527 Political Action Committee that <a href="http://www.rga.org/homepage/rga-congratulates-governor-scott-walker/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">spent $9 million</a> expressly calling for Walker's reelection, the Koch-backed charity may have run afoul of federal tax law.An "IRC 501(c)(3) organization should not coordinate its activities with a non-IRC 501(c)(3) organization for partisan political purposes," <a href="http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopics00.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">according to IRS guidance</a>, "including any coordination with a candidate or IRC 527 organization.""In Wisconsin, it was a really tough battle in 2012," Cox said at the Koch gathering. At the time, the RGA was led by former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who is currently on trial on public corruption charges.[convicted]"AFP was a tremendous partner" to RGA during the recall effort, he added.<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">AFP "Not Dealing With Any Candidates, Political Parties or Ongoing Races"</h2>AFP consists of two legal entities.One is a "social welfare" organization incorporated under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, a group legally permitted to engage in some political activity and which serves as the conduit for most of AFP's ad spending on the national level.The other is the AFP Foundation, a "charity" organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code. Much of AFP's $10 million in spending during the Wisconsin recalls <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/02/11289/americans-prosperity-nonprofit-spreading-pro-walker-message" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">came</a> from its 501(c)(3) charitable arm, despite facing an absolute bar on political intervention. (The $900,000 AFP has spent on Walker ads so far in 2014 has <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12490/americans-prosperity-charity-pours-900k-walker-race" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">also come from its charitable wing</a>.)AFP did not report its expenditures in 2011 and 2012, so the precise breakdown of spending between the 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) is not known, but AFP's Wisconsin leaders went out of their way to claim the group's activities had nothing to do with elections."We're not dealing with any candidates, political parties or ongoing races," AFP's Wisconsin director, Luke Hilgemann, <a href="http://patch.com/wisconsin/hudson-wi/americans-for-prosperity-bus-tour-to-stop-in-hudson-on-june-1" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">told</a> a Hudson, Wisconsin online news site in late May of 2012. It was apparently a coincidence that the AFP Foundation had launched a ten-city bus tour, shipped 80 paid staffers into the state, and sent hundreds of AFP canvassers door-to-door in the weeks before the June 5 recall election. "We're just educating folks on the importance of reforms."As activists began circulating petitions for Walker's recall in late 2011, the AFP Foundation <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/02/11289/americans-prosperity-nonprofit-spreading-pro-walker-message" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">launched a huge television ad buy</a> that carefully avoided naming Walker, yet promoted his signature anti-union legislation and budget cuts with the slogan "It's Working!" The "Its Working" ads pushed a message consistent with that of the Walker campaign, ran through the spring of 2012, and cost the AFP Foundation an estimated<a href="http://www.wisdc.org/afp2012.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">$3.7 million</a>. (This campaign came on the heels of AFP's "Stand With Walker" ads in Spring of 2011, as protests were at their peak; however, that spending appears to have come from AFP's 501(c)(4) arm.)As the June 5 election day pulled closer, AFP brought in staff and volunteers from around the country. AFP's ten city bus tour included mobile phone banking, where volunteers read from a script that included lines like, "did you know that Governor Walker's reforms have saved taxpayers more than $1 billion?" Businessweek <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-02/kochs-take-tip-from-soros-investing-in-voter-registration.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">reported that</a> "AFP ground troops knocked on 6,500 doors in the three days before Walker prevailed," carrying Samsung tablets loaded with voter information, maps, and scripts. Just before election day, AFP volunteers distributed door hangers that pictured Walker and Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, under the message "Policies That Work for Wisconsin."At an AFP national convention held in Washington DC a few months after Walker survived the recall, Hilgemann boasted of his group's role in Walker's reelection -- describing how they "beat back the liberal hordes that had taken over" the state with ads, rallies, bus tours and canvassing -- but again emphasized that "we don't advocate for politicians."<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">AFP Foundation May Violate Tax Law if It "Improperly Coordinates or Colludes" With 527 Group Like the RGA</h2>Taken alone, the AFP Foundation's activities pushed the envelope on impermissible political intervention by charities. The Center for Media and Democracy <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/02/11289/americans-prosperity-nonprofit-spreading-pro-walker-message" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">noted</a> this <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/05/11533/kochs-americans-prosperity-not-supporting-walker-wi-recall" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">at the time</a>, and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/pr031312.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">filed an IRS complaint</a> in 2011 asking the agency to investigate.Yet if the AFP Foundation coordinated with the Republican Governors Association -- organized under Section 527 of the tax code, a provision designated for political groups -- it almost certainly would have violated rules barring political intervention by charities.<div id="block-inject-1" class="block-inject block-inject-1" style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="block-block-40" class="block block-block first odd" style="margin-bottom: 1.5em;"><div class="adv">A<a href="http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopics00.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">ccording to the IRS</a>, a charity like the AFP Foundation "might indirectly intervene in a campaign or operate for a substantial nonexempt purpose if it improperly coordinates or colludes with" a 527 group such as the RGA.</div></div></div>Improper collusion <a href="http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopics00.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">can include</a> "coordinating the content, timing, or distribution of information materials," or distributing one another's materials."While coordination may often be difficult to prove, any public statements or private memoranda . . . indicating coordination between the officials or agents of the two organizations would be damaging," <a href="http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopics00.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">the IRS has stated</a>.Cox calling AFP a "tremendous partner" at the secret Koch summit was not the first time an RGA official made such a reference. Four months after the recall election, then-RGA Chair Bob McDonnell <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/virginia-gov-bob-mcdonnell-stumps-for-romney-in-state-q675t4u-173378091.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">said</a>:"We spent $9 million in Wisconsin . . . the combination of the Walker team, Americans for Prosperity, the NRA (National Rifle Association), formed a formidable grass-roots coalition."<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Separate Investigation under State Law into Campaign Coordination</h2>Cox's possible admission of coordination between the RGA and the AFP Foundation comes amidst a separate criminal coordination investigation in Wisconsin.<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12473/reporters-guide-john-doe-investigation" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">For more than a year</a>, a bipartisan group of Wisconsin prosecutors have been examining whether Walker and his campaign violated state campaign finance law by coordinating with independent groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections. <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12475/scottwalker-john-doe-darkmoney-sixthings" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Under Wisconsin law</a>, expenditures coordinated with a candidate are <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/gov-scott-walker-allies-knew-prevailing-interpretation-of-state-law-b99307863z1-267404011.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">counted as campaign donations</a>, and must comply with disclosure laws and contribution limits.The alleged coordination between the Walker campaign and outside groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth could be a violation of Wisconsin campaign finance law. In contrast, if the RGA and AFP-Foundation improperly coordinated with one another, it would mean that AFP violated federal tax law.Wisconsin prosecutors may not looking at federal tax law violations. Yet, both the RGA and AFP have reportedly received subpoenas in the state criminal probe, and the RGA's name has recently been mentioned in connection with the investigation. Taken together, the allegations indicate how closely many Republican groups worked together during the recalls.According to newly-unsealed court documents, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/secret-probe-targets-try-to-head-off-more-court-disclosures-b99337497z1-272569051.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">prosecutors allege</a> that the Walker campaign -- in addition to coordinating with Wisconsin Club for Growth -- worked with the RGA-run Right Direction Political Action Committee in 2012, which ran at least eight ads attacking Walker's opponent Tom Barrett.Prosecutor Francis Schmitz, a former federal prosecutor with Republican credentials who voted for Walker, alleged in court filings that agents of the Walker's campaign "were regularly conducting meetings and conference calls with the RGA to discuss campaign strategy, including polling.” Schmitz also alleges that the campaign worked closely with the Republican State Leadership Committee which, like the RGA, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtedetail_contribs.php?ein=050532524&cycle=2014" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">receives Koch funding</a>.<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">David Koch Is Top Funder to Both AFP and RGA</h2>David Koch and the privately-held Koch Industries have been major funders of both AFP and the RGA.AFP does not disclose its donors, but <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/07/12541/koch-political-spending" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy</a> show that David Koch -- who founded the group -- has been its top single donor in some years, giving as much as $1 million annually during the early 2000s. Koch Industries has also been a top AFP donor, giving nearly $1 million in 2000 and 2001. It is not known how much Koch Industries or David Koch may have provided to AFP in more recent years, as the group has played an increasing role in elections and its budget has grown exponentially. David Koch, as well as top Koch Industries executives, are on the AFP Foundation's board of directors.David Koch is also one of the RGA's top donors. In 2010, David Koch wrote a $1 million check to the RGA, as the Center for Media and Democracy <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/02/9964/cmd-special-report-scott-walker-runs-koch-money" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">noted at the time</a>, and in 2012 he gave $2 million. (The RGA reported <a href="http://www.rga.org/homepage/rga-congratulates-governor-elect-scott-walker/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">spending $5 million</a> getting Walker elected in 2010, and <a href="http://www.rga.org/homepage/rga-congratulates-governor-scott-walker/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">another $9 million</a> during the 2012 recall.) In the first half of 2014 Koch has donated $3.75 million, and Koch Industries has chipped-in another $525,000.Cox acknowledged this financial backing when addressing the Koch summit in June."I want to thank David specifically for his very strong support of the RGA and AFP’s great partnership over the last four years," he said.

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<a href="http://motherjones.com/print/149261" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://motherjones.com/print/149261</a> Michigan DARK $ state CoC launders $

During the midterms, while many campaign finance observers were fixated on the proliferation of super-PACs and shadow-spending groups, the RGA spent [5] $132 million—more than the five biggest conservative super-PACs and 501(c) groups combined. It was instrumental in electing a slate of GOP governors—Wisconsin's Scott Walker, Ohio's John Kasich, Georgia's Nathan Deal, and Iowa's Terry Branstad, among others—who hastened to crack down on public-sector unions and roll back environmental regulations. These electoral successes were fueled in part by the creative campaign finance strategy that Robinson began to piece together.

all:

Michigan's 2010 elections had just concluded, and Rich Robinson, the state's leading campaign finance reform advocate, was conducting his usual postmortem. As he tallied the big money behind the conservative groundswell that <a target="_blank" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703506904575592361252289530.html">swept</a> [1] Republican Rick Snyder into the governor's mansion and placed the state Legislature solidly under GOP control, one particular political action committee caught his eye.

]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/republican-governors-association-perry-michigan

<a href="http://motherjones.com/motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/top-donors-2012-election-romney-obama-gingrich" target="_blank">The 20 Biggest Donors of the 2012 Election</a> [2]

[

Read more of our coverage of <a href="http://motherjones.com/motherjones.com/category/secondary-tags/dark-money">political dark money.</a> [3]

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Created in December 2009 and shut down shortly after the election, RGA Michigan 2010 had come out of nowhere to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mcfn.org/press.php?prId=130">spend</a> [4] nearly $8.4 million—54 percent more than any other PAC had poured into any election in Michigan history. Ninety-six percent of the group's donors lived outside the state, and its top three funders included Texas homebuilder Bob Perry, Koch Industries' David Koch, and New York City hedge fund CEO Paul Singer. On the other side of the ledger, RGA Michigan 2010 had given $5.2 million to the Michigan Republican Party—no surprise there—but, mysteriously, it had also funneled $3 million into the campaign coffers of Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Robinson, the executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, began to connect the dots. He remembered the phone calls from reporters in Maine and Florida asking if Robinson knew why money from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce had ended up with PACs in their states. The state's Chamber, which usually spent more than $1 million on TV ads during Michigan elections, officially didn't spend a dime on ads in 2010, according to Robinson. But it had given an <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mcfn.org/press.php?prId=130" style="">unprecedented</a> [4] $5.37 million to a national organization that, Robinson now realized, was at the root of the anomalous spending he'd uncovered: the Washington, DC-based Republican Governors Association.

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During the midterms, while many campaign finance observers were fixated on the proliferation of super-PACs and shadow-spending groups, the RGA <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtedetail.php?ein=113655877" target="_blank" style="">spent</a> [5] $132 million—more than the five biggest conservative super-PACs and 501(c) groups combined. It was instrumental in electing a slate of GOP governors—Wisconsin's Scott Walker, Ohio's John Kasich, Georgia's Nathan Deal, and Iowa's Terry Branstad, among others—who hastened to crack down on public-sector unions and roll back environmental regulations. These electoral successes were fueled in part by the creative campaign finance strategy that Robinson began to piece together.

Since 2008, he explains, the RGA has used a network of at least 15 state-level PACs to shuffle campaign cash around the country. Doing so serves a couple of purposes. First, it enables the RGA to scrub the identity of a donor to avoid image issues. For instance, Rick Perry taking $3 million from a Texas oil baron might be controversial, but if that baron gives $3 million to the national RGA, which then diverts the money to RGA Michigan PAC and then to Perry? Harmless.

The RGA's cash shuffle also allows it—and its corporate allies—to skirt campaign finance laws. For instance, in Michigan, corporations can't donate directly to candidates or political parties. But the state's Chamber of Commerce donated millions to the national RGA, which then directed some of the money to its PACs in Florida and Maine, where no such corporate-money bans exist. Why would a Michigan group want its money flowing to races in other states? Chamber CEO Rich Studley <a href="http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/14987/Default.aspx" target="_blank" style="">told</a> [6] Maine Public Radio that its members supported funding "pro-business" candidates outside Michigan.

Robinson has a different theory. During the 2010 election cycle, the Michigan Chamber donated more than $5 million to the RGA. In turn, the RGA's Michigan PAC directed $5.2 million—contributions that largely came from individuals outside the state—to the Michigan Republican Party. Robinson believes that, through this roundabout process, the Chamber's corporate money was swapped out with individual contributions, allowing it to be deployed in Michigan in a more potent form. (The Chamber acknowledges that the RGA called the shots on where its money was spent. Studley says his group's political spending "has been in full compliance with all Michigan and federal laws." The RGA did not respond to a request for comment on this practice.)

Robinson and other campaign finance watchdogs liken the RGA's methods to the corporate-contribution laundering scheme that got former GOP congressman Tom DeLay indicted. "The whole thing," Robinson says of the RGA's tactics, "was about wiping the fingerprints off the money."

An RGA spokesman, Mike Schrimpf, says the group and its network of PACs "aren't really unique," but he declined to respond to specific questions. "The RGA and the [Democratic Governors Association] both have to use state PACs in some states to comply with the state campaign finance laws," he says. The RGA, however, is by far the more powerful of the two, outspending the <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtedetail.php?ein=521304889" target="_blank">DGA</a> [7] in the last four election cycles by anywhere from $10 million (2004) to $67 million (2010).

The RGA wasn't always a political juggernaut. Founded in <a href="http://www.rga.org/homepage/about/" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1963</a> [8], the group for decades was content to convene meetings and publish the occasional white paper. That began to change in the early 1980s, when Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh became chairman and the RGA started to raise serious money. With the RGA's backing, the GOP netted seven governor's seats in the 1986 election.

In 1994, while Newt Gingrich and Co. took <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newt/newtchron.html" target="_blank">control</a> [9] of Congress and rang in the Republican Revolution, the RGA was instrumental in the election of 11 GOP governors and successfully defended every Republican incumbent. When the dust settled, Republicans controlled 30 governorships, their first majority since 1970. The last time Republicans had performed so well in gubernatorial races was 1867.

Beyond its electoral victories, the RGA established itself as a launching pad for Republicans with presidential aspirations. The group helped to foster alliances between GOP governors and gave them access to deep-pocketed donors and top fundraisers, helping to catapult politicians like Ronald Reagan (an RGA chairman), George W. Bush, Rick Perry (twice chairman), Mitt Romney (2006 chairman), and New Jersey Gov. <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/62807.html" target="_blank">Chris Christie</a> [10] (current vice chair) onto the national stage.

The RGA's rise has been fueled by a close alliance with corporate America—especially tobacco companies and Big Pharma. In the mid-'90s, the organization awarded seats on its board to executives from Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, which each donated $40,000 a year. In November 1995, tobacco lobbyists swarmed the RGA's annual meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, pressing governors to write letters opposing pending tobacco regulations from the Food and Drug Administration. In exchange for their support, the tobacco companies pledged financial backing when election time rolled around. They came through: In February 1996, Philip Morris held a Washington, DC, gala for the RGA that raised $2.6 million.

The increasing influence of corporate donors turned off some Republican governors, including Arne Carlson, Minnesota's governor from 1991 to 1999. Carlson recalls attending a few RGA meetings, but he stopped going due to the group's increasingly partisan tenor and insistence that donors be given access to the governors. "It was no longer Republican governors getting together," Carlson says. "It was the moneyed interests getting together with governors. I found it detestable."

In June 2002, the McCain-Feingold Act went into <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/23/us/soft-money-ban-goes-into-effect-but-the-effect-is-uncertain.html" target="blank">effect</a> [11], banning federal party committees from raising "soft money"—donations from labor unions and corporations outside the scope of federal campaign finance law. So to keep the corporate cash flowing, the RGA officially <a href="http://projects.publicintegrity.org/527/report.aspx?aid=8" target="blank">broke away</a> [12] from the Republican National Committee (of which it had been an affiliate) and established itself as a 527 tax-exempt group. That way it could continue raising soft money from banks, drug companies, and energy companies. (A few years earlier the DGA had parted ways with the Democratic National Committee for the same reasons.)

Today, RGA's donor <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtedetail.php?ein=113655877" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">list</a> [5] reads like a who's who of corporate titans: Koch Industries, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, AT&T, and Pfizer. The organization's largest donor in both the 2008 and 2010 elections was Perry Homes, the homebuilding empire run by Bob Perry, which plunked down $1.15 million in 2008 and $8 million in 2010.

But as the corporate money gushed in, the RGA ran afoul of the law. In 2008, a top official with the North Carolina state elections board testified that the RGA had illegally funneled contributions to its North Carolina PAC. (The elections board ultimately declined to pursue the matter.) Last October, a Vermont judge <a href="http://www.atg.state.vt.us/news/court-finds-violations-of-vermonts-campaign-finance-law1.php" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ruled</a> [13] that the RGA violated state elections law when it ran ads supporting the Republican gubernatorial candidate without registering as a state PAC. (The RGA argued the spots were merely issue ads.)

In 2012, the RGA promises to be a force to be reckoned with. Led by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/magazine/does-anyone-have-a-grip-on-the-gop.html?r=1&pagewanted=all" target="blank">chief</a> [14] fundraiser <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/09/sarah-palin-too-late-fred-malek-presidential-race-/1" target="_blank">Fred Malek</a> [15], the finance co-chairman of John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, the RGA had by last fall raised $22 million (twice as much as the DGA) for the 2012 election cycle. Don't be surprised if that money starts turning up in odd places again, says Mike McCabe, who tracks money in state politics at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign: "It's a deliberate strategy to keep the public in the dark about who is really buying our elections."

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<a href="http://influenceexplorer.com/organization/republican-governors-assn/bdfd0d138c4c474d842a6e4d85aa8b0a?cycle=2010">http://influenceexplorer.com/organization/republican-governors-assn/bdfd0d138c4c474d842a6e4d85aa8b0a?cycle=2010</a>

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The Republican Governors Association is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,D.C." title="Washington, D.C.">Washington, D.C.</a>-based <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/527_organization" title="527 organization">527 organization</a> founded in 1963<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Governors_Association#cite_note-RGA-0">[1]</a>, consisting of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.state" title="U.S. state">U.S. state</a> and territorial <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_Governors" title="List of current United States Governors" class="mw-redirect">governors</a> affiliated with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party%28United_States%29" title="Republican Party (United States)">Republican Party</a>. Its current Chairman is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Mississippi" title="Governor of Mississippi" class="mw-redirect">Governor</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haley_Barbour" title="Haley Barbour">Haley Barbour</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi" title="Mississippi">Mississippi</a>, who assumed the office after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_South_Carolina" title="Governor of South Carolina">Governor</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sanford" title="Mark Sanford">Mark Sanford</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina" title="South Carolina">South Carolina</a> resigned on June 24, 2009. Its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party%28United_States%29" title="Democratic Party (United States)">Democratic Party</a> counterpart is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Governors_Association" title="Democratic Governors Association">Democratic Governors Association</a>. The RGA is not directly affiliated with the non-partisan <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Governors_Association" title="National Governors Association">National Governors Association</a>.

<h2>Contents</h2>

[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Governors_Association#" class="internal" id="togglelink">hide</a>]</div>

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<h2 style="line-height: 22.44px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fundraising</h2>

In the 18 months ending June 30, 2010, the RGA raised $58 million, while its counterpart DGA raised $40 million. "Unlike the national political parties and federal candidates, the governors’ associations can take in unlimited amounts from corporations," according to Bloomberg Businessweek, which notes that the RGA recently received $1 million from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch" title="Rupert Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a>'s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NewsCorp" title="NewsCorp" class="mw-redirect">NewsCorp</a>, the parent corporation of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News" title="Fox News" class="mw-redirect">Fox News</a>, and $500,000 from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WellPoint" title="WellPoint">WellPoint</a>, a major US health insurance firm. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Governors_Association#cite_note-1">[2]</a>

<h2 style="line-height: 22.44px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Republican_Governors_Association&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: References">edit</a>] References</h2>

<li id="cite_note-RGA-0"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Governors_Association#cite_ref-RGA_0-0">^</a> <a href="http://www.rga.org/default.asp?pt=doc&doc=about" class="external text" rel="nofollow">"About the RGA"</a>. <a href="http://www.rga.org/default.asp?pt=doc&doc=about" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.rga.org/default.asp?pt=doc&doc=about</a>.<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.btitle=About+the+RGA&rft.atitle=&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rga.org%2Fdefault.asp%3Fpt%3Ddoc%26doc%3Dabout&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Republican_Governors_Association"> </li>

<li id="cite_note-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Governors_Association#cite_ref-1">^</a> Jonathan D. Salant (August 16, 2010). <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-16/republicans-see-gains-in-governors-races-as-funding-hits-peak.html" class="external text" rel="nofollow">"Republicans See Gains in Governors’ Races as Funding Hits Peak"</a>. Business Week. <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-16/republicans-see-gains-in-governors-races-as-funding-hits-peak.html" class="external free" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-16/republicans-see-gains-in-governors-races-as-funding-hits-peak.html</a>. Retrieved August 17, 2010.<span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.btitle=Republicans+See+Gains+in+Governors%E2%80%99+Races+as+Funding+Hits+Peak&rft.atitle=Business+Week&rft.aulast=Jonathan+D.+Salant&rft.au=Jonathan+D.+Salant&rft.date=August+16%2C+2010&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessweek.com%2Fnews%2F2010-08-16%2Frepublicans-see-gains-in-governors-races-as-funding-hits-peak.html&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Republican_Governors_Association"> </li>

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<h2 style="line-height: 22.44px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Republican_Governors_Association&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: External links">edit</a>] External links</h2>

<li><a href="http://www.rga.org/" class="external text" rel="nofollow">RGA Official Website</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtedetail_contribs.php?ein=113655877" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Contributors</a> and <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/527s/527cmtedetail_expends.php?ein=113655877" class="external text" rel="nofollow">Expenditures</a> at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Responsive_Politics" title="Center for Responsive Politics">OpenSecrets.org</a></li>

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The Republican Governors Association (RGA), established October 4, 2002, is a <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=527_committee" title="527 committee" class="mw-redirect">527 committee</a> that "supports the election of Republican Governors and other nonfederal candidates, promotes Republican policies, and engages in other state election activities." <a href="http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/republican_governors_association.asp?rpg=9" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/republican_governors_association.asp?rpg=9" rel="nofollow">[1]</a>

<h2 style="line-height: 22.44px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Contributions</h2>

In August, 2010 <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rupert_Murdoch" title="Rupert Murdoch" class="mw-redirect">Rupert Murdoch</a>'s <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=News_Corporation" title="News Corporation">News Corporation</a>, parent company of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Fox_News_Channel" title="Fox News Channel" class="mw-redirect">Fox News Channel</a>, donated $1 million to the Republican Governors Association.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Republican_Governors_Association#cite_note-0" title="">[1]</a>

Contributions to the RGA are posted online by <a href="http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/republican_governors_association.asp?rpg=9" class="external text" title="http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/527/republican_governors_association.asp?rpg=9" rel="nofollow">CampaignMoney.com</a>.

<h2 style="line-height: 22.44px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Contact Information</h2>

Contact Person: <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Charles_R._Spies&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Charles R. Spies (page does not exist)">Charles R. Spies</a>

555 11th Street NW

Suite 700

Washington, DC 20004

Website: <a href="http://www.rga.org" class="external free" title="http://www.rga.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.rga.org</a>

<h2 style="line-height: 22.44px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">References</h2>

<li id="cite_note-0"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Republican_Governors_Association#cite_ref-0" title="">↑</a> Rachel Weiner <a href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/08/fox-parent-news-corp-donates-1.html" class="external text" title="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/08/fox-parent-news-corp-donates-1.html" rel="nofollow">Fox parent News Corp. donates $1 million to Republican Governors' Association</a>, Washington Post, August 17, 2010</li>

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Republ Governors' Assoc RGA

Attachments