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Democratic strategists and organizers are hoping that if Vice President Kamala Harris defeats GOP rival Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, there will a down-ballot effect with U.S. House and U.S. Senate races as well as gubernatorial races.

For Democrats, having control of both Houses of Congress would make it easier for Harris to carry out her legislative agenda if she wins. Democrats believe they have a good shot at flipping the U.S. House, although Republicans could recapture the U.S. Senate with a net gain of two seats.

According to Associated Press (AP) reporters Ryan J. Foley and Brian Slodysko, one "shadowy group: that could help Democrats win back the House is the Patriots Run Project."

READ MORE:**Trump has 'reached his final destination' and 'he knows he's going down': George Conway**

Far-right Trump devotees who want to punish Republicans for not being MAGA enough typically target them via GOP primaries. But

the Patriots Run Project, Foley and Slodysko report, has "recruited Trump supporters to run as independent candidates in key swing districts where they could siphon votes from Republicans in races that will help determine which party controls the House next year."

"In addition to two races in Iowa," Foley and Slodysko explain, "the group recruited candidates in Nebraska, Montana, Virginia and Minnesota. All six recruits described themselves as retired, disabled — or both."

The AP reporters continue, "The group's operation provides few clues about its management, financing or motivation. But interviews, text messages, e-mails, business filings and other documents reviewed by the AP show that a significant sum has been spent — and some of it traces back to Democratic consulting firms."

Some Democratic operatives, according to Foley and Slodysko, may view Patriots Run Project-backed independent candidates as potential spoilers who could help them flip the U.S. House of Representatives in November.

READ MORE:**Trump's hate is no joke**

"While dirty tricks are as old as American elections," the AP journalists note, "the efforts this year could have profound consequences in the fight to control Congress, which is expected to be decided by a handful of races. It's also not an isolated example: Allies of Trump have been working across the U.S. to get liberal academic Cornel West on the ballot in hopes he could play spoiler in the presidential election."

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) law professor Rick L. Hasen, known for his expertise on U.S. election law, told AP that the Patriots Run Project "looks shady and unethical."

Hasen added, however, "It is hard to say whether any laws have been broken, which would depend not only on the facts, but also, the statutes and precedents under state law."

READ MORE:**'Smallest man who ever lived': Trump slammed over 'dangerous' Taylor Swift post**

Read the Associated Press' full report at this link.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/facebook-pro-trump-groups/

salon no twt

Reporting on Friday revealed that Facebook knowingly allowed a digital marketing firm tied to a pro-Trump group to release a series of ads purporting to be from a fake left-wing organization ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, while election officials failed to investigate the group at the time.

As The Guardian reported, a right-wing marketing firm called Rally Forge ran a $5,000 ad campaign beginning just days before the2018 election, showing ads promoting Green Party candidates in an effort to split the Democratic vote and help Republicans in several close races. The ads were purported to be placed by a group called America Progress Now and expressed support for democratic socialism.

Facebook launched an investigation into the ads just after the election and quickly determined that America Progress Now's official page on the platform was run by the same three men—Jake Hoffman, Connor Clegg, and Colton Duncan—who were administrators for Turning Point USA, the pro-Trump college organization.

To the alarm of a number of Facebook employees, The Guardian reported, the company did not find Rally Forge or Turning Point USA to be in violation of any of its policies.

One product manager at the time said a case could be made for Rally Forge and Turning Point USA having engaged in voter suppression through the ads, and asked, "Can we strengthen our ads transparency policies so that political ads are indeed transparent to the user?"

After the election, Facebook deactivated several other right-wing accounts run by the administrators, but the move did not stop Rally Forge from establishing a "troll farm" out of Phoenix, Arizona in 2020. Working for Turning Point Action, a group linked to Turning Point USA, the firm hired teenagers to post pro-Trump messages on social media, some of which cast doubt on the integrity of the election system.

Sophie Zhang, aformer Facebook employee who participated in the investigation of the fake Green Party ads, wrote on Twitter Friday, "One wonders if [Rally Forge] would have escalated to troll farms, had FB deterred them in 2018." twt]

"This is egregious," tweeted the women's rights group UltraViolet on Friday.

Beyond Facebook's decision to allow the firm to remain on Facebook after determining the ads were fraudulent, the ads "appeared to violate federal laws that require independent expenditures to be filed with the [Federal Election Commission] and include proper disclosures on advertisements," The Guardian reported.

"This is an example of why disclosure is so important in elections: swing state voters who saw 'America Progress Now' ads promoting Green party candidates would've had no idea that they were the handiwork of Republican political operatives," Brendan Fischer, director of federal reform at CLC, told The Guardian.

The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the FEC in 2019 over America Progress Now and the administrators' failure to disclose the true source of the Facebook ads, only to have the case dismissed before the FEC could conduct an investigation.

The election commissioners declined to look further into the complaint after a man named Evan Muhlstein contacted them to take full responsibility to the ads, claiming he alone had failed to file the ad expenditures with the FEC and saying his "inexperience" was to blame.

"The FEC's job is to enforce the transparency laws and protect voters' right to know who is trying to influence them, but the agency here failed to conduct even a minimal investigation," Fischer said.

According to former FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel, who served on the commission from 2013 to 2017, Muhlstein's admission to the FEC appeared to amount to "clear fraud," as he never disclosed to the officials that the ads had been the work of Rally Forge.

At the time, though, Muhlstein's claim was enough to convince at least one FEC commissioner, James "Trey" Trainor, that the CLC had engaged in "wild speculation" by filing a complaint.

"This case wasn't about a 'fake political group … exploit[ing] Facebook rules … and hid[ing] spending from the FEC,'" Trainor wrote. "In fact, APN was established by an unsophisticated individual trying to show his support for several third-party candidates, but he got tripped by the myriad regulations governing online political speech."

Zhang denounced the FEC for failing to contact Facebook regarding Muhlstein's claim to verify that he'd administered the America Progress Now page—a cursory investigation which would have immediately revealed the true owners of the page.

"It's quite possible that FB would have blown the FEC off," Zhang said. "But many employees were upset over this case, and may have come forward if asked. I would likely have if I'd known."

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/florida-dark-money/

Friday, January 21, Nikki Fried, the commissioner of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, released a statement about the investigation which will determine if the organization, known as Let’s Preserve the American Dream, violated Florida law regarding funding solicitation.

“As always, our department will enforce the law to the fullest extent to protect consumers,” Fried said in a prepared statement. “Our Consumer Services team is currently investigating whether this entity was previously operating in violation of Chapter 496, Florida Statutes, and we are unable to comment further at this time.”

The investigation reportedly centers on LPAD's association with some of the biggest businesses in the state of Florida and how its donations may have been used to fund ghost campaigns to tilt elections in Republicans' favor.

Per the Orlando Sentinel:

"The records show that the nonprofit, 'Let’s Preserve the American Dream,' wired $600,000 on Sept. 29, 2020, to another nonprofit, 'Grow United Inc.' Grow United then used that money to send $550,000 to a pair of political committees that paid for mailers touting independent candidates in three important Senate races, in what authorities say was a ploy to confuse voters and tilt the races to Republicans."

Transcripts of an interview show that Ryan Tyson, a Tallahassee-based Republican strategist and the executive director of LPAD, confirmed he ordered the $600,000 payment to Grow United.

Tyson also indicated that he told the political consultant overseeing Grow United "to expect a request for a donation from Alex Alvarado, another operative who worked for Tyson as a subcontractor to Let’s Preserve the American Dream — and who records show set up the two political committees that paid for the ghost candidate advertising."

However, he insists he had no control over Grow United's transferring the funds to Alvarado’s political committees.

“Did you know when this $600,000 was sent to Grow United... that $550,000 of it was going to go to Alex Alvarado’s two political committees?” Miami-Dade County Assistant State Attorney Tim VanderGiesen asked Tyson.

He responded saying, "I had a hunch they’d help him."

Tyson later added, “I assume they’d probably be supportive if Alex called. but I had no way to know if they actually would. Because once I make a contribution to an entity, I lose control of how they spend that money.”

Investigators are seeking to determine whether or not LPAD violated election and campaign finance laws.

Records: Tallahassee strategist helped boost ghost candidates with dark money ad buy

Samantha J. Gross, Miami Herald - Tuesday

A longtime political strategist paid for more than half a million dollars in misleading mailers promoting no-party candidates inthree key state Senate races in 2020, according to court records released by the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s office Tuesday as part of a public corruption probe.

The records show that Ryan Tyson’s “Let’s Preserve the American Dream” wired $600,000 to “Grow United Inc” on Sept. 29, 2020. Days later on Oct. 2,Grow United sent $550,000 to two political committees that paid for the misleading mailers — The Truth and Our Florida — which were set up by Tallahassee consultant Alex Alvarado.

Investigators say the ads were meant to confuse voters to benefit the Republican candidates in the races, including two in Miami-Dade and one in Central Florida. The mailers featured messaging on issues that historically appeal to Democrats and promoted no-party candidates who had not actively campaigned. The ads urge voters to “cut the strings” from party-backed candidates.

The candidates in the three races — Senate Districts 37 and 39 in Miami and Senate District 9 in Seminole County — did not campaign themselves and were only advertised to voters via the mailers. All three races were won by Republicans.

Ryan Smith, a GOP consultant who owns Tallahassee firm ‘96 Consulting, Alvarado, the stepson of the printer who brokered the mail-piece project, and Tyson, all received a cut of the $550,000 payment.

Up until 2019, Tyson served as vice president of pro-business lobbying group Associated Industries of Florida, which has denied being involved in the committees.

Prosecutors have zeroed in on Tyson and Alvarado as well as Dan Newman, a prominent Democratic fundraiser, and Richard Alexander, the chairman of the dark money group Grow United. On Dec. 23, 2021, each was sent what is known by prosecutors as a “prior to” letter, which generally precedes criminal charges in a case. As of Tuesday, no charges have been filed.

It is not illegal to mislead voters or pay for misleading mail advertisements.

Records released as part of pretrial discovery in the case of former Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles, who is facing several charges related to the no-party candidate who ran in District 37, were received by the Miami Herald on Tuesday.

Court records show that Tyson, the executive director of Let’s Preserve the American Dream, told investigators that in his role as director, it was his idea to send the money to Grow United for the purpose of helping “left of center” candidates. He said he was originally approached byJeff Pitts, a consultant who controlled Grow United and now runs a Tallahassee-based firm called Canopy Partners LLC.

Miami-Dade County Assistant State Attorney Tim VanderGiesen asked Tyson during a Sept. 30 interview: “Did you know when this $600,000 was sent to Grow United, that $550,000 of it was going to go to Alex Alvarado’s two political committees?”

“I had a hunch they’d help them,” Tyson responded.

During the interview, Tyson also told VanderGiesen that Let’s Preserve the American Dream had reimbursed Alvarado for legal fees since the public corruption investigation began.

““I don’t think a single donor that has ever contributed to Let’s Preserve the American Dream would ever believe that Alex Alvarado was committing a crime,” Tyson said.

An ongoing criminal investigation

The candidate in Senate District 37, who shares a surname with the Democrat incumbent and received more than 6,000 votes in an election decided by 32, was arrested on four felony campaign finance charges last year. Auto-parts dealer Alexis Pedro Rodriguez later took a plea deal in exchange for helping prosecutors build a case against his acquaintance, Artiles. Investigators say Artiles paid Rodriguez $40,000 to run as a no-party candidate to sway the outcome of the election.

Both men were charged with conspiracy to make or accept campaign contributions in excess of legal limits, accepting and making those excess campaign contributions, false swearing in connection to an election and aiding in (and eventually, submitting) false voter information. Under state law, each of those charges carry sentences of up to five years in prison if convicted.

Let’s Preserve the American Dream paid Artiles’ Atlas Consultants more than $125,000 for “South Florida research services” dating back to 2017. The last payment to Artiles’ firm was Nov. 15, 2020, three days after the Democrat incumbent in Senate District 37 lost in a manual recount.

Tyson seeks to block records

Tyson’s lawyers have asked a Miami circuit court judge to block the release of bank records that would disclose its donors, arguing that the release of such information would violate donors’ constitutional rights and could “chill speech across the political spectrum.”

Records released Tuesday also show that Tyson’s lawyers emailed Hancock Whitney bank, asking that it review responsive documents before they are produced to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.

His lawyers have argued that releasing bank records that would show donations and contributions from Let’s Preserve the American Dream, from February 2020 to August 2021, are “irrelevant” to Artiles’ case.

No charges have been brought against Tyson or his dark money organization, and neither have been accused of wrongdoing, his lawyers said. They also said that Tyson voluntarily appeared for an interview with prosecutors to “demonstrate that LPAD complies with all state, federal and local laws.”

Unlike political committees, which are legally required to disclose their donors, dark money groups are not required by law to do so, which makes them useful for funders who don’t want their identities revealed when backing certain campaigns or causes.