Democracy 21 and Campaign Legal Center Pleased that Secret $1 Million Donor Identifies Himself Following Request by Groups for Justice Department and FEC Investigations
Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer
Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center are pleased that the secret $1 million donor who funded the corporate contribution by W Spann LLC to the pro-Romney Super PAC, Restore Our Future, has identified himself following the request by the two organizations for investigations by the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission.
According to POLITICO, the secret donor behind the $1 million is Ed Conard, “a former Bain Capital official with long ties to the candidate who’s asking the outside group to amend its filings.”
On Friday, Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the FEC and asked for a Justice Department investigation regarding whether a $1 million contribution made by Spann LLC to Restore Our Future violated the campaign finance laws in failing to disclose the actual donor of the $1 million contribution. Following the requests for an investigation, Mr. Conard revealed himself as the actual donor.
This case of the secret $1 million donor shows the extraordinary lengths that people are prepared to go to in order to hide their campaign contributions from the American people.
More importantly this case illustrates the secret campaign money culture we now live in as the result of gaping loopholes in our federal campaign finance disclosure laws. These loopholes were caused by the Citizens United decision and improper FEC regulations that have eviscerated existing contribution disclosure provisions.
The Democracy 21 pro bono legal team is currently representing Representative Chris Van Hollen in a lawsuit brought by Van Hollen against the FEC to challenge as contrary to the law the FEC disclosure regulations and to require the FEC to issue new proper regulations.
The $1 million donor case also shows how essential it is to win the battle to restore effective and comprehensive federal campaign finance disclosure requirements.
Democracy 21 made a major effort on behalf of the DISCLOSE Act last year, which passed the House and came within one vote of the 60 votes needed in the Senate to break a filibuster and enact the legislation. Passing new campaign finance disclosure legislation is a top priority for Democracy 21 and we are continuing to press hard for the legislation.
Polling shows that more than 90 percent of the American people believe that groups making independent expenditures should be required by law to disclose their campaign expenditures and the donors funding the expenditures.
The American people have a basic right to know this important campaign finance information.
Democracy 21 is also committed to continuing to take actions to help ensure that the campaign finance laws are complied with in the 2012 elections and to press government agencies to properly enforce the law.
Last fall, Democracy 21, joined by the Campaign Legal Center, requested the IRS to investigate whether Crossroads GPS, a 501(c)(4) organization, the brainchild of Karl Rove, was entitled to tax-exempt status.
The request for the IRS investigation was based on the view that the overriding purpose of Crossroads GPS was to influence elections, not to engage in “social welfare” activities, and that such a group is not entitled to obtain or maintain 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status.
We plan to file further requests for IRS investigations this year of both pro-Democratic and pro-Republican 501(c)(4) groups that we believe have an overriding purpose to spend money to influence elections and are not entitled to tax-exempt status.
We are facing presidential and congressional elections in 2012 in which an estimated $ 5 billion or more will be spent on the elections. With large amounts of unlimited and secret contributions now being injected into our national elections, the most dangerous money in American politics, we face corruption and scandal ahead. We will also face as a result new opportunities to reform the nation’s campaign finance laws.
