The Center for Public Integrity

Democratic U.S. House candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois has said he “detest[s]” super PACs, but his friends and family don’t appear to share that opinion. They have provided all of the money to a super PAC called “Suburban Voters for Choice,” which has spent $17,600 on a TV ad trying to give his campaign a last-minute boost.

Kalikathan Krishnamoorthi, the candidate’s father, a professor at Bradley University, donated $9,000 to Suburban Voters for Choice earlier this month, according to an iWatch News review of paperwork filed voluntarily by the group to the Federal Election Commission this week.

The candidate’s brother, Venkatesan “Ram” Krishnamoorthi, a doctor, donated an additional $2,400, and Glen Tullman, who is identified as both a “friend of Raja” and the president of healthcare information technology Allscripts, donated $10,000.

The three men are the only donors to the nascent super PAC, which was formed just three weeks ago by Michael Vainisi, who served as the finance director of Krishnamoorthi’s 2010 campaign for state comptroller. The group’s assistant treasurer, J.B. Mantz, also previously served as a senior advisor to Krishnamoorthi during that unsuccessful race.

The group expressed a desire to disclose the names of its donors before Tuesday’s primary election in the spirit of “transparency,” according to its filing with the FEC. Because of the group’s late formation, it was not legally required to disclose any of its donors prior to the election.

“We are going beyond what election law requires to disclose our donors now ahead of time, instead of waiting until after the election,” Mantz told iWatch News. “We think that that’s the more honest and ethical approach.”

As unlimited contributions flow into super PACs this year, one man is at the center of a new effort to allow people to donate more money, to more candidates, at the national stage.

“I don’t believe government is there to limit us,” Shaun McCutcheon told iWatch News.

McCutcheon is a 44-year-old general contractor in Alabama. He’s the owner, founder and president of Coalmont Electrical Development. He’s a member of the Republican Party who admits he may have a bit of a libertarian streak. And he’s also the treasurer of a super PAC called the “Conservative Action Fund.”

That's a group that spent more than $43,000 opposing House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) in Tuesday’s GOP primary in Alabama, although it has mostly targeted Democrats with its attacks.

In one advertisement it produced last fall, the super PAC accused President Barack Obama of implementing "draconian laws and regulations." And it aired another ad that featured a "surfing rabbi" and computer-animated versions of Obama, along with New York Democrats Anthony Weiner and David Weprin, dancing in hot dog costumes — all while encouraging voters to support Republican Bob Turner in the special election to replace Weiner after his sexting scandal.

Now McCutcheon is requesting that the FEC repeal the existing biennial limit on how much money individuals can donate to federal candidates.

McCutcheon wants to donate at least $51,900 to multiple federal candidates ahead of the elections this November, spread across more than two dozen conservative politicians, according to documents released by the FEC on Wednesday.

In a close race, Rick Santorum was declared winner in both Alabama and Mississippi primaries last night. He picked up at least 35 delegates, AP reports.

Despite the turnout, Pro-Romney super PAC “Restore Our Future” dominated spending among the main groups aiding the former Massachusetts’ governor’s primary rivals: Santorum’s “Red, White and Blue Fund” and Newt Gingrich’s “Winning Our Future.” As the chart shows, Restore Our Future accounts for 69 percent of independent expenditures by these super PACs in Alabama and 64 percent in Mississippi. 

This post originally appeared on the Consider the Source Tumblr page, a collaboration between iWatch News and the Center for Reponsive Politics.

Scandal-plagued Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus is fighting for his political life in Tuesday’s primary, but not everyone has given up on him — the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee can still count on his friends in the credit union industry.

CUNA, the Credit Union National Association, spent nearly $28,000 on last-minute radio ads supporting the Republican congressman, one of the most influential lawmakers in Washington when it comes to regulating the financial services sector.

Bachus hit the headlines last month when he was featured on “60 Minutes” and in a book for allegedly using inside information to make trades on stock options, prompting an investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics.

Making matters worse, Bachus has been on the receiving end of more than $200,000 in attack ads from an upstart super PAC called the “Campaign for Primary Accountability,” a Texas-based group that has been critical of incumbents in several districts across the country.

CUNA spokesman Patrick Keefe told iWatch News that over the years, Bachus has shown that he understands and supports credit unions.

“This particular contest is getting closer, and, as we support Rep. Bachus, we thought our involvement could be helpful to his chances,” Keefe said.

Super PACs are the perceived demons of the 2012 campaign, with the law allowing them to raise and spend unlimited amounts of dough. But a shadowy sideshow that's gone largely unnoticed is the set of nonprofits affiliated with them, which often provide money to the cash cows — and they don't have to publicly disclose their donors (as super PACs must).

"The undisclosed money is far more troubling for the system," says campaign finance lawyer Kenneth Gross.

FreedomWorks for America is a case in point. The group, which has attacked GOP pols it finds insufficiently conservative, is located three blocks north of the Capitol. At the same address, sharing the same suite and even some staff, is the headquarters of the similarly named FreedomWorks Inc., a nonprofit (or 501[c][4] group).

In 2011 the super PAC received almost half of its $2.7 million from the nonprofit, a legal transfer that skirts disclosure requirements. Whose cash is it? We aren't allowed to know. Matt Kibbe, who oversees the activities of both groups, says that "to adhere to what the law stipulates" there is a "firewall" between the two.

But even by the loose standards of money in politics these days, the arrangement seems rather cozy.

Other groups are doing it, too. The pro-President Obama super PAC, Priorities USA Action, has received $215,234 from its sister non-profit, Priorities USA. Karl Rove's American Crossroads super PAC and its nonprofit sibling, Crossroads GPS, are also expected to be big ad buyers in the general election.

Is it all too cozy? Last month, the Internal Revenue Service launched an investigation into the election advocacy of (c)(4) groups that, as nonpolitical entities, enjoy a comfortable tax status.  

For the big-spending U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the 2012 election season began early with a flurry of hard-hitting ads in six states that included attacks on two vulnerable Democratic senators — a harbinger of the $50 million-plus drive it plans to mount this election year.

To help Republicans gain control of both houses of Congress, the Chamber dropped about $2 million on “issue advocacy” ads late last year — in Iowa, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington.

In February, the pro-business behemoth poured another $10 million into ads aimed mostly at weakening Democrats and bolstering GOP members in eight Senate and 12 House contests. Just one ad was supportive of a Democrat’s positions.

This hefty and early ad spending underscores the huge political stakes in the coming congressional elections for many of the Chamber’s most generous corporate supporters — including energy, insurance, health care and Wall Street firms.

Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, for one, has been targeted by the Chamber with almost $2.5 million worth of slick spots saying he “voted to block American energy production and increase energy taxes.”

Some of the ads have been criticized by independent fact-checking groups and one drew barbs because it showed a sinister-looking Brown sporting a beard in what appears to be a doctored photo.

The Chamber’s key issues — attacking “government-run” health care, federal curbs on domestic energy production and “job-killing regulations” — have been standard lobbying themes during the Obama years.

“We hope and plan to have the most aggressive issue advocacy campaign,” ever run by the Chamber, Bruce Josten the group’s top lobbyist told iWatch News.

Springtime ad spree

The Chamber’s issue ads don’t urge votes for specific candidates, but do discuss where candidates stand on several of the Chamber’s leading “free enterprise” issues.