The Center for Public Integrity

A viral video tying the Chevy Volt’s erroneously reported flammability to the Obama administration’s bailout of the auto industry was produced and paid for by a conservative radio host and filmmaker.

The parody video was viewed more than 367,000 times on YouTube as of Monday afternoon. It shows a man driving the plug-in hybrid car and delivering a mock testimonial: “Yeah I’ve heard they’re catching fire in some cases, but I’ve found that the fire really helps me get to my destination faster for fear of my life,” he says.

The actor’s image was lifted from a real Chevy Volt commercial, with new dialogue dubbed in.

The Volt garnered some bad publicity after the cars were involved in a series of fires after test crashes. But the National Highway Safety Traffic Safety Administration said “it does not believe that Volts or similar vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered autos.”

The video ties President Barack Obama’s decision to bail out the U.S. auto industry to the vehicle’s bad publicity. It credits ObamaVolt2012.com as its sponsor. That site in turn links to bailoutcost.com, a website that tracks the cost of the General Motors bailout.

Identities of the creators and funders of the ad are obscured. Both websites are registered to proxies.

Tweets recently surfaced crediting Ben Howe, a conservative radio host and contributor to conservative political websites, for making the video. The video was first posted to YouTube three weeks ago. Last week, Howe posted the ad to Vimeo from his personal account.

In contrast with many other campaign finance reformers, Harvard Professor Lawrence Lessig believes fixing the U.S. election system will require more than just overturning the Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission Supreme Court ruling, which removed many restrictions on independent political spending.

Reversing this flood of political cash would be enough to satisfy most reformers, but not Lessig, who spoke last week at the Center for Public Integrity offices in D.C. Overturning the ruling “terrifies” him, he said, because “it imagines somehow that on January 20, 2010 – the day before Citizens United was decided – our democracy was fine and Citizens United broke it. But of course, the democracy was already broken.”

Lessig, director of the Edmond J. Safra Center on Ethics at Harvard, is concerned that if the decision is quickly repealed, it will take the wind out of an effort he’s leading to achieve a more comprehensive overhaul of the election system. Then activists “will have gotten nothing out of this moment when there’s an extraordinary anger and frustration that could be channeled in the direction of real reform,” he said.

The drug lobby's trade association was a multimillion-dollar donor to nonprofit groups that were actively working to elect federal candidates during the 2010 election, an iWatch News analysis of documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service reveals.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, better known as PhRMA, doled out $9.4 million to 501(c)(4) “social welfare” nonprofit groups, some of which paid for ads that influenced races in the 2010 midterm election, records show.

In 2010, PhRMA gave about $20 million in “grants and other assistance” to more than 200 nonprofit organizations, including five politically active 501(c)(4) nonprofits, both liberal and conservative, which together received nearly half of the funds.

They say it takes money to make money. And supporters of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s presidential bid have shelled out more than $20,000 to hold fundraising events for their super PAC at some pretty luxurious spots, according to an iWatch News analysis of campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The pro-Romney super PAC called “Restore Our Future” has raised more than $36.8 million since its launch last year. That’s more than any other super PAC has collected so far this election cycle.

To aid this money chase, Restore Our Future has held fundraising events held at several elite locales, including New York’s Waldorf Astoria and the Beverly Hills Hotel in the acclaimed California ZIP code of 90210.

Restore Our Future was founded by — and is run by — several of Romney’s former aides, including Carl Forti, Romney’s 2008 political director; Larry McCarthy, a member of Romney’s 2008 media team; Steve Roche, Romney’s former finance director; and Charles Spies, Romney’s former chief financial officer and counsel, as iWatch News has detailed.

As a super PAC, Restore Our Future is allowed to accept unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, trade associations, unions and other groups, so long as it doesn’t illegally coordinate with Romney’s campaign.

A super PAC supporting Mitt Romney has paid one of the Republican candidate’s veteran fundraisers a fee of $1.9 million for his work during a period when the super PAC raised about $24 million, according to new FEC filings.

The fee went to Podium Capital Group — a company that the super PAC’s treasurer said is Steve Roche’s. Roche is the top fundraiser for the principal outside group — "Restore Our Future" — that’s backing Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

Charlie Spies, the treasurer of the super PAC, confirmed in a telephone interview with iWatch News that Podium Capital is “Roche’s company.”

The hefty fees paid to Podium Capital suggest that court rulings in early 2010 that opened the floodgates for corporations, individuals and unions to give unlimited sums to outside groups backing candidates have been a bonanza for presidential contenders and some elite operatives with super PACs. 

Roche is a long-time major fundraiser for Romney, going back to Romney’s days as Massachusetts Governor. He worked directly for Romney’s campaign until last summer, and then shifted to the PAC's chief fundraising job. At that time, Restore Our Future had pulled in just over $12 million, the figure it reported to the FEC for the first six months of 2011.  

Although the super PAC is prohibited under federal election law from coordinating its work with the campaign, the transfer of such a senior operative from one group to another is not prohibited.

On FEC records Podium Capital only lists a P.O. Box in Beverly, Mass. Podium received $1.9 million for its work from mid-2011 through the end of January, according to the FEC filing.

Asked whether he deemed the fees paid to Roche’s company reasonable, Spies said “we don’t comment on payments to specific vendors.”

Calls to a phone number for Roche in Massachusetts were not answered.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has called the Supreme Court decision that created super PACs “wrong” and in need of fixing, but that didn't stop him from sending money to one of these new groups.

On Jan. 25, just days after the two-year anniversary of the controversial Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, Patrick donated $500 to the Democratic Governors Association's super PAC, “DGA Action,” records show.

The Citizens United ruling held that corporations and unions can spend their treasury funds on political advertisements expressly advocating for or against federal candidates. Super PACs can accept unlimited contributions and spend the money on ads - so long as they act independently of candidates and their campaigns.

Last year, several Massachusetts lawmakers introduced a resolution that says the Citizens United ruling “presents a serious and direct threat to our democracy” and calls on Congress to “pass and send to the states for ratification a constitutional amendment to restore the First Amendment and fair elections to the people.”

When Patrick was recently asked by the media whether he would support the resolution, he replied, “Well, if you’re asking me do I think the Citizens United decision was wrong and needs to be fixed, the answer to that is, yes.”

Alex Goldstein, executive director of Patrick’s state political committee and federal political action committee, told iWatch News that Patrick continues to be concerned about the influence of money in politics, especially “the role of unidentified corporate money.”