The Center for Public Integrity

Local jurisdictions should take the lead in regulating politically active nonprofit organizations, according to a new report slated for publication today by New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and the Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending.

"State and municipal governments should not wait for the IRS to enact reforms," asserts the report, an advance copy of which the Center for Public Integrity obtained.

"Regulations are needed immediately to close loopholes in the law which allow 501(c)(4) organizations to spend on elections without disclosing their donors and spending in the same manner as independent expenditure groups and political action committees," it continues.

The 29-page document assesses the increased political activity of so-called "social welfare" nonprofits in New York's congressional elections since the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which in part granted nonprofit corporations the ability to expressly advocate for the election or defeat of federal elections.

According to the report, 32 nonprofits registered with the Internal Revenue Service under Sec. 501(c)(4) of the U.S. tax code were active throughout the Empire State in 2012. Collectively, they participated in New York's U.S. Senate race and 20 U.S. House races.

Four years earlier, only six such nonprofits together reported political spending in three House races.

Not only did the number of politically active nonprofits climb, but their expenditures also increased, with the groups spending nearly $7.2 million in 2012, up from less than $430,000 in 2008.

The U.S. political system is increasingly gamed against Americans of modest means — a situation exacerbated in recent years by major changes in the nation's campaign laws.

That's the overriding takeaway from a new report slated for release today by Demos, a left-leaning nonprofit public policy group "working for an America where we all have an equal say in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy."

The 39-page report, entitled "Stacked Deck," paints a picture of corporate powerhouses and wealthy businesspeople dominating political discourse and exacting disproportionate influence over policy incomes.

The Center for Public Integrity obtained a copy of the report prior to its publication.

Blacks and Latinos — statistically, the poorest Americans when compared to other races and ethnic classes — are particularly marginalized when it comes to political clout, the report states.

Low-wage workers, for example, make up about one-fifth of the nation's population but have very few paid lobbyists in Washington, D.C. While labor unions spend tens of millions of dollars each year lobbying the federal government, unions "are mainly concerned with advocating
on behalf of their members who are paid well above the minimum wage," the report states.

"As private interests have come to wield more influence over public policy, with ever larger sums of money shaping elections and the policymaking process, our political system has become less responsive to those looking for a fair shot to improve their lives and move upward," the study asserts. "Recent developments have aggravated this long emerging trend."

During a heated exchange Tuesday night, Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., accused Fox News host Sean Hannity of being "a shill for the Republican Party."

Hannity's response: denying the charge and betting Ellison $10,000 that he is not a registered Republican.

Incidentally, that's about the same amount of money that Hannity donated to Republicans in 2010.

Records filed with the Federal Election Commission indicate that Hannity donated the legal maximum of $4,800 to John Gomez in May of 2010.

Gomez, a childhood friend of Hannity's, appeared on the ballot that year as both a Republican and a member of New York's Conservative Party, the party with which Hannity said he's registered. Gomez was ultimately unsuccessful in his attempt to unseat Democratic Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who now serves as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

New York is one of the few states that engages in "fusion voting." Under this system, one candidate can appear multiple times on the ballot on different party lines, and all votes the candidate receives are then combined.

Documents show that in August 2010, Hannity further contributed $5,000 to the leadership PAC of Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., as did his wife, Jill Hannity.

When it comes to political donations, Fox News' parent company is lately catering to liberals as much as conservatives.

News Corp.'s News America-FOXPAC political action committee contributed to five Democratic political candidates during January, with Republican candidates scoring a goose egg, Federal Election Commission records show.

January recipients of News America-FOXPAC cash include Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah ($5,000); Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark. ($2,500); Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. ($1,500); Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. ($1,000); and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y. ($500), according to a Center for Public Integrity review of the records. All the contributions are earmarked for 2014 political primaries except for $500 toward Landrieu's 2014 general election campaign.

In the spirit of being fair and balanced, News America-FOXPAC also contributed $15,000 in January to the National Republican Congressional Committee, which may by law accept significantly larger contributions than candidate committees.

The PAC ended January with more than $128,000 in its bank account.

Such bipartisan giving is emblematic of News America-FOXPAC's donation habits from the 2012 election cycle.

Its contributions to partisan PACs and national party committees, for example, skewed Republican.

Correction (Feb. 27, 2013, 11:48 a.m.): This article originally overstated the size of the Respect for Marriage Coalition's TV buys last Sunday by $10,000. The Center regrets the error.

The Respect for Marriage Coalition has spent at least $49,000 to air a new television advertisement in the nation's capital, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of documents recently filed with the Federal Communications Commission.

"Freedom means freedom for everyone," says Craig Stowell, a former Marine and Republican gay rights activist, in the coalition's new TV ad, which aired on Sunday on the Washington, D.C., affiliates of NBC, CBS and ABC.

"I didn't used to understand the importance of same-sex marriage, but after learning my brother was gay, I wanted the same rights for him," Stowell continues in the ad. "He was the best man at my wedding, and I want to be the best man at his."

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., has earned the distinction of being the lone U.S. senator to earn a score of zero from the conservative Club for Growth in its latest congressional scorecard, released today.

The five-term senator has said he does not plan to seek re-election in November 2014, and the Club is already vying to find a replacement more in line with its agenda of limited government spending, income tax rate reduction, tort reform and deregulation.

It could bring significant resources to any potential upcoming contest.

During the 2012 election cycle, the Club's super PAC, called Club for Growth Action, spent nearly $17 million on advertisements that expressly advocated for the election or defeat of federal candidates, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of records filed with the Federal Election Commission.

That sum included more than $5.6 million on ads aiding Republican Ted Cruz during the hotly contested U.S. Senate primary in Texas.

The money also went toward more than $3.6 million worth of ads in Indiana's U.S. Senate race, where the Club supported Republican Richard Mourdock, and about $2.4 million on ads in Arizona's U.S. Senate race, where the Club backed Republican Rep. Jeff Flake, who this year is being given the Club's "Defender of Economic Freedom Award."

Virginia-based charity Donors Trust has promised anonymity to donors who seek to fund “sensitive or controversial” issues.

A Center for Public Integrity report last week lifted that veil — at least partially — revealing dozens of conservative foundations that together in recent years have given tens of millions of dollars to Donors Trust .

Donors Trust, in turn, has funded a nationwide network of free-market think tanks, media outlets and university programs to the tune of nearly $400 million since 2002.

Recently, much of that funding has gone toward state-based policy efforts. For example, Donors Trust provided 95 percent of the funding for a conservative media clearinghouse called the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which runs a network of state-based blogs.

While many of the charity’s 193 donors remain anonymous, a variety of media reports have shown where Donors Trust money ends up:

Climate change-denial

In late February, The Guardian reported that 46 percent of Donors Trust grants in 2010 went to groups opposing climate science. Between 2002 and 2010, the group gave $118 million to about 100 such groups.

A detailed 2012 report published on DeSmog Blog ties Donors Trust to a vast climate science denial machine through its generous support for the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based think tank that mobilized support for the tobacco industry before shifting its focus to climate change.

Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera, in the midst of a rapid U.S. expansion, has hired another lobbying firm to represent itself before government officials, new Senate records indicate.

The Law Offices of George R. Salem, PLLC, is being tapped to provide "informational communications regarding client's cable television channel" to lawmakers and bureaucrats, the lobbying registration records state.

Earlier this month, Al Jazeera, which is planning a major expansion following its purchase of former Democratic Vice President Al Gore's Current TV cable network, hired DLA Piper, Global Policy Initiatives and TCK International to represent it on Capitol Hill.

Republican lobbyist Tom Korologos — most recently an ambassador to Belgium whose government service also includes stints working in Iraq — will handle the account for TCK International.

Republican mega-donor Harold Simmons considers President Barack Obama to be “the most dangerous man in America,” and in a bid to unseat him, fueled conservative political groups with tens of millions of dollars.

But the Dallas-based billionaire’s recent philanthropic giving has been anything but right-leaning, a Center for Public Integrity review of new Internal Revenue Service documents indicates.

The Harold Simmons Foundation in 2011 most notably contributed a combined $600,000 to an arch political foe of Republicans, Planned Parenthood, and its North Texas affiliate, IRS records show.

Simmons’ foundation also bolstered several other organizations rarely associated with political conservatives or partisan Republicans, including public television, the League of Women Voters and even a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to curbing the influence of big money in elections.

The foundation’s 2011 funding came exclusively from the billionaire’s personal fortune and that of his holding company, Contran Corp. Together, they contributed more than $9.8 million in 2011 — the foundation’s only income aside from $5.6 million in investment and capital gains income. The foundation ended 2011 with nearly $52 million in reserve after distributing about $17.4 million during the year, IRS records show.

Simmons and his holding company, Contran Corp., provided major funding for Republican super PACs, including $23.5 million to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads. Simmons was second to casino magnate and fellow Republican-backing billionaire Sheldon Adelson among top donors to super PACs in the 2012 election.

A pair of gun groups — one favoring firearms control, the other opposed to it — have registered new federal lobbyists, according to U.S. Senate filings made available this afternoon.

The registrations come at a time when Congress is considering a slate of bills further regulating guns, and President Barack Obama is making firearms control a central piece of his public agenda.

The Virginia-based National Association for Gun Rights registered Christopher Kuper, its director of federal legislation, as its first-ever federal lobbyist, filings show.

Documents list "firearm background checks," "assault weapon ban" and "magazine capacity limitations" as issues on which it intends to lobby.  

The association is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group that describes itself as "not a faceless D.C. based lobbying group" but  "an organized network of grassroots activists who are committed to defending the Second Amendment."

Meanwhile, the New York-based Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund added to its federal lobbying stable, tapping Maryland-based firm JBH Group to advocate on its behalf, Senate records show.