A dark money group aligned with Senate majority leader Chuck
Schumer (D., N.Y.) ramped up its anonymous election cash by 825
percent in the 2020 cycle, filings show.
Majority Forward, a nonprofit with ties to Schumer’s Senate
Majority PAC, pushed�$57.4
million into super PACs that helped Democrats regain the
majority in Congress’s upper chamber. The vast sum far eclipses
the $6.2
million it funneled into election activity in the 2016 and 2018
cycles combined. The nonprofit does not disclose its donors, making
it difficult to identify who provided the funding to back Schumer’s
efforts.
Majority Forward’s election cash spike was made possible by a
record-breaking fundraising haul from mid-2018 to mid-2019, when
the group received $76
million in anonymous donations. That same year, it passed tens
of millions to other left-wing nonprofits for its primary purpose
of bankrolling voter engagement. Its largest donation was $14.8
million to America Votes, which later found itself under investigation in
Georgia for allegedly sending ballot applications to
non-residents.
As Majority Forward propped up outside voter efforts, a large
chunk of its election-related cash—$47.8 million—went to
Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC,
according to FEC filings. Both groups are led by J.B. Poersch,
a Schumer ally, and share personnel and office space. The nonprofit
passed millions more to the North Star super PAC, which opposed
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska), and the Lincoln Project, whose
cofounder recently left the
group for having “inappropriate” sexual conversations with young
men.
Democrats have long assailed the influence of “dark money” in
politics while quietly outpacing Republicans in its usage.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, in the 2020
elections $326 million in dark funds
benefited Democrats while $148 million benefited
Republicans. Schumer’s allied groups have used dark money while he
and other leaders, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.),
have set their sights on forcing right-leaning groups to make
public a list of their donors.
In 2019, Schumer, Whitehouse, and other Senate
Democrats called
on the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative organization, to
disclose individuals who contributed more than $10,000 to their
group. They criticized the network for continuing to “conceal the
identity of their donors,” who “have contributed tens of millions
of dollars used to fund political advertising campaigns in support
of nominees like Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.” Meanwhile,
Democrats have benefited from their own dark money judicial groups,
including Demand Justice.
Now, Schumer will push the For the People Act, a bill backed by
progressive advocacy groups, as one of his first acts as majority
leader. The bill contains provisions that
would make political nonprofits disclose the identities of donors
who give more than $10,000. It would also require nonprofits to
file disclosure reports to the Federal Election Commission when
more than $10,000 is spent on election-related endeavors.
But the bill stands little chance of becoming law. Sens. Joe
Manchin (D., W. Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D., Ariz.) are opposed to
eliminating the filibuster, meaning Democrats would have to gain
approval from 10 Republican senators.
“The bills’ backers are world-class hypocrites: their
presidential candidate broke records for ‘dark money’ and
quintupled his opponent’s haul,” said Scott Walter, president of
the Capital Research Center.
Liberal dark money helped propel Biden into the White House.
According to Bloomberg, Biden benefited from
$145 million in dark funds. Nearly $55 million of this amount
was passed through the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a left-wing nonprofit
incubator managed by Arabella Advisors, the Washington Free Beacon
reported. Arabella-managed funds
raised $715 million for liberal causes around the country in
2019.
Majority Forward did not respond to a request for comment.
The post
Schumer’s Dark Money Group Increased Election Spending by 825% in
2020 Cycle appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
