Last year, as New York State Legislature campaigns were going on, a handful Democratic candidates were targeted with spurious attack ads. Opponents disavowed these ads, and with some credibility, as the ads came from a group called Common Sense Principles.
The Democrats targeted were Ted O'Brien (55th State Senate District), George Latimer (37th State Senate District), and Joseph Addabbo (15th State Senate District). Addabbo was an incumbent; Latimer was an Assemblyman; O'Brien a county legislator. All three won their races despite nearly $1 million being spent by Common Sense Principles against them.
Local media made a valiant effort to uncover the source of Common Sense Principles' funding, but made no headway. The group's registered address in Virginia is that of a business process server. No information about the group's organizers or donors was able to be found.
In January, well after the elections, they did finally file a report, but it was a lobbying report, not a campaign finance report, which is why it was so late in coming. A loophole big enough to drive a truck through, apparently, as what they did was clearly campaigning and not lobbying.
(Actually it was lying, not campaigning, but you get the idea.)
Last week, the Moreland Commission on Public Corruption, charged by Governor Andrew Cuomo with the task of rooting out corruption in state government, issued a preliminary report. In it, they spent some time discussing Common Sense Principles and its role in last year's elections.
Yet even they, with full subpoena powers were unable to root out the people behind this organization.
"So who pays for Common Sense's political spending in New York? Despite issuing a number of subpoenas and conducting several interviews, the Commission still cannot say," the report reads. "A New York-based direct mail company that sent the 2012 attack mailers has informed the Commission that the Common Sense mailer had been ordered by a Florida-based intermediary company. Common Sense, according to the direct mail company, is a 'ghost company.'"
The commission noted that it didn't have luck serving subpoenas on Common Sense or the Florida "ghost companies."
"This daisy chain of out-of-state corporations and 'ghost companies' appears to exist for one reason: to hide the source of money used to fund negative advertising and influence our local elections," according to the report. "Even this Commission, armed with subpoena power, still has been unable to track down the sources of the torrent of money flowing into and within our state."
I remain hopeful that the Moreland Commission's report will spur action by the state legislature. Perhaps I'm naive. But whether action is taken or not, the Commission's report has shined a bright spotlight on this egregious abuse of the spirit of campaign financing laws.
For now, "Common Sense Principles" (and who knows how many other organizations like it) can spend untold amounts of money with impunity. They didn't swing these three elections, but they might in the future. Something has to be done.