One Democratic congressman is fed up with the astroturing like that exposed by the NYTs today. Today, Oregon's Peter DeFazio decided to confront one of these shadowy groups, the Concerned Taxpayers of America, directly.
The organization has been running ads in Oregon, against DeFazio. The Eugene Register-Guard distilled the ad and the problem with these astroturf ads everywhere in an editorial.
Television ads running in Southwestern Oregon portray 4th District Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio as a soldier in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s army; they urge voters to support Republican candidate Art Robinson.
It’s standard fare in political advertising: hyperbolic, oversimplified and treading on the edge of distortion. What’s new is that Oregonians don’t know, and may never know, who is paying for the ads.
So DeFazio went to the organization's headquarters, accompanied by HuffPo's Amanda Terkel and WaPo reporters, to find out who had donated to run these ads.
DeFazio decided to confront Concerned Taxpayers on Friday, intending to deliver a letter requesting that the group make its donors public. "Since you intend to try and buy Art Robinson a congressional seat, by raising and spending 'unlimited amounts of money,' the voters of Oregon are entitled to know who is picking up the tab," wrote DeFazio.
The Huffington Post, along with a couple of journalists from The Washington Post, accompanied DeFazio on the short walk from the Rayburn House Office Building over to Concerned Taxpayers' headquarters, listed as 10 E St, SE, which turned out to be a small grey townhouse. DeFazio had to ring the doorbell, knock, and yell through the mail slot before someone came to the door. The man identified himself as Mike Omegna and he told the congressman that he had never heard of Miller or Concerned Taxpayers, nor was his voice on the organization's voicemail.
Omegna lied. This is the voice mail message for the Concerned Taxpayers:
You've reached Michael Omegna at Jamestown Associates. I can't get to my phone right now, but if you leave me your name and number, I'll get back to you as soon as I can. If this is regarding Concerned Taxpayers of America, please leave a detailed message and I will respond back as soon as possible.
Furthermore:
The Huffington Post was able to reach Miller later in the day, who said that Omegna simply "misspoke." "He [Omegna] works for me at Jamestown, but yeah -- regarding the whole, you know, ambush from Congressman DeFazio earlier today, Michael clearly misspoke and should have identified himself clearly," he said. "So, 10 E St where Concerned Taxpayers is located, and I'm the treasurer." When asked whether Concerned Taxpayers was willing to disclose its donors, as DeFazio is requesting, Miller laughed. "We comply fully with the Federal Election Campaign Act, and our donors are disclosed as required by law, and so it's very clear," he said. "I think this all sounds like a media circus from a career politician, who's quite frankly, worried he's going to lose in November."
Their donors are of course, not disclosed and they don't have to be. The Citizens United ruling made sure of that, as does the fact that most of these organizations claim non-profit status that allows them to hide. DeFazio's attempt to expose them makes obvious the lengths to which they will go to stay in the shadows, and keep voters in the dark.
The last word from DeFazio:
"We've got to take it to them," he told HuffPost. "I'm an activist, always have been my whole life, and I'm going there to confront them and say, 'Who are you, and why are you so afraid to disclose where your money come from? Would it totally disclose your attacks on me and other Democrats? Would it totally discredit your organization?' We don't know who they are. And as I said earlier, how can we enforce existing law, which does say it can't be a foreign government, a foreign entity, a foreign individual, but if we are allowed no disclosure, how will we ever know who funded these campaigns?"