If you're a regular Digest reader, you've seen reference recently to a new conservative group called One Nation that's been spending money to run ads on behalf of vulnerable Republican senators. The organization is not a super PAC but a 501(c)(4), a type of non-profit that is supposed to promote "social welfare" causes and cannot primarily engage in political activity. Unlike super PACs, these non-profits don't have to disclose their donors, and of course, the rules on limiting political activity are regularly flouted.
There had been talk in recent years about clamping down on these abuses, but after Republicans in Congress successfully mau-maued the IRS with trumped-up charges that the agency had unfairly targeted tea party groups, those enforcement efforts have collapsed. (One grotesque example: A North Carolina "social welfare" outfit called Carolina Rising spent 97 percent of its $5 million budget on ads to help Republican Thom Tillis defeat Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan last year.)
So that's left groups like One Nation free to spend freely—but just who are these guys? If your first guess was that they're a new Koch brothers front group, you would have been close. Turns out they're tied to the other top conservative dark money bogeyman, Karl Rove. One Nation's president, Steven Law, is also head of American Crossroads, Rove's most well-known electioneering vehicle, so it's a small world.
In any event, One Nation is running two new spots, each for $800,000: One in Nevada on behalf of GOP Rep. Joe Heck, and, more interestingly, another in Missouri to boost Republican Sen. Roy Blunt. Both are dishwater-dull: The Heck ad praises him for supporting "bipartisan solutions" to create jobs, while Blunt gets props for fighting "to provide jobs for veterans." (It also has a great quote of him saying he wants to "make that strength of the military even stronger.")
While Nevada's unquestionable a tossup race, Blunt is heavily favored for re-election. He does, however, face an energetic challenge from Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander, and there's an outside chance Blunt could be vulnerable if all the breaks go Kander's way. This ad from One Nation is, undoubtedly, an initial effort to ensure that doesn't happen.
