Link
All of this is old news from October — Interview with Judy Woodruff:
Partial transcript:
Woodruff: “One of the PACs that's supporting you is now attacking Senator Sanders, I guess my question is, do you approve of this, of going after Senator Sanders by this SuperPAC... we know there is coordination.”
Clinton: “Well, I don't know anything about what you're saying. I have no knowledge of what they are doing. I have said I want anybody supporting me to go after Republicans, because whatever differences we might have on the Democratic side, they pale in comparison to the really substantive differences we have with Republicans.”
Woodruff: “Would you call on them to cease and desist and stop criticizing...” (then unclear)
Clinton: “I have just said that I want people who support me to go after Republicans... I have said it before and I am saying it again on this show.”
(snip)
Clinton: “I'm not asking and I do not approve of anyone who is supporting me –or say they support me– to be focusing on anyone other than the Republicans.”
Woodruff pushes her some more and the segment ends with,
Clinton: “Judy, I have no id.... I don't know anything about it, I cannot comment on it any further than I have.”
When Woodruff refers to ‘coordination,’ she is likely speaking of the SuperPAC coordinating with the campaign. ‘What?,’ you say — ‘SuperPAC’s aren’t supposed to be coordinating with campaigns, right?’ From CTR’s initial press release, Correct The Record has been clear from the start that they are coordinating with the campaign AND the DNC:
Correct The Record, though a SuperPac, will not be engaged in paid media and thus will be allowed to coordinate with campaigns and Party Committees.
The above may seem strange since as explained by Daily Caller, the Clinton campaign is actually PAYING Correct The Record for it’s work:
Correct the Record has a unique relationship with the Clinton campaign, one which it is able to maintain because of a loophole in federal election law. According to Federal Election Commission records, the Clinton campaign paid the group $275,615 on June 1.
In exchange for the dough, Correct the Record conducts opposition research on Clinton’s opponents — mostly Republicans but also Democratic contenders.
This reporting is consistent with how
Correct The Record portrays itself as focusing on Democratic primary opponents. Again, from the Correct The Record’s initial press release (American Bridge is another SuperPAC):
Brad Woodhouse, the President of American Bridge, is taking a leave from the group to become President of Correct The Record, a political research and communications war room. Burns Strider will continue in his role as senior adviser, focusing on high-level political outreach to Democratic organizations, campaigns, electeds and surrogates in Washington DC and in key states.
(snip)
“Correct The Record is a strong brand in its own right and now that Democrats are announcing their candidacies, it’s the right time to separate it from American Bridge, which focuses on opposition research on Republicans running for office,” Brad Woodhouse said.
So, the distinction from American Bridge appears to be that American Bridge goes after Republicans and CTR does something having to do with the then (May 2015) recent announcements of other Democrats entering the primary race.
However, while claiming to not using ‘paid media,’ they are admittedly and unabashedly providing information about Clinton's opponents which is being reported as if it is fact. Here’s David Brock discussing information given by Correct the Record to the Wall Street Journal about Bernie Sanders:
David Brock: “We are doing due diligence on Hillary Clinton’s primary opponents.”
Bloomberg’s John Heilemann: “Is this the beginning of a greater onslaught, as you see it as your roll to basically do the dirty work for the Clinton campaign that they do not want to do against Bernie Sanders directly?”
David Brock: “No, there’s no dirty work involved here, it’s just putting out facts. I think it’s just this is a political campaign and you’re gonna have to draw some contrasts...That’s just part of the process. And I think it’s a healthy, democratic, small ‘d’ process that we’re gonna go through.”
(snip)
David Brock: “Part of our job is to sometimes do the media’s homework for it, and we supply this material, we supply research, we supply facts, and I’d be for greater scrutiny by the press by everybody in the race at the level their doing Hillary Clinton. I mean Bernie Sanders is doing very well in the primaries, I don’t see much coverage of his substantive record, so we’re putting some information out there that helps to do that.”
So, what’s this claim by Daily Caller that FEC filings show the campaign PAYING Correct The Record?
Here’s what you’ll find:
Here’s the link to the larger contribution page.
He decided to NOT enter the fray, but we learn from New York Magazine in October of research CTR was doing on Vice President Biden:
If Joe Biden jumps into the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton will be ready to go on the offensive. According to a source close to the Clinton campaign, a team of opposition researchers working on behalf of Clinton is currently digging through Biden’s long record in office to develop attack lines in case the vice-president runs. The research effort started about a month ago and is being conducted by operatives at Correct the Record, the pro-Hillary superpac founded by David Brock, which is coordinating with the Clinton campaign. According to the source, the research has turned up material on Biden’s ties to Wall Street; his reluctance to support the raid that killed Osama bin Laden; and his role in the Anita Hill saga as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
So, to sum up, CTR says it is coordinating with the campaign, and the campaign has cut two (at least) checks to them for research. CTR also says that providing information about Secretary Clinton’s opponents to media is part of their ‘due diligence’ and that there will be more of that. And yet, Secretary Clinton says she ONLY wants anyone working on her behalf to be drawing contrast with Republicans. There appears to be some inconsistency. The Woodruff interview was in October, the same month CTR was doing ‘research’ on the VP. What’s a quarter of a million or so among friends, right?
CTR has been claiming that they are allowed to coordinate with the campaign because they are not paying for advertising. While cash may not be changing hands, there has been no denial that information winding up in print has come directly from CTR, much of it without attribution. Is that consistent with both the spirit and the letter of the law?
* * *
Thank you, Stephen Colbert, for the education you gave America about SuperPACs and how they (don’t) work in our democracy:
At the state level, Common Cause leaders around the country are pushing for passage of laws to shut down individual-candidate Super PACs and strengthen the rules prohibiting coordination between candidates and outside spending groups.
Super PACs are a relatively new type of committee that arose following the July 2010 federal court decision in a case known as SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission.
Technically known as independent expenditure-only committees, super PACs may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, associations and individuals, then spend unlimited sums to overtly advocate for or against political candidates. Unlike traditional PACs, super PACs are prohibited from donating money directly to political candidates, and their spending must not be coordinated with that of the candidates they benefit. Super PACs are required to report their donors to the Federal Election Commission on a monthly or semiannual basis – the super PAC's choice – in off-years, and monthly in the year of an election.
Correct The Record’s Spending By Cycle as of 6/30/2015 by Open Secrets