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Joni Ernst: Hiding Behind Dark Money?
by
dfrankle
Community
(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Thursday, Oct. 08, 2020
Thursday, Oct. 08, 2020
at
3:30:34pm PDT
Despite calling out Donald Trump for not releasing his tax returns, the Senator from Iowa could be flirting with campaign finance law violations in her bid for reelection.
What is Dark Money?
Before discussing Senator Ernst and her potentially suspicious activities, let’s talk a little bit about dark money in general and its relation to political campaigns and campaign finance law. Put simply, dark money refers to money spent to influence political campaigns where the source
is not disclosed. Shell companies and opaque nonprofits can give unlimited amounts of money to super PACS, which are legally required to disclose their donors. However, politically active nonprofits have no legal obligation to disclose their donors even if the money is used to try and influence an election. When the original source of the money is not revealed, it falls under the ‘dark money’ term.
Money in politics
has
always been a contentious issue. However, the past decade has seen a huge increase in spending on elections. Dark money groups are estimated to have spent $1 billion through media ads and mailers. Part of the explosion of dark money can be attributed to the
Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling
. The majority opinion claimed that the prohibition on independent expenditures by corporations violated the First Amendment. In a 5-4 decision, the court
concluded that corporations, nonprofits, and labor unions have the right to spend unlimited amounts of money on political speech.
Senator Ernst Might Be Mixing Money and Politics in an Illegal Way
In December 2019, the
Associated Press reported
that an outside group funded by some of Senator Ernst’s top political aides had worked closely with her to raise money to boost her reelection chances, an overlap that is potentially in violation of campaign finance law.
The political nonprofit is called Iowa Values and was co-founded by one of Ernst’s political consultants. The nonprofit also shares a fundraiser of the Ernst campaign. AP discovered emails and a strategy memo making clear that Ernst and her campaign worked closely with Iowa Values.
This past summer, the fundraiser that has connections to Iowa Values and the Republican Senator requested an investment of $50,000 from a donor. In a separate occurrence, a strategy memo states that the nonprofit will use door-knocking, tv, and radio advertising to target 120,000 Iowans they deem critical in reelecting Ernst.
Brendan Fischer, an attorney with the Campaign Legal Center, believes that taken together, the documents offer proof that campaign finance and tax law were violated. While it is unlikely as to whether the IRS or FEC will aggressively pursue this case, the evidence connecting Ernst to Iowa Values is undeniable.
In February 2020, End Citizens United, a political action committee who has endorsed challenger Theresa Greenfield and is dedicated to ridding politics of unlimited corporate financing, officially submitted an IRS complaint against Senator Ernst. Tiffany Mueller, president and executive director of End Citizens United, stated that “Senator Ernst’s campaign is a shining example of how corrupt politicians break the law to protect their own interests.”
Theresa Greenfield Wants to End Financial Corruption
Theresa Greenfield laid out a detailed policy proposal aimed at ending political corruption and banning dark money groups from influencing election results.
One week before End Citizens United’s complaint was sent to the IRS, Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield laid out a detailed policy proposal aimed at ending political corruption and banning dark money groups from influencing election results. In her
Jobs That Need To Get Done
plan, Greenfield aims to overturn Citizens United while supporting the passage of the
DISCLOSE Act
to “end the secrecy that shields donors behind unregulated dark money contributions.”
Show your support for an end to political corruption by
donating
to Theresa Greenfield’s campaign today.
Please consider contributing just $5 to our all-volunteer PAC:
The Democratic Senate Action Committee
.
For more information on voting in Iowa, see
here.
To read more about Joni Ernst's history of supporting Trump and her hypocrisy surrounding Trump's Supreme Court nominee, see
here
. To see Ernst's long history of supporting Trump's policy agenda, see
here
.
For more information on how Ernst has ignored COVID-19's
effect
on Iowa, see
here
.