Americans for Prosperity: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Line 50:

=== Transparency ===

Tax-exempt, non-profit charitable organizations such as AFP are generally not required to disclose their contributors, in contrast with [[political action committee]]s.<ref name=npr20150115/><ref name=nyt20100921/><ref name=brennan20121005>{{cite news |first=Ian |last=Vandewalker |agency=[[Brennan Center for Justice]] |title=Rules May Change, But the Secret Money Game Remains the Same |date=October 5, 2012 |accessdate=June 7, 2015 |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-vandewalker/campaign-finance-sec_b_1943826.html |quote=Super PACs have to report their donors, but groups like AFP and the Chamber do not....Voters deserve to know who is spending tens of millions of dollars to sway their votes.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Dark money in the 2012 elections (so far) |first=Lee |last=Drutman |date=July 16, 2012 |accessdate=June 7, 2015 |publisher=[[Sunlight Foundation]] |url=https://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/07/16/dark-money/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Midwestern Bank PAC Funds Kochs’ Americans for Prosperity |first=Viveca |last=Novak |date=July 19, 2012 |agency=[[Center for Responsive Politics]] |accessdate=June 7, 2015 |url=http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/07/midwestern-bank-pac-funds-kochs-ame/}}</ref> Most of the political expenditures by social welfare non-profits in the 2010 and 2012 election cycles came from conservative groups such as AFP and Crossroads GPS.<ref name=propublica20120818>{{cite news |agency=[[ProPublica]] |date=August 18, 2012 |first=Kim |last=Barker |url=http://www.propublica.org/article/how-nonprofits-spend-millions-on-elections-and-call-it-public-welfare |title=How Nonprofits Spend Millions on Elections and Call it Public Welfare |accessdate=June 3, 2015}}</ref> Campaign finance [[watchdog journalism|watchdogs]] and Democrats have criticized AFP for its funding of political activities from undisclosed sources.<ref name=rift/> For example, the [[Sunlight Foundation]] and others have accused non-disclosing political groups like AFP and Crossroads GPS of filing for nonprofit status solely to invoke the right to hide their donors.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=[[Sunlight Foundation]] |title=Dark Money Organizations Change Strategies to Keep Donors Secret |first=Alex |last=Engler |date=September 25, 2012 |accessdate=June 2, 2015 |url=http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/09/25/dark-money-organizations-change-strategies-to-keep-donors-secret/}}</ref><ref name=newsweek20140930>{{cite news |magazine=[[Newsweek]] |title=As Dark Money Floods U.S. Elections, Regulators Turn a Blind Eye |first=Leah |last=McGrath Goodman |date=September 30, 2014 |accessdate=June 7, 2014 |url=http://www.newsweek.com/2014/10/10/dark-money-floods-us-elections-regulators-turn-blind-eye-273951.html}}</ref> President Obama, speaking at a [[Democratic National Committee]] fund-raising dinner in August 2010, criticized AFP as an example of a group spending millions on political advertising and which did not want the public to know who were their donors.<ref name=wp20100826/><ref>{{cite news |title=Obama’s Bête Noire |url=http://www.nationalreview.com/article/386867/obamas-b-te-noire-eliana-johnson |publisher=[[National Review]] |first=Eliana |last=Johnson |date=September 2, 2014 |accessdate=March 21, 2015 |quote=As the 2010 midterms approached, President Obama warned his supporters about groups with “harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity.” “They don’t want you to know who the Americans for Prosperity are, because they’re thinking about the next election,” he said.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Is the Tea Party Really A Grassroots Movement? |date=September 17, 2010 |accessdate=May 29, 2015 |agency=[[NPR]] |authorlink=Steve Inskeep |first=Steve |last=Inskeep |url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129926390 |quote=Right now, all around this country, there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates all across the country. And they don't have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are. You don't know if it a foreign-controlled corporation. You don't know if it's a big oil company or a big bank.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |publisher=[[Politico]] |title=Koch-backed group links itself to IRS scandal |first=Tarini |last=Parti |date=May 13, 2013 |url=http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/koch-backed-group-links-itself-to-irs-scandal-91268.html |accessdate=May 29, 2015 |quote=In 2010, Obama called out Americans for Prosperity and similar groups for their spending activities without financial disclosure. “Right now all around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates all across the country,” Obama said at an Aug. 2010 fundraiser. “And they don’t have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are,” he added. “You don’t know if it’s a foreign-controlled corporation. You don’t know if it’s a big oil company, or a big bank. You don’t know if it’s a insurance company that wants to see some of the provisions in health reform repealed because it’s good for their bottom line, even if it’s not good for the American people.”}}</ref> The [[Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee]] filed a complaint with the IRS charging that the AFP Foundation had funded political advertisements in violation of the law applicable to the foundation's tax-exempt classification. AFP responded that the charges were without merit. <ref>{{cite news |title=Group Is Accused on Tax Exemption |first=Eric |last=Lichtblau |date=August 27, 2010 |accessdate=March 23, 2015 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/us/politics/28irs.html |newspaper=[[New York Times]]}}</ref><ref name=usa20100927>{{cite news |date=August 27, 2010 |title=Democrats file IRS complaint against Americans for Prosperity |first=Fredreka |last=Schouten |newspaper=[[USA Today]] |url=http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2010/08/americans-for-prosperity-ads-/1 |accessdate=May 10, 2015}}</ref> In September, ''[[The Washington Post]]'' editorialized that voters should know who is funding AFP's citizen education efforts.<ref>{{cite news |title=Americans for Prosperity's big-bucks attack ads |date=September 28, 2010 |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/27/AR2010092705407.html |accessdate=May 1, 2015 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |quote=The charitable and nonprofit advocacy arms of Americans for Prosperity combined have raised about $30 million and are hoping for $45 million this election cycle. "Our objectives are not about winning elections -- they're about winning public policy," [vice president for policy at Americans for Prosperity] Mr. Kerpen said in an interview. As we said, you be the judge. At the very least, it seems to us that voters ought to know who is paying for this citizen education. }}</ref><ref name=brennan20121005/>

In 2010 and 2011 AFP reported to the IRS that it was not involved in political activities.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |title=As Anti-Climate Group's Activities Rise, So Do Questions About Its Secret Finances |first=Evan |last=Lehmann |agency=[[ClimateWire]] |date=October 12, 2011 |accessdate=May 11, 2015 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/10/12/12climatewire-as-anti-climate-groups-activities-rise-so-do-14988.html}}</ref> Questioned by a reporter before the 2012 Wisconsin recall elections, AFP's Wisconsin director said AFP was educating the public and not engaging in political activity.<ref name="Kroll"/><ref name=patch20120523>{{cite news |url=http://patch.com/wisconsin/hudson-wi/americans-for-prosperity-bus-tour-to-stop-in-hudson-on-june-1 |publisher=[[Patch Media]] |title=Americans For Prosperity Bus Tour to Stop in Hudson on June 1 |first=Micheal |last=Foley |date=May 23, 2012 |accessdate=April 21, 2015 |quote="We're not dealing with any candidates, political parties or ongoing races," Hilgemann said. "We're just educating folks on the importance of the reforms."}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Americans for Prosperity campaigns without leaving a paper trail in Wisconsin |first=Kathy |last=Kiely |date=June 7, 2012 |accessdate=May 29, 2015 |url=http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/06/07/americans-prosperity-campaigns-without-leaving-paper-trail-wisco/ |publisher=[[Sunlight Foundation]] |quote="We're not dealing with any candidates, political parties or ongoing races," AFP's Wisconsin director, Luke Hilgemann, told an online news site in Wisconsin. "We're just educating folks on the importance of reforms."}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |work=[[The Rachel Maddow Show]] |title=AFP fails the straight-face test |date=May 30, 2012 |authorlink=Rachel Maddow |first=Rachel |last=Maddow |publisher=[[MSNBC]] |url=http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/afp-fails-the-straight-face-test |accessdate=May 29, 2015 |quote=“We’re not dealing with any candidates, political parties, or ongoing races”}}</ref> In 2014, an AFP spokesperson said AFP had the right to keep its donors private, citing ''[[NAACP v. Alabama]]'', a 1958 [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruling that protected [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) donors from potential harassment.<ref name=AlpertDonors>{{cite news |last1=Alpert |first1=Bruce |title=Americans for Prosperity on why it keeps donors secret and SEC won't appeal Stanford ruling: On the Hill|url=http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/09/americans_for_prosperity_on_wh.html |accessdate=27 April 2015 |newspaper=[[The Times-Picayune]] |date=September 6, 2014}}</ref> In 2014, AFP president Phillips said that protecting donors' identities was prudent given the Obama administration's ideology-based [[IRS targeting controversy|IRS targeting]] of citizens.<ref>{{cite news |date=August 11, 2014 |title=AFP’s Tim Phillips on Harry Reid, GOP Senate Chances and Disclosing Donors |url=http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/08/11/afps-tim-phillips-on-harry-reid-gop-senate-chances-and-disclosing-donors/ |accessdate=May 10, 2015 |publisher=[[The Wall Street Journal]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |publisher=[[C-SPAN]] |work=Newsmakers |date=August 8, 2014 |url=http://www.c-span.org/video/?320921-1/newsmakers-tim-phillips |accessdate=May 10, 2015 |title=Tim Phillips}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |first=Nicholas |last=Confessore |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |title=Secret Money Fueling a Flood of Political Ads |date=October 10, 2014 |accessdate=June 3, 2015 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/us/politics/ads-paid-for-by-secret-money-flood-the-midterm-elections.html |quote=“Given the record of this administration in using regulatory agencies like the I.R.S. in a retaliatory fashion, then it’s understandable that there’s concern about disclosure from a lot of individuals,” said Tim Phillips, the president of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative organization that combines field efforts with large advertising campaigns.}}</ref> The AFP Foundation said its supporters have received serious threats. In February 2015, a federal judge granted the Foundation's motion for a preliminary injunction staying California Attorney General [[Kamala Harris]]'s request for the names and addresses of Foundation donors, pending resolution of the legality of the request.<ref name=PetterssonDonors>{{cite web|last1=Pettersson|first1=Edvard|title=Koch Group Gets to Keep Donors Secret in California Lawsuit|url=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-17/koch-group-wins-order-blocking-california-donor-data-demand|publisher=Bloomberg|accessdate=27 April 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite court |litigants=Americans for Prosperity v. Kamala Harris |date=February 23, 2015 |url=http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/california/cacdce/2:2014cv09448/605958/33 |court=California Central District Court |accessdate=May 2, 2015}}</ref>