'Dark money' groups target key senators during impeachment - Center for Responsive Politics

Republicans for the Rule of Law via YouTube

Influential “dark money” groups are hitting senators in their home states with impeachment-focused ads. Some of these ads pressure senators to vote a certain way in the trial, while others use impeachment as a means to weaken senators at the ballot box in November.  Majority Forward, a nonprofit aligned with leading Senate Democrats that does not disclose its donors, is using impeachment to attack its top Republican targets. The dark money group launched a six-figure ad campaign this week against five vulnerable senators, including Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), the only Republicans up for reelection in states Clinton won. Those senators faced attack ads from Majority Forward as early as January of last year. The group’s ads accuse the Republican senators of failing to honor their oaths to act as impartial jurors, demanding that they support Democrats’ requests to subpoena additional evidence from the White House and hear new witnesses including former national security advisor John Bolton. Republicans, who hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, say they have the votes to prevent witnesses from testifying and are hoping to acquit Trump by Friday. On the other side, conservative nonprofit America First Policies launched a $1 million ad campaign at the outset of the impeachment trial to attack Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), the most vulnerable Democratic senator up for reelection this year. The ad says Jones is supporting the “radical left agenda,” picturing him with progressive Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Representing a state where Trump is extremely popular, Jones is in a difficult political position.  The dark money group, organized to support President Donald Trump during his time in office, is also going after Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who Senate Republicans believe is beatable in November. Peters’ race against Republican John James is loaded with allegations of unlawful campaign coordination with dark money groups.
These kinds of issue ads don’t advocate for or against the candidates’ election, so they are not required to report their spending to the Federal Election Commission unless they air during the window before an election when the candidate mentioned is on the ballot. Groups like Majority Forward and America First Policies are 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organizations that are not allowed to have political activity as their primary purpose. The rule of thumb is that such groups cannot spend more than half of their money on political activity, but that rule that is rarely enforced. Voters have no idea who is backing these groups as they do not disclose their sources of funding.  Some groups are using their platform to pressure senators’ votes. The conservative dark money group Club for Growth is airing ads in Washington, D.C. and Utah accusing Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) of siding with Democrats over his interest in subpoenaing Bolton. The ad urges Romney to instead subpoena Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, over his work with Ukrainian energy company Burisma.  Democrats impeached Trump for withholding military aid to Ukraine while pressuring the country to publicly announce an investigation into the Bidens, which Democrats say was done to interfere with the 2020 election and help the president politically. Now, some conservative groups and Republican candidates are using the impeachment inquiry to attack the Bidens. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) openly pondered this week whether Iowa caucus-goers will support Biden on Feb. 3.  One of the few anti-Trump conservative groups in the mix, Republicans for the Rule of Law, launched a $1 million ad campaign this week calling on Republican senators to subpoena Bolton. One of the group’s TV ads accuses Trump and his administration of silencing the former national security advisor. The ads target Republicans who expressed an interest in hearing from Bolton, as well as some vulnerable senators up for reelection in November.  The group, directed by former Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, is setting up billboards and even driving around a billboard truck in Washington to promote its message. Kristol is a leading voice in the small Republican anti-Trump movement and donated to each of Trump’s Republican primary challengers. 

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Karl joined the Center for Responsive Politics in October 2018. As CRP’s money-in-politics reporter, he writes and edits stories for the news section and helps manage a team of diligent writers. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Karl graduated from State University of New York at New Paltz in 2016 with a B.A. in journalism. He previously worked at The Globe, a regional newspaper based in Worthington, Minnesota. His email is [email protected]

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