Tax-payers are being forced to foot the bill to help elect Republicans, according to the Daily Beast.
A former campaign manager for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), named Jeff Roe, is working with dozens of high profile candidates party groups through one of his companies. In another company he runs, he's working with those same members to create direct mail that elected officials can send out under their franking privileges.
Officials are allowed to send free mail to their constituents within 90 days before an election. The offices are given a specific fund for their office they can also use for "franking" and there are several restrictions on what they can and can't say. Lawmakers generally use it to promote their legislation and successes. But in this case, a Republican consultant is getting the cash.
Nearly $10 million went to Roe's firm Capitol Franking Group. His political consulting firm is called Axiom Strategies. Both companies have very similar lists of clients, Federal Election Commission records show.
"Roe’s dual roles underscore the inherently political nature of an industry that operates in a gray area between official, taxpayer-funded communications and explicitly political advocacy," wrote the Beast.
Two members from Roe's home state of Missouri paid out $127,000 in 2009 before Republicans came into office in 2011 and cut the fund. It's unclear how much Republican Reps. Sam Graves and Blaine Luetkemeyer have spent this year, but among the 25 congressional offices Roe works with, he's scored more than $2 million.
Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) is another example of a member "whose campaign and congressional office have both paid Roe’s CFG. His official congressional Facebook page—paid posts on which fall within the franking definition of an official mass communication—ran a host of ads that appeared in North Carolinians’ Facebook feeds right up until Aug. 8 of last year—the final day before the 90-day franked communications cut-off."
The ads talked about how Walker was fighting to protect the 2nd Amendment, which is not in jeopardy as there are no pieces of legislation to unmake it. He paid more than $210,000 to Roe since he took office in 2015.
Ironically, Walker paid Roe to promote an ad that said he was working to "cut spending in Washington."
