A number of Democratic lawmakers believe they’ve uncovered a “secret” effort by Republicans to “meddle” in Democratic primary elections, one involving “next-level obfuscation” to conceal the identities of those behind the effort, Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday.
“We don’t know who’s speaking, we don’t know what their real motivations are, and the things that they do talk about may be completely different from why they’re involved,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), speaking with Punchbowl News. “It really degrades public discourse and just creates paranoia and uncertainty.”
That effort is the rise of “mysterious” and “stealthy” super political action committees (PACs) this election cycle that have dumped millions of dollars into Democratic primary races in an effort to, Democrats suspect, boost candidates viewed as “less formidable or even toxic” so as to give Republicans a better shot in the November general election, Punchbowl News reported.
The practice of groups linked to a particular political party dumping money into primary races of an opposing political party became more commonplace with the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which eliminated restrictions on campaign spending. However, this election cycle, those engaging in the practice have gone above and beyond to better conceal their identities.
“These super PACs have to file statements of organization with the FEC, report these independent expenditures and place orders with TV and radio stations. Typically, all this offers clues into who is running the group and their partisan affiliation because the treasurer is a known political operative,” Punchbowl News’ report reads.
“But not this time. The treasurers of these groups have no apparent online footprint. The addresses listed are post offices, Staples stores or similar sites. These groups will have to disclose their donors eventually, but they can hide those donors by transferring money from a 501(c)(4) nonprofit. This is next-level obfuscation.”
Speaking with Punchbowl News, Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) highlighted funding from a mysterious super PAC supporting Democratic candidate Maureen Galindo of Texas, who recently vowed to turn an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center into a “castration processing center for pedophiles,” whom she said would likely be “most of the Zionists.”
“You have an openly bigoted person who has no business in elected office getting boosted by a Republican PAC,” Casar said. “So the Republican leadership here, of course, is going to go to great lengths to hide that.”
