McCain Dark Money Fear Mongering Reaches New Low

The Democrats generally call it “dark money” while Republicans simply refer to it as “corruption,” but one thing for certain; opinion poll, after opinion poll, the public continues to demonstrate that they are overwhelmingly unhappy with the performance of our governing institutions, including the likes of Senator Jon McCain

This Presidential primary season, voters are sending a clear message to all elected officials: we are fed up with politicians who have built the system to their own advantage.

McCain propaganda front page| inside panel
McCain propaganda front page| inside panel

Case in point: Senator John McCain wrote the law known as the McCain-Feingold Act allowing corporations, and special interest groups to donate millions of dollars to his own campaign and its anonymous surrogates.  In the most recent use of those funds, McCain supporters have elected to engage is some of the most egregious fear mongering since the infamous Willie Horton ads.

It’s nice to be the one writing the rules

An investigation into the various PACs supporting John McCain through FEC reports conducted by Reality Check  brought to light some information about McCain’s machine.

First, the vast majority of McCain’s donations are not from the Arizonans McCain represents, but from people and corporations outside of Arizona with a vested interest in McCain’s continued support and votes for their interests. Secondly, several of the PACs supporting McCain are blatantly violating the very Federal Election Laws that John McCain wrote.

There are currently two groups “officially” supporting McCain in his bid for re-election.  Behind the scenes however, dozens of PAC’s are covertly supporting McCain through independent expenditures and contributions.

McCain’s official campaign committee is Friends of John McCain. Through this Committee, his campaign pays for everything campaign related including: payroll, marketing, consulting, legal fees, and other miscellany.

Arizona Grassroots Action” PAC is also listed with the FEC as an “unauthorized, independent PAC;” meaning it cannot (or isn’t supposed to) have any coordination or communication with the McCain camp or the Friends of John McCain Committee.

mccain-moneyIt is difficult to imagine that there is no coordination between both PACs given that they share the same Alexandria, Va. address on their FEC filings.

By the way, there’s also nothing “Grassroots” about Arizona Grassroots Action.   Aside from the fact that it is a Washington D.C.-based PAC, over 85 percent of its money comes from out-of-state contributors.

Arizona Grassroots Action was created in 2014 to fund McCain’s purge of Arizona Republican Party officers after his embarrassing censure by them.

Now that McCain’s re-election bid is in full swing, Arizona Grassroots Action is currently running online ads and sending mailers that reach new lows in fearmongering even for McCain, in a desperate attempt to discredit his popular Senate Primary challenger Dr. Kelli Ward.

The lies in the mailer about Ward (www.kelliward.com) are outlandish. In it, McCain’s surrogates attempt to link ISIS terrorists to her and the 4th Amendment Protection Act she sponsored.

You may remember, fifteen Arizona Republican Senate committee members introduced SB1156, which would have blocked federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies from obtaining intelligence with the help of Arizona on individuals without a warrant. The bill, also known as the Arizona 4th Amendment Protection Act, sent a message to the rest of the country that Arizona was unwilling to participate in the unconstitutional actions by federal officials like those taken against by the NSA – spying on literally everyone, and the IRS – conducting unnecessary investigation of Tea Party members.

The slanderous mailer cites The State Press as a source. It claims that on February 19, 2014, the publication stated the bill was “Unconstitutional and Dangerous to Americans.” However, The State Press, an ASU student publication, on the date in question, read:

“Seb (sic) Kelli Ward, R-Lake Havasu, drops the 4th Amendment Protection Act in the hopper at the Senate. Ward is the sponsor of the 4th Amendment Protection Act. (Photo Courtesy of Senator Kelli Ward).” 

It was only a caption of a photo. That’s it, nothing more.

Arizonans can expect more propaganda without proper attribution in the future. McCain’s PAC was able to publish the aforementioned propaganda anonymously with only a post mark and no return address to connect it to the true source. That right, no more disclosure as to who paid for the hit piece is required.

Let’s recap, it was McCain’s own legislation, the McCain-Feingold Act that revamped Campaign Finance Rules in US elections and made it illegal for any sitting senator to accept donations of any size from foreign governments.  At the same time, it’s apparently perfectly legal for a senator to receive a $1 million contribution from foreign governments to the “Institute” in his name.

So in 2014, while John McCain was praising Saudi Arabia on CNN by saying, “Thank God for the Saudis and Prince Bandar,” the Saudi Arabian Government was writing a $1 million check to the McCain Institute.

The McCain Institute failed to publicly disclose the donation until last month.  When pressed by Arizona news outlet, KPNX, “McCain angrily denied any impropriety,” and, even went so far as to make the laughable claim he had nothing to do with the McCain Institute.

When the issue of dark money first came up several years ago, The Arizona Republic blasted McCain saying, “Blame McCain-Feingold, not Citizens, for dark money” in their story, explaining the negative effect Senator McCain’s campaign finance reform law had on the American elections.

Now with the recent passing of SB1516 campaign finance reforms in Arizona, we are closer than ever to McCain’s own legislation making it easier to operate in secret, shift money around, coordinate with so-called independent-expenditure committees, and hide the value of services donated by lawyers and accountants.

At a time of heightened public concern about the corrosive influence of anonymous donations, SB1516 abdicates the state’s role in regulating campaign spending by non-profits.

Prior to this, Arizona law required groups to register with the State if their primary purpose was to influence elections. In other words, they had to disclose donors and spending.

SB1516 exempts non-profits entirely from registering with the state. The job of discerning which ones are primarily engaged in influencing elections goes to – wait for it – the Internal Revenue Service.

That’s right. Republican state elected officials, who profess little confidence in the ability of the federal government to do anything right, have entrusted the integrity of Arizona’s elections to the IRS, which has little interest in the job.

Be sure to thank Secretary of State Michele Reagan for this new law, which loosens up what little campaign-finance disclosure Arizona had previously required. Now more groups are encouraged to go stealth and secretly spend an unlimited amount of money on the propagation of propaganda.

Without of course, telling you who they are or why they really want your vote.

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