Anti-Jon Ossoff Super PAC Is Funded By ‘Dark Money’ Group
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Josh Nathan-Kazis April 18, 2017
A Super PAC running advertisements against Georgia Democratic congressional candidate Jon Ossoff, including one tying him to Al Jazeera, has received most of its funding this year from a single so-called ‘dark money’ group.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican Super PAC with close ties to the House GOP leadership, has spent over $3 million on today’s special election for Georgia’s 6th congressional district. The group has targeted Jon Ossoff, a Democrat favored to win the 16-way race.
In one ad, CLF highlighted payments Ossoff’s film production company had received from Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned media network. “What is he hiding?” the ad asks.
Yet CLF’s donors seem to be hiding something, too. In a tweet today, New York Times reporter Nick Confessore notes that “most of anti-Ossoff outside money being routed through a nonprofit that doesn’t disclose donors.”
That nonprofit is the American Action Network, a 501(c)(4) led by former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman. Since January, AAN has given $3.5 million to CLF, 80% of what CLF has raised in that period. AAN, as a 501(c)(4), is not required to disclose its donors.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
