Anti-Jon Ossoff Super PAC Is Funded By ‘Dark Money’ Group
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Josh Nathan-Kazis April 18, 2017
Sign up for Forwarding the News, our essential morning briefing with trusted, nonpartisan news and analysis, curated by Senior Writer Benyamin Cohen.
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]
