Network of Liberal ‘Dark Money’ Democrat Groups to ‘Carpet-Bomb’ 2020 Election, Report Claims
The term “dark money” is used in US politics to refer to political spending by nonprofit organizations allied with both the Dems and the GOP that are allowed by federal law to receive unlimited donations from individuals and corporations without being required to disclose their donors.
A network of left-wing non-profit organisations is assisting US Democrats to “carpet bomb” the 2020 US presidential election with “buckets of anonymous cash”, a Friday report from conservative watchdog, Capital Research Center (CRC), claimed.
The report claimed that the shadowy network is operated by a “$600 million empire” called Arabella Advisors, a Washington-based for-profit firm that acts to consult with left-leaning nonprofits and donors on best practices for progressive donations. The CRC report claimed that Arabella “centered on four nonprofit ‘sisters’—the Sixteen Thirty Fund, New Venture Fund, Windward Fund, and Hopewell Fund” has for years legally used “dark money” to meddle in US elections, including the 2018 midterm elections.
“If 2018 is any indicator, we should expect to see the Left carpet-bomb the 2020 presidential election with buckets of anonymous cash, while complaining about the evils of ‘dark money’ the entire time,” the report said.
The CRC said that the so-called left-wing network reported revenues of $2.4 billion and nearly $1.9 billion in expenditures in the period between 2006 and 2018. The report highlighted that the Arabella network’s revenue in 2018 alone, the year of the midterm elections, was $635 million, and $582 million in 2017.
The CRC report compared Arabella Advisors revenue to some prominent conservative foundations, such as The Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity, which brought, respectively, $82 million and $58 million in revenue during the midterm election year, asserting that the liberal “dark money” group’s revenue was “almost eight times more than Heritage and 11 times more than Americans for Prosperity”.
The report also claimed that Arabella Advisors “created and actively manages” the four dark money organisations, which, as with the conservative foundations, are not required by federal law to disclose their donors.
“Each plays a slightly different role in the network, but all share the same basic functions—sponsoring pop-up groups (also called “projects”) and paying out grants to other left-wing nonprofits,” the report claimed, referring to limited-time activist websites that are allegedly used for campaigning for political causes.
In a statement to Fox News, Steve Sampson, a spokesman for Arabella Advisors, rejected the CRC allegations, describing the report as a “gross mischaracterization” of the consultancy’s work and of its client organizations.
“Arabella Advisors is a consulting business that supports effective philanthropy and impact investing,” Sampson stated. “Our clients include a variety of nonprofit organizations that hire Arabella for shared administrative services, including the New Venture Fund, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Hopewell Fund, and the Windward Fund.”
Sampson added that Arabella’s client organizations “make grants to a range of projects across the ideological spectrum, most of which have nothing to do with politics”.
“Arabella Advisors is not the source of funding for any of these organizations, and we do not exert control over the spending decisions of our clients,” Sampson detailed.
Amy Kurtz, executive director of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a non-profit described in the CRC report as a “lobbying shop for the Arabella network”, described the allegations as “completely false”, noting that the fund is “committed to following the current laws”, like many other 501c4 organizations on both sides fo the political aisle that are exempt from some federal income taxes.
“The Sixteen Thirty Fund is confronting the biggest social challenges in our country through fiscal sponsorship, advocacy and electoral action like many other 501c4 organizations, and we are committed to following the current laws to level the playing field for progressives in this election,” Kurtz said in a statement quoted by Fox News.
On 3 November, the United States is set to hold a presidential election in which incumbent Republican President Donald Trump will vie with Democratic nominee and former US vice president, Joe Biden, for the top executive position in the nation.
https://sputniknews.com/us/202009111080435106-network-of-liberal-dark-money-democrat-groups-to-carpet-bomb-2020-election-report-claims/
FReeper,
"AuntB", in the city of Medford, OR has had to evacuate her home in a retirement village -- and has learned by phone that the entire community and everything around it now is "nothing but ash".
I realize that she doesn't appear to be "one of us" -- but lots of us FReepers are praying for her, and she's already been offered places to stay by other FReepers...
AuntB's "vanity" thread is at
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3883218/posts
Other FReepers have posted links to helicopter video and Satellite Imagery
I looked at the helicopter video and, for uncounted blocks, there is not anything but ash-covered foundations, left. (I actually thought the videographer was shooting in grayscale -- until he showed his legs in a red jumpsuit...)
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One important clarification:
"Rumors spread just like wildfire and now our 9-1-1 dispatchers and professional staff are being overrun with requests for information and inquiries on an UNTRUE rumor that 6 Antifa members have been arrested for setting fires in DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON," read a Facebook post from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office in Oregon on Thursday. "THIS IS NOT TRUE!"
...BUT -- it was the "Almeda fire" that hit Medford (Pop 200,000 plus...)
"Police have opened a criminal arson investigation into at least one Oregon blaze, the Almeda Fire, Ashland Police Chief Tighe O'Meara said."
IMO, No matter how the arson stories turn out, it's going to be hard to convince Americans that folks who start fires and throw Molotov cocktails inside cities -- had nothing to do with these horrible wildfires...
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Prayers lifted from the PineyWoods of Northeastern Texas!
TXnMA
