Posted on 02/17/2015 7:51:04 AM PST by xzins
The late, great Eric Hoffer once said that, “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
Some people have started to wonder whether that’s happened to groups in the conservative movement – and that’s understandable. Reports about sleazy activities by conservative groups have not exactly been in short supply over the last couple of years. Damaging stories have popped up on the Daily Beast, Mother Jones, Washington Post, the Politico and at the Daily Caller among other outlets. Additionally, for those of us who have a lot of friends in the Tea Party and among grassroots conservatives, stories of abuse have become rampant. That may be why you’ve heard people like Ann Coulter and Dana Loesch publicly suggesting that there are groups out there ripping people off. However, the problem with the articles that have come out so far is that most of them have come from liberal outlets and have only discussed limited aspects of a few organizations. That naturally led people to wonder if they were reading hit pieces. As to the rumors, there are always two sides to every story and it’s difficult to know how much weight to place on anecdotal stories.
(Excerpt) Read more at rightwingnews.com ...
AMEN! I give to individual candidates only.
Our local Tea Party NEVER asks for donations. We make their money selling gun raffle tickets.
I can well believe this type of thing is difficult to trace.
Regarding the Senate Conservatives Fund, which I contribute to because I trust them to get the money to conservatives (unlike the RNC), in a 10/7/2014 posting they (the SCF) said:
“When you contribute to a candidate through SCF, 100% of your donation goes directly to that candidate’s campaign. SCF even pays the credit card processing fee so every penny of your donation goes to the candidate.
“SCF has already raised over $4 million directly for our endorsed candidates this election cycle and we’ve spent over $5 million on independent expenditures promoting their conservative campaigns.”
If those statements are true, that would be a total of $9 million as of October 7, 2014, not the $3,682,841 shown on the chart. (And the 10/7/2014 figures does not count was was spent by the SCF between that date and the general election date in November.) In addition, as noted in the original article, the SCF spent additional monies ($2,735,267) for non-candidate issue ad spending.
As always, trust but verify.
bookmark.
I was deeply saddened last month when I found out that the “Wounded Warrior Project” could only gain a “C” rating (ABCDF scale) on its expenditure of funds. That’s not a PAC, but it’s the same principle.
re: Wounded Warrior Project
Yes. We used to give to it as well. Then we saw the rating. Now we give to Fisher House: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=7585
a. the money goes to pay staff and six figure salaries for the Execs.
b. the less cynical answer is that many groups do direct mail fundraising. It costs $1m to raise $1m. So no money is left. At that point they have developed a list for the future. They’ve developed a valuable database.
I have given $ to Tea Party Patriots twice before. They call me almost every day. I refuse their calls. Next time they call I will answer and let them know why they will never see another dime from me.
That is quite interesting.
What are the logistics of that and is it true for all direct mail fundraising?
What good does a data base do if it is not at all profitable?
- even if you don’t make a profit, it gets your message out.
- the “profit” comes on the 2nd appeal ... in future years. You’ve identified your supporters. The first appeal is prospecting. A 1% reply is typical. 2% IS A success.
Probably in to the pocket of the organizer of the PAC.
That used to be called a “loss leader” didn’t it?
very few of these PACs represent conservatives
I think Mark Levin might sue if he sees this.
You don’t even know what the Tea Party PAC is supporting! Give to candidates. Forget the rip off PAC’s.
Oh ok thanks.
There is big money in selling/renting email lists also.
IIRC I heard the figure $60k once for a one time use.
If they want to stockpile, then they should say so. Truth is donating. “Half will go to 2014 races, and half will go to 2016.”
Red Cross does the same thing. You can donate for the plea for tornado victims, and they’ll say they’re storing it up for future emergencies. All along their administrators makes hundreds of thousands.
Imagine the shenanigans the Clintons and their fellow travelers commit with all their fundraising.
Bill Clinton is paid $500,000 speaking advance for 45-minute speech, earning $11,100 per minute The former President may have made as much as $89 million in speaking fees since he left public office.
Just a crooked way to give money to a politician.
“To my mind, most of these records if true are completely reprehensible, bordering on near fraud, actually.”
I am forced to agree.
We’ve long known that we have more than our share of con artists on our side of the aisle, people like Karl Rove who’ll say anything at any given minute if they think it’ll bring in a couple more donations. But some of the names on this list are deeply troubling.
I used to think better of Sarah Palin, but this is indefensible. I can only hope that she’ll refute this report with hard facts if it’s false. Because if these numbers are true, she’s just another scam artist raising a fortune from conservatives who really thought their money could make a difference to more than a grifter’s bank account.
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