{"id":102299,"date":"2015-11-22T20:48:50","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T03:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=102299"},"modified":"2015-11-23T09:43:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T16:43:28","slug":"liberal-dark-money-group-rails-against-dark-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/11\/liberal-dark-money-group-rails-against-dark-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberal ‘dark money’ group rails against ‘dark money’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid lambasted secret political cash when he appeared recently in a video<\/a> filmed and produced by a liberal advocacy group.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>

Pictures of Money \/ Creative Commons<\/p>

The group behind the video, a nonprofit called American Family Voices, doesn\u2019t generally reveal who funds its operations. (photo cc info<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWorking families can\u2019t compete with billionaires,\u201d Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said in the ad that also featured another liberal luminary in Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. \u201cLet\u2019s stop the flood of dark money into our political system and do it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

One catch: The group behind the video, a nonprofit called American Family Voices<\/a>, doesn\u2019t generally reveal who funds its operations \u2014 although a\u00a0Center for Public Integrity<\/a> review of Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor records indicates large unions, environmental interests and a major corporate retail lobbying group have this decade provided it with six- or seven-figure contributions.<\/p>\n

American Family Voices has in part used this money to sponsor ads and videos trolling conservatives and tackling prickly political issues from immigration reform to credit card fees. American Family Voices also spent $10,000<\/a> last year on campaign ads attacking now-Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, without disclosing its funders as is required of candidate committees \u2014 and even super PACs. To anyone watching these messages, it isn\u2019t readily evident who their bankrollers are.<\/p>\n

The situation is emblematic of liberals increasingly complicated, if not tortured relationship with \u201cdark money\u201d \u2014 shorthand for the potentially limitless cash used by certain nonprofits, which aren\u2019t require to disclose their donors, to either promote or pummel political candidates.<\/p>\n