The Center for Responsive Politics finds a bunch of SuperPACs obeying the letter of the law when it comes to transparency of donors in U.S. politics but doing whatever they can to ignore the spirit of the law. Notably, all but one of the SuperPACs fingered for exploiting a disclosure loophole are pushing Republican candidates. So a question to Republican candidates and donors: Why are so afraid about telling voters where the money is coming from?
Thanks to a particular quirk in FEC reporting rules, [a SuperPAC] was able to run ads in the run-up to the California primary without disclosing its donors. When voters went to the polls June 5 and sent [Republican Rep. Paul] Cook on to the general election ballot, they did so without knowing where a heavy hitting super PAC came up with the money it used to try to influence their votes.
And Spirit of Democracy America is not alone. It and eight other super PACs that collectively spent nearly $1.3 million in recent primaries disclosed just $37,318 in 2012 cycle contributions prior to the time votes were cast, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis.
via Stealthy Super PACs Influenced Primaries Without Disclosing Donors – OpenSecrets Blog | OpenSecrets.