A complaint filed yesterday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) based on an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity makes clear that Carolina Rising, the conservative nonprofit once run by current NC GOP executive director Dallas Woodhouse, violated IRS laws. The complaint says that Woodhouse and Carolina Rising spent almost $5 million on ads trying to elect Thom Tillis to the US Senate. Woodhouse denies that the ads Carolina Rising ran were intended to help elect Tillis and were, instead, “issue ads.” Unfortunately for Dallas, ProgressNC Action is circulating an election-night video where he brags about spending $4.7 million to elect Tillis.
The law says that nonprofits like Carolina Rising must spend more than 50% of their money on nonpolitical activities. What that really means is that their ads must avoid certain words like “vote for” or “support,” but the message can be indistinguishable from political ads to all but the consultants and lawyers. It’s a sign of the Orwellian state of politics in our country. I’ll show you.
“As a teacher, when I see something wrong, I correct it. So when I see these negative ads talking about massive budget cuts and textbook shortages, THAT is incorrect. Thanks to the leadership of Governor Pat McCrory and Speaker Thom Tillis, North Carolina increased funding for education by over a billion dollars.Teachers are being paid more and student performance is rising. The governor and Speaker Thom Tillis earn high marks.”
That’s an issue ad that was run in September 2014. (On a side note, the teacher who delivered these lies, er, lines, was arrested a few months later for assaulting a disabled student.)
“As a teacher, when I see something wrong, I correct it. So when I see these negative ads talking about massive budget cuts and textbook shortages, THAT is incorrect. Thanks to the leadership of Governor Pat McCrory and Speaker Thom Tillis, North Carolina increased funding for education by over a billion dollars.Teachers are being paid more and student performance is rising. So vote Speaker Thom Tillis for US Senate.”
That ad never ran because it was political while the other one wasn’t. See the difference? In addition, the first ad is funded by anonymous sources. The second ad would need to disclose who paid for it.
We’ll see if anybody pays attention to CREW’s complaint. As the Center for Public Integrity points out, the IRS has shied away from regulating nonprofits who engage in nonpolitical political activities because of complaints a few years ago that it was targeting Republican groups more than Democratic ones. Their solution was to essentially turn a blind eye.
If the IRS doesn’t crack down on this blatant disregard for the law, that signals we’ve entered into a world where the only groups regulated and restricted are political campaigns themselves. Candidates will matter less than the wealthy benefactors who fund anonymous groups that are not held accountable for anything. Until this system is fixed, it’s time to allow unlimited contributions to political candidates with immediate disclosure. At least then maybe candidates can have as much influence as the SuperPACs and nonprofits that are corrupting the system.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Has the term “gentleman” left the NC political arena???
Yeah, that’s the ticket. The solution to the problem of the corrupting influence of money flooding the system is to allow even more money to flood the system. We just need to make sure that everybody is equally compromised and beholden to the Donor Class.
How about a general acknowledgement that those who raise the most money are the most compromised? And we should vote for those kind of candidates only when there is truly no other alternative?