Salon.com > Crossroads GPS

The real IRS scandal: Targeting by class

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:09:00 +0000

For all the talk of scandal regarding the IRS targeting groups named “Tea Party” or “Patriot,” it’s not hard to draw an additional lesson from the facts of the case -- a pattern that follows the well-worn model of the modern political age: Benefits flow to the rich and the well-connected, with pain for the rest.

The Cincinnati incident, which has already cost the job of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller (who was not the commissioner when the scandal occurred – this would be like the State Department reacting to the tragedy at the Libyan consulate by firing a low-level bureaucrat coincidentally named Ben Ghazi), is definitely scandalous in its own right. As the Treasury Inspector General report details, it’s completely inappropriate for the IRS to burden any subset with invasive information requests based merely on keywords or policy positions.

Big Money lost the battle, but the war goes on

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:20:00 +0000

“Never before has so much political money been spent to achieve so little,” the Washington Post’s Dan Eggen and T.W. Farnam wrote in their big A1 story yesterday. “Spending by outside groups, it turns out, was the dog that barked but did not bite.” You can find a similar narrative in the New York Times, Politico, the Wall Street Journal and pretty much everywhere else.

And indeed, Tuesday was a terrible no good awful night for most of the biggest super PACs and other assorted "outside" groups, as most of them are Republican-aligned and Republicans lost big. Hundreds of millions of dollars down the drain and with nothing to show for it.

NRA also lost big on Election Day

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:14:00 +0000

The Sunlight Foundation analyzed election spending by the National Rifle Association, and determined that the group had a less than 1 percent return on its more than $11 million investment.

The study, based on FEC reporting, found that the NRA backed 27 winning candidates, but only 0.42 percent of the $11,787,523 it spent on the election went to those candidates. Instead, 78 percent of the money went to opposing Democrats. From the report:

- 0.81% of $10,955,688 spent in the general election and ending in the desired result.
- Supported 27 winning candidates ; 0.42% of money went to supporting winning candidates.
- Opposed 5 losing candidates; 0.39% of money went to opposing losing candidates.

Sunlight also highlights that the Karl Rove-tied American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS poured over $200 million into the elections, but supported no winning candidates.

Conservatives turn on Karl Rove

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:32:00 +0000

Karl Rove helped pour $400 million of outside money into the 2012 elections. But since Republican candidates were walloped on Tuesday, the backlash against the Rove strategy is coming fast, and he has a lot of explaining to do.

Rove has alternately blamed Hurricane Sandy ("The president was also lucky," he wrote in a Thursday Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. "This time, the October surprise was not a dirty trick but an act of God. Hurricane Sandy interrupted Mr. Romney’s momentum and allowed Mr. Obama to look presidential and bipartisan") and argued that if not for Crossroads, "this race would have been over a long time ago."

For his part, Mitt Romney has also been pointing to Hurricane Sandy, telling donors on Wednesday that the storm killed his momentum. Some of those donors are blaming Chris Christie as well: “A lot of people feel like Christie hurt, that we definitely lost four or five points between the storm and Chris Christie giving Obama a chance to be bigger than life,” one anonymous donor told the Washington Post.

Akin aide: Crossroads, NRSC want McCaskill to win

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 18:54:00 +0000

Todd Akin may have gotten a bunch of Republicans back into his camp following those "legitimate rape" comments, but according to Akin's campaign, there is something nefarious about the NRSC and Crossroads GPS's reluctance to support him.

“I believed at one time they did want Akin to win, even though they didn’t want to admit it,” Rick Tyler, a senior Akin advisor, told Alex Pappas and Alexis Levinson of the Daily Caller. “I’m convinced now they don’t want Akin to win.”

“They would rather lose this race and give it to McCaskill than have Todd Akin win,” Tyler said. “This has somehow gotten to be personal with them. So they’re willing to throw away the Senate majority. They’re willing to keep Obamacare right where it is.”

Super PAC spending is about to explode

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Things have taken a turn for the worse for Democrats in recent days -- just as the campaign enters what could be described as the super PAC death zone. Even though we’ve already seen at least $517 million spent by outside groups, almost all of it on attack ads, during this election cycle so far -- more than every other cycle since 1990 at similar points combined -- the wave of outside money about to crash down on the race between now and election day could add up to double what’s already been spent.

For 10 of the past 11 election cycles, about half of the total outside money spent during the entire campaign came during the month preceding the election, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. In 2010, the first election following the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, 56 percent of the total spent during that cycle came in the last 30 days alone. The only exception was 2008, when a still considerable 40 percent of the total was spent in October and early November. If that past is precedent, the next month could see another $400–570 million spent, easily pushing outside spending over the $1 billion threshold.

Conservatives pour new money into 6 Senate races

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:15:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — A conservative super PAC affiliated with Republican strategist Karl Rove has jumped back into the Indiana Senate race with a nearly $1 million ad buy highlighting Democratic nominee Joe Donnelly's support for President Barack Obama's policies.

The Indiana buy is part of more than $6.4 million worth of air time that Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads bought this week against Democrats in six competitive Senate contests, according to Federal Election Commission records. The money was also dedicated to Senate races in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Nevada and Wisconsin.

Indiana, while appearing firmly in GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's camp, is emerging as a battleground state for control of the Senate. Groups supporting Democrats also have poured about $1.5 million into the race in the past six weeks, hoping to take away the seat held for 36 years by Republican Richard Lugar.

State Treasurer Richard Mourdock defeated Lugar in the Republican primary in May and was an early favorite to keep the seat in GOP hands.

Crossroads GPS makes the case that Donnelly, now a House member, cast critical votes in support of Obama's $833 billion economic stimulus and expansion of government-supported health insurance coverage. It's the first time the group has been on the state's airwaves in more than three months.

Shady conservative ads

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 00:31:00 +0000

This election cycle, groups with generic America-loving names have been pouring donor dollars into swing state ad buys.

The Campaign for American Values, for example, is an Evangelical Super PAC run by Gary Bauer, undersecretary of education under Reagan and a failed Republican presidential candidate in his own right. As the DNC kicked off this week, the group put out an ad in North Carolina worrying that "Obama is trying to force gay marriage on this country.”

"That’s not the change I voted for. Marriage is between a man and a woman," the woman says.

According to OpenSecrets, the group spent around $47,000 on the ad buy.

Then there's the nonprofit "political charity" Crossroads GPS, the Karl Rove-connected behemoth that, combined with the Koch-backed Americans For Prosperity, has spent about $60 million on TV ads alone. In this ad, Crossroads targets recent college graduates who voted for Obama in 2008, but who might be disillusioned with his presidency because of student loan debt and unemployment. In the past, the Crossroads-connected Super PAC American Crossroads has also courted the youth vote with a less effective ad attacking Obama for being too cool.

Obama goes to war with GOP secret money

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 20:24:00 +0000

In one of the biggest salvos of the post-Citizens United campaign finance wars, President Obama’s campaign is taking direct aim at one of the top conservative dark money outfits, filing a complaint with the FEC against Crossroads GPS. The group is the 501(c)4 arm of the Karl Rove-backed Crossroads empire, a status that means it doesn’t have to disclose its donors or much else to the public, unlike standard super PACs, like its twin, American Crossroads.

But the Obama campaign is arguing that the group is essentially violating the tax laws governing its nonprofit status and therefore must reveal its funders. Bob Bauer, the Obama campaign’s top lawyer, argues that Crossroads GPS should no longer be protected as a charity, because it is clearly a political organization. “Crossroads seems to believe that it can run out the clock and spend massive sums of money in this election without accounting for a trace of its funding,” Bauer wrote in the complaint, which was filed today and obtained by the New York Times.

Karl Rove spending millions lying about everyone

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:35:00 +0000

An ad by Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS attacking Montana Sen. Jon Tester was pulled from the air by a cable service because it contains nothing but very blatant and indefensible lies, unlike the usual defensible lies and distortions most political ads make.

Cablevision's Optimum cable pulled the ad, which claimed that Tester voted against banning the EPA from regulating farm dust. The supposed EPA rule was completely imaginary and the vote was about Chinese currency manipulation.

I bet Crossroads is super embarrassed about this awful mistake, right? Of course they are:

Nate Hodson of Crossroads said in defense of the pulled ad, "It was a very small cable system. The four largest broadcast stations in Montana reviewed the facts supporting the ad and will continue airing it."

He said later, "We are communicating with the cable system and expect that the ad will be back up and running on cable soon."