Krush the Kochtopus: Just say no to its ‘dark money’ candidates

The Arizona Republic has been doing s series of reports on “dark money” in Arizona politics, and is finally reporting on the nefarious deeds of unindicted  bag man for the “Kochtopus” dark money laundering operations, Sean Noble and his DC London consulting firm. On Sunday, The Republic reported on the GOP gubernatorial primary. ‘Dark money’ pours into Arizona GOP primary:

Outside groups [have] poured $1.9 million into the competitive gubernatorial primary as of Aug. 5, fueling the barrage of ominously voiced TV spots and glossy mailers that have attempted to write new story lines about three of Arizona’s would-be governors who are leading in the polls.

The source of the money, and motives of the deep pockets supplying it, isn’t always clear. Most of the outside groups seeking to influence voters aren’t required to disclose where their money comes from.

In the wake of U.S. Supreme Court rulings lifting contribution limits and disclosure requirements for certain political groups, candidates face a new reality in which they have an increasingly difficult time controlling their own message.

Such has been the case for Ducey, Jones and Smith, who find themselves on the defensive, drafting talking points to counter attacks from outside groups with patriotic names that can pop up overnight.

Jones and Smith say Ducey is linked to the groups attacking them. They connect him via his political ally, Republican consultant Sean Noble, a veteran of the billionaire Koch brothers’ “dark money” network.

Noble, who supports Ducey, has connections to four of the five groups running ads against Smith and Jones.

“There’s no doubt that these are all related to Sean Noble and (his firm) DC London, and Ducey has had a relationship with Sean Noble and DC London — that’s the worst-kept secret in the world,” Smith said. “The fact that Doug Ducey has been completely silent means he supports it (attack ads funded by outside groups). To me, that’s shameful.”

But Ducey and Noble say there is no connection between the candidate and the outside groups’ activities in this race. [Riiight. I totally believe that — not!]

Three of the groups, Veterans for a Strong America, 60 Plus Association and Legacy Foundation Action Fund, are 501(c)(4) non-profits — named for the section of the Internal Revenue Service code that governs their activities — and can keep their donors secret.

Two other groups, Better Leaders for Arizona and Conservative Leadership for Arizona, are political-action committees that must disclose detailed summaries of their contributions and expenditures.

One of the first attacks on Jones came from 1,400 miles away.

Veterans for a Strong America, a Sioux Falls, S.D.-based political group, ran ads and sent mailers, highlighting Jones’ complimentary remarks about Clinton and suggesting Jones was unconcerned about the 2012 attacks on a U.S. consul in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. Clinton was secretary of State at the time of the attacks.

Jones says she “absolutely does not support” Clinton; any remarks she made comparing Clinton with her successor as secretary of State, John Kerry, were taken out of context.

Another ad — this one attacking Smith — knocks him for supporting an international treaty that seeks to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and compared him with Obama and former Vice President Al Gore. That ad came from even farther away, the Virginia-based 60 Plus Association.

60 Plus Association calls itself a nonpartisan seniors-advocacy group on its website. The group has spent about $425,000 to advocate for the defeat of Smith and Jones.

Another out-of-state group, the Iowa-based Legacy Foundation Action Fund, ran an ad that claimed Smith, as former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, was “Obama’s favorite mayor.”

Smith writes off attempts to tie him to Obama as election-year foolishness. He emphasizes his opposition to the president’s Affordable Care Act.

These far-flung groups had at least one common denominator, which Smith and Jones have been quick to point out: Noble.

Noble’s consulting firm produced Veterans for a Strong America’s anti-Jones ads.

Noble’s relationship with the group began in 2012, the same year Veterans for a Strong America received $937,000 from a non-profit advocacy group that listed Noble as its principal officer, the Center to Protect Patient Rights [now known as American Encore]. Joel Arends, the group’s chairman, has said the group originally hired Noble’s firm because he was impressed with its work.

The Center to Protect Patient Rights also gave $2.6 million to the 60 Plus Association in 2012, tax records show.

Noble told The Arizona Republic in an e-mail that DC London has consulted and produced ads for the Legacy Foundation Action Fund, though he did not say if he was involved with the Smith-Obama one. The group did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment.

Documents also tie Noble to another group running negative ads in the governor’s race, this one based here. Noble is chairman of Conservative Leadership for Arizona. The group has spent about $302,544 — $208,000 to promote Ducey and about $94,000 on attacks against Jones and Smith.

David Berman, a senior research fellow at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy, said voters should scrutinize any attack ad and question why groups, especially those from out of state, are so concerned with the outcome of a race in Arizona.

“There’s nothing enlightening or educational for the voters in these ads, and in the process a lot of the money (to fund them) is coming from people who don’t even live here,” said Berman, who has studied the influence of anonymous political spending. “There are ideological groups that want to make sure the conservative they want gets elected. It’s a real dark-money network.”

* * *

Noble said he met Ducey a number of years ago when he worked as chief of staff for then-Arizona U.S. Rep. John Shadegg, whom Ducey also supported.

Noble considers Ducey a friend, but the two don’t socialize, he said.

Noble said he informally advised Ducey during his 2010 bid for state treasurer. And in 2012, Noble’s DC London consulted on the Ducey-chaired “No on 204” effort to oppose a penny sales tax to fund education.

Asked why he’s supporting Ducey, Noble wrote, “Doug Ducey is the right person at the right time for Arizona’s future. He brings invaluable experience to the office and has a conservative vision for moving the state forward.”

Smith accused Noble of character assassination and called his reasoning for supporting anonymously funded groups “the biggest crock in the world.”

“People like … Sean Noble who operate in secrecy and then try to couch it as a First Amendment deal, to me, that’s disgusting,” Smith said. “I think voters, in general, should care about who’s buying elections.”

Jones, who hosted a telephone town hall and connected with more than 200,000 voters to address the claims against her, echoed Smith.

“Political speech is one of the most important types of speech … but I also think it is important for voters to know who’s persuading them,” she said. “We’ve stayed extremely positive. We’ve tried to go directly to voters with the truth. We’d rather focus on things that make a difference … rather than be defending against false attacks.”

Amid the withering outside attacks, Jones’ allies have decided to strike back. Better Leaders for Arizona, a pro-Jones political entity, has spent more than any outside group involved in the governor’s race.

In recent weeks, the group has spent about $1.2 million — including $775,000 — to assail Ducey for failing to “take responsibility for his dark money cronies” smearing Jones “with false attacks.” They’ve also hit him for his past delinquent property taxes, traffic violations, and the failure rate among Cold Stone Creamery franchises.

Ducey’s campaign wrote in a letter to station managers that the ad contained defamatory information.

The pro-Jones group recently unleashed a second round of ads, asserting taxpayers were on the hook when franchisee loans backed by the federal government went unpaid when the businesses failed: “A costly taxpayer bailout,” a sinister voice says. Ducey has said that while some Cold Stone franchisees failed, the overwhelming majority succeeded in the U.S. and abroad.

Better Leaders for Arizona is mostly bankrolled by GoDaddy Group founder Bob Parsons, who said last week he donated $1 million to the group and may give more.

Parsons said he did not know if others had given to the Paradise Valley-based group, which will be required by law to disclose its donors on Aug. 22.

Virginia Simpson, the group’s treasurer, sought to distance Better Leaders for Arizona from the anonymously funded players in the race.

She said the group is being transparent, pointing out that its key financial backer, Parsons, disclosed his involvement and his motivations.

Here’s an idea: Krush the Kochtopus. Vote against any candidate whom Sean Noble is supporting with “Kochtopus” dark money. In addition to Doug Ducey, this includes Secretary of State candidate Justin Pierce, and Corporation Commission candidates Tom Forese and Doug Little over solar energy in Arizona. The Campaign Against Net Metering: ALEC and Utility Interests’ Next Attack on Clean Energy Surfaces in Arizona:

[Last] October, APS finally admitted that it funded the 60 Plus Association and Prosper to run a campaign against net metering and in favor of the utility’s position.

The 60 Plus Association along with Prosper, a non-profit led by former Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams (who is also the president of Americans for Responsible Leadership), spearheaded the campaign on behalf of APS. Sean Noble, a paid lobbyist and consultant for Pinnacle West and a Koch-network operative, provided the pass-through for APS to launder money to the two non-profit organizations through his Center to Protect Patient Rights. The Koch Brothers spend hundreds of millions of dollars on their political network (and used the Center to Protect Patient Rights as a pass through for political contributions to numerous organizations).

Last month, Noble’s Center to Protect Patient Rights and Kirk’s Americans for Responsible Leadership, were fined a record $1 million by the State of California for failing to comply with California law. The groups funneled $15 million into California’s ballot proposition fights in 2012.

Unfortunately, Arizona’s campaign finance laws are so weak as to be non-existent as a deterrent for this kind of money laundering. Which is why the state of Maricopa is the hub of the “Kochtopus” dark money laundering operations.