The shadowy world of dark money corporate lobbying: A case study

[TexasTowelie]

Tax-exempt nonprofits that can engage in unlimited lobbying and do not have to disclose the source of their funding have become a favored vehicle for corporate lobbyists who wish to remain anonymous.

They inhabit a “shadowy world,” writes Boston Globe’s Michael Kranish, involving “groups that have vague but high-sounding names” where corporate operatives seek to shape public opinion “without leaving fingerprints and without having to directly associate their name and brand with the attacks made on their behalf.”

Last week, Union Leader reporter Dave Solomon reported on a nonprofit social welfare organization that is using so-called “dark money” to organize opposition to the Northern Pass energy project. Protect the Granite State (PGS), a Delaware-registered nonprofit, can legally raise unlimited funds without disclosing its donors – and it’s keeping them a secret. “The organization is a 501( c  )(4) whose donors choose to remain anonymous,” PGS spokesman Jim Merrill told the Union Leader.

Solomon was unable to lift the group’s cloak of anonymity but he did document a connection between PGS and a Massachusetts-based nonprofit group that opposes the Access Northeast Pipeline project, Consumers for Sensible Energy (CSE). PGS and CSE share “some of the same key players and very similar presentation in their websites,” Solomon wrote.

Read more: http://miscellanyblue.com/post/167985681972

[Hortensis]

1. Good post. Jane Mayer's Dark Money is a must-read on this

also. They've been hiding their subversive activities behind these front organizations for decades.