Uncategorized

Media Exposure of Gambling Dark Money’s Damage to Democracy

Posted on by Milton Coalition in Uncategorized

Using Dark Money, Gambling Corporations are mounting a Pearl-Harbor-style assault on our democracy . . . the likes of which we’ve never seen in Georgia.  And if successful, we will see a proliferation of similar onslaughts in future elections.  The consent of the governed will be effectively blotted out by the purveyors of Dark Money.  Now is the time for ordinary citizens to oppose Special Interests that are using deception and manipulation to finagle their agents into the state legislature.  Don’t let gambling PACs choose your representatives! 

So why the Pearl Harbor analogy?  Isn’t that over-the-top?  Not in the least.  This Gambling Industry PAC-Attack is a huge assault and it is a surprise assault.  $10M+ (and growing) is being injected into 30+ selected state legislative races . . . that’s $300,000+ per race.  And based on what I’ve seen (e.g., 18 PAC-financed mailers . . . so far), District 47 is seeing this level of spending.  The state PAC behind this dark money attack (Republican-tilted American Conservative Fund Action Georgia) is the largest Georgia PAC in both contributions and expenditures.  And when combined with the smaller Democrat-tilted American Future PAC (which traces its funding back to the same Win For America Super-PAC and the same gambling corporations as its conservative counterpart), the dark money pot tops $10M.  This is nearly twice the second biggest Georgia PAC, the Georgia Democratic Party, at $5.6M.  Why is this a sneak attack?  First, gambling is never mentioned in any campaign promotional media for candidates.  And gambling is never mentioned at the PACs’ websites.  Second, you must wade through three layers of PACs before you identify the malefactors:  three gambling corporations lurking at the 4th layer.  Third, these PACs were all established within the past 8 months.  (American Future, the Democrat gambling PAC, wasn’t registered in Georgia until April 17th.)  The recency element is important because there are time lags that watchdogs (like me) must deal with.  The intent of these PACs is to attack with minimal advance notice (just like a military attack) to maximize the element of surprise . . . perhaps people won’t notice or act until it’s too late. 

Fortunately, some watchdogs were paying attention.  Sentient reporters began sounding the alarm in early February.  Over a period of several weeks, the gambling corporations’ master plan was gradually revealed and exposed:  $41+M in gambling dark money to be spent on state legislative races in selected states where gambling is illegal, including Georgia, Alabama, and Texas.  By mid-April (before early voting started on April 27th), several excellent articles had been published by national media that shone a bright light on the Gambling Dark Money invasion.  And since then, articles have abounded that expose the Gambling Industry’s plot to hijack elections.  Unfortunately, in some cases, the media reports read like an obituaries or post-mortems, reflecting Gambling Dark Money’s deathblows in numerous state legislative races.  In Georgia, only two of the Gambling PACs’ candidates failed to win outright or else advance to the run-off.  That, citizens, shows the overriding influence of this Dark Money.  Hopefully, District 47 voters will more discerning . . . at least, now that they are aware of the situation and the clear-and-present dangers.

So don’t let any politician tell you that he didn’t know what was going on.  Nobody is that clueless.  “American Conservative Fund” (or “American Future” in Democratic races) appears on all promotional materials for the Gambling PACs’ anointed candidates.  To ascertain the truth, one need only insert “American Conservative Fund” (or its variants) into one’s favorite search engine . . . or use easily searchable online state and federal campaign filing repositories . . . or both.

I could lay out the whole ugly Dark Money story for you here, but I won’t because other watchdogs have already done my work for me.  Following are 37 articles plus several other useful/interesting links.  I have organized the articles by geographical groupings and chronologically within a grouping.  For each article, I provide the title, the publishing date, and a website link.  (Unfortunately, a few articles require a subscription.)  The titles of articles that I think are especially compelling are in bold, red font.  The first grouping are national press articles.  These provide a broader perspective from experts and experienced watchdogs; these are the best reading.  The articles from Georgia provide the basics, but I would suggest instead reading the reporting from Alabama, which is deeper and more insightful.  Finally, I have provided a few articles from other states.

Citizens, make no mistake.  The infection of the District 47 election with $300,000+ in Gambling Dark Money is THE dispositive issue in the run-off (and general election).  (See Note 1.) It is a huge point of differentiation and eclipses all other candidate distinctions in the run-off.

Advocating Against Dark Money in District 47,

Tim

National Press:

These represent the most expert reporting.  I suggest reading the bolded national articles first.

Georgia:

The first article is not about Gambling Dark Money but provides important situational context.  At the end of the Georgia articles are some links to websites that provide insightful data/statistics on the Gambling PACs.

Following are some interesting websites that provide data/statistics on the Gambling PACs:

https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00927186

https://www.transparencyusa.org/ga

https://www.gafastmoney.com/independent-committee.html?committee=american-future

https://www.gafastmoney.com/independent-committee.html?committee=american-conservative-fund-action-georgia

Alabama:

The best state reporting on gambling Dark Money is issuing from Alabama.  Reporters there figured out early what was happening and have been quite astute in their coverage.

North Carolina:

Pennsylvania:

Ohio:

Note1: The gambling PACs have allocated $10+M to 30+ races in Georgia, so $300,000+ per race. So far, I’ve received no less than 18 mailers for Jack Miler from PACs. Another PAC, AFC Victory Fund, is also conducting a campaign for Jack Miller. So the figure of $300,000 is likely conservative. One organization that tracks PAC spending using AI has estimated about $180,000 has been spent by the American Conservative Fund on Miller. However, there are lags in the processing and reporting of data, so this is a low estimate but gives a sense of the trajectory of spending.