Liberals Outpaced Conservatives in ‘Dark Money’ Midterm Spending

By Julie Bykowicz (WSJ)

Jan. 23, 2019 6:00 a.m. ET

Elections of 2018 bucked years long trend of right-leaning nonprofits dominating in ad cash, report says

WASHINGTON—As Democratic presidential hopefuls promise not to boost their candidacies through spending by outside groups with cash from wealthy donors, sometimes given secretly, a new report says the party received most of the so-called “dark money” spent on political ads in the 2018 midterms.

That marked the first time since 2010 that liberal nonprofits outspent conservative ones, according to a report by Issue One, an organization that advocates reducing money in politics. Liberal groups accounted for 54% of the $150 million in dark-money spending in last year’s election cycle, conservative groups 31% and nonpartisan or bipartisan groups 15%.

All told, the report found that nonprofits that don’t disclose their donors have invested almost $1 billion in political ads and messaging in the years since the Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United made clear that those interest groups can participate in electoral politics.

A liberal group called Majority Forward, which spent $46 million on ads and was active in 10 competitive Senate races last year, was the biggest nonprofit spender during the midterm elections, the report says. Majority Forward is led by J.B. Poersch, a Democratic operative who has worked closely with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and has never disclosed any of its donors. Last week, the group announced it would run $600,000 in new ads targeting six Republican senators during the partial government shutdown.

“Majority Forward files contributions and election activity in accordance with required federal election law,” Mr. Poersch said in a statement, which also noted the group was created in 2015 to counter activity from a larger number of similar, conservative organizations.

Majority Forward is ranked the fifth-biggest politically active nonprofit in the eight years since those kinds of groups, known as super PACs, took root in electoral politics, the Issue One report says. Both politically active nonprofits and super PACs can raise unlimited campaign funds from individuals, companies and labor unions, though super PACs must disclose their donors to the Federal Election Commission.

Overall, conservative nonprofits that don’t disclose their donors have spent far more than liberal ones in the years since 2010’s Citizens United, other court rulings and rules changes ushered in a new era of outside spending. Majority Forward, the League of Conservation Voters, Patriot Majority USA and VoteVets Action Fund are the only Democratic-leaning groups to appear on Issue One’s list of the 15 biggest politically active nonprofits.

Together, those four groups have spent $127 million on overtly political ads since 2010. That’s less than the Republican-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce spent on its own, and it’s just 18% of the total $723 million in spending by the top 15 groups over the past eight years, according to the report. Issue One analyzed FEC filings and ad-spending data collected by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

“It’s no surprise that both Democrats and Republicans utilize whatever political vehicles are at hand,” said Nick Penniman, chief executive officer of Issue One. “Both parties view it as an arms race.”

Nonprofits are legally prohibited from spending most of their money on politics. Groups have pushed the boundaries of what is permissible by spending even more on “issues advocacy” and other quasi-political activities, but the FEC and Internal Revenue Service rarely take disciplinary action.

Several early entrants in the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination race have explicitly sworn off super PACs and dark-money nonprofits.

Many of the biggest nonprofits have companion super PACs. Majority Forward shares staffing and strategy with Senate Majority PAC, a left-leaning super PAC. Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies and One Nation, two groups associated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, work alongside the Republican super PAC Senate Leadership Fund.

FEC records show that the nonprofits, which take undisclosed donor money, often transfer funds to their affiliated super PACs to pay for salaries, office rent and other expenses—helping keep costs down for the groups that are required to reveal who is funding them.

Write to Julie Bykowicz at julie.bykowicz@wsj.com