{"id":639,"date":"2013-01-21T16:45:55","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T21:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/georgia\/edfund\/resources\/elections-confidential-4\/"},"modified":"2022-08-16T13:54:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T17:54:32","slug":"elections-confidential","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/georgia\/edfund\/resources\/elections-confidential\/","title":{"rendered":"Elections Confidential"},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":""},"campaign_tax":[],"display_option":[],"issue_tax":[],"resource_type":[64],"region_tax":[],"state":[13,2],"topic_tax":[],"class_list":["post-639","resource","type-resource","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"helper_taxonomies":{"topics":false,"collection":false,"press_type":false,"person_type":false,"resource_type":64,"event_type":false,"campaigns":false,"department":false,"level":false,"states":[2,13],"act_option":false,"display_option":false,"primary":{"topic":null}},"subtitle":"How Shady Operators Used Sham Non-Profits and Fake Corporations to Funnel Mystery Money into the 2012 Election","excerpt":"\u201cElections Confidential\u201d describes how secret donors poured hundreds of millions into the 2012 election through social-welfare groups that are really political vehicles and via shell corporations formed as conduits to hide a funder\u2019s identity.\u00a0The first post-Citizens United presidential election cycle was bought and paid for by a handful of wealthy donors, but the corrosive influence of money in politics was amplified by the fact that we don\u2019t know who \u2013 or what \u2013 actually provided much of the funding.","featured_image":"","caption_override":"","updated_on":null,"sidebar_action":null,"related_event":null,"hide_hero_image":false,"location":"","external_link":{"publication_name":"","url":""},"file":null,"sidebar_action_query_string":""},"helper_people_group":{"title":"Authors","entities":null},"helper_downloads":{"title":"Downloads","files":[{"file":100000000019059,"title":"USP Elections Report Jan13 1.3_1"}]},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"

<\/p>\n\n

Georgia PIRG Education Fund<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cElections Confidential\u201d describes how secret donors poured hundreds of millions into the 2012 election through \u201csocial welfare\u201d non-profits that are really political vehicles and via shell corporations formed as conduits to hide a funder\u2019s identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first post-Citizens United<\/em> presidential election cycle was bought and paid for by a handful of wealthy donors, but the corrosive influence of money in politics was amplified by the fact that we don\u2019t know who \u2013 or what \u2013 actually provided much of the funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite widespread public support for disclosure and decades of legal precedent supporting the public\u2019s right to know the sources of election-related spending, voters were bombarded with messages from secretly-funded, innocuously-named \u201cdark money\u201d nonprofits that do not disclose their funding sources. Even those groups that do disclose their donors received millions from fake corporations that covered the money trail.<\/p>\n

Key findings include:\u00a0<\/p>\n