Schumer-tied dark money group wires $6 million to GOP primary meddler as Democrats slam anonymous cash

[Geee]

Washington Examiner

Since last September, Montana voters have heard various accusations lobbed against Tim Sheehy, a Trump-endorsed GOP Senate hopeful running to unseat Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT): he’s “shady,” a “so-called businessman,” and “cashing in on Communist China,” according to a flurry of political ads running in the Treasure State.

The GOP primary ad buys were snagged by Last Best Place, a recently-formed super political action committee that, under federal law, is allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money supporting or opposing candidates, Federal Election Commission records show. But the ads are technically thanks to Majority Forward, a nonprofit organization tied to Senate Majority PAC, the main outside group working to elect Democrats to the upper chamber and affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Majority Forward, which is organized under a section of the IRS called 501(c)(4) that allows it to shield its donors from the agency, is the sole funder of Last Best Place PAC, according to campaign finance filings. And these cash transfers from the Majority Forward dark money group to Last Best Place PAC between September 2023 and March 2024 have been to the tune of at least $6.1 million — all despite Schumer and other Senate Democrats frequently criticizing anonymous donations in the political system.

 

Majority Forward’s role in subsidizing Last Best Place PAC is a window into the dark money group’s vast influence across the United States. The dynamic also underscores how Democrats open themselves up to accusations of hypocrisy by decrying the influence of dark money, which Schumer has called “one of the gravest dangers undermining our democracy” that is corrupting politics. Majority Forward, which raked in $75 million and spent $56 million from July 2021 to June 2022, took large checks in recent years from CVS Health and PACs tied to other major corporations, according to campaign finance records and corporate disclosures.

“Majority Forward, with its nine-figure revenues, is proof positive that the Left’s scaremongering over ‘dark money’ is nothing more than a convenient way to villainize people who say things they disagree with,” said Parker Thayer, an investigative researcher for the conservative Capital Research Center group.