Biden Jets Out for One Last Vacation
Watch a Teacher's Letter Attacking Pro-Trump Family Members Blow Up in His Face
Look What These Israelis Used to Make Their Menorah for Hanukkah This Year
Libs Demand Congress Do Something That Was Considered an Act of Armed Rebellion...
Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Law Barring Nonviolent Felons From Owning Firearms
British Transport Police Sued for Allowing Trans-Identified Males to Strip Search Women
Workers in This State Just Won the Right to Bring Their Guns to...
Here's What Has Jen Psaki Raking Democrats Over the Coals
Former Democratic Presidential Candidate Throws Hat in Ring for DNC Chair
Russia Blamed for Devastating Airline Crash That Killed 38 Passengers Near Ukraine
Celebrating Media Mayhem with The Heckler Awards - Part 3: The Individual Categories
Trump Promises to Pursue Executions After Biden Commutes Most of Federal Death Row
Biden Orders Pentagon to Deliver More Weapons to Ukraine Just Weeks Before Leaving...
You Won't Believe What Happened at This Phoenix Airport on Christmas
Texas Woman Arrested and Charged After Authorities Made This Horrifying Discovery
Tipsheet

Unions Fund Anti-Tea Party Group Scheme

Fox News is reporting that a website portending to represent an anti-tea party grassroots organization is actually "the front end of an elaborate scheme that funnels funds -- including sizable labor union contributions -- through the offices of a prominent Democratic party lawyer."
Advertisement


Democrats and labor unions working together to subvert the tea party movement?  Noooo... Who ever would've predicted such a thing!?
"This movement is a fad," proclaims TheTeaPartyIsOver.org, which was established by the American Public Policy Center (APPC), a D.C.-based campaign shop that few people have ever heard of.

But a close look reveals the APPC's place in a complex network of money flowing from the mountainous coffers of the country's biggest labor unions into political slush funds for Democratic activists.

Here's how it works: What appears like a local groundswell is in fact the creation of two men -- Craig Varoga and George Rakis, Democratic Party strategists who have set up a number of so-called 527 groups, the non-profit election organizations that hammer on contentious issues (think Swift Boats, for example).

Varoga and Rakis keep a central mailing address in Washington, pulling in soft money contributions from unions and other well-padded sources to engage in what amounts to a legal laundering system. The money -- tens of millions of dollars -- gets circulated around to different states by the 527s, which pay for TV ads, Internet campaigns and lobbyist salaries, all while keeping the hands of the unions clean -- for the most part.

The system helps hide the true sources of funding, giving the appearance of locally bred opposition in states from Oklahoma to New Jersey, or in the case of the Tea Party Web site, in Illinois.

And this whitewash is entirely legal, say election law experts, who told FoxNews.com that this arrangement more or less the norm in Washington.

"It's not illegal but it is, I think, dishonest on the part of the organizations," said Paul Ryan, a legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center. "And there's a reason they do it: they know voters don't like outsiders coming in to sway the vote."

Advertisement

Apparently Varoga and Rakis play host to a slew of other political shops that offer liberal candidates money -- "from measly thousands to game-changing millions" -- in elections across the country.  Fox reports some of the biggest backers of Varoga and Rakis' scheme include theService Employees International Union (SEIU), the National Education Association and the Teamsters.

Full story here.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Recommended

Trending on Townhall Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement