Analysis of a PAC
Analysis of a PAC
Earlier this year I encountered a group of people affiliated with a PAC that, by their own words, was dedicated to eliminating The Squad from Congress. As a progressive independent I was mildly shocked. There are other PACs out there doing the same, some of them dark money super PACs, but this one was different. They were vying for donations on BlueSky.
Almost immediately I began to correct their false proclamations that members of The Squad were vulnerable and needed to be primaried to ‘save America from the left’. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Especially this year. The Israeli/Gaza conflict has had a rallying effect on many of us progressives and this will surely boost the popularity of progressive candidates.
The members of this group, the operatives of Pro PAC, I’ve designated as “Agents Of Division” because that’s exactly what they are. At a time when all Dems should be working together to defeat the GOP, they are advocating for the elimination of progressives from Capitol Hill. See my list here.👇🏽(ignore the ‘PAC Watchdog’ that’s me). https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:fbcj6zwgvqa63wmcv4muclqe/lists/3kg5me7wcxd24
So I’ve been patiently awaiting the release of the first quarter FEC filings. Now that they’re here, I’ve begun to dig a little deeper into the activities of this divisive group of blue dogs, and most notably, the organizers of Pro PAC.
Why? Because they’ve not actually given anything to any of the candidates they’ve claimed to collect for in the first quarter year of their existence. Not one single penny. I wanted to know exactly where the $28k they collected went.
The FEC page for the PAC gives us the basics, but doesn’t go into details for receipts or disbursements.
https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00858100/#cash-summary
There’s a better source available. I found it at:
https://projects.propublica.org/itemizer/filings/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=Pro+PAC
If we click on the name in the little box there, it takes us to a page where we have access to the details of the filing. Names, addresses, dates and amounts of all receipts and disbursements are made available if we know how to navigate this site. It’s all public records and quite simple to use. Going forward I find:
Total Receipts
$28,194
Total Expenditures
$22,101
Cash on Hand
$6,093
Contributions
$28,194
Unitemized Contributions
0.0%
Refunds
10.4%
And:
Top Spending Categories
The top five categories of spending as reported by the committee (these are not standardized).
| Management Consulting | $13,000.00 |
| Digital Consulting | $3,000.00 |
| Contribution | $2,474.17 |
| Contribution Refund | $2,291.66 |
| Credit Card Processing Fees | $1,021.30 |
Must be nice to be a consultant. Very profitable. Especially when you are the consultant to the PAC you yourself created. The two main figures behind Pro PAC are Victoria Perrone and Sally Albright. Victoria founded Pro PAC, its predecessor Median Way PAC, and Spruce Street Compliance, a consulting group. Sally is with Candlemore Media Group.
See that $2,474.17 listed as ‘Contribution’? That was disbursed from Pro PAC to Median Way PAC, and then disbursed to Spruce Street Compliance along with their remaining cash in hand. Median Way PAC was then terminated. They were in existence for approximately one year. I would expect to see this small amount, less than 10% of the $28k raised to go to actually fund candidates. Not so apparently. And I might expect that Median Way’s leftover cash would be passed on to Pro PAC so that it could be used to fund candidates. Isn’t that what we all expect our donations are for?
Is this what happens with other PACs or is this an outlier? I think I’ll look into that. Easy money.
If you’d like to see into the future of Pro PAC, check out Median Way’s filings for 2022/2023. I’ve not looked at activity before this, but gosh it sure looks like a pattern emerging here. Of the total receipts of $134,216.66 that year, only $4,500 wound up benefiting five candidates.
These are some other PACs I will be looking at:
- Save Democracy PAC https://savedemocracypac.com/
- Future Forum PAC https://futureforumpac.com/
- Across the Aisle PAC
- Blue South PAC https://bluesouthpac.com/
- When Democrats Turn Out PAC https://www.unfuckpolitics.com/
- Way to Lead PAC https://waytolead.us/
- Defeat Republicans PAC https://defeatrepublicans.org/
- Demand Justice PAC https://demandjustice.org/
- Democrats Serve PAC https://democratsserve.org/
Here’s a report on scam PACs by Katie Porter
https://porter.house.gov/uploadedfiles/final_scampacsreport_december2023.pdf
Well, that’s all for now. I’ll update this blogpost when I’ve discovered more. And I’m going to keep track of this in the future, as well as reposting frequent warnings.
My advice? Donate directly to a campaign when you can. You can find a nationwide listing at: https://blue24.org/
Until next time, remember to vote blue up and down ballot!
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