Follow the Dark Money
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25 responses to “Follow the Dark Money”
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I have not read the Post story because at this point in the month I’m out of free access. From some of the other blog commentary, I assume one question is did Dominion use my money, as a ratepayer, to pay for this political effort on behalf of what is supposed to be a separate, subsidiary operation – the pipeline. Because the General Assembly has neutered SCC oversight and the SCC’s authority to prevent Dominion from using ratepayer money improperly, it is a legitimate question. I don’t believe the groups on the other side you are pointing too are regulated monopolies which are overcharging their customers (me) $400 million a year – so it ain’t the same at all, Jimbo. As you know I am not opposed to the pipeline, but I would be furious to think ratepayer money was funding that PR effort.
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This has the look and feel of yet another one of those right wing conspiracy theories to be honest.
Wild accusations along the lines of “prove you did not receive Russian money”!!!
The things are tiresome and just downright wacky.
There’s an article in Politico that gets into the issue a bit – from both perspectives:
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/23/fracking-russia-republicans-240834
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Actually it is that famous debaters trick called the “red herring”, which in this case is even more appropriate. This is the kind of behavior that has earned the company a new nickname…
Been waiting for an excuse to use that link :).
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Steve, what’s the red herring? What’s the distraction?
I fully acknowledge in my post that reporting on Dominion’s influence on the political process is a legitimate story, and I re-publish quotes from the Post article documenting Dominion’s influence.
Are you saying that uncovering the dark money funding certain environmental groups is NOT a legitimate story?
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The above two comments capture my thoughts and reaction to this post. The two sides in the fracking/pipeline dispute are hardly equal in funding capabilities or political influence. Jim’s right that the CCAN should publish its donor sources, as PEC and most national environmental NGOs do. After all, we want to know if the Russians are funding them!! But these NGOs are not regulated, rate payer-funded entities intended to serve a public purpose, like Dominion. That Dominion funds its fracking/pipeline desires with rate-payer money is surely a more egregious abuse of its power than the work of an NGO whose funding sources are not public.
Interestingly, a lot of people up here in Loudoun have been strongly against the fracking/pipeline out of concern for global warming, which is not a purely Virginia concern! Why shouldn’t residents from north of the Potomac be concerned about this proposal?Yes, there are public information issues to address, but they aren’t much of a story, as the Post knew. So making this case honestly requires a deeper look into what will best make our democracy work — most immediately to address corporate engagement in p0litical/governmental decisions. Best to carry on without tinges of the right-wing conspiracy theories that increasingly bedevil fruitful dialogue.
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This why it’s called a swamp.
1. Dominion clearly exerts excessive political power in Virginia. This would be absolutely forbidden in many other states.
2. Our corrupt and opaque General Assembly is only too happy to take Dominion’s money and hand out favors in return. They operate under a state constitution that in MOST election years all but guarantees the re-election of incumbents.
3. The neutering of the SCC was a particularly egregious activity of the General Assembly. Truly shameful.
4. Multi-billionaires amass personal wealth many times greater than would be needed to ensure the prosperity of their progeny for many, many generations. Unsure of what to do with their excess wealth and fueled by immeasurably large egos they bastardize US tax law and set up “foundations” which allow them to exert personal influence over US politics and government. This personal influence is far, far beyond what any single citizen (un-elected to any office) ought to be able to exert. While there are examples on both sides of the political spectrum these self-appointed kings of America tend to have more liberals than conservatives. Our corrupt and opaque US Congress enables this by allowing unlimited tax exemptions to the funding of these foundations.Dominion and their ilk like to operate in the shadows. They try to hide in plain sight. Deals are made in the backrooms of dank pubs along the dark alleys of Richmond. Like cockroaches, they fear nothing more than light.
The left tends toward loud, dishonest propaganda. They tout themselves as champions of the little guy working in grassroots organizations. All the while, their hands are deeply into the pockets of George Soros and other billionaires who have grown tired of chasing money and now want to chase political control.
The whole system is a wreak. It hasn’t been right vs left in decades. It’s elite vs non-elite. On one side the Clinton Crime Family, on the other the Koch Brothers. When the dust settles they’ll both be richer.
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“The whole system is a wreak. It hasn’t been right vs left in decades. It’s elite vs non-elite.”
I agree. The dynamic today is not so much between political parties as it is between the America’s elite and non-elite.
John Adams predicted our constitutional system’s likely inability to control abuse and takeover by America’s elite. This issue was at the core of his disagreements with Jefferson that continued after the pair began exchanging letters after around 1810 and lasted until their deaths on July 4th, 1826.
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I know lots of people who believe everything they read in the Washington Post.
And I know lots of people who refuse to believe anything they read or are told unless they have read it in the Washington Post.
I also know lots of people who read the Washington Post every day, and who read nothing else of any consequence but the Washington Post.
And I also know lots of people who have read nothing but the Washington Post since they graduated from school.
It’s likely too that the Distraction Energy Video is a Washington Post plant intended to ride shotgun for the Washington Post’s last Dominion Energy story.
We need to have the US Department of Justice launch a Special Prosecutor to get to the bottom of all of this, and we also need a US Federal Congressional Committee Investigation to get to the bottom of all this.
Just imagine what is going on here: The Washington Post is writing mostly fairy tales everyday and the Washington Times can’t get a word in edgewise.
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First of all, there’s a conflict of interest for this article as the ad for Dominion Energy sponsorship is right next to this obviously pro Dominion post.
Dominion is a member of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council.
For folks who don’t know what ALEC is and does, it’s a consortium comprised of conservative legislators and privately owned corporations who work together to draft “model” legislation, introduce these drafts into state legislatures to be voted on to become state laws. ALEC’s motto is “Limited Government, Free Markets, Federalism.”ALEC receives money from conservative free- market billionaires such as Charles and David Koch, Betsy DeVos, Sheldon Adelson, etc. and there are several Virginia legislators who are either current or former members of ALEC. (Note: there’s also a local version of ALEC called ACCE–the American City County Exchange).
Dominion Energy is a member of ALEC.I posted an article on Daily Kos a month ago about Dark Money’s influence in politics and our democracy. Especially the Koch brothers/Koch Industries are massively instrumental in reshaping our country: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/10/30/1710927/-Dark-Money-is-Deeply-Infiltrating-our-Democracy
Dark money is FAR more pervasive in (right-wing) conservative and corporate circles than it is in “liberal” causes (saving the environment, preserving a free press, making sure our food and water are safe, etc.). There is simply no way to “carry on” any longer without awareness of how tied to conservative and corporate causes dark money is.-
Kafka, how do you know that dark money is more pervasive in conservative/corporate circles than it is in liberal circles? Liberals have been making an issue of Koch Brothers dark money for a long time, and liberals have done a lot more research on conservative sources of dark money than conservatives have done on liberal dark money, and liberals have a bigger, louder media megaphone. But what do we actually know?
Assuming you actually believe what you say — that conservatives benefit a lot more from dark money than liberals — would you support legislation that requires all nonprofits and foundations to reveal where their money comes from?
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Dark money is and will be as pervasive, on all sides, as the law allows it to be. Money funding lobbying efforts should be disclosed in a timely manner. Activists on both sides are total hypocrites when they whine about the other side. My point, my concern, to stretch to a bad pun is the “light” money – the money being made off my light bill being used to fund a pipeline PR effort when the pipeline is supposed to be unrelated to the power company. And the inability of the SCC to exercise its constitutional authority to prevent that.
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Steve, You raise an interesting issue regarding the possible subsidy of ACP lobbying/PR efforts by the rate payers of Dominion Virginia Energy. If that could be shown to be true, I would agree with you, it would be scandalous.
However, it is my understanding that Dominion Transmission (which is the Dominion arm involved with the ACP) is a subsidiary of the parent company Dominion Energy and any money invested in the ACP lobbying/public relations effort comes from Dominion Transmission.
ACP spokesman Aaron Ruby is an employee of Dominion Energy and/or Dominion Transmission — not Dominion Energy Virginia.
Dominion Energy Virginia spokesman David Botkins and those who work with him are not involved in any way, shape or form with the ACP effort. They will always refer any questions about ACP to Ruby.
If you have information to support the idea that money from your light bill is subsidizing the ACP effort, please reveal it.
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I have now read the Post piece and in no way did it report or even allege that ratepayer money was directly funding the pipeline PR effort. I have no way of knowing and perhaps I threw out my own red herring – but the profits from DEV flow up to the parent company, and money is fungible. Right now thanks to that “SCC Oversight Freeze” IMHO the utility is earning and keeping excess profits, it is making spending decisions the SCC might otherwise object to, and money is fungible. I would have zero concerns if the SCC had its old powers back. As a bit of spin doctor myself, however, I stand by my opinion that throwing the Russians into the discussion was a classic red herring tactic….once I read the Post piece, my response was – well duh, who would be dumb enough to think real disinterested individuals giving their pocket change paid for those ads, mailers and lobbyists??
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Don’t like The Washington Post, huh? I actually had this news earlier in a blog posting:
Anyway, it is no secret that some rich people like George Soros and Michael Bloomberg put their money where they like. So do the Brothers Koch.
But it is strange to have big trade associations pretend that their views are being posted by the “little” people out there. There is no doubt in my mind that many who oppose the ACP are sincere. I have been int heir homes. I have been shown how the pipeline will affect them. I really doubt that a regional green group such as CCAN is some kind of diabolical plot and is somehow hiding its real backers. Are people not supposed to have the right to organize and voice their views? Another false equivalency.
Anyway, even suggesting Russian funding in the anti-fracking movement is a bit of a stretch. There is no question that shale gas and oil undercut Russian oil sales, but they also cut OPEC sales and prices. Shale gas and oil are worldwide phenomena. In the U.S., they stretch from North Dakota’s Bakken fields to Eagle Ford in Texas to Marcellus in Pa and W.Va. Fracking did take a hit when prices got so low that it was too expensive to drill. But to say the Russians are funding some Blue Ridge groups is preposterous and sooooo provincial.
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“Even suggesting Russian funding in the anti-fracking movement is a bit of a stretch.”
So, you’re willing to believe (with good reason) that the Russians are willing to meddle in American elections, not to mention the politics of innumerable European countries, but they’re not will to protect their vital energy interests with similar forms of meddling? Really?
If you want more specific information on how Russia energy interests funnel money to Sea Change Foundation, read this letter from Congressmen Lamar Smith and Randy Weber to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Scroll down to page 3 where the letter details the role of Bermuda-based Klein Ltd. and the Wakefield Quin law firm.
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When I lived in New Jersey and was fighting coal plants in the 1990’s, I had similar complaints about the Utility/State Legislature team work.
Strikes me though that the intense bashing Dominion gets from Va. eco groups is just simply over-the-top in super-negativity. Makes me fear what former Rep. Tom Davis said the other day, Virginia is becoming more like blue New Jersey, and if we do not watch out we’ll go right past the NJ-stage to the California version of deep blue.
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Jim,
I really don’t need a lesson on how Russians try to manipulate energy prices. They’ve been doing that for years. But to paint them as secretly funding Blue Ridge farmers and retirees is just plain stupid.-
I hope you noticed the part where I wrote: “I thought it was a stretch to link Russian anti-fracking money with what appeared to me to be genuine, NIMBY-inspired grassroots groups like Preserve Montgomery County and the Friends of Nelson County. There was no way to know where the Russian money went once it reached the Sea Change Foundation. In all likelihood, I felt, the Russian money was so co-mingled with the contributions of rich American donors that it was meaningless to trace a trail from Russian oligarchs to an organization like Virginia Organizing, much less to groups one step removed from Virginia Organizing. “
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Also, Jim,
If you are so keen on sticking it to Moscow, one way is to put solar panels up EVERYWHERE rather that erect a $5.5 billion pipeline that likely is not needed in an economic sense.
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My blog post was not about “sticking it to Moscow.” It was about transparency.
Do you believe we should have transparency in how all “grassroots” money is spent and where it comes from? Or are you interested only in transparency for corporations and regulated utilities?
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As my mother too often told me: “What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.” Subject to the Supreme Court’s limitations in the old NAACP v. Alabama case, all donors and donations to any organization involved in public policy should be recorded and publically available.
And we’d all be better off were the General Assembly to bar contributions to any election campaign or public relations effort designed to influence public policy from any person or organization that is not from Virginia. Congress should authorize this for federal elections as well. Similarly, Congress should prohibit any organization from having tax exempt status when it spends money to have lobbyists influence the public policy arena. If a non-paid volunteer for a tax-exempt organization works to advance the organization’s agenda, let it alone. But once the organization pays an employee or third-party agent to do the influencing, the organization becomes taxable.
Drain the D.C. and Richmond swamps.
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Well, Jim,, let’s break this apart.
(1) privately held corporations do not have to disclose much.
(2) Publicly held companies do.
(3) regulated utilities with monopoly power most definetly should be extremely transparent
(4) advocacy groups that are non profits must follow the disclosure rules for non profits.
(5) If not non profit, then no, they don’t have to disclose much.As usually, you are putting forward some false equivalencies.
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re: false equivalencies… yepper…
I think when I see Jim Bacon DEMAND that ALL Dark Money in elections be “transparent”.. I’d be more accepting of his hand-wringing about “dark” money in pipeline issues ESPECIALLy when that whining seems to be coming from Dominion… which would make it the mother of all hypocrisies!
Nothing is more corrupting than dark money in our elections – free speech they call it….
aside from that – the idea that the Russians are “secretly” funding environmental groups.. and there ought to be “transparency”.
that’s a totally different fish from elections.. but I’d be fine with ANY law or rule that applies to ALL money – no exceptions.. I’d LOVE to know more.
Something else – there is a distinct difference between 501(c) 3 or 501(c)4 groups… and you’ll find if you look .. that it’s not environmental groups but election PACS that inhabit the 501(c)4 realm and it is NOT tax deductible but legally they don’t have to disclose their donors.
Anyone who really wants to prioritize here – should, in m view, focus on campaigns and elections before they worry about pipelines or to be it another way – .. if they worry about pipelines but don’t even whimper about elections… well.. not impressed…
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I’ve always been in favor of full transparency for campaign contributions, lobbying expenses, and gifts to politicians. But that’s not the only way corporations and other special interests influence the political process. The public should know how much corporations, unions, and advocacy groups spend on “education” and “grassroots” efforts, and the public should know where that money is coming from.
If the Koch brothers are dropping a million dollars into a grassroots campaign, we should know about it. If George Soros or Tom Steyer or Michael Bloomberg is, we should know about it. Sometimes the millionaires and billionaires are forthright about what they’re doing. Often, they’re not.
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