California is making it slightly more difficult for millionaires and billionaires like the Koch Brothers to secretly and fraudulently influence elections in the state.
As the Sacramento Bee tried to report it...
"Nonprofit organizations that make political contributions in California will have to disclose more information about the source of their money under a law Gov. Jerry Brown signed Wednesday."Senate Bill 27 was inspired by the 2012 ballot measure wars in California, when two out-of-state nonprofit groups poured $15 million into fighting Proposition 30 and supporting Proposition 32. Because of the groups' nonprofit status, they were not required to report where their donations originally came from, leading some to describe the contributions as 'dark money.'"
"Leading some to describe"? It was dark money! The groups did not disclose who the donors were when they spent millions and millions of that dark money to try and fraudulently effect election outcomes in the state!
It was all money laundered through Koch Brothers front groups, as the SacBee failed to note for some reason, but as the Mercury News reported last year when the scheme finally came to light...
"It was California Republican fundraiser Tony Russo's idea to solicit donations for nonprofit groups with 501(c)4 status as a way to conceal donors' identities, according to documents released by the FPPC [California's Fair Political Practices Commission]. For federal tax purposes, non-profit groups with that distinction are not required to name their contributors."In an interview with state investigators, Russo said he consulted representatives of the Koch brothers about his plan and won their support."
The entire scheme was run through two Rightwing dark money outfits calling themselves the American Future Fund and the ironically-named Americans for Responsible Leadership.
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