The Ethics Committee at
the Gold Dome removed the “end of free speech” wording, but Ralston wants it
put back in. See AJC article below:
Proposal seeks light on
Ga.’s ‘dark money’ by Chris Joyner AJC
Watchdog
Jack Staver is one of
a growing number of organized activists at the State Capitol who are
influencing public policy, but odds are you’ve never heard of him.
With a little poking
around, you could find out that Staver is a conservative activist out of
Woodstock and was deeply involved in the fight to defeat the 2012
transportation tax referendum in metro Atlanta. You might find one of his
websites inviting you to donate to his work. If you are extremely diligent, you
could even discover that the organizations he is affiliated with track back to
a UPS mailbox in Roswell.
What you won’t find
are campaign disclosures showing where he gets money to pay for his work or how
he spends it. That’s why House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, calls
Staver and other activists “mystery groups,” funded by what’s called
“dark money.”
Lawmakers are lobbied
by every conceivable interest on a near daily basis. Representatives from the
state’s hospitals, car dealers and the Chamber of Commerce bend ears daily.
Later, legislators receive checks from the same interests to fund their next
campaign, or if they are uncooperative those donations might go to an opponent.
We know this because
state law requires these groups to register with the state and disclose at
least a portion of their spending for all to see. Taxpayers fund the government
agency charged with keeping track of this spending, and my colleagues and I
regularly report on it for the public. These groups also register their
lobbyists who sport small, but visible, badges that identify them as such.
Not so with dozens of
activists who line the Capitol halls every year. State and federal laws do not
require these groups to explain how much they spend or who funds their
activism. Many of these groups define themselves as “social welfare”
organizations, rather than political committees, or say they are individual
activists acting on their own behalf. Yet their purpose is to influence public
policy, just like candidates, lobbyists and other regulated groups that
disclose donor information to the public.
When the legislative
session is over, these issue groups often turn their efforts toward the next
election cycle, making good on threats to unseat incumbents. In Georgia, the
most effective of these groups come from the political right, including the
various tea party groups and a collection of political gadflies who operate
mailing lists and social media campaigns to pressure the Legislature.
Two years ago,
activists angry with Ralston tried to defeat him in the Republican primary,
with one tea party leader going so far as to rent a cabin in Ralston’s North
Georgia district to better direct efforts against him.
Ralston hasn’t
forgotten, and he’s the hand behind House Bill 370, which would require influence
groups to disclose their donations and expenses when their efforts could be
construed to be aimed at a particular politician, party or ballot question.
“We’ve allowed these
groups to come in and take very aggressive roles in political campaigns with no
transparency with no accountability,” he said in an interview this week.
Staver said the bill
is a direct attack on free speech by self-interested politicians.
“It’s a threat to them
and their power. As we start to take incumbents out ... they lose their power
base,” he told me.
The bill passed the
House 166-6, but when it reached the Senate Ethics Committee this month
activists rallied against it with exactly the kind of behavior Ralston abhors.
People like Staver activated their networks to call and email committee members
opposing the bill.
Staver emailed a
warning about HB 370 to the people on his list that featured a picture of
Benjamin Franklin with tape over his mouth and the warning, “Don’t let them
kill free speech in Georgia tomorrow!” The mailer listed the members of the
Senate committee.
“They got a ton of
phone calls,” Staver crowed. “They don’t like phone calls and they don’t
like visits.”
Apparently it worked.
The committee members pledged to pull the offending language from the bill.
Staver said he is a
self-funded activist. Forcing him to register and disclose his finances is just
an attempt to stifle him. He’s disappointed that the effort comes from the
GOP-dominated House.
“It’s mostly
Republicans,” he said. “You shouldn’t have to fight your own party, but we have
to because you can’t fix stupid.”
Dozens of states have
either already passed legislation requiring more disclosure of “dark money”
groups or are considering it, despite the fact that influential political
voices, like the conservative Heritage Foundation, oppose it.
Donor lists for
nonprofit, social welfare organizations have a long history of secrecy. And for
a reason with roots in the Deep South. In 1958, the Supreme Court ruled that
the NAACP could not be required to turn over its donor list to the state of
Alabama.
In that ruling, the
court said making the NAACP’s lists public would discourage the group’s civil
rights activities and drive away members afraid “of the consequences of
this exposure.” In 1958, that meant the threat of violence from baton-wielding
state police or the Ku Klux Klan to silence dissent.
The political value of
“social welfare” groups exploded in 2010 when the Supreme Court ruled in
Citizens United that these nonprofits can spend unlimited amounts of money on
political speech but do not have to disclose their donors.
Conservative activists
are on the offensive saying states are just trying to crush grassroots
opposition.
Ralston said that’s
absurd. “We’re simply saying tell us who you are so the public can judge fairly
who’s supporting who and who’s opposing who,” he said.
HB 370 still has to
pass the Senate. If it does, Ralston indicated he will push to restore the
disclosure provisions. If that happens, “We’re going to be able (to know) what
their interest is.”
As AJC Watchdog, I’ll
be writing about public officials, good governance and the way your tax dollars
are spent. Help me out. What needs exposing in your community? Contact me at cjoyner@ajc.com.
Source:
AJC. 2/19/16, Metro B
Comments
It was
just a matter of timing before the AJC appointed a “watchdog” to watch us
watchdogs out here. The Gold Dome wants to put the MARTA expansion, T-SPLOST II
on our DeKalb, Fulton and Clayton ballots this November. Voters will get to
invest $8 billion to build it and then lose $200 million a year operating it.
Jack
Staver chairs a 9/12 Group in Cherokee County.
Jack and Debbie Staver chaired our T-SPLOST opposing Leadership
Coalition in 2012. We had over 100
volunteers working on that and coordinated with over 200 other groups
state-wide. We set up an LLC to report
contributions because it was a ballot issue.
We raised about $10,000 for yard signs and defeated the Chamber of
Communists $1 million disinformation campaign with 66% of the vote in 9 of 12
Regions. It saves us from becoming “regionalized” and making appointed regional
commissions official “tax collecting” entities to usurp city and county
elective representation.
We are
all “self-funding” volunteers and have well over 1000 groups in Georgia. All
are independent and most are Tea Parties, 9/12 Groups, Taxpayer Associations,
Ron Paul Campaign for Liberty Groups and other individually named conservative
groups. These days most of us would identify ourselves as Constitutional
Conservatives, but we still retain the original names of our groups. Most of the time we communicate directly to
the Legislators. When we need yard signs
to oppose a ballot initiative, one of us funds the order and then we pass the
hat. We are not “social welfare” groups; we are grassroots voter groups who
watchdog bad legislation and lobby to prevent, fix or repeal it.
“Dark
Money” is a cleaver name, but it may become a racial slur before Bad Deal and
Ralston are done with it.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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