Matt Wuerker Allen West plagued by scam PACs

There’s a new super PAC popping up in this year’s campaign: SCAM PAC.

In the presidential race, and tied to the coattails of Republican firebrand Rep. Allen West, a cottage industry has sprung up in which groups with such seemingly innocuous names as “Patriots for Economic Freedom” use high-profile campaigns and big names like West to raise money for themselves and build their email lists.


It’s the inevitable, if unsightly, convergence of the Internet, tea party, the post- Citizens United campaign-finance era and the presence of a Democrat in the White House who is despised by many conservatives. Political operatives can create a PAC and corresponding website on the cheap, drop some cash to rent an email list and, voilà— in come the small-dollar contributions from grass-roots Republicans eager to support any effort aiming to turn out President Barack Obama or reelect the fiery West.

Except those chunks of $25 and $50 don’t often find their way to any serious campaigns to beat Obama or boost West.

“The vast majority of the groups that we know are engaged in this have done nothing for West,” said Jill Holtzman Vogel, the congressman’s campaign attorney.

And, with the outfits that have given to West, those contributions pale in comparison to the money they’ve raised using the freshman Republican’s name.

According to media trackers and West campaign officials, none of the many conservative super PACs purportedly raising money for the congressman is airing TV ads on his behalf.

The Florida Republican’s campaign has sent cease-and-desist letters to a number of the groups and filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission, copies of which the campaign shared with POLITICO. But the organizations have been only mildly deterred and some continue to raise funds for themselves with marketing that would suggest they represent the actual campaign.

One organization, CAPE PAC, has a Google ad headlined, “Allen West in 2012: Join our Campaign & Help Us.” The URL goes even further: It is “ www.allenwest2012.co.”

Yes, that’s “.co,” not “.com.”

A click on the link takes the reader to CAPE PAC’s main home page, something that a spokesman for the group said was a concession to the West campaign’s demands. Previously, the link directed readers to a CAPE PAC Web page meant to look like West’s actual campaign site.

Mark Pfeifle, a consultant who works for CAPE PAC, emphasized that their Web ads now send readers to the PAC’s main home page.

“At the top and bottom [of the home page] it shows they’re clearly not affiliated with the campaign,” Pfeifle noted.

But Pfeifle acknowledged that CAPE PAC was trying to maximize its presence online.

“They are working to win candidate and campaign search engine warfare,” he said. “They’re trying to be one of the big pro-Republican websites for the candidates they support.”

Pfeifle insisted that the organization had run $10,000 of TV ads for West before his summer primary, but when asked where they aired, he said they were “on cable TV” in the district — and then listed a group of network affiliates in Palm Beach and Fort Myers.

“They are damn liars,” West consultant Chris LaCivita all but shouted about the claim.

In their complaint to the FEC about CAPE PAC, West’s campaign noted that in the third-party group’s July finance report, “nearly 1 out of every 10 contributions” was refunded to the donors.

“It’s unfortunate that some people are deliberately misrepresenting their association with our campaign and other campaigns in an attempt to raise money for organizations that have done little or nothing to support candidates,” said West. “I will take every available step to ensure that unsuspecting donors are not scammed by these deceitful groups and their dishonest tactics.”

High overhead and low contribution third-party groups are hardly new on the political scene. For years, the preferred medium was direct mail, and there were always notorious consultants who’d send out missives heavy on italicized, bolded and underlined language to ostensibly stop the latest conservative or liberal threat to the American way of life. The bulk of the proceeds, of course, would invariably go to list-building, postage, printing and their own salaries.

Now, the combination of technology and rising conservative passions in 2010 and 2012, along with an influx of politically inexperienced tea party activists, has created even more fertile turf.

“There has always been this thread of borderline fraudulent pocket-lining activity in the conservative movement — there’s just more of it right now,” said Ned Ryun, president of American Majority, a nonprofit group that trains activists. His group helps grass-roots activists around the country create and fund their own groups and has advised them against turning over their donor rolls to some national groups. “With so much at stake in these elections, people want to make a difference, and they’ll listen to pitches from anybody who sounds like they have a half-decent idea,” Ryun said. “But unfortunately, that’s opened the door for some of these scam artists, who are sucking money out of a movement that already has limited resources.”

In the presidential race, too, a handful of outside groups have popped up to raise millions of dollars and spend them with jaw-dropping inefficiency. Perhaps the best example is a group dubbed Our Country Deserves Better PAC, a rebooted version of the Tea Party Express, which spent heavily in Senate races in the 2010 cycle. In the 2012 election, Our Country Deserves Better has collected $7.8 million, so far, with more than three-quarters of that money coming in through small increments that the FEC does not itemize.

On its website, the group says it is “leading the fight” against liberal policies in Washington for Americans who want to “stand up to Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress.”

Despite its robust fundraising, Our Country Deserves Better PAC has reported just $488,907 in independent expenditures. A full 91.6 percent of its revenue went to “other federal operating expenditures” — fundraising expenses, travel and other overhead costs.

If that’s among the most egregious examples, it’s not the only one. Another organization, the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama, raised $2,370,688 this cycle and spent just 34.6 percent on independent expenditures. A full 65.2 percent of its outlays went to overhead.

By comparison, the establishment-approved super PAC American Crossroads spent 48.1 percent of its receipts on independent expenditures and 51.3 percent on other operating costs, according to the FEC. Crossroads also had an additional $32 million in the bank expected to be spent heavily on IEs toward the end of the campaign.

The pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future spent a full 91.3 percent of its funds on independent expenditures and just 7.6 percent on overhead — essentially the Our Country Deserves Better numbers in reverse.

Both Our Country Deserves Better PAC and the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama are registered to the same post office box in Willows, Calif., and list Kelly Lawler as their treasurer.

Reached at a phone number listed online, Lawler said that she doesn’t “like to take press calls” and said spokespeople would respond to POLITICO’s inquiries about the groups’ high overhead costs. They did not.

Ryan Gill, an official with the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama, said the group’s expenditures were focused on “grass-roots” activities such as rallies, bus tours and turnout, unlike other “more media-focused” national groups.

“Right now we’re on a bus tour, crossing Ohio right now. We’re doing rallies with people on the ground,” Gills said. “That’s going to show up on a report as hotels and meals and salaries, rather than media buys. … Our reports to our donors include pictures of events we’ve done or descriptions of things that are more qualitative than quantitative.”

Sal Russo, a consultant associated with Our Country Deserves Better PAC, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

It’s West, though, who has been most notably preyed upon this year. The retired Army colonel is beloved by grass-roots activists for his tough talk and against-type persona of a black conservative who will hammer Obama. In the House for just a single term, he’s already developed a devoted following, thanks to frequent appearances in conservative media. There was even some hope on the right that he’d be considered as Mitt Romney’s running mate.

In other words, he’s quickly become what Jesse Helms was for years on the left and Ted Kennedy was for the right in the direct mail world: a name that evokes strong emotions and is an almost guaranteed payday for those who use him to solicit donations.

POLITICO has found at least eight groups using West’s name to raise money for their PACs. The pitch is almost always along the same lines.

“Liberal super PACs are unleashing millions of dollars to stop Allen West. Help Patriot Super PAC fight back,” read one typically panicked plea.

But the only FEC record of Patriot Super PAC supporting West is for a $5,000 radio spot it aired in the district which sent listeners to a website with the URL www.wesaluteallenwest.com. Clicking on that site sends readers directly to Patriot Super PAC’s contribution page and a large headline: “DONATE NOW TO SAVE ALLEN WEST!”

West’s campaign filed complaints to the FEC about this group and four others in recent months, but that and the cease-and-desist letters seem to have had only minor effect.

Patriot Super PAC Patriot Super PAC did not return a voice mail from POLITICO seeking comment.

Among aspiring GOP players, the word has gotten out that the West name is a smart investment.

Andrew Hemingway, a young New Hampshire operative who ran Newt Gingrich’s primary campaign in the state, earlier this year created a group called “4RG.”

In an interview, Hemingway said that, as the name would suggest, he launched the outfit to elect a Republican governor in New Hampshire.

“We’re really focused on the race here with GOP gubernatorial candidate Ovide [Lamontagne],” he said.

When it was noted that his group had just that week sent an email out soliciting funds for West, Hemingway chuckled and said: “Uh, yeah, I mean, so, so yes,” before saying that he had only done so as part of an arrangement to give the funds to another conservative third-party group named Western Representation PAC.

“They have an Allen West defense fund and stuff like that,” explained Hemingway, mentioning his relationship with the group’s strategist, Dustin Stockton.

But Stockton said there was no such agreement.

“We don’t have a deal,” Stockton said, adding that 4RG’s willingness to send their proceeds his way “sounds very generous of Andrew.”

Stockton said Western Representation PAC had previously used 4RG’s list for a West solicitation, but that email had their header.

West officials have not sent a cease-and-desist to Stockton’s group, but, noting that the radio ads urge listeners to “sign up” at the group’s “Allen West defense fund” website, they argue that the spots are aimed at fundraising and list-building for Western Representation PAC.

“Support of West and the growth of our organization are not mutually exclusive,” Stockton fired back, pointing out that the plug was only at the end of a 60-second spot.

BAMPAC, a group aimed at promoting black Republicans, is another organization that has frequently invoked West’s name in its fundraising appeals. It has given the campaign $10,000 but has been sent a cease-and-desist letter by West.

“We have stopped using Congressman West in our appeals,” said BAMPAC President Alvin Williams. “Previously, we agreed to not exclusively focus on Congressman West. We understand the congressman’s concern with the letter referenced in your email, and we have taken steps to stop the appeal from running.”

But as recently as Oct. 9, BAMPAC was renting Dick Morris’s email list to solicit funds and was using West’s image atop the email and his name 10 times in the message.

“Dear Patriot,” the message begins. “I was afraid this would happen. A new poll reports that Allen West is now trailing his liberal opponent by nine points!”

Williams insisted that they had stopped using West’s name as of Oct. 12 — last Friday.

The West campaign contends that even those groups who have given money to the congressman are still mostly in it for themselves.

“If you make a 10K contribution and raise 150K, sadly, it is still a scam,” said Vogel, the campaign counsel.

“I had nothing to do with whatever he sent out yesterday,” Stockton noted.

Western Representation PAC is different from some of the other groups using West’s name because they have given him $10,000 to date and are airing radio ads in the district touting the congressman.

“I can understand the campaign’s frustration, but it’s unfortunate that we get looped in with some of the other people,” Stockton said.

More egregious to West’s campaign, though, are those groups that use his name and have given nothing to the congressman.

Patriots for Economic Freedom, the Republican Majority Campaign and Conservative Strike Force have all raised money off of West’s name and haven’t supported his campaign.

None of these groups list phone numbers on their websites, and they didn’t respond to requests for comment submitted online.

Kenneth P. Vogel contributed to this report.

Correction: The story previously misstated the percent of receipts American Crossroads spent on independent expenditures and on operating costs. The figures have been corrected.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Bridget Mulcahy @ 10/17/2012 09:58 AM The story previously misstated the percent of receipts American Crossroads spent on independent expenditures and on operating costs. The figures have been corrected.

This article tagged under: Allen West

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