A network of secret-money nonprofit groups has spent millions of dollars attacking swing-seat House Republicans on health care and taxes, quietly becoming one of the biggest players in the 2018 political landscape.

The groups have local members and names like Floridians for a Fair Shake, Michigan Families for Economic Prosperity and North Carolinians for a Fair Economy. But they are all linked to one obscure nonprofit in downtown Washington, D.C.: the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has funneled millions of dollars to progressive causes in recent years and set up each of the new groups, according to D.C. corporation records.


Added together, the Sixteen Thirty Fund groups have been among the most prolific political advertisers of 2018. They have aired 6,885 broadcast TV ads since Jan. 1, according to Advertising Analytics, a TV tracking firm — more than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and almost as many as Americans for Prosperity, two of the five biggest nonprofit political advertisers focused on the House and Senate in the first half of this year.

The network, which has spent over $4.6 million on TV alone, has also been one of the top political advertisers in the country on Facebook, according to a POLITICO analysis of data from the social media company’s new political ad archive.

The ads don’t expressly advocate voting against House Republicans, but they do blast incumbents for their votes on Obamacare repeal and the new tax law in more than a dozen congressional districts. The two issues are ones that Democrats want at the forefront of their campaign to take back the House, though keeping the focus on those issues has been difficult amid a maelstrom of other stories involving President Donald Trump, including the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

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“I didn’t ask to have a preexisting condition,” Robin Stone of Manchester, Iowa, says in an ad from the group Keep Iowa Healthy, which targets Rep. Rod Blum of Iowa, one of the most endangered Republicans in the House. Stone continues: “People need to call Rod Blum and tell him to please quit voting to take away affordable coverage.”

These multimillion-dollar issue ad campaigns have been a hallmark of Republican politics in recent years, especially since 2010, when conservative nonprofits spent millions criticizing House Democrats over Obamacare and cap-and-trade climate change proposals before the fall elections. But this activity shows that the left is increasingly embracing the same tactics — even while criticizing “dark money” and its effects on politics.

“I don’t believe in unilateral disarmament,” said Cliff Schecter, the CEO of Ohioans for Economic Opportunity, a group that is pressing Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) on his votes ahead of what could be the Republicans' first competitive reelection race in years. “I’d be happy to disclose all my donors if [the Koch groups] disclose them. But not having a fair playing field does a disservice to people worried about their health care and taxes.”

The groups can accept unlimited contributions but do not have to reveal their donors. Tax forms outlining even the most basic details about the nonprofits’ fundraising and spending this year don’t need to be filed until the end of 2019.

This progressive nonprofit network is not the biggest out there — American Action Network, the conservative nonprofit aligned with House Speaker Paul Ryan, raised $41.9 million in its most recent fiscal year, including $24.6 million from a single secret donor, and it has spent millions promoting GOP legislation and members who voted for those bills. But the combined efforts of the Sixteen Thirty Fund groups have played an outsize role shaping the 2018 field.

One group, Floridians for a Fair Shake, takes credit for the recent revelation that GOP Rep. Vern Buchanan, a wealthy former businessman serving his sixth term in the House, purchased a yacht soon after voting for the Republican tax bill.

“Giving himself a tax break on the same day he bought a multimillion-dollar yacht — that’s a visceral example of what we’re trying to convey,” said Stephen Gaskill, a spokesman for Floridians for a Fair Shake, which has spent over $1 million on TV ads criticizing Buchanan and Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) and has organized health care town halls and other events in their districts. “The tax bill was written for the wealthy and for people who don’t need help.”

The people involved in setting up Ohioans for Economic Opportunity “all have preexisting conditions,” said Schecter, a veteran of Democratic political campaigns. “We thought, people should be holding Steve Chabot accountable for his votes on health care.”

Schecter reached out to his network of contacts, eventually connecting with the Sixteen Thirty Fund and its donors. Eric Kessler, a former staffer in the Clinton administration, is president of the organization. Its board includes several other current and former Democratic political operatives.

“They helped us all organize, helped with research, giving us ideas and helped us raise money, quite frankly, too,” said Schecter. “We have complete local control and come up with our own ideas for ads, but no doubt they have played a big role.”

The North Carolina nonprofit’s advertising prompted an unusual early response from GOP Rep. George Holding, who began airing his own TV ads blasting the group as a front to elect his Democratic opponent.

POLITICO has identified 12 groups set up through the Sixteen Thirty Fund that have been involved in local health care and tax debates: Arizonans United for Health Care, Colorado United for Families, Floridians for a Fair Shake, Healthcare Voters of Nevada, Keep Iowa Healthy, Mainers Against Health Care Cuts, Michigan Families for Economic Prosperity, New Jersey for a Better Future, North Carolinians for a Fair Economy, Ohioans for Economic Opportunity, SoCal Health Care Coalition, and Speak Out CNY.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund serves as the “fiscal sponsor” of the groups. The groups’ money flows through the parent nonprofit, which also “provides compliance, financial, back office, legal and HR support” to the startup groups, Sixteen Thirty Fund spokeswoman Beth Kanter wrote in an email. Kanter described Sixteen Thirty Fund as "an incubator for social justice projects focused on a variety of issues."

Campaign finance watchdogs say that the setup is reminiscent of some of the biggest secret-money conservative groups, which Democrats have condemned regularly in recent years.

“This kind of structure — a hub of money and then seemingly independent groups that have specific focuses either at local or state level or a particular demography — is a hallmark of the Koch network,” said Robert Maguire, a researcher on political nonprofits at the Center for Responsive Politics.

The network of conservative Koch groups focused on different issues and demographics earlier this decade — 60 Plus Association for seniors, Concerned Veterans for America on veterans — but were all funded through one financial hub, a nonprofit called the Center to Protect Patient Rights, Maguire noted.

“So you could have a certain race, or a certain issue, where it looks like all these different groups are in support of these candidates or issues — when really it’s just one pool of money,” Maguire said.

And because the groups are organized under the umbrella of the Sixteen Thirty Fund and not as standalone nonprofits, their fundraising and spending are even more opaque than those of a typical secret-money group. The “fiscally sponsored” groups, instead of filing individual tax returns that detail their finances, will have all of their activity aggregated in the Sixteen Thirty Fund’s tax filings, which will make it difficult to discern exactly how much money was raised for and spent by the different projects.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund has been an active, if behind-the-scenes, player in the early political battles of the Trump administration.

It has raised significant sums from unions, according to Department of Labor records, and it has distributed millions of dollars to the League of Conservation Voters and other progressive groups in recent years, according to its tax filings. But it has also helped launch dozens of offshoots in the past two years alone.

Those offshoots include Demand Justice, the prominent nonprofit fighting to block Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, which is a Sixteen Thirty Fund project, according to D.C. business records. So too are Save My Care, Not One Penny and Tax March, which have conducted nationwide advocacy campaigns against Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare and change the tax code.

In addition to doing big-budget TV advertising, the groups have mobilized activists and demonstrators against Republican incumbents — and sometimes members of the Trump administration — in their districts.

“We’ve seen Ivanka Trump and Vice President Mike Pence make visits to the district,” said Tom Drumm, a Democratic county legislator in Rep. John Katko’s (R-N.Y.) 24th District. “And each time Speak Out CNY was able to mobilize hundreds of protesters to push back against their visit and bring the tax scam fight to their doorstep.”