Well, today came an interesting development. Elizabeth Warren, who disavowed Super PACs and money in politics came out with a Super PAC of her own, spending 7 figures to make ad buys on her behalf ahead of the Nevada caucuses.

Persist PAC, which several news stories have claimed to be formed in the last few days, is quite an unknown entity at this point. Even though the claim about it being formed just now is pinned on a spokesperson, the only information available on their website is their address, along with some standard phrases:

The naming being almost identical to the Resist PAC that funded Hillary and other establishment democrats in the last few years is not an accident, as you’ll soon see.

They can — trough a mystic, unnamed, spokesperson — claim to be formed just now, but there are some problems there. Their claim rests on the fact that only recently the Persist PAC has filled with the FEC, which means they are now participating officially in an electoral process, making possible to buy ads, as they’re doing now.

But it’s not so simple, as the Public Disclosure Comission records show. The PAC was already registered as far back as October, 2019:

And, from there, we can see that the physical address is the same one that appears at the bottom of their website. The expenditures, also, show that the purchase of the domain for the PAC was made the next day after its launch:

Melissa Taylor, mind you, is the person whose e-mail appears as a contact for the PAC. Strangely, she’s not mentioned on her PAC’s page, even at the bottom, and no names are mentioned. But the same e-mail address could be traced back to a Washington 34th district 2020 launch party, where she was the contact:

Furthermore, researching her own name, it appears that Melissa Taylor is the writer of a blog that aims to follow women candidates in Washington State, as well as the head of the Washington section of the Emerge America political organization, which is registered as tax-exempt — like all PACs and Super PACs and many interest groups and associations:

Investigating Emerge America, the parent organization of the Washington Chapter that Melissa Taylor founded and runs, turns up very important information about the kind of PAC the Persist PAC is about. First, the obvious point that it is linked with the Onward Together PAC, formed to support Hillary’s run in 2016, which has even a “donate” button directing people to Emerge America:

But the most important information about Emerge America is a quick look at its funding, reported on Open Secrets:

So, at first glance, we see donations from two foundations with a history of supporting some progressive issues — although their funding is private and unknown. But there are also donations from the Onward Together PAC, Facebook, and some Capital Management firms.

Their expenditures, also, show consultancy fees and a massive amount (33% of their reported revenue) spent on salaries. With a blend of money coming in from foundations with little to no transparency and money coming from the financial sector — and silicon valley too, specially in previous cycles where silicon valley groups where top donors to the organization — it can be safely said that the PAC collects a lot of corporate cash.

And in all cycles registered, since 2012, most of that money went into salaries and administrative costs. That’s, certainly, very different than the organization that Persist PAC is showing to be, coming into light doing a 7-figure TV advertisement buy on behalf of a single candidate. Typically, salaries and administrative costs indicate that a PAC is focused on giving organizational support to candidates.

The funding and its ties to the financial sector and silicon valley, though, gives hints into where the money for the Persist PAC is coming from. Let’s remember that it was set up on October, 2019, by a democratic operative who lead the Washington Chapter of the Emerge America organization.

In 2019, basically, it registered only minor administrative expenditures (under five thousand dollars) and a purchase of a domain to set up the website. Now, that Washington operative who was basically a player in Washington state politics, runs a national PAC with power to spend a million in ad buys — that appeared magically after Warren announced she’d cancel advertisement purchases in Nevada.

Until the FEC April deadline, we won’t have transparent release of the Persist PAC funding, so all we can know for now is the relations of its head, Melissa Taylor, head of Emerge Washington that is funded by and connected to the Onward Together PAC, among entities in the financial sector and silicon valley.

The information available, though, puts into question Warren’s already controversial stance about corporate — and even dark — money in politics, in a move that’s apparently entirely pre-planned to avoid transparency and disclosures that are inherent to the anti-corruption politics that has arisen since Bernie’s run in 2016.