After US Supreme Court rulings opened the floodgates for megabucks to be funneled into our elections and politics, someone is finally starting to challenge the "non-profit", tax-exempt status of those same dark money groups.

Until now, those groups have used a loophole in US Tax Code to disguise themselves as "social welfare" organizations to avoid tax obligations. That will end if this challenge to the tax-exempt status of the Wisconsin Club for Growth is successful.

If nothing else can be done about the influx of vast amounts of money that the US Supreme Court has allowed, then it's about time for these dark money groups to pony up what they owe in taxes on the tens of millions they collect and spend buying elections and politicians.



A liberal Madison-based group filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service on Monday asking it to strip Wisconsin Club for Growth of its nonprofit status for spending millions of dollars to help Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans during the recall elections. The complaint is based in large part on records released as a result of Wisconsin Club for Growth's federal lawsuit aimed at stopping a secret John Doe investigation of the group. The suit has since been thrown out. "I'm certain they'll spend a lot of money fighting an IRS investigation just like they spent a lot of money fighting the John Doe," Brendan Fischer, general counsel for the left-leaning Center for Media and Democracy, which filed the complaint. "But I think we have a really strong case here."

Documents unsealed in the current John Doe Probe regarding allegations of illegal coordination between dark money groups and campaigns have revealed that Governor Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) solicited donations directly to the Wisconsin Club for Growth during 2011 and 2012 while both his campaign and WiCfG utilized the services of R. J. Johnson as an advisor. Using the same "advisor" for the dark money groups and campaign would seem to indicate a good amount of coordination between them.

Much of the current John Doe Probe looked into that coordination between Walker and the Wisconsin Club for Growth.



The complaint says Wisconsin Club for Growth deceived regulators by engaging "primarily in political campaign activities during those years and substantially operated for the private political benefit of the Walker campaign and the Republican Party and the private financial benefit of a top funder. It thus should not be entitled to tax-exempt status."

What is particularly troubling is that donors to dark money groups can, thanks to the US Supreme Court, funnel unlimited funds to those groups and remain anonymous. Itenables foreign countries or foreign donors to influence US elections.