Earlier this week, we detailed how a mysterious Ohio nonprofit suddenly materialized in two separate races to run attack ads. The only thing those two races had in common was that the candidate who benefited from the attack ads employed consulting firms run by a man named Nick Ayers. And, we discovered, that mysterious nonprofit group running the ads was actually part of a snarl of non-disclosing politically active nonprofits that had also employed Ayers.

The case raises the question of whether there was improper coordination — Federal Election Commission rules allow outside groups to raise and spend unlimited sums of money on political ads, so long as they don’t coordinate their activities with the campaign benefiting from them. In the case we described this week, two Ohio nonprofits ― Jobs & Progress Fund and the Government Integrity Fund ― bankrolled a super PAC called Citizens for a Working America PAC, which attacked Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) and supported his opponent in the GOP primary, David Perdue. Ayers has worked for several of those groups, directly and indirectly, and his firm, Target Enterprises, was the top-paid vendor for the Perdue campaign, handling more than $2.9 million in ad buys.

Ayers didn’t respond to our requests for his comment, but several days after OpenSecrets Blog detailed his relationships, he did give a comment to the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Daniel Malloy, telling him:

“As I worked with outside groups in Georgia this cycle, a firewall was put in place at Target Enterprises that prevented coordination with the Perdue campaign, which is common practice in the industry.

Based on that reply, it appears that Ayers is not denying he worked for outside groups who might have an interest in Perdue’s success in the race ― just that he had any hand in Perdue’s campaign himself. OpenSecrets Blog asked Ayers for comment again but neither he nor his assistant responded.

So, what does “firewall” mean?

A legal expert OpenSecrets Blog spoke to agreed with Ayers that its common practice in the industry to establish “firewalls” within a company to prevent personnel from improperly passing information between two clients with the same interests. At a minimum a written policy is usually in place, but how that policy is enforced varies, said Joe Birkenstock, an attorney who specializes in campaign law and who previously served as chief counsel for the Democratic National Committee.

“The regulation doesn’t oblige you to take one approach or the other, but it’s common to have some kind of physical segregation, or to sit in different office buildings,” he said. “You want to take some steps to make sure (the two sides) don’t accidentally end up comparing some notes or documents left on top of a desk.

But, this type of information is rarely made public, Birkenstock said.

“No, there’s no obligation to disclose,” he said. “They exist, they’re not privileged, and are open to subpoena or enforcement action. I would tell you one reason they exist, precisely to be able to respond to an enforcement action.”

That is, unless an investigator demands it, there is no way to know what the shape or strength of Target Enterprises firewall is or was. And, based on the circumstances, the strength of that firewall is an important factor.

First, there was a great deal of money at stake for Ayers and his firm. Target Enterprises was paid $2.9 million for its work on the Perdue campaign and, based on filings made with local television stations when it purchased ad time, the firm took about 15 percent of that figure as its fee. That’s a standard amount for an ad-buying firm to skim off of a campaign’s payment, and it means Ayers’ own company had a $435,000 payday, which would be likely to grow even more if Perdue won his runoff.

Secondly, to say that Ayers has ties to David Perdue is an understatement. The candidate is literally family to him ― his wife is a cousin of Perdue’s. Another Perdue cousin, Sonny Perdue, the former governor of Georgia, gave Ayers his start in politics, hiring him out of college. In 2006, at the age of 24, Ayers became Sonny Perdue’s campaign manager, making his reputation as a wunderkind. With Sonny Perdue’s influence, Ayers went on to lead the Republican Governor’s Association, managing the party’s efforts to win gubernatorial races, including a hard fought battle in Ohio in 2010.

Help us keep government accountable by making a donation today.

Finally, many of David Perdue’s top staffers are close personal friends and colleagues of Ayers.

Perdue’s campaign manager, for instance, is Paul Bennecke, who worked on Sonny Perdue’s first gubernatorial campaign and was the deputy executive director at the RGA while Ayers was the executive director. According to the campaign’s FEC disclosures, Bennecke had payments sent to his consulting firm, Jenson Strategic Partners, listing its address as the same office suite that Ayers uses as the address for one of his companies, C5 Creative Consulting. That same office suite is also the home of ConnectSouth, yet another political consulting firm, that lists Bennecke as a principal.

And not all of Ayers’ friends seem to have gotten the word that he didn’t work for the David Perdue campaign.

On the night Perdue eked out a narrow runoff victory over Kingston, for example, Adam Kincaid, who worked for Ayers at the RGA and is now the special projects director at the Republican National Committee, took to Twitter to congratulate Ayers on his role in the win:

Congratulations to my friends on Team Perdue (@PaulBennecke, @martyklein_atl, and @nick_ayers) on the big win tonight. #GaSen — Adam Kincaid (@AdamPKincaid) July 23, 2014

Tony Simon, who like Bennecke is a principal at ConnectSouth and an apparent office-mate of Ayers, also congratulated Ayers:

Ayers himself took to Twitter to express his excitement after Perdue took the most votes in the first round of the primary back in May:

At @WaffleHouse celebrating the @Perduesenate victory AND we celebrate our 9 yr anniversary in 28 mins. Great night! pic.twitter.com/HvbzRPE1au — Nick Ayers (@nick_ayers) May 21, 2014

Bennecke, Perdue’s campaign manager, did not respond to requests for comment asking to clarify Ayers’ relationship to the campaign.



For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]





Support Accountability Journalism At OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust.Please support our work and keep this resource free. Thank you. Support OpenSecrets ➜