Jeb Bush's secret-squirrel hunt?

February 23, 2006

This article appeared in the Orlando Sentinel Feb. 23.

By: Daniel A. Smith
Dan Smith is an associate professor of political science at the University of Florida.

Sometimes the line separating idiom from idiocy is a thin one. Such is the case with Jeb Bush’s latest accusations that Common Cause has been squirreling away its donors in its laudable effort to reform Florida’s unfairly gerrymandered legislative and congressional districts.

Earlier this week, Governor Bush accused the good government group of being a front organization for “a group of secret squirrel liberals who go to some fancy resort somewhere, and they divvy up the states and the ballot initiatives. They write large checks; they launder the money through places like Common Cause, ironically.”

Caving into Bush’s public admonishments, Common Cause agreed to make public a list of its major contributors. The nonprofit organization voluntarily disclosed that half of the $2.6 million the group raised for its redistricting effort came from 40 donors.

A deceased librarian was the biggest individual donor, leaving Common Cause more than $181,000 in his will. The balance came from dues from the group’s 130,000 members, including thousands residing in Florida.

Conservative groups, of course, do the exact same thing the governor has accused Common Cause of doing. In fact, they are masters at using innocuous-sounding nonprofits as flow-through entities to launder corporate money and shield the identities of their donors.

But for some reason, our self-righteous governor hasn’t clamored to have conservative charities, political organizations, and business associations reveal who is financing their efforts to push or thwart ballot measures in the Sunshine state.

Registered under section 501(c)(6) of the federal tax code, trade associations and business leagues have tax-exemption status under the IRS. Because these entities can act as money laundering conduits for their corporate members, they are correctly barred by the IRS from using their general treasury funds to make contributions to candidates or independent expenditures related to candidate elections.

But these business associations, along with other conservative nonprofit 501(c)s, commonly engage in largely unregulated ballot campaigns. Like Common Cause, they are structured to serve as veiled conduits, funneling unlimited money into ballot measures.

In 2004, for example, the innocuous sounding Coalition to Save Florida Jobs political committee was created by corporate-interests to fight Amendment 5, the successful citizen initiative to raise the state minimum wage by a dollar. In a matter of a few months, the organization raised over $4.5 million from just 375 contributors to fight the popular ballot measure.

Among the 501(c)(6)s that gave to the committee were the Florida Retail Federation, which pumped in $496,000; the Florida Restaurant Association, which gave $110,000; and the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which added another $100,000. The National Restaurant Association even contributed $150,000 from its nonprofit “educational” offspring, the SAFE Fund, to fight Amendment 5.

Did any of this veiled money in 2004 come from a single, well-heeled donor, a conservative equivalent of George Soros? It’s likely. But the press never asked, the National Restaurant Association wasn’t telling, and the governor, for his part, evidently never thought it was a problem worth going to the bully pulpit to bark about.

It is increasingly becoming the case that conservative and business groups are hiding behind a veil of anonymity that shields corporate dollars being spent in ballot campaigns. The squirreling away of big money by conservative groups obscures from an unsuspecting public the vested corporate interests that are increasingly trying to pass or defeat ballot measures.

Common Cause has done the right thing by divulging its major donors. Will the Chamber of Commerce, the National Restaurant Association, and the Florida Retail Federation do so too?

It’s highly unlikely. Next time the governor spouts off with another hypocritical comment, the press might be wise to use another idiom: the pot calling the kettle black.