How do you spell transparent? Whatever your answer, it is almost certainly different from Barack Obama’s. The Washington Free Beacon writes that his “recently formed dark-money group Organizing for Action confirmed to the Center for Public Integrity [CPI] Thursday that it would not release donor information such as employer and occupation despite collecting the data in its online donor form application.”
CPI notes that OfA is “not compelled by law to release any of its donor information because it was established as a 501(c)(4) ‘social welfare’ nonprofit group.” So long as electing politicians is not its main function, it can raise spend unlimited amounts of money.
But its newly stated position on donor information flies in the face of Obama’s promise — repeated numerous times since the 2008 campaign — to run the most transparent administration in history. It also puts the lie to a statement made by OfA Chairman and former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, who wrote at CNN.com that “every donor who gives $250 or more to this organization will be disclosed on the website with the exact amount they give on a quarterly basis.”
OfA came under fire in February for its offer to sell access to the White House to any donor who ponied up half a million dollars (aka, the much-maligned — by the Obama administration — 1 percenters).
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