Friday, December 8, 2017

Mystery Money Floods Alabama in Senate Race’s Final Days

 
By Ashley Balcerzak

This story was originally published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON — A last-minute infusion of cash is deluging the already unpredictable special Senate election in Alabama, and outside political groups backing both candidates — Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones — are exploiting legal loopholes to hide their donors until after the Dec. 12 vote.

Some super PACs — groups that may accept and spend unlimited amounts of cash in elections — haven't publicly disclosed anything at all. Others have found creative ways around unveiling the backers fueling final pushes in the waning days of the race, when voters are bombarded with the most ads, mailers and phone calls.

"It's a failure of federal election law, and donors have reasons for wanting to stay hidden," said Brett Kappel, an election law specialist and partner at Akerman LLP. "We have an extremely controversial candidate that a lot of donors don't want to be associated with, and on the other side, people and companies may be worried about retribution if they publicly oppose Moore and he wins."

Source: NBC News

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