Daily Beast: Cash for Coalition Against Trump Going Into Consultants’ Pockets Instead

Date

The Democratic Coalition, one of the many new progressive-minded organizations to bloom in the age of anti-Trump fervor, brought in nearly half a million dollars last year. Its donors include Siddiqui, a pair of Hollywood television producers, a former Real Housewife of Miami, and a member of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors. The vast majority of its funds, however, have come from people whose names don’t make it into Federal Election Commission disclosures: the small, “unitemized” donors who give $200 or less. It’s what the group has done with its money—not how much it has brought in—that has raised eyebrows among other operatives.​"The Democratic Coalition paid more than half of the money it raised last year to its employees or their consulting firms, according to Federal Election Commission records. Dworkin’s Bulldog Finance Group was the chief beneficiary, drawing more than $130,000 from The Democratic Coalition.

...

“We saw the rise of ‘scam PACs’ during the Obama years, where grifters would tap into anti-Obama sentiment to raise mostly small-dollar donations from grassroots conservatives, and then pay themselves consulting fees rather than use the money to support candidates or causes,” Brendan Fischer, the director of federal and FEC reform programs at the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center, said in an email. “The Democratic Coalition seems to be using a similar playbook, only here they are tapping into anti-Trump sentiment.”

Read the article