Zinke and Scam PACs

[avalon]

Scam PACs are apparently a thing and seem pretty evil. Grifters everywhere.

Zinke funneled millions to questionable PACs

Complaints among Republicans about “scam PACS” have been on the rise for years, focusing on groups that target conservative voters as a source for donations. Those complaints have repeatedly focused on Mackenzie, the founder of a number of GOP-leaning PACs that have used slogans such as “Stop Hillary Clinton” to raise money from conservatives — then appeared to do little actual politicking.

ForthRight says it raised $1.9 million for Zinke’s 2014 race by sending out 1.6 million pieces of mail, attracting nearly 44,000 new donors whose average contribution was $44. About $550,000 of that haul went to Zinke’s campaign for "voter mail, radio ads, TV ads, get-out-the-vote activities and lawn signs," according to the firm's website. But that was less than the $608,000 that Zinke’s campaign spent on postage and direct mail from Century Data Mailing Service, a firm located at the same 15th Street address as ForthRight, according to FEC records.

Also Zinke's PAC might be a scam PAC.

Besides sharing an affinity for the same consultants as Mackenzie’s VIGOP, Zinke’s SEAL PAC has also followed a similar fundraising model: It raised two-thirds of its money from small donors in 2016, then steered only 4 percent of its spending to other campaigns, with almost all the rest going to operating expenses and overhead.

Typically, members of Congress use their leadership PACs to cover expenses that cannot be funded from their campaign accounts and to contribute to fellow politicians, using donations of up to $5,000 from lobbyists and other PACs. But SEAL PAC relied on donations of less than $200 for about two-thirds of the $3 million it collected during the 2016 cycle, according to a review of the donations. The group then spent more than $2.6 million on overhead and gave just $118,000 to other congressional campaign committees.

 

[Newenglanddeac]

Very swampy