In a letter to the Federal Election Commission this week, Crossroads GPS pushed back against the agency’s request that it disclose its donors. And it wasn’t shy about doing so.
As reported by Bloomberg, the commission on Tuesday sent the Karl Rove-linked dark money group a Request For Additional Information (RFAI) about its 2012 fourth-quarter report. The FEC wanted to know why the report showed tens of millions of dollars spent on independent expenditures, but no donations.
“Each contributor who made a donation in excess of $200 to further the independent expenditures must be itemized on Schedule 5-A, including their identification information,” Christopher Whyrick, a senior campaign finance analyst in the FEC’s Reports Analysis Division, wrote to the group. “Please amend your report to provide the missing information.”
Yesterday, Crossroads GPS Treasurer Caleb Crosby sent Whyrick a response saying, essentially, that the FEC should buzz off.
“This Request is the fourth such RFAI we have received on this exact same subject, and we refer you generally to our previous responses of July 19, 2011, and November 29, 2012,” Crosby wrote.
Then Crosby offered a little campaign finance nerd sarcasm.
“We are quite pleased to see in your most recent RFAI that the disclosure requirement set forth at 11 C.F.R. §§ 109.10(e)(1)(vi) is now more accurately paraphrased,” Crosby wrote. “You now indicate that ‘Each contributor who made a donation in excess of $200 to further the independent expenditures must be itemized on Schedule 5-A, including their identification information.’ Just as we noted in our previous responses, though, no contributions or donations accepted by Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies were solicited or received for the purpose of furthering the reported independent expenditures. Accordingly, no contributions or donations were required to be reported under the regulations cited in the RFAI.”
Crosby ended his letter by assuring the FEC that Crossroads GPS “is familiar with and understands the applicable reporting regulations.”
“Your continued RFAIs on this subject are unnecessary,” Crosby wrote. “However, if you are required by Commission guidelines or procedures to continue to send them, we will continue to respond with the exact same explanation.”
