Congressional Leadership Fund

The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) is a Super PAC dedicated to electing Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives.[1] The Super PAC, which was closely linked to former House Speaker John Boehner and House GOP leadership, was founded in 2011 and spent nearly $10 million in the 2012 cycle electing Republican candidates.[2] Following Boehner's resignation from the U.S. Congress and the election of Paul D. Ryan as Speaker of the House, Congressional Leadership Fund became closely linked to Ryan.[3]

In The Guardian's ranking of the five most bigoted campaign ads during the 2018 election campaign, four of the five were ads by the CLF. During the 2018 mid-term elections. CLF produced a number of false ads, including two that falsely linked two Democratic candidates with terrorists. In one ad, the CLF depicted Antonio Delgado, an African-American Rhodes scholar with a Harvard Law degree as a foul-mouthed and "disturbingly radical" rapper, and misrepresented lyrics from his rap career.[4][5]

Leadership
  • Former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, Chairman Emeritus
  • Fred Malek, Chairman
  • Former Representative Thomas M. Reynolds, Board Member
  • Former Representative Vin Weber, Board Member
  • Charlie Spies, Senior Adviser (Former)[6]
  • Mason Fink,[7] Board Member & Finance Director[8][9]
  • Daniel Conston, Executive Director
  • William Inman, Deputy Executive Director[10]
  • Patrick Lee, National Field Director[10]
  • Ruth Guerra, Communications Director[11]
  • Trent Edwards, Development Director (Former)[12]
  • Caleb Crosby, Treasurer

As of April 2019 the Congressional Leadership Fund does not list its leadership on its official website.[13]

The board members are all members of the board of the American Action Network.[14] The Super PAC is currently headed by Daniel Conston, who serves as Executive Director to both CLF and the linked American Action Network.

Fundraising and spending

2012

According to records from the Federal Elections Commission, during the 2012 election cycle, CLF raised $11.3 million and spent $10.8 million.[15] Of the 19 congressional races where CLF and the affiliated American Action Network paid for television ads, Republicans won 12 of the contests.[16] The non-partisan Sunlight Foundation reported that CLF had a 58.05% return on investment in 2012.[17]

Their largest donor was Sheldon Adelson, who gave $5 million in 2012. Other major donors included the late Texas home builder Bob J. Perry and Chevron.[18]

2014

According to records from the Federal Election Commission, during the 2014 election cycle, CLF raised $12.6 million and spent $12.56 million.[19]

2016

According to records from the Federal Elections Commission, during the 2016 election cycle, CLF raised just over $51.05 million and spent $50.05 million.[20]

During the 2016 election, CLF used stolen hacked material in attacks ads against a Democratic candidate.[21]

2018

In 2018, the CLF was described as "the highest-spending super PAC seeking to sway House races in the upcoming midterms."[22] CLF was the largest Republican outside spender in the special election to fill Montana's at-large seat vacated by then Rep. Ryan Zinke after he was appointed to serve as Secretary of Interior by President Donald Trump.[23][24] CLF invested $2.5 million in Montana to promote Greg Gianforte to the U.S. House of Representatives.[25] Rep.-elect Gianforte was charged with assaulting a journalist at a rally on May 24, 2017, on the eve of the special election. Three of the state's largest newspapers, the Billings Gazette, the Missoulian and the (Helena) Independent Record, rescinded their endorsements of Gianforte shortly following the incident.[26][27][28] Rep.-elect Gianforte was scheduled to appear in court before June 7, where he was required to answer an accusation that he "purposely or knowingly" caused "bodily injury to another".[25] Rep. Elect Gianforte won slightly more than 50 percent of the vote to about 44 percent for Mr. Quist, the Democrat. President Trump won Montana by about 20 percentage points.[25] On June 12, 2017, Gianforte pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to a 180-day deferred sentence, 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management and a $300 fine along with an $85 court fee.[29]

According to records from the Federal Elections Commission, as of June 6, 2017, Congressional Leadership Fund had made independent expenditures totaling just over $2.94 million in the Georgia 6th Congressional District Special Election against Democrat Jon Ossoff.[30] CLF pledged $6.5 million to the special election in an attempt to keep the seat in control of the GOP after former HHS Secretary Tom Price vacated the seat when he was nominated by President Donald Trump to head the Department of Health and Human Services. CLF repeatedly made the claim that San Francisco "Bay Area liberals have given more to Jon Ossoff's campaign than people in Georgia," a statement that has been rated false by the fact-checking website PolitiFact.[31] A simple search through the Federal Elections Commission verifies PolitiFact's reporting.

The super PAC also made headlines in 2017 after it released its first ad against Democrat Jon Ossoff, with an ad featuring college video footage of Ossoff dressed up as Han Solo of Star Wars.[32] The ad was the first significant spending from any outside GOP group.[33]

In August 2018, Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger accused CLF of being illicitly in possession of an unredacted federal security clearance application, which contains sensitive personal information, and that CLF had provided a copy of the sensitive information to at least one news outlet.[34]

In The Guardian's ranking of the five most bigoted ads during the 2018 election campaign, four of the five were ads by the CLF. During the 2018 mid-term elections. CLF produced a number of false ads, including two that falsely linked two Democratic candidates with terrorists. In one ad, the CLF depicted Antonio Delgado, an African-American Rhodes scholar with a Harvard Law degree as a foul-mouthed and "disturbingly radical" rapper, and misrepresented lyrics from his rap career.[4][5] CLF obtained the unredacted security clearance application of Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer and Democratic congressional candidate, and then used it for political purposes. CLF also sent the highly sensitive document to at least one media outlet.[34] CLF then ran ads trying to link Spanberger to terrorist activity.[34] Both Delgado and Spanberger went on to defeat incumbent Republicans for their respective House seats on November 6, 2018.

In the 2018 election cycle, the Congressional Leadership Fund raised $158 million and disbursed $159 million.[35] Sheldon and Miriam Adelson gave $55 million of that.[36]

References
  1. Paul Blumenthal, "House Republican Super PAC Ready To Raise Unlimited Funds To Retain GOP Majority", The Huffington Post, October 13, 2011.
  2. Alexander Burns, "Bob Perry gives $1 million to Congressional Leadership Fund", Politico, July 15, 2012.
  3. Drucker, David M. "Paul Ryan-aligned super PAC moves to save GOP House seat". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  4. Salvador Rizzo (August 31, 2018). "Fact Checker • Analysis: Fact-checking Republican attack ads in tight House races". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
  5. Astead W. Herndon (October 22, 2018). "The Most Inflammatory Ads of the Midterms". The New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
  6. Aaron Blake (March 7, 2013). "Top strategist Charlie Spies joins House GOP super PAC". The Washington Post.
  7. "Lpc 25 LLC in Newport Beach, CA | Company Info & Reviews". Bizapedia.com. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  8. Cam, Deniz. "Can A Super PAC And Its New Billionaire Donors Help Set The Republican Party's Future?". Forbes. Retrieved August 2, 2017.
  9. "Top GOP Fundraiser Mason Fink Joins Congressional Leadership Fund Board - Congressional Leadership Fund". Congressional Leadership Fund. April 27, 2016. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  10. Drusch, Andrea (May 12, 2017). "Spotlight: Revolving Doors". National Journal Daily. Retrieved June 9, 2017.
  11. Andrew Joseph, "Conston Leaves House for Congressional Leadership Fund, Other Orgs" Archived March 28, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, National Journal, April 2, 2012.
  12. Anthony J. Bazzo, "Congressional Leadership Fund Lands Top hill Talent for Fundraising", July 17, 2012.
  13. "About CLF". Congressional Leadership Fund.
  14. "PAC profile: Congressional Leadership Fund", Center for Public Integrity, Accessed May 22, 2013.
  15. "Congressional Leadership Fund Summary", OpenSecrets.org, Accessed May 22, 2013.
  16. Alexander Burns, "House GOP outside spenders did better", Politico, November 8, 2012.
  17. Lindsay Young, "Outside spenders' return on investment", Sunlight Foundation, December 17, 2012.
  18. Dan Eggen, "Chevron donates $2.5 million to GOP Super PAC", The Washington Post, October 26, 2012.
  19. "Congressional Leadership Fund Financial Summary 2013-2014". Federal Election Commission. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  20. "Congressional Leadership Fund Financial Summary 2015-2016". Federal Election Commission. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  21. Eric Lipton; Scott Shane (December 13, 2016). "Democratic House Candidates Were Also Targets of Russian Hacking". The New York Times. p. A1. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  22. Robert Farley; Lori Robertson; Angelo Fichera. "Fact check: Campaign ads from leading GOP PAC misleading". USA Today. FactCheck.org. Retrieved October 24, 2018.
  23. Simone Pathé (May 19, 2017). "GOP Super PAC Airs Closing Ad in Montana Special Election". Roll Call. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  24. Kristen Welker (December 13, 2016). "Trump taps Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke as interior secretary". NBC News. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  25. Martin, Jonathan; Burns, Alexander (May 25, 2017). "Greg Gianforte, Montana Republican, Captures House Seat Despite Assault Charge". The New York Times. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  26. The Billings Gazette Editorial Board. "Gazette opinion: We're pulling our endorsement of Greg Gianforte". The Billings Gazette. Retrieved June 2, 2017.
  27. Editorial (May 24, 2017). "Missoulian rescinds Gianforte endorsement". Missoulian. Retrieved June 2, 2017.
  28. Editorial (May 25, 2017). "An IR View: Independent Record withdraws endorsement of Gianforte". Helena Independent Record. Retrieved June 2, 2017.
  29. Kyung Lah; Noa Yadidi; Carma Hassan (June 12, 2017). "Gianforte pleads guilty to assault in incident with reporter". CNN. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
  30. "Browse Independent expenditures". Federal Election Commission. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
  31. Jon Greenberg (May 26, 2017). "GOP attack ad twists Ossoff donation sources in Georgia race". PolitiFact. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
  32. "GOP Super PAC Airs New Ad Against Georgia Democrat". Roll Call. March 10, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
  33. Master, Cyra (March 1, 2017). "Super PAC uses college party footage to attack Dem in Georgia House race". The Hill. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
  34. Michael Tackett (August 28, 2018). "C.I.A. Officer-Turned-Candidate Says PAC Obtained Her Security Application". The New York Times. p. A13. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
  35. "Congressional Leadership Fund Financial Summary 2017-2018". Federal Election Commission. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  36. "Congressional Leadership Fund (C00504530) 01/01/2017 - 12/31/2018 - 'Adelson'". Federal Election Commission. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
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