“Dark money” groups on the left that seek to control local election offices across the country could further undermine confidence in American elections, some House Republicans fear.
“Let’s call this what it really is—a blatant attack on the security and integrity of the fairness and transparency of our elections,” Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., the co-chairwoman of the House Election Integrity Caucus, told The Daily Signal, when asked about two organizations in particular.
Dark money is a type of political financing that conceals or obscures the identity of donors.
The Daily Signal reported July 18, on two groups that have similar goals of controlling local election offices. This was after 21 states had banned private money from financing election administration.
Run for Something, a Democrat-aligned political action committee, established a “Clerk Work” program to help get election clerks elected.
Separately, the Center for Tech and Civic Life–which distributed $350 million in election administration grants from Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan in the 2020 cycle–launched the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence to train election officials.
The organizations spend $80 million per year on their goals.
“Dark money liberal advocacy groups will stop at nothing to inject partisan funds into election administration efforts,” Tenney said in a written statement. “They did it in 2020 with ‘Zuckerbucks,’ and they are continuing to find ways to do it today.”
She added: “I am working every day to hold these dark money groups accountable, expose their shady tactics, and keep partisan influence operations out of election administration.”
Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Calif., the other co-chairman of the House Election Integrity Caucus, added that improving confidence in elections won’t come from partisans seeking a leg up.
“Propping up partisan operatives to serve as election clerks will not solve our election integrity issues, and it definitely will not restore confidence in our electoral system on either side of the aisle,” Garcia told The Daily Signal in a written statement. “It’s going to take careful consideration and deliberate debate on these matters to improve election integrity and bolster faith in our elections.”
Run for Something. Clerk WorkProject with the goal to elect clerks, election supervisors and registrars, recorders and other local officials responsible for running elections.
According to the PAC, it will support thousands of election administrators over the next few years. It reports that it will endorse 11 candidates in races in California and Nevada for 2022.
Amanda Litman, Run for Something cofounder, tweeted Saturday the claim that Clerk Work is defending elections. Litman cited reports that local Republican election officials in New Mexico and Nevada were questioning the results of elections.
“This is why @runforsomething’s Clerk Work program is so important: The next phase of election subversion & coup attempts will start with local elected officials,” Litman’s tweet said.
In a somewhat fawning article on Run for Something published Thursday, Time magazine reported that Clerk Work recruited about 300 candidates to run for local offices that oversee elections, with 200 of those candidates in swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Nevada.
“Steve Bannon and a huge part of the right is trying to get their people into these offices, and there needed to be a counterbalance to that,” Ross Morales Rocketto, another co-founder of Run for Something, told TimeThe former campaign adviser to Donald Trump and White House adviser on Trump’s presidency campaign. “The biggest threat is that these folks get on the ballot and are unopposed.”
However, Rocketto complained to Time that donors were not enthusiastic, noting, “We could have done more if the funding had come in quicker,” he said.
Run for Something, a 527 political action committee aimed at winning down-ballot races, did not respond to The Daily Signal’s inquiries for this article.
The Alliance for Election Excellence is an eight-year, $80million project that consists of seven nonprofit organizationsThese guidelines are intended to help local election offices run elections in their jurisdictions.
The Center for Tech and Civic Life, the largest organization in the alliance, is the Center for Tech and Civic Life.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative provided $350 million for the Center for Tech and Civic Life in 2020. It was a left-leaning group that distributed grants mostly to Democrat-dominated precincts. This increased voter turnout. The Zuckerberg grants, dubbed “Zuckerbucks,” helped finance dropboxes and expanded mail-in balloting, among other activities.
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