EDITORIAL: PACs a recipe for deception

on May 07, 2010 at 9:32 AM, updated May 07, 2010 at 9:38 AM

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ Truth is such a fleeting thing.

 It's a nearly extinct virtue when it comes to who is behind many campaign advertisements.

A simple warning to voters as Alabama's election season kicks into high gear: Groups identified in the disclaimers may not be who they portray themselves as.

The truth is, the public cannot easily follow the money trail when political action committees (PACS) are involved. Loose campaign finance laws allow a shameful political shell game called PAC-to-PAC transfers.

Those PACs may fund advertisements for a candidate - or attack ads against an opponent - and the public is often left clueless over whose pockets the money originated from.

Take the "True Republican PAC," a political action committee formed in March. Ads sponsored by that group began attacking GOP gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne by linking him with trial lawyers and Democrats, including President Barack Obama.

Look closer and one discovers that the bulk of True Republican PAC's money ($500,000) came from the Alabama Education Association's political arm, A-Vote. The teachers' union can hardly be characterized as a Republican-leaning organization, much less, "True Republican."

Leaders with AEA and Byrne have waged war over Byrne's attempt as postsecondary education chancellor to stop lawmakers from also holding jobs at two-year colleges.

Byrne has continued to attack AEA throughout the campaign, so it shouldn't be a surprise that AEA would come after him.

But Byrne's chief rival in the GOP gubernatorial campaign, Greenville businessman Tim James, probably wouldn't want AEA's backing in the primary - at least not publicly. Instead of donating money to James, the teachers' organization routed money through PACs to the True Republican PAC to discredit Byrne.

This is just one example of the way PACs can be used to deceive voters. It's a legal form of money laundering and it's exactly what many elected officials want.

State Republican Party Chairman Mike Hubbard underscored that recently when he confirmed some donors wanting to help fund the anti-gambling effort didn't want the public to see their support. Hubbard  acknowledged the state Republican Party agreed to transfer their collective donations through PACs, and ultimately to the Citizens for a Better Alabama PAC to fight electronic bingo.

Alabama's PAC-meisters pass money around so cleverly by the time it gets to a particular candidate or another PAC, or to a deceitfully named group like Citizens for God, Baseball and Apple Pie, it's impossible to trace.

The practice gives candidates a measure of plausible deniability. By having donations tumbled around, an elected official could reasonably claim not to know where the money came from.

Alabama deserves better. And so far, our Legislature hasn't done a thing to strengthen our campaign and ethics laws.

Proposed reforms like banning PAC transfers, giving the state Ethics Commission subpoena power and requiring full disclosure on lobbyist spending die each session despite presession surveys showing widespread legislative support.

One group has stepped forward to help bring transparency to the process. The Alabama Policy Institute recently launched a website:, which provides links to PACs and individual legislators.

The legislative links list lawmakers' income, discretionary appropriations, travel reimbursements and receipts from PACs. The PACs link identifies the chair, address and PAC contributions and expenditures. The website also gives an accounting of major campaign promises.

A better means is still needed for voters to more easily follow the money trail in campaigns.

The website is the result of a two-year-effort funded by a conservative non-profit organization. Maybe one day state lawmakers will step up to make campaigns - and the policymaking that stems from each election - more transparent.
