American Future Fund, group that slammed Collin Peterson in ads, among subjects of WaPo expose

When the Center for Public Integrity posted Negative ads make Peterson 'more inclined' to run;Iowa-based American Future Fund targeting Democrat from rural Minnesota last month, Representative Collin Peterson noted:

According to the New York Times, the American Future Fund was founded in 2007 with “seed money” from Iowa businessman Bruce Rastetter, who has been active in the ethanol and meat production industries.

“I don’t get it,” Peterson said. “Nobody’s been a better friend of agriculture and ethanol than I have.”

It's true--and the ethanol lovefest illustrated by Peterson and presumptive Republican rival Torrey Westrom at a Monsanto Company's Fuel Your Profits(SM) initiative award E85 pump grand opening in Morris in 2004 has led some flatland wits to declare the race Brokeback Prairie: Ethanol, We Can't Quit You.

For more on the group's funding beyond those cornfed dollars, check out the Sunday edition expose from the Washington Post and Center for Responsive Politics. Matea Gold reports in Koch-backed political coalition, designed to shield donors, raised $400 million in 2012:

The political network spearheaded by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch has expanded into a far-reaching operation of unrivaled complexity, built around a maze of groups that cloaks its donors, according to an analysis of new tax returns and other documents.

The filings show that the network of politically active nonprofit groups backed by the Kochs and fellow donors in the 2012 elections financially outpaced other independent groups on the right and, on its own, matched the long-established national coalition of labor unions that serves as one of the biggest sources of support for Democrats. . . .

Together, the 17 conservative groups that made up the network raised at least $407 million during the 2012 campaign, according to the analysis of tax returns by The Washington Post and the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks money in politics.

. . .Other groups in the network included the American Future Fund, a Des Moines-based nonprofit that poured more than $25 million into ads against Obama and congressional Democrats in 2012 . . .

Gold places the American Future Fund in a list of The players in the Koch-backed $400 million political donor network:

The American Future Fund , a Des Moines-based nonprofit that poured more than $25 million into ads against Obama and congressional Democrats in 2012. Nearly $63 million of its $68 million war chest in 2012 came from network feeder funds.

Other network fun in Minnesota

While The American Future Fund may be bagging on Peterson, it's not the only entity in the network that's active in Minnesota. There's a Minnesota state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, which claims to have 19,000 members. There's also the Americans for Prosperity Foundation Minnesota. Both groups' webpages are part of the national group's website.

Americans for Prosperity Minnesota keeps a Facebook presence, although posts on the site from the near past simply share memes prepared by the national organization. On November 14, 2013, the page administrator congratulated Paul Carlson for becoming AFPMN's new Deputy State Director.

Carlson's Linked In profile shows that he served as Field Coordinator for AFP (presumably in Minnesota) from August 2012 to the present, while his last pre-AFP position was Field Director for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Prior to that gig, he worked for Newt Gingrich's presidential gig in Minnesota and a congressional campaign in a deep blue metro Minnesota district.

Bluestem Prairie looked at AFPMN Southern Minnesota activity in Owatonna Target & Cabela's give Americans For Prosperity bus a big Steele County welcome and Who's funding Americans for Prosperity-MN's mail attacking Senator Carla Nelson?.

Nelson wasn't the only Republican woman legislator AFPMN attacked, as MPR reported in Doepke campaign says last minute mailer distorts her position:

Just before the primary election, voters in Senate District 33 got more mailers from an outside group.

This week, Americans for Prosperity Minnesota (AFP-MN) sent out fliers targeting Rep. Connie Doepke, R-Orono, that say she stands with President Barack Obama on health care.

“Obamacare is bad medicine,” the mailer states. “Yet Representative Connie Doepke refused to help fight it.” . . .

. . .AFP-MN is the local branch of the conservative national group backed by major Republican donors Charles and David Koch. The group supports small government and lower taxes, and in Minnesota, it has sounded off about the health care law before.

Earlier this year, AFP-MN sent out mailers opposing incumbent state house Republicans for their votes on the Vikings Stadium.

The group is also involved in climate change denial, but as Bluestem reported, Michele Bachmann & Glenn Gruenhagen only MN lawmakers to sign AFP No Climate Tax Pledge.

Gold's capsule portrait of AFP at the Washington Post:

Americans for Prosperity , the Virginia-based nonprofit that finances grass-roots activities across the country and ran an early and relentless television ad assault against President Obama during the 2012 campaign. More than $44 million of the $140 million the organization raised in the last cycle came from the Koch-linked feeder funds.

60 Plus Association in Minnesota

According to the group's website, the 60 Plus Association made a $1.1 million ad buy to run two television ads in Minnesota at the end of the 2012 election cycle, part of a larger targeted buy:

The 60 Plus Association, nationally recognized as the conservative alternative to the liberal AARP, today launched a new $4.1 million ad campaign in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan. As part of the buy that begins on November 1, 60 Plus will run a new ad “Defend,” which features Philip Storer, a veteran who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Storer explains our freedoms are now threatened by a different force: Washington’s crushing debt. . . .

. . .In addition to “Defend,” 60 Plus will run the ad “Strengthen,” which features music legend and 60 Plus National Spokesperson Pat Boone discussing Mitt Romney and Barack Obama’s different visions for Medicare. To view a copy of “Defend,” please click here. To view a copy of “Strengthen,” please click here.

Gold's capsule description at the Washington Post of this network member:

The 60 Plus Association , which casts itself as a conservative alternative to AARP. The group reported spending $4.6 million on ads against Obama and House Democrats in 2012.

The American Energy Alliance

According to the Washington Post report:

The American Energy Alliance , the 501(c)(4) arm of the Institute for Energy Research. The advocacy group, whose president is a former Koch Industries lobbyist, ran a 17-state bus tour in 2012 highlighting the benefits of domestic energy production. The organization got $2 million from Freedom Partners and CPPR in 2012 but has seen increased levels of support from other donors in recent years, according to a person familiar with its operations.

With its flourishing renewable and clean energy industries, Minnesota presents a target-rich environment for the AEA. The group persuaded Representative John Kline (R-MN02) to sign a November 2013 letter opposing another extension of the wasteful wind production tax credit (PTC); see page 4 on the group's PDF of the document. (Bluestem finds this choice interesting, since Minnesota is an important wind industry producer).

in September, the group targeted CD8 DFLer Rick Nolan, according to a press release, AEA Launches Phase Two of Anti-Carbon Tax Initiative:

The American Energy Alliance begins today the second phase of a $750,000 initiative with a series of radio advertisements holding Members of Congress accountable for supporting a carbon tax and thanking those who have opposed one.

This phase of the initiative will include two weeks of radio spots in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and New York. The ads urge listeners to contact Representatives Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), Cheri Bustos (D- Ill.), Ann Kirkpatrick (D- Ariz.), Patrick Murphy (D-Fla.), Rick Nolan (D- Minn.), and Bill Owens (D-N.Y.) to let them know a carbon tax is a bad deal for Americans. . . .

A PDF of the factsheet and transcript for the CD8 ad can be found here.

Concerned Veterans for America

According to Gold:

Concerned Veterans for America , which in 2012 held events spotlighting the unemployment rate among veterans and the difficulties members of the military face in casting ballots. The group was funded almost entirely by TC4 in 2012.

According to the main Washington Post article exploring the funding network,

Much of the money that flowed through the network in the last election cycle originated with two nonprofit groups that served as de facto banks, feeding money to groups downstream, according to an analysis by Center for Responsive Politics researcher Robert Maguire, who investigates politically active nonprofits.

The biggest was the Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, an Arlington County-based group set up in November 2011 that now functions as the major funding arm of the network, according to people familiar with the operation. The organization, whose board includes current and former Koch Industries officials, brought in nearly $256 million in its first year, “significantly more revenue than was expected,” according to its tax filing. . . .

. . .According to people familiar with the network, Freedom Partners took the place of a now-
defunct group based in Alexandria called TC4 Trust, which raised more than $66 million in three years before it was shuttered in June 2012, according to tax filings.

The same tax preparer — a Kansas City, Mo.-based partner in the accounting firm BKD — did the returns for Freedom Partners and TC4 Trust, as well as for nearly half the other groups in the network and for the nonprofit Charles Koch Institute.

In all, the feeder funds and the groups they financed raised an estimated $407 million in the last election cycle. That figure is a conservative one, since it does not account for the complete revenue of eight groups that have not yet filed their tax returns for the latter half of 2012.

Of the $407 million, $302 million can be traced to Freedom Partners or TC4 Trust. . . .

There's a strong Minnesota connection for the group, since Pete Hegseth serves as CEO of the group. Hegseth, who mounted an unsuccessful big for Republican endorsement in the 2012 United States Senate race against Amy Klobuchar, was prepared three CVA Barncasts for the group, beginning on Veterans Day, 2013. According to information on the group's Events menu, bus tours in 2012 and 2013 by the organization did not include stops in Minnesota.

Concerned Women of America

Gold describes the group:

Concerned Women for America , a conservative Christian women’s activist group that received more than $8 million from Freedom Partners. The organization ran a social-media campaign and get-out-the-vote effort aimed at young women in 2012.

According to the Huffington Post, the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee received $8.2 million from Freedom Partners.

The Minnesota chapter is led by former state senator Gretchen Hoffman from her conservative redoubt in her native North Dakota, where she moved after a redistricting retirement. The group held a Culture Warriors in Action: Rebuilding the Foundations regional conference in September 2012, in Fargo, North Dakota.

In May 2013, Hoffman appeared on Bradlee Dean's Sons of Liberty Radio show to decry the passage of marriage equality and the ongoing effort to pass an anti-bullying bill. Dean wrote:

During an interview on my RADIO BROADCAST this week, a former senator from Minnesota, Gretchen Hoffman, told us pedophile groups such as NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) will be asking for permission to lower the age of consent for sexual intercourse, just like Canada.

Bluestem first reported on the exchange here. Who knew her time was paid for by some big conservative dimes?

Evangchr4 Trust

According to Gold at the Washington Post:

Evangchr4 Trust, a pastor outreach effort that gave nearly $1.2 million to CitizenLink, an advocacy arm of the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family. CitizenLink spent more than $2.5 million on ads on behalf of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and other Republicans in 2012.

According to its website, there's only one CitizenLink group in Minnesota:

Minnesota
Minnesota Family Council & Institute
John Helmberger, CEO
2855 Anthony Lane S Ste 150
Minneapolis, MN 55418-3265
Phone: 612-789-8811
Fax: 612-789-8858
Email: john@mfc.org
Website: MFC.org
Video Interview: John Helmberger
* Fully Associated *

The Libre Initiative Trust

The Washington Post describes the Libre Initiative Trust as:

a Mission, Tex.-based group aimed at promoting “the principles and values of economic freedom” to Latinos. It started in 2011.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics' Open Secrets blog:

The identity of two other TC4 recipients, TDNA LLC and TRGN LLC, are now known, as well. TDNA LLC is a the LIBRE Initiative Trust, a 501(c)(4) that says it seeks to advance free-market principles within the Hispanic community. LIBRE received $3.8 million from TC4 and Freedom Partners.

In Minnesota, LIBRE National Spokesperson, Rachel Campos-Duffy (wife of Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy) spoke at October's 2013's Latino Voter Outreach – Midwest Conference in St. Paul, organized by Rick Aguilar, a veteran Minnesota Republican operative.

American Commitment, Generation Opportunity, et al

American Commitment, one of the groups, appears to have no active campaign in Minnesota, although it is busy in North Dakota and Wisconsin. A cursory search also found no activity for Generation Opportunity in the Gopher State, or the Public Engagement Group Trust and Public Notice. A more serious search at a less busy time might uncover more.

Photo: Collin Peterson, official photo. As it turns out, Peterson isn't the only Minnesota target for the network of groups spending conservative money in Minnesota.

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