PAC spent $1.8M, all after ending its political advocacy in 2005

In 2004, America Coming Together (ACT) made a big splash as
one of the larger independent “527” committees set up to influence the
presidential election.

The organization was created and funded largely by wealthy
donors and labor unions opposed to the reelection of George W. Bush and hoping
to spend millions to influence the outcome.

Though ACT ceased its political advocacy in 2005, a Center for
Public Integrity analysis of political action committee filings — part of an
upcoming project focused on PAC spending habits — discovered that the group’s PAC is still alive and has spent nearly $1.8 million
since the start of 2007. 

It seemed more than a little bizarre. Not only did the
reportedly shuttered organization still seem to be operating, it was one of the
heaviest-spending committees over that period. Indeed, ACT was one of just 200
PACs to spend at least $1.75 million over the past three and a half years; more
than 4,000 others spent less than that. What’s going on? The answer provides an interesting
window into the continuing fallout from the 2004 presidential election, even
six years later.

In the first presidential contest governed by the Bipartisan
Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (commonly known as McCain-Feingold), ACT and other
so-called 527 committees spent millions of dollars to attempt to influence
voters. 

ACT was particularly focused on get-out-the-vote efforts to
help energize progressives to vote — presumably for Democratic standard-bearer
Sen. John Kerry (Mass.). These independent groups, which also included the conservative
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and the liberal MoveOn.org Voter Fund, operated
without clearly defined rules. Complaints were filed by those who felt ACT and other 527s had illegally exceeded campaign finance
limits. The process was slow and
dragged on until 2007, when the groups famously agreed to pay thousands of
dollars in Federal Election Commission (FEC) fines. In the case of ACT, the
organization’s leaders opted to pay a whopping $775,000 civil penalty rather than continue to fight what they feared would be an unending legal
process.

Because the FEC action was not settled until August of 2007,
explains ACT’s chief financial officer, Gary Gruber, the group was forced to
maintain a political action committee even though it was no longer active. Beyond fines, the roughly $1.8 million
was spent mostly on overhead and legal fees. Shortly after the FEC’s case was
settled, unsuccessful independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader filed his
own FEC complaint against ACT, the Democratic Party, Kerry and
other groups he believed had unlawfully worked to deny him ballot access in the
2004 campaign. And, because of
these new complaints, the PAC was again forced to stay open.

“Until the complaints were done, we couldn’t pull the plug,”
Gruber told the Center. Former FEC Chairman Scott Thomas confirmed to the Center that this is correct; a PAC must receive permission
from the commission before terminating and committees under investigation must
remain open until their cases are closed.

Nader’s grievance was finally dismissed in June of this year and the PAC now hopes it can finally shut its doors for
good. Those doors, interestingly,
are in office space at 1101 Vermont Ave. NW that the group rents from
Catalist, a voter database company. 

Harold Ickes,
a prominent former adviser to both Bill and Hillary Clinton and ACT organizer,
is president of the company, and Gruber is its chief financial officer. ACT reports payments totaling $15,000
to Catalist for its portion of the space since April 2008.

Using revenue from rentals of its voter lists, the PAC has
taken in enough money to cover much of the $1.8 million it has spent. The PAC
has not reported any political activities since 2005.

“There is no purpose to [the PAC] anymore,” Gruber
notes. “We’re finalizing a few
things and closing it out before the end of this year.”

If all goes according to plan, that will be ACT’s last
act.

Josh Israel and Aaron Mehta are staff writers at the
Center for Public Integrity.