{"id":18685,"date":"2021-05-10T16:47:13","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T23:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=18685"},"modified":"2021-05-10T16:47:51","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T23:47:51","slug":"nina-turner-opponent-shontel-brown-is-low-key-pleading-for-super-pac-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2021\/05\/10\/nina-turner-opponent-shontel-brown-is-low-key-pleading-for-super-pac-support\/","title":{"rendered":"NINA TURNER OPPONENT SHONTEL BROWN IS LOW-KEY PLEADING FOR SUPER PAC SUPPORT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

<\/a><\/a>DONATE<\/em><\/strong><\/a>13<\/em><\/a>Shontel Brown. Photo: Cuyahoga County Planning Commission<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turner\u2019s opponent in the Ohio House primary appears to be messaging straight to pro-Israel super PACs.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Ryan Grim<\/a>
May 8 2021, 5:37 a.m. (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SHONTEL BROWN\u2019S CAMPAIGN for Congress is blaring one of the least subtle messages sent to a super PAC since the outside money groups were legalized by the Supreme Court in its Citizens United v. FEC decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown\u2019s campaign has listed on its website a set of negative talking points about her opponent Nina Turner, all enclosed in a bright red box. Directly under the red box is a quote from Democratic consultant Mark Mellman, the leader of a major pro-Israel super PAC<\/a> that has consistently spent large sums of money against Sen. Bernie Sanders and his congressional allies. (\u201cRed box\u201d is a campaign industry term, referring to the spot on the website that candidates use to communicate with outside groups like super PACs.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Brown and Turner are competing in a special election in Ohio to replace former Rep. Marcia Fudge, who was confirmed to be President Joe Biden\u2019s secretary<\/a> for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The primary in the heavily Democratic district is scheduled for August 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Turner, a former Ohio state senator and Sanders\u2019s most prominent campaign surrogate, running for Congress, the messaging on Brown\u2019s campaign website suggests she\u2019d welcome an outside intervention from Mellman\u2019s independent expenditure operation to blanket the airwaves.RelatedMeet Mark Mellman: the Centrist, Pro-Israel Operative Behind the Anti-Sanders Ads in Iowa<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hybrid super PAC run by Mellman, Democratic Majority for Israel, spent heavily against Sanders during the presidential primary, dropping $1.4 million in its effort to slow him in Iowa and beyond. The super PAC also spent more than $1.5 million attacking Jamaal Bowman and supporting then-incumbent<\/a> New York Rep. Eliot Engel. (Despite their efforts, Bowman won<\/a>.) It also threw in $179,000 against Alex Morse, who challenged House Ways and Means Chair Richie Neal in a western Massachusetts primary. DMFI was also bankrolled in 2020 by a super PAC that tried to unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar in her Minnesota Democratic primary; Americans for Tomorrow\u2019s Future, which spent more than $3 million<\/a> taking on Omar and also worked against Bowman, sent $500,000 to DMFI. There is overlap among donors, as well. A top donor to AFTF<\/a>, who contributed $300,000 in 2020, also gave $1.245 million to DMFI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The communication on Brown\u2019s website is a textbook case of red-box signaling, used to communicate with outside groups within the letter of the law. To understand how the signaling works, it\u2019s useful to review the conventions of post-Citizens United campaign practices. Per the Citizens ruling, campaigns cannot coordinate with outside groups and doing so is a clear violation of one of the few bright-line rules in campaign finance. The challenge, then, for a campaign is figuring out how to guide a super PAC or outside supporter\u2019s messaging without running afoul of the laws around coordination. For that, campaigns have developed what is called the \u201cred box.\u201d The candidate posts opposition research or videos on their website about their opponent, which anyone in the public is then free to use for any purpose. The oppo also generally includes messages about both candidates that have tested well in polls, allowing the super PAC to align its communications with the campaign\u2019s.Join Our NewsletterOriginal reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you.I\u2019m in<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes Brown\u2019s approach unique is both how blatant it is and how beseechingly it directs itself to a particular head of a particular super PAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the oppo research Brown\u2019s campaign posted is literally inside an actual red box, removing any confusion as to the purpose of the exercise. If any confusion still existed, the linked PDF<\/a> is called \u201cSB4C Red Box.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly common for candidates to rely on resources provided by super PACs and vice versa and so this dance is never explicit, but it doesn\u2019t need to be, because both sides are aiming for the same objective. This is pretty explicit and extreme,\u201d said Lawrence Lessig, after being shown Brown\u2019s campaign site. Lessig is a professor of law at Harvard Law School and an expert on campaign finance law. \u201cThey certainly assume that [an Intercept reporter] was not going to notice this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The oppo research that appears on Brown\u2019s website has nothing to do with Turner\u2019s stance on Israel; it doesn\u2019t even mention Israel. The criticisms of Turner revolve around her insufficient loyalty to Democrats, citing her lukewarm support for Biden in the presidential election and her refusal to back Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump. The praise of Brown centers on her local record. Yet just underneath the red box are three rotating quotes validating Brown\u2019s support for Israel. The first is from Mellman, and though he wears many hats \u2014 most prominently as head of the Mellman Group, a polling and consulting firm \u2014 the site labels him \u201cDMFI PAC President.\u201d DMFI endorsed Brown in February<\/a> but has not disclosed any outside spending on her behalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Brown for Congress<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second is from Michael Siegal, who previously chaired <\/a>the Jewish Federations of North America and is a donor to Brown\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Brown for Congress<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third is from Jeff Mendelsohn of Pro-Israel America<\/a>, which was allied in 2020<\/a> with Americans for Tomorrow\u2019s Future. Pro-Israel America, the Brown campaign, and DMFI did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Brown for Congress<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That this type of coordinating-without-coordinating has grown so common undermines the core rationale of Citizens United, Lessig said. \u201cThe premise of Citizens United, or the whole line of cases that assume there\u2019s such a thing as independent spending, is that there\u2019s independence. Obviously there can be technical independence, but if both sides are building a strategy based on the same data they\u2019re essentially coordinating,\u201d said Lessig, who authored the book \u201cThey Don\u2019t Represent Us: Reclaiming Our Democracy.\u201d \u201cIn the context of antitrust we\u2019d have no problem understanding it as coordination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because the independence isn\u2019t real, the debt politicians owe to super PACs is real. \u201cWhat that means is there\u2019s no real separation that would undermine the sense of obligation or sense of gratitude that a member would feel for the super PAC\u2019s intervention,\u201d said Lessig. \u201cThere\u2019s no quid pro quo, but there\u2019s a dependence on the super PAC.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correction: March 8, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story originally reported that DMFI made a transfer of $500,000 to AFTF in 2020. The transfer went the opposite direction. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Grim<\/a>ryan.grim@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a>@ryangrim<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DONATE13Shontel Brown. Photo: Cuyahoga County Planning Commission Turner\u2019s opponent in the Ohio House primary appears to be messaging straight to pro-Israel super PACs. Ryan GrimMay 8 2021, 5:37 a.m. (TheIntercept.com) SHONTEL BROWN\u2019S CAMPAIGN for Congress is blaring one of the least subtle messages sent to a super PAC since the outside money groups… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18685"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18685"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18687,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18685\/revisions\/18687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}