Washington, DC-based “Independent Women’s Voice” funded by Koch Brothers trying to dictate their choice, Steve Glazer, to East Bay voters

[Concord, CA] – The Susan Bonilla for State Senate campaign called on the Fair Political Practices Commission, on Tuesday, May 11, 2015, to investigate violations of the Political Reform Act by Washington, DC-based non-profit, the Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), the latest effort in a $4.5 million barrage of political advertising by outside groups to elect Steve Glazer to the state senate.

“Independent Women’s Voice is an extremist right-wing Koch Brothers’ front group, known for opposing women’s rights and for protecting tax loopholes for billionaires,” said campaign spokesperson Josh Pulliam. “This Koch Brothers’ group is affiliated with the same right-wing Super PAC that committed the most egregious violations of the Political Reform Act in California history, laundering millions of dollars in last minute attack ads right before the election.”

While the IWV has hidden their funding from California voters, investigative journalists have reported that the committee has received $250,000 from the Center to Protect Patient Rights (CPPR), a well-known Koch Brothers slush fund that infamously laundered $15 million to oppose Governor Brown’s ballot initiatives in 2012. Their illegal activities in that losing effort resulted in the biggest campaign finance violation in California history.

“IRS tax filings show that Washington, DC-based Independent Women’s Voice is prohibited from making political expenditures, but that isn’t stopping this right-wing group from dumping thousands of dollars so far into the 7th Senate District,” said Pulliam. “It is imperative that the FPPC step in to require out-of-state billionaires like the Koch Brothers and Los Angeles mega developers like Bill Bloomfield to play by the same rules as everyone else.”

Bonilla’s complaint identifies four different violations of law: 1) Violating the Single Purpose Committee, failing to properly disclose the committee on campaign expenditures; 2) Misreporting attack ads against Susan Bonilla as “Support Steve Glazer” expenditures; 3) Failing to report timely political expenditures; and 4) Violating their non-profit status by making political expenditures to impact the SD7 election.

See the response from the Independent Women’s Voice in a news release from their organization, here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2015 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Politics & Elections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.