At an Indivisible Lambertville/New Hope candidate forum in January, Michael Roth took a hard line against “dark money” meddling in the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 7th congressional district.
“Dark money in our politics is poison,” Roth said. “I will pledge that if there’s dark money in our primary race, I will come out – even if it’s helping me – I will come out and say that dark money, where we don’t know where it’s coming from, has no place in our election.”
This week, however, a new super PAC called Coalition for Progress began spending money on pro-Roth mailers – mailers that Roth’s own campaign explicitly courted via a red box on his campaign website. In a statement to the New Jersey Globe, a Roth spokesperson said that Roth “stands by his insistence that nameless, faceless, dark-money PACs have no place in our politics,” but that rejecting outside help entirely would put him at a disadvantage against Democratic foes with super PAC backing.
“Every other candidate in this race appears to be working with outside organizations – including those who will not disclose their funding – and we’re not going to run in one of the most competitive House races in the country with one hand tied behind our back,” the spokesperson said.
Roth’s campaign also pointed out that Coalition for Progress is not, technically speaking, a “dark money” group. As a registered super PAC, the group will eventually have to disclose its donors and expenditures; that differentiates it from a 501(c)(4), which can make politics-related expenditures without ever disclosing who’s providing the funds.
But for now, because Coalition for Progress is so new, there’s virtually no information available about its funding sources or long-term plans. All that Coalition for Progress has filed so far is an expenditure report listing $17,787 spent on mailers; PAC treasurer Drew Nussbaum declined to go into detail when asked who is funding the PAC or how much it will ultimately spend.
Roth is far from the biggest beneficiary of PAC spending in the 7th district primary thus far. One of his foes, Rebecca Bennett, has been boosted by more than $400,000 in spending by VoteVets, a national Democratic veterans’ group that’s spent millions of dollars in New Jersey races over the years.
The two other Democrats running for the district, Brian Varela and Tina Shah, have not yet had any super PACs spend on their behalf, both both have red boxes on their campaign websites indicating that they at least think outside support is a possibility.
All four Democrats have sworn off corporate PAC money and called for overturning Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that paved the way for the growing dominance of super PACs, and reducing the political influence of corporations and the ultra-wealthy. But until that day comes, they – along with most other Democrats in New Jersey and around the country – have taken the stance that they can’t unilaterally disengage from the super PAC wars.
“In Congress, Michael will fight to immediately overturn Citizens United, ban corporate PAC money, and make our democracy accountable to voters again,” the Roth spokesperson said today.