SAN DIEGO _ A political group that has brought professional political organizers into the campaign against Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has received its most significant contributions to date _ from actress Jane Fonda and other celebrities.
Fonda gave $100,000 to Flip the 49th - Neighbors in Action, which recently registered as a political committee to get Issa, of Vista, out of office. Comedian Bill Maher gave $15,000 to the group, a rebuke of a politician who has twice appeared on his talk show. Former California Sen. Barbara Boxer gave $2,500, as did Academy Award winner Leonardo DiCaprio. Actor Ted Danson gave $1,500.
Flip the 49th gave the The San Diego Union-Tribune a list of donors more than a month before it is required to disclose them to the Federal Election Commission.
The group's roster includes the names of contributors and the amount they gave. It shows $440,091 raised from donations ranging from $3 by Jan Miley to Fonda's $100,000.
The listing did not disclose the city of residence for donors, but organizers said that 40 percent of the money came from the two counties included in the boundaries of the congressional district, Orange and San Diego.
The listing included $2,500 from the JDM Foundation, an organization that tax records show is nearly entirely funded by its founder, comedian Jay Leno. The foundation has also accepted some contributions from auto-racing companies.
The group was initially organized as a so-called "527" organization, a type of group that has been criticized by both the left and the right as conduits for dark money in politics. The new incorporation _ which will require disclosure of donors _ was dated Dec. 4, after the Union-Tribune did a story about the 527 set-up.
Issa's campaign said the donor information should have been disclosed earlier.
"Despite all their claims about their commitment to transparency, the story behind the groups never really seemed to add up. We're only now starting to see a glimpse of who is behind these efforts now that they got caught skirting their obligations under the law and after the Union-Tribune started asking questions about it," Issa's spokesman, Calvin Moore, said in an email.
FEC records show that Issa's campaign committee received $345,400 from political action committees between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, including 23 contributions for $5,000, the maximum traditional PACs are allowed to give to candidates per each election. The Home Depot, Microsoft, Amazon, Koch Industries, and several purely-ideological organizations have given up to the limit.
Flip the 49th has now organized as a super PAC, which can raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions and individuals and is not allowed to coordinate directly with candidates. Super PACs have more freedom to explicitly oppose a candidate than 527 organizations. Leaders of Flip the 49th say they don't want to be limited by financial restrictions that bind other types of organizations.
"Hundreds of grassroots activists have been educating voters on issues across the 49th. Our status change marks the beginning of the next phase of our program, which is to tell voters to vote no on Darrell Issa, a national emergency," spokesman Jeremy Addis-Mills said by email. "We will continue to work tirelessly to defeat Darrell Issa, one of Congress's wealthiest members and we call upon patriots from across the country to support our efforts."
IRS documents show that it has so far spent $12,500 with a Los Angeles consultant on yard signs and materials for volunteers to hand out when they go canvass door-to-door. It has not disclosed other expenditures, if any.
Flip the 49th was created to support volunteers from network of grassroots organizations with expertise to run voter registration drives, door-to-door canvasses, and data-driven outreach programs. In a recent news release, Flip the 49th said it has trained more than 200 volunteers so far and canvassed more than 9,000 homes, and hopes to reach 75,000 voters by next year's election.
One organization, Service Employees International Union Local 221, has given $25,000 worth of in-kind donations. SEIU's political director, David Lagstein, is one of Flip the 49th's officers.
