Google and Facebook’s public advertising databases show no hint of the hundreds of thousands of dollars Americans for Progressive Action USA supposedly spent with them.
Politico: The bizarro tale of a phantom super PAC — and our sleuthing to find it
05.5.2020 / By ZACH MONTELLARO
Politico: The bizarro tale of a phantom super PAC — and our sleuthing to find it
A new super PAC made a splashy entrance onto the Senate battleground scene last week, reporting millions in spending backing Democrats in key races. There’s just one problem: The ads don’t exist.
The group, Americans for Progressive Action USA, filed campaign finance reports showing more than $2.5 million in advertising and associated costs across a half-dozen Senate races last week. But six ad makers and advertising platforms listed in the filings said they’ve never heard of the super PAC and have no records of doing business with it.
GMMB, a major Democratic consulting firm listed as having received $318,000 from the group, said a reporter’s inquiry was the first it had heard of the super PAC. Two other Washington-based vendors listed by the super PAC — Targeted Media Victory and Dixon Gruper — have no trace of previous activity and aren’t registered as corporations in D.C., according to a search of the city’s Department of Regulatory and Consumer Affairs’ database. …
Paul S. Ryan, a vice president for the good governance group Common Cause, said he’s seen all sorts of shenanigans in a long career immersed in campaign finance issues. But this one’s a true head-scratcher, he said.
“It is odd,” Ryan said. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years and this is a first for me.”