Name: Conservative 'dark money' network rebranded to push voting restrictions before 2020 election
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Conservative 'dark money' network rebranded to push voting restrictions before 2020 election

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A powerful new conservative organization fighting to restrict voting in the 2020 presidential election is really just a rebranded group that is part of a dark money network already helping President ’s unprecedented the federal judiciary, the Guardian and OpenSecrets reveal.The organization, which calls itself the , seemed to emerge out of nowhere a few months ago and started stoking fears about voter fraud. Backed by a dark money group funded by right-wing stalwarts like the Koch brothers and Betsy DeVos’ family, the Honest Elections Project is part of the network that pushed Supreme Court picks Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsurch, and is quickly becoming a juggernaut in the escalating fight over voting rights.&nbsp;The project announced it was spending $250,000 on in April, warning against voting by mail and . It facilitated letters to election officials in , , and , using to accuse jurisdictions of having bloated voter rolls and threatening legal action.&nbsp;Calling voter suppression a ” it has also been extremely active in the courts, filing briefs in favor of voting restrictions in ,, , , and , among other places, at times represented by lawyers from the that represents Trump. By having a hand in both voting litigation and the judges on the federal bench, this network could create a system where conservative donors have an avenue to both oppose voting rights and appoint judges to back that effort.Despite appearing to be a free-standing new operation, the Honest Elections Project is just a legal alias for the Judicial Education Project, a well-financed nonprofit connected to a powerful network of dark money conservative groups, according to business records reviewed by the Guardian and OpenSecrets.“These are really well-funded groups that in the context of judicial nominations have been systematically, over the long term but also the short term, kind of pushing an agenda to pack the courts with pretty extreme right wing nominees,” said Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “The infrastructure that they’ve built over the years has been a really important vehicle for them to do this.”For nearly a decade, the organization has been almost entirely funded by DonorsTrust, known as a backed by the Koch network and other prominent conservative donors, according to data tracked by OpenSecrets. In 2018, more than 99 percent of the Judicial Education Project’s funding came from a single $7.8 million donation from Donors Trust.The Judicial Education Project is also closely linked to , one of the most powerful people in Washington who has shaped Trump’s the federal judiciary with conservative judges.&nbsp;The organization has deftly hidden the changes to its name from public view. In December, the Judicial Education Project formally its legal name to The 85 Fund, a group Leo backed to funnel “tens of millions” of dollars into conservative causes, . The Honest Elections Project is merely a — an alias — the fund legally adopted in February. The change was nearly indiscernible because The 85 Fund registered two other legal aliases on the same day, including , its old name. The legal maneuver allows it to operate under four different names with little public disclosure that it is the same group.The Judicial Education Project is closely aligned with the Judicial Crisis Network, a group with unmatched influence in recent years in shaping the federal judiciary. Judicial Crisis Network spearheaded the campaigns to get Gorsuch and Kavanaugh confirmed to the Supreme Court, in each instance. It has also spent significantly on critical state supreme court races across the country.&nbsp;There is a lot of overlap between the Honest Elections Project and the Judicial Crisis Network. Both groups share personnel, including Carrie Severino, the influential president of the Judicial Crisis Network. Both groups have been funded by The Wellspring Committee, a group Leo raised money for until it shut down in 2018. &nbsp;Both have also paid money to , an LLC Leo once disclosed as his employer, that made a $1 million mystery donation to Trump’s inauguration.&nbsp;The Judicial Crisis Network , changing its name in December 2019 to The Concord Fund. The Fund then registered Judicial Crisis Network, its old name, as an .“This is a small community that is really trying to push forward these more suppressive tactics that will be challenged in court and having those judges on the bench, they’re really hoping it’s going to continue to rig the system in their favor,” said Lena Zwarensteyn, who closely follows judicial nominations at the Leadership conference. “By changing the rules of the game and who the referees are, they’re trying to change the landscape.”Neither the Honest Elections Project nor the Judicial Crisis Network responded to requests for an interview.The Honest Elections Project has become active as Republicans are scaling up their efforts to fight to keep voting restrictions in place ahead of the election. The will spend at least over voting rights and wants to recruit up to 50,000 people to help monitor the polls and other election activities.Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center:Read more OpenSecrets News &amp; Analysis:Support Accountability JournalismAt OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust. Please support our work and keep this resource free. Thank you.Want first access to OpenSecrets' investigations and data features? .Select an amount to make a donation.Sign up for our newsletter to track money’s influence on U.S. elections and public policy.The Center for Responsive Politics,Except for the Revolving Door section, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License by OpenSecrets.org. To request permission for commercial use, .

A powerful new conservative organization fighting to restrict voting in the 2020 presidential election is really just a rebranded group that is part of a dark money network already helping President ’s unprecedented the federal judiciary, the Guardian and OpenSecrets reveal.The organization, which calls itself the , seemed to emerge out of nowhere a few months ago and started stoking fears about voter fraud. Backed by a dark money group funded by right-wing stalwarts like the Koch brothers and Betsy DeVos’ family, the Honest Elections Project is part of the network that pushed Supreme Court...

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Voting rights reporter @guardianus. Former reporter @huffpost. Listen to our podcast about the fight to vote http://apple.co/2BmP5cm sam.levine@theguardian.com

Sam Levine

Anna Massoglia

The most comprehensive, nonpartisan money-in-politics resource around. Formerly the Center for Responsive Politics & the National Institute on Money in Politics

Conservative 'dark money' network rebranded to push voting restrictions before 2020 election

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