American Crossroads
American Crossroads is a 527 organization that has raised and spent tens of millions of dollars to defend and elect conservative candidates to federal office, and was very active in the 2010 U.S. midterm elections. Its president is Steven J. Law, a former United States Deputy Secretary of Labor for President George W. Bush and the Chairman of the Board of Directors is former Republican National Committee chairman Mike Duncan. Advisers to the group include Senior Advisor and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and former Counselor to the President and Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie.
Leadership
American Crossroads lists its formal leadership as follows:
Funding
According to Federal Election Commission, IRS reports, analysis by the independent Center for Responsive Politics and other sources, American Crossroads' major contributors have included:
American Crossroads raised $28 million in the 2010 election cycle. 91% of the funds raised were from billionaires.
Negative advertising
The non-partisan FactCheck and PolitiFact.com organizations and the liberal-leaning Media Matters monitoring group have stated that some American Crossroads political advertisements present statements that are false, inaccurate, or present distortions.
Crossroads GPS
Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (Crossroads GPS) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation that works in conjunction with American Crossroads. As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, Crossroads GPS's primary purpose is the advancement of social welfare including public policy advocacy, although it is permitted to engage in political spending as well. Crossroads GPS is required to report what it spends, but it is not required to publicly disclose any donor information.
Leadership of Crossroads GPS
Steven J. Law is also the president of Crossroads GPS. The Board of Directors includes Candida Wolff, Sally Vastola, Bobby Birchfield, and former U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson. Its policy director is Steven Duffield.
Debate over political activity by 501(c)(4) groups such as Crossroads GPS
In October 2010, Senator Richard Durbin wrote the IRS asking for it to investigate whether Crossroads GPS had violated its tax status. Republican senators had previously written to the IRS stating that an investigation into only conservative groups, as Durbin would later request, would amount to a politically motivated tactic that would “chill the legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights.”
Crossroads GPS activity post-2010 elections
Crossroads GPS demonstrated its interest in participating in non-electoral policy advocacy soon after the 2010 elections when it began running radio advertisements related to tax policy, urging Members of Congress to prevent tax hikes.
Other organizations associated with American Crossroads
American Crossroads shares office space with American Action Network, a group that promotes “center-right policies.” Crossroads Media is a media services company that serves American Crossroads. Crossroads Media is run by Michael Dubke and David Carney, and Dubke also runs the Black Rock Group political consulting firm with Carl Forti, political director of American Crossroads. Dubke and Carney also founded Americans for Job Security, which shares office space with Crossroads Media and at least three other political consulting firms, including the Black Rock Group.
References
External links
- American Crossroads Official website
- Crossroads GPS Official website
- Campaign finance reports and data at the FEC
- Independent Expenditures, Outside Spending and Ads (videos) at OpenSecrets.org
- Profile at FactCheck.org
- Profile at Sourcewatch
Retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Crossroads
