BOLD MOVE

How a Scam PAC Lost Its Patron—and All of Its Donors

Sheriff David Clarke himself dubbed the group a ‘scam PAC’ in a July 2017 interview. But it continued raising money under his name.

So-called scam PACs frequently rely on their supposed backing from, or support for, well-known political figures, particularly ones beloved by the political grassroots. So what happens when they’re forced to drop the pretense that they’re affiliated with or exist primarily to support such figures?

Fortunately we have a recent test case, and the results are pretty stark.

The Sheriff David Clarke for U.S. Senate Official Draft Campaign PAC raised millions of dollars during the 2018 election cycle from donors, particularly small-dollar ones, enthralled at the prospect of supporting a Senate run by the right-wing celebrity. But there was one problem: Clarke himself wanted nothing to do with the PAC, which appears to have done little but rent out the political email lists owned by its operator.

Clarke himself dubbed the group a “scam PAC” in a July 2017 interview. But the group continued raising money under his name, albeit at a slightly slower clip.

But then, in early October 2017, the group removed its Clarke-branded website. A few months later, it officially changed its name to Bold Conservatives PAC. Without Clarke to use in its fundraising pitches, fundraising literally dropped to nothing, as this chart shows:

From Dec. 3, 2017, through the end of last year, it brought in exactly zero dollars in contributions over $200. “Unitemized” donations, or those under $200, stopped completely in January 2018. Whether the PAC couldn’t raise more money or simply decided not to without the ability to invoke Clarke’s name, its fundraising evaporated completely.

That’s not to say its income did, however. The group had built up a sizable email list of Clarke supporters—and, by extension, small-dollar donation targets that might come in handy for other grassroots-oriented political campaigns. And it appears to have put that email list to work. Throughout 2018, when Bold Conservatives PAC was devoid of any actual public support, it did bring in nearly $43,000 from the rental of its email list.

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Lachlan MarkayReporter

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