A political action committee (PAC) financed by Democrat billionaires is making good on its promise to spend millions to ensure Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s defeat.
The Republican Accountability PAC, an advocacy arm of the Republican Accountability Project (RAP), spent nearly $3.7 million on advertising against Lake according to trigger reports on the secretary of state’s campaign finance website. They began spending their millions a week after the primary election, and haven’t spent for or against any other candidates.
Those expenditures break down as follows: Trilogy Interactive, over $1 million; Google, over $840,000; Longwell Partners, over $441,000; Tegna, over $284,000; Scripps Media, nearly $245,000; Fox Corporation, nearly $230,000; Gray Media, over $222,000; Meta Platforms, over $202,000; Allen Media Broadcasting, over $100,000; Clear Channel Outdoor, over $83,000; and Extreme Reach, over $1,000.
It appears that one of the RAP leaders benefits greatly from the PAC money. Sarah Longwell, RAP executive director and the PAC’s treasurer, owns Longwell Partners. In addition to the over $441,000 her communications firm received for anti-Lake advertising, her firm has received at least over $554,000 for advertising and political consulting according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Longwell, a self-described “Never Trumper” is also the Defending Democracy Together co-founder (the parent organization behind RAP, and one of the top-spending dark money groups in the 2020 election), The Bulwark publisher, and former Log Cabin Republicans national board chair.
The only media company with an Arizona address that received Republican Accountability PAC money was Tegna. The listed address is the building that houses 12News and the Arizona Republic. Tegna was formerly part of Gannett before the media giant split into two publicly traded companies in 2015: Tegna, the broadcasting and digital operations, and Gannett, the publishing operations. Gannett shareholders retained the shares that became Tegna shares.
Gannett’s primary shareholder is BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and one of 100 strategic partners for the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF is the globalist lobbying organization that invented the social credit score system similar to one used currently by the Chinese government, called ESG investing or scoring, short for “Environmental, Social, and Governance” scoring.
Tegna’s board of directors consists of major corporate players representing nearly all sectors: its chairman is also a president of Dell Technologies, while other members include the executive vice president of Pfizer, the CFO of global sports entertainment giant DAZN Group and former Morgan Stanley executive, the former vice president of Coca-Cola, the former president of HBO, the former vice president and CFO of E*Trade, the president and CEO of WNET and former president of NBC, and former vice president of Time Warner Cable and HBO.
Last year, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates teamed up with RAP for a video speaking against the Arizona Senate’s audit of the 2020 election. About a month before Richer and Gates released their RAP video, RAP’s executive director Sarah Longwell donated $250 to Richer’s PAC, Pro-Democracy Republicans of Arizona.
A week before Longwell’s donation, Richer’s PAC also received $100 from Mindy Finn (formerly Feinberg), the founder of another self-described Never Trumper advocacy group called Stand up Republic. Both Defending Democracy Together and Stand Up Republic receive funding from nonprofit networks associated with Pierre Omidyar, eBay’s founder, a partner organization of the lucrative leftist dark money network originating with Arabella Advisors.
The other top PACs spending millions against candidates are the Future Forward PAC and MoveOn.org PAC: both leftist dark money groups, both spending to defeat Trump-backed Arizona candidates. In addition to Lake, they spent to defeat attorney general candidate Abraham Hamadeh and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Republican Accountability Project (RAP) is using $2 million from Democrat billionaires to take down Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
RAP is relying on funds raised through their new political action committee (PAC), the Republican Accountability PAC, established in February. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) campaign finance reports, the PAC has well over $5.1 million in funding from just 21 donors. Only 8 gave donations of $1,000 or less.
The majority of the PAC’s funds came from the following billionaires bankrolling the Democratic Party, none of which are from Arizona:
$1 million, Kathryn Murdoch: daughter-in-law of News Corporation co-founder and Fox Corporation owner Rupert Murdoch. Co-founder and president of Quadrivium Foundation, which endorsed and heavily funded the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and recently committed $250 million to BlackRock for “green energy infrastructure.” Former strategy and communications director for the Clinton Foundation (2007-2011). Member of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) board of trustees.
$1 million, Sue Mandel: wife to hedge fund billionaire Stephen Mandel. Director of the ZOOM Foundation, a social justice activism organization. Co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force, which fights climate change and air pollution. Member of Harvard Business School’s Board of Dean’s Advisors. Member of EDF board of trustees.
$1 million, John Pritzker: member of Pritzker dynasty, son of Jay Pritzker and related to Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. Finances left-leaning causes through his foundation. Issued a $25 million grant to an environmental justice project. His relative, Rachel Pritzker Duarte, also gave $100,000.
$500,000, Seth Klarman: founder and chief executive of the Baupost Group, a private investment partnership. Donates heavily through his Klarman Family Foundation, which has backed George Soros’ organizations, the NAACP, the Brennan Center for Justice, the National Center for Transgender Equality, and the ADL.
$500,000, Sam Rawlings Walton: grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton. Former EDF board of trustees member.
$500,000, Gordon Gund: heir to Ohio’s Gund dynasty. Affiliated with the George Gund Foundation, which funds social justice initiatives across the board, including climate justice, abortion, transgenderism, and racial equity.
$200,000, Jeff and Erica Lawson: co-founder and CEO of Twilio, a cloud communications services firm. Major financier of a dark money favorite for Silicon Valley liberals, Future Forward (FF) PAC, initially funded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.
Republican Accountability PAC has just launched a new $2 million campaign targeting the MAGA extremists running for office in Arizona.
Kari Lake is the first candidate being targeted. The campaign will feature real Republicans voters like Tom and Sue who refuse to support Lake. pic.twitter.com/2XFsTLKMec
— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) August 16, 2022
RAP is an initiative of the Democratic, “Never Trump” dark money group, Defending Democracy Together (DDT). DDT was one of the top-spending dark money groups in the 2020 election, spending over $15 million to either oppose former President Donald Trump or support President Joe Biden.
One of the RAP promotional videos announcing their PAC campaign features a “Republican voter” and “Arizona conservative” named Tom, who AZ Free News discovered is actually registered Democrat Tom Rawles. The timing of Rawles’ feature is noteworthy, considering that his wife, Linda Rawles, penned an Arizona Republic opinion piece shared far and wide by Democrats and self-described Republicans like Bill Kristol earlier this week.
"I’m a lifelong Republican, but I can’t even recognize the state GOP…Instead of nominating distinguished leaders, the party has elevated unhinged and anti-democratic candidates. It pains me to say this of my own party: The Arizona GOP is beyond repair." https://t.co/9GCtpsGlVM
Rawles served on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) from 1993 to 1996, then on the Mesa City Council from 2004 to 2008. As a councilman in early 2007, he gained notoriety nationwide for remaining seated and silent during the Pledge of Allegiance at a council meeting, in protest of the Iraq War. In 2012, Rawles failed in a run for District 1 of the Arizona State Senate.
Rawles’ wife, Linda, also has a political history. Linda launched multiple, unsuccessful campaigns in the 1980s in Indiana before coming to Arizona. Then she ran and lost as a Republican for an Arizona congressional seat in 1994.
The Republican Accountability PAC treasurer Sarah Longwell is an avowed “Never Trumper” who claims to be a Republican. Longwell was the first female national board chair for the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), an organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ acceptance within the GOP and criticized for promulgating a “big tent” GOP and being “Republicans In Name Only,” or “RINOs.”
"Inclusion wins, which makes the Texas Republican Party leadership’s decision to exclude the Texas Log Cabin Republicans from their convention not just narrow-minded, but politically short-sighted." pic.twitter.com/vp1UAZJZtn
— Log Cabin Republicans (@LogCabinGOP) June 17, 2022
Longwell resigned from LCR’s board after the organization endorsed Trump’s re-election. She became the publisher of a neoconservative news and commentary site, The Bulwark, with the support of Bill Kristol and Charlie Sykes.
RAP received the endorsement of Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Supervisor Bill Gates. The pair appeared in a RAP promotional video last September. At the time, Richer told AZ Free News that he appeared in the RAP video because January 6 reminded him of the French Revolution, and he felt it was important to support DDT.
Richer added that his support would make great minds like Edmund Burke, a predecessor to modern conservatism, as well as law and order supporters, proud.
Neither Richer or Gates received compensation for their video appearance.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
