Liberal operatives paid big bucks by embattled pro-Clinton super PAC
Liberals have slammed Priorities USA Action, the pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC, for not raising enough money, but that didn’t prevent a pair of prominent Democratic operatives from scoring lucrative paydays with the group.
Priorities USA Action made the handsome payments to Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney — or companies connected to them — during 2013 and 2014, when the formerly pro-Barack Obama super PAC effectively went dormant, neither raising money nor spending its reserves directly on midterm elections.
What was Priorities USA Action doing? Spending nearly $2 million on expenses, including salaries, consulting fees, rent, legal fees, health care and taxes, as it positioned itself to become the flagship super PAC supporting a Clinton presidential run.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars of that money were directed at Burton and Sweeney, former Obama White House aides who founded Priorities USA Action in 2011 to support Obama’s re-election bid.
The expenditures are striking in light of the current situation at Priorities USA Action, which is shaking up its leadership ranks amid reports of infighting and disappointing fundraising.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the super PAC expects to collect only about $15 million through the end of June — not an insignificant amount, but far less than the amounts reportedly raised by super PACs backing Clinton’s likely Republican rivals, including those supporting Jeb Bush and Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
The super PAC directly paid Burton $30,394 and Sweeney $24,781 during early 2013, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission. But these payroll disbursements ended by March 2013, around the time Burton left the super PAC’s staff.
Beginning in early 2013, Priorities USA Action began paying what would amount to $220,000 over the two-year period to Independence Avenue LLC, a limited liability company incorporated in Washington, D.C.
There’s more to this story. Click here to read the rest at the Center for Public Integrity.
This story is part of Primary Source. Primary Source keeps you up-to-date on developments in the post-Citizens United world of money in politics. Click here to read more stories in this blog.
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Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
