Pro-McConnell nonprofit hit with IRS complaint

Watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, a conservative nonprofit that spent millions of dollars supplied by undisclosed donors to boost Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell during his contentious 2014 re-election bid.

The nonprofit is “nothing more than a sham,” said Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director, and it “makes a mockery of a law that is supposed to promote social good, not get a particular politician reelected."

She continued: "The IRS needs to take quick and decisive action to stop KOC’s blatant violations of tax law and head off others from copying it.”

McConnell, a Kentucky Republican who is set to become the Senate majority leader next year, faced a surprisingly stiff challenge from Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes.

Ahead of the November election, the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition spent more than $14 million on advertisements, according Scott Jennings, a former McConnell aide-turned-political consultant who serves as its spokesman.

That spending spree earned the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition the distinction of being the top-spending group in the race — airing about one of every seven TV ads.

Jennings did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but in October, he told the Center for Public Integrity that the Kentucky Opportunity Coalition “abides by all rules and regulations governing an organization of its kind.”

Related: Flush with mystery money, Kentucky nonprofit haunts Grimes’ Senate bid

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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.