Liberal secret-money network hammers House GOP

Nonprofits connected by a Washington-based hub have spent millions of dollars on TV ads on health care and taxes in key House districts.

By Scott Bland @ Politico.com, 07/29/2018 06:56 AM EDT

A network of secret-money nonprofit groups has spent millions of dollars attacking swing-seat House Republicans on health care and taxes, quietly becoming one of the biggest players in the 2018 political landscape.

The groups have local members and names like Floridians for a Fair Shake, Michigan Families for Economic Prosperity and North Carolinians for a Fair Economy. But they are all linked to one obscure nonprofit in downtown Washington, D.C.: the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has funneled millions of dollars to progressive causes in recent years and set up each of the new groups, according to D.C. corporation records.

Added together, the Sixteen Thirty Fund groups have been among the most prolific political advertisers of 2018. They have aired 6,885 broadcast TV ads since Jan. 1, according to Advertising Analytics, a TV tracking firm — more than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and almost as many as Americans for Prosperity, two of the five biggest nonprofit political advertisers focused on the House and Senate in the first half of this year.

The network, which has spent over $4.6 million on TV alone, has also been one of the top political advertisers in the country on Facebook, according to a POLITICO analysis of data from the social media company’s new political ad archive.

The network, which has spent over $4.6 million on TV alone, has also been one of the top political advertisers in the country on Facebook, according to a POLITICO analysis of data from the social media company’s new political ad archive.

The ads don’t expressly advocate voting against House Republicans, but they do blast incumbents for their votes on Obamacare repeal and the new tax law in more than a dozen congressional districts. The two issues are ones that Democrats want at the forefront of their campaign to take back the House, though keeping the focus on those issues has been difficult amid a maelstrom of other stories involving President Donald Trump [....]