Abortion Foes Distribute Millions of Dollars Through Local Candidates – Mother Jones

Mother Jones illustration; Getty(2)

This story was produced in partnership with National Catholic Reporter.

Millions of dollars Last-minute money is pouring into the battle for a pair of abortion-related ballot measures in Nebraska, and it’s coming through an unusual and tortuous route.

Much of that money is being spent by a new group called Common Sense Nebraska, which has paid a remarkable $4.9 million in the three weeks since its founding — much of it for ads opposing an initiative that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and that supports. a separate initiative that would ban abortion.

As of the most recent campaign finance filings, the organization still had $500,000 in the bank.

Nebraska is one of the 10 states with abortion-related measures on the ballot. Last week, National Catholic Reporter and Mother Jones reported that Catholic organizations across the country contributed more than $1.9 million to the fight, with millions more coming from wealthy individuals with close ties to the church.

But what’s particularly remarkable about Common Sense Nebraska’s spending is the labyrinthine path the money has taken. Most of the funds appear to have come from the conservative billionaire Ricketts family and the Conservative group. catholic vote, both have made the bulk of their donations since mid-October, according to state campaign finance records.

Common Sense Nebraska then sent Ricketts and CatholicVote money to the campaigns of three local political candidates, including two incumbents running for re-election to the University of Nebraska board of regents.

These local candidates, in turn, purchased massive amounts of television airtime, which they then donated to the anti-abortion organization PAC Protect Women & Children for ballot initiative ads.

Elements of this arrangement were first reported last week by local news outlets, including Lincoln Journal Star. Gavin Geis, executive director of Common Cause Nebraska — a watchdog group unrelated to Common Sense Nebraska — said Journal Star that commingling money in this way is not illegal, but it hides the true source of the donations and provides significant benefits to the political committees involved.

“By contributing airtime to ballot initiatives, candidates can protect donors from disclosing their support for the proposal and give them a financial advantage over their opponents due to federal rules that give candidates little airtime,” Geis said .

None of the candidates participating in that funding arrangement — University of Nebraska regents Jim Scheer and Robert Schafer and state legislative candidate Tanya Storer — responded to requests for comment for this story.

The sudden spending spree by Common Sense Nebraska greatly increased the amount of money available to abortion rights opponents in the state. By early October, Protect Women & Children, the PAC leading the anti-abortion effort, had raised and spent just over $4 million on the two initiatives. Almost all of this money came from the Ricketts and another wealthy family, the Peeds; both families are known donors to Catholic dioceses in Nebraska. But since Common Sense Nebraska was founded on Oct. 14, it has raised an additional $5.4 million, almost all of which has gone to Protect Women & Children in one form or another.

Of that $5.4 million, Common Sense Nebraska donated $3.2 million to Scheer. Scheer, in turn, bought $3.2 million worth of commercial airtime, which he then donated to Protect Women & Children for anti-abortion ads.

Another $687,000 in Common Sense Nebraska funds went to Schafer, who donated $667,000 worth of advertising time to Protect Women & Children. And Common Sense Nebraska contributed $283,000 to Storer’s campaign, which made $231,000 in in-kind advertising donations to Protect Women & Children.

Common Sense Nebraska also donated $781,000 directly to Protect Women & Children, including donations since November 1st. There may have been more donations that have not yet been submitted to the state campaign finance system.

Most of the money going through Common Sense Nebraska’s coffers — $3.9 million — was donated by Marlene Ricketts, wife of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts. Another $830,000 was donated by the CatholicVote group on October 21 and 23.

The Ricketts are prominent Catholics, and Joe Ricketts has given millions to the Catholic Church in Nebraska, including a estimated at $34 million for the creation of a Catholic religious retreat center. The Ricketts family is also well known for their ownership of the Chicago Cubs baseball team and their involvement in Nebraska state politics. Joe Ricketts’ oldest son, Pete Ricketts, a Republican, was previously governor and is currently Nebraska’s junior senator.

Under the leadership of its president, Brian Burch, CatholicVote has become a major player in conservative Catholic political circles. Like much of the MAGA-aligned right, the Wisconsin organization was initially reluctant to embrace Donald Trump. In 2016, he refused to endorse it, saying it was “problematic in too many ways”.

More recently, CatholicVote has alleged Trump’s praise for the organization. In 2020, the group drew national media attention for using geofencing to capture the cell phone data of Catholics while they were attending Mass. The $10 million project then sent political ads targeting Catholics in the battleground states. In the Republican primaries this cycle, CatholicVote hosted a rally for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but ultimately endorsed Trump.

Originally a project of the Catholic affiliate of the Christian Coalition, CatholicVote later became part of the Fidelis Center for Law and Policy, which Burch founded in 2005. Fidelis’ most recent tax filings, from 2022, show revenues of $9.4 million dollars — up from $4.8. million the previous year.