![]() ![]() Three other listed vendors lack an internet presence or any sign of activity. ![]() “As such, we’ve done no advertising with it that’s if the PAC even exists.”Īdvertising Analytics, an ad tracking firm, also found no evidence of any television buys from the group. Neither Facebook nor Google’s public databases of political ads that run on their platforms included evidence of spending from Americans for Progressive Action USA.Īs for Verizon, “I checked and we have no idea what this organization is or whether it’s real,” spokesman Rich Young said. The super PAC also reported over $870,000 worth of spending to three major tech firms: Facebook, Google and Verizon. Felicia Greiff, a spokeswoman for the television ad firm Cadent, also said it had no business relationship with Americans for Progressive Action USA. BlueWest Media founder Mary Wittemyer - whose firm was listed as the recipient of $109,000 for ad production and an ad buy - contacted the Federal Election Commission after being notified of the filing. Other vendors listed on Americans for Progressive Action USA’s filing said they’d never heard of the organization, either. “Definitely not us, mistake that they have linked to our webpage,” a representative for the group said. ![]() ![]() Progressive USA said it had no affiliation with Americans for Progressive Action USA, either. The website linked in the Twitter account’s bio was different from the one the email was sent from, linking to a site for a PAC called Progressive USA. Additionally, a Twitter account representing itself as belonging to the super PAC did not respond to tweets directed toward it, and has since made itself private. There is no active website located at the ProgressActionUSA web address, and registration information for the website indicates it was registered via proxy on the day a reporter initially reached out for comment. But then Jones went silent, and multiple emails to him and the communications team he referenced seeking an explanation of the group’s filings went unanswered. When POLITICO sent an email to an iCloud address listed on the FEC report seeking more information on the group, Jones responded hours later with an email address from the domain, saying someone working on a communications team would be in contact. The phone number listed in FEC filings for the group’s treasurer, Evan Jones, is disconnected. That similarly named group closed up after the election and has no affiliation with the mysterious super PAC.Įxtensive efforts to reach Americans for Progressive Action USA were unsuccessful. Watkins was the treasurer of Americans for Progressive Action, a Republican group that waded into the 2013 special Senate election in Massachusetts. “There’s very wealthy people who are easily fooled.” Money begets money,” said Nancy Watkins, an experienced Republican treasurer of political committees. “I’ve seen cases when candidates reported all these fake donors and all these fake expenses … so they can come out and say they raised all this money. But filing detailed FEC reports could be an attempt to create the appearance of credibility for some other means. of scam PACs, which typically prey on small-dollar donors by convincing them they’re giving money to support a political cause when the money actually lines the pockets of the PAC’s operators. One prankster in 2016 became a brief internet phenomenon after filing paperwork for a candidate named “Deez Nuts.” But more than a dozen political operatives and campaign finance watchdogs contacted for this story were baffled why someone would file apparently made-up spending reports with the FEC.Īmericans for Progressive Action USA isn’t following the traditional M.O. It is not unheard of for people to make false filings with the FEC. Two other Washington-based vendors listed by the super PAC - Targeted Media Victory and Dixon Gruper - have no trace of previous activity and aren’t registered as corporations in D.C., according to a search of the city’s Department of Regulatory and Consumer Affairs’ database. GMMB, a major Democratic consulting firm listed as having received $318,000 from the group, said a reporter’s inquiry was the first it had heard of the super PAC. ![]()
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