(Picture credit Unsplash/Adam Nir)
Since their summer success in accessing the ballot, questions have arisen about who is funding the America First and Nebraska Working People Parties. Now, with just a week left until the election, filings with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission (NADC) reveal which groups are backing them.
Filings submitted by the America First Party show it is almost exclusively funded by a Democrat-aligned PAC, while the WPP is funded by a single dark money PAC. America First has raised $151,000 so far this year – $150,000 of which came from Preserve the Good Life, a PAC funded by the Nebraska State Education Association, Democracy Nebraska, and dark money group Nebraska Groundswell.
Filings for Preserve the Good Life show the group has spent its money supporting Democratic candidates in legislative races, opposing Republicans running for the Unicameral, and funding the America First Party.
Filings from the WPP reveal a single donor, a group called Progressive Properity Caucus LLC. It is unclear if the name of the group is an intentional or unintentional typo of “prosperity.” The Properity Caucus gave $30,000 to the party and it is the only donation the group has given in Nebraska according to the NADC.
A similarly named group, Progressive Prosperity Caucus Inc, was accused by Democratic State Party Chair Jane Kleeb of being a “misleading pac” and getting involved in the Nebraska Senate race earlier on in the cycle. Progressive Prosperity Caucus Inc was also accused of being a GOP-front in Wisconsin where it sought to boost Francesca Hong, an avowed socialist, in the Democratic Senate primary.
Neither the America First Party nor the WPP responded to requests for comment on the story.
America First Running Anti-Pillen Ads
The America First Party unveiled two attack ads against Governor Jim Pillen in the past week. One ad takes aim at Pillen over property taxes and the state’s budget deficit while the other criticizes him over a $2.5 million no-bid contract he gave to Global Sustainability Developers and its president, Julie Bushell.
The Pillen campaign in a statement to The Plains Sentinel called the America First Party “a make believe political party bankrolled by far-left union bosses and angry radicals.”
The influx of cash to the America First Party follows what was a shoestring effort beforehand according to its candidates. Brett Lindstrom, the party’s gubernatorial nominee, had only raised $12,000 since joining the party at the last filing deadline, but new filings show the party has given him a $90,000 in-kind donation.
Lindstrom did not respond for a request for comment on the story, but he previously described to The Plains Sentinel the tight budget he was working on.
“I’m unaware of all the background money — I just have my own situation,” he said at an event earlier in the month. At the time, Lindstrom noted that “nothing’s come so far.”
So far, the WPP has not run any publicly reported advertising. NADC filings show its candidate for secretary of state, Paul Rumbaugh, received a single $10,000 contribution from the party.
FEC filings also reveal a newly formed super PAC called Cornhusker Choice has filed a $55,000 outside spend in support of WPP Senate candidate Robin Richards. The group filed with the FEC last Wednesday and filed its spend for Richards on Saturday.
— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.