Nothing Illegal Here, But Why Would A Lower Merion Commissioner Give $6K To A Dark Money PAC?
On August 20, 2020, SpotlightPA ran a story (“A Dark Money Mystery”) about the Pennsylvania Growth and Opportunity Fund. SpotlightPA describes Growth and Opportunity (the fund) as “a dark money fund.”
The article revealed public filings showing that in 2019, Lower Merion Commissioner Scott Zelov contributed $6,000 to the fund. They also reported that Jeff Bartos, from Merion Park, who ran unsuccessfully for Lt. Governor in 2018, was on the fund’s board. A search of the Pennsylvania Campaign Finance Database shows that Bartos contributed $18,500 to the fund, in 2019. SpotlightPA also called attention to a $15,000 contribution to the fund from the Horsham Republican Party. The Horsham GOP is led by Anthony Spangler. Spangler is also Secretary/Treasurer of the Montgomery County Republican Committee (MCRC).
Click here to read SpotlightPA article
When I asked Zelov (via email) why he would have contributed $6,000 to a dark money fund, he replied,
“The contribution that I made was in support of the pro-growth mission of the Growth & Opportunity Fund. My friend and board member Jeff Bartos encouraged me to contribute since this fund advocates for policies that are important to me–free enterprise and economic growth. I received nothing in return for my contribution. How could this fund receive such a label when contributions like mine are available for all to see? In addition, I reported my contribution on my public and transparent campaign report.”
I was not satisfied with his answer, and I followed up with this response.
To answer your question, it seems to me that despite the fact that your contribution to the Growth and Opportunity Fund was reported, and that you gained nothing in return for your contribution; that Spotlight.org accurately characterized this organization as a “dark money group,” based on the fund’s own description of its operation.
According to the fund’s website, “There are no limits on amounts that may be contributed to Growth and Opportunity Fund, Inc. by an individual, corporation, union, or trade association. Contributions to Growth and Opportunity Fund, Inc. do not count against an individual’s biennial aggregate contribution limit under the Federal Election Campaign Act, as amended.” And, “Contributions to Growth and Opportunity Fund, Inc. are not deductible for federal income tax purposes. Contributions of $5,000 or more will be reported to the Internal Revenue Service on IRS Form 990 as required by law; however, the IRS does not make this information public. Growth and Opportunity Fund’s policy is [to] maintain the confidentiality of its donors.”
Even though your contribution was publicly reported, and even though the stated goals of the group are worth advocating for, would you disagree that the fund does provide a vehicle to those who would wish to use their wealth to influence policy, without having their identities known?
According to the article, your contribution was among only a handful that Spotlight PA was able to identify. The largest contribution among the small number of identified donors, came from John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty’s Electrical Workers Local 98 ($30,000). Do you think that Johnny Doc was primarily motivated to donate to this fund as you were, because of its advocacy for “free enterprise and economic growth?”
Lastly, I am curious to know, notwithstanding your friendship with Jeff Bartos, why would you choose to contribute so much money to a group like this, when there are so many other political organizations and committees that are equally, if not more effective and efficient at advocating for free enterprise and economic growth; and don’t operate under a cloud of secrecy in the way that the Growth and Opportunity Fund does?
Zelov did not respond to my second inquiry.
Scott Zelov
What SpotlightPA failed to mention, is that Zelov, Bartos and Spangler have something else in common. Besides a love of free enterprise and economic growth, they do not like County Commissioner Joe Gale, and Joe Gale does not like them.
In 2015 Scott Zelov was one of two candidates endorsed by the MCRC in the primary election for County Commissioner. Steve Tolbert was the other endorsed candidate.
Gale (at the age of 25) was the only unendorsed candidate in the race. He ran hard as a Pro-Life Candidate, calling attention to Zelov’s Pro-Choice position. Gale also labeled Zelov and the entire Montco GOP Establishment, as “RINOs” (Republicans In Name Only). In the three-man race (in which the top two would get to run in the general election), Gale wore his unendorsed status as a badge of honor, and came in second. Zelov came in last.
In the general election that year, Republicans Gale and Steve Tolbert, ran as anything but a team. The two Democratic candidates won easily. Gale ran a distant third. Tolbert ran an even more distant fourth. But Gale’s third place finish was good enough to win the minority seat on the Montco Board of Commissioners.
In 2018, Jeff Bartos was running for Lt. Governor. At the same time, Gale decided that he was also going to run for Lt. Governor.
It didn’t matter to Gale that he would only be 29 years old on the day that he might have been inaugurated, and that the Pennsylvania Constitution requires that a person has to be 30 in order to serve as Lt. Governor. But it did matter to a Commonwealth Court Judge. So, Gale’s campaign for Lt. Governor was short-lived.
However, in the brief time that he was running for Lt. Governor, Gale managed to take some shots at Bartos. Gale told the Montgomery News “To this day, Jeff Bartos remains a self-serving political opportunist,” Gale, 28, said in the press release announcing his candidacy. Don’t believe his current campaign claims that he’s a ‘conservative outsider’ because the facts prove Jeff Bartos is an entrenched insider who has a long history of donating to Democrats.”
Anthony Spangler, Chairman of the Horsham Republicans and Secretary/Treasurer of the Republican Party of Montgomery County. In a year when they were facing stiff competition from Democrats for two Horsham Council seats, the Horsham GOP still found a way to contribute $15,000 to the fund.
When Gale ran for re-election in 2019, he tapped his brother, Sean Gale, to be his running mate in the Primary.
The MCRC officially declared the race to be an “Open Primary,” meaning that no candidate was endorsed. But Anthony Spangler apparently didn’t get the memo. He sent a letter to Horsham Republicans explicitly urging them to not vote for the Gale Brothers. Instead Spangler called for the election of two other Republicans, Fred Conner and Dean Eisenberger.
Five different postcards that trashed Joe Gale were sent to Republicans across Montgomery County over the course of the 2019 Primary campaign. Coincidentally, those mailers were paid for by another Dark Money PAC.
The mailings all said that they were paid for by Hometown Freedom Action Network, P.O. Box 75727 Washington, DC. 20013. In an F.E.C (Federal Election Commission) filing for the period 1/1/2019 to 6/30/2019, Hometown Freedom Action Network reported that they received total contributions of $32,500. The entirety of their contributions came from a third Dark Money PAC called Citizens for a Working America, located in Alexandria, Virginia. Citizens for a Working America hasn’t filed anything with the F.E.C. since 2017.
During the same period, Hometown Freedom Action Network reported total expenditures of $32,300. According to its F.E.C. filing, $30,000 of the $32,300 went to a political consulting firm called Big Dog Strategies. On its website, Big Dog lists Direct Mail among the services that they provide. Based on this, it would appear that they were the ones who arranged for the creation, printing and mailing of the attacks against Gale (Hometown Freedom Action Network’s filing indicates that the $30,000 was for “Direct Mail – State”).
There’s one more coincidence.
The 2018 Campaign Finance Reports of Bartos For Pennsylvania also list $25,000 of expenditures for Big Dog Strategies. It’s hard to tell from the reports what exactly Big Dog did for Bartos. The description on the filing says “General Campaign Consulting.”
Big Dog Strategies claims an 86% success rate, but obviously their effort to derail Joe Gale was among the 14%.