Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via AP Images
Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) speaks at a House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing, May 14, 2020.
Sludge produces investigative journalism on lobbying and money in politics. The American Prospect is re-publishing this article.
A second “dark money” group, one controlled by telecom and fossil fuel industry lobbyists, is parachuting in to promote Rep. Kurt Schrader ahead of his closely contested Democratic primary with challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner in Oregon’s Fifth Congressional District.
The group Better Jobs Together (BJT) is airing $181,000 worth of pro-Schrader ads on broadcast and cable television in the Bend, Oregon area, according to a media monitoring alert viewed by Sludge. One ad touts Schrader’s work in the House, citing his vote for the infrastructure package, and his co-sponsorship of a Republican energy bill, among other things. In a voiceover using campaign photos of the seven-term representative, as well as photos of puppies, the spot asks viewers to call Schrader to ask him to “keep protecting the people and pets of Oregon.”
Last month, in a statement to The Intercept, Schrader wrote that he was working to “fight dark money in politics,” among other causes. At the same time, the dark-money group Center Forward, whose directors include lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry and is closely tied to the Blue Dog Coalition whose PAC Schrader chairs, was spending $385,000 on TV and digital ads to bolster Schrader’s reputation on prescription drug pricing and other issues. The Schrader campaign did not respond to requests for comment on the campaign aid from either dark-money group, in what one poll showed is a neck-and-neck race.
The spots are BJT’s first ad buy in the Oregon primary, but this year the shadowy group has spent big on ads for another Blue Dog Coalition member, Henry Cuellar, who is facing a Democratic primary challenge in a South Texas district. In early February, NBC News reported that BJT had been the dominant ad spender in the race, with $1.4 million spent on Cuellar’s behalf.
By avoiding language specifically saying to elect Schrader or defeat his opponent and by running the ads more than 30 days before the election, BJT has so far evaded the Federal Election Commission’s definition of “electioneering communications” and thus is not required to report its ad activity.
The website for Better Jobs Together has no language about who is behind the group, only showing its gauzy ads, including one from August supporting Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. At the time, Sinema was one of the conservative Democrats blocking the Democrats’ sweeping Build Back Better Act in Congress, rejecting its top-line dollar amount and opposing a proposed tax rate increase for millionaires. More centrist Democrats featured in BJT ads on its website include a trio of U.S. reps from Texas: Lizzie Fletcher, who proposed an oil industry bailout during the pandemic; Marc Veasey, one of four co-chairs of the bipartisan F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Caucus; and Vicente Gonzalez, another Blue Dog whose second-highest career donor has been the oil and gas industry, according to OpenSecrets.
While BJT’s website does not release any information about its funders, board, mission, or contact info, FCC records show that it listed an address in Arlington, Virginia and that its treasurer is Rene Ramirez, a political consultant based around McAllen, Texas whose website highlights his “long history of being a behind-the-scenes player in Hidalgo County economic development.” An inquiry about BJT’s ad spending left with Ramirez’s firm Pathfinder Public Affairs, which was given as BJT’s phone number in FCC files, did not receive a response. As a Texas lobbyist, Ramirez’s nearly two dozen clients include pipeline firm Energy Transfer, AT&T, and the tobacco company formerly known as Reynolds American. He also lobbies the state for Las Vegas Sands Corp., the casino company of the late Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire Republican megadonor, and his wife Miriam.
Documents from the Virginia State Corporation Commission show that the Better Jobs Together Campaign, the group sponsoring the ads, was formed on April 19, 2021. The first ads showcased on its website, for Gonzalez, were posted to YouTube about a month later, on May 27. BJT’s incorporator and counsel, according to an Oregon attorney backing the McLeod-Skinner campaign who spoke with her to confirm her role, is Megan H. Troy, a D.C. attorney and former lobbyist whose Troy Law Group says it specializes in telecom and government contracting for tech firms. Sludge’s inquiries to Megan Troy did not receive a response. During the years 2005-2007, Troy was a federal lobbyist with multinational law firm K&L Gates for the New Mexico rural telecommunications company Sacred Wind Communications. Troy previously lobbied with the Houston-headquartered law firm Vinson & Elkins LLP for clients including utility company Portland General Electric, construction materials company Southdown, and 7-Eleven.
If BJT is incorporated as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, its annual disclosure to the IRS won’t be submitted until this year, and judging from its uniform pattern of secrecy, it is unlikely to disclose its donors. This means that voters will likely never know who funded BJT’s ads. IRS guidelines state that no more than half of a nonprofit organization’s activities can be political, but enforcement of campaign finance laws such as nonprofit spending thresholds has been lacking, with the agency frequently gridlocked by three commissioners from each major political party.
Schrader was one of three Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee who voted last year to block a major legislative provision that aimed to lower the cost of prescription drugs by allowing Medicare to negotiate on some bulk purchases. In the last election cycle, he was among the top 20 House Democratic recipients of PAC money, according to OpenSecrets, and received under 2% of his campaign funds from small dollar donations of $200 or less.
The BJT ad highlights Schrader’s vote for H.R. 6833, a bill that would cap the copayment on insulin products beginning in 2023 for patients with private health insurance or the Medicare prescription drug benefit. The bill passed the House on March 31 by a vote of 232 to 193, though Schrader was not among the bill’s 31 Democratic co-sponsors. While taking on the high cost of essential treatments has long been a goal of House Democrats, the insulin measure sent to the Senate has been criticized by experts like Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at Kaiser Family Foundation, for doing little to address the high cost of essential medicines from hugely profitable pharmaceutical companies, or increasing access for those without health insurance.
“From his Big Pharma checks to allowing anonymous groups to back his campaign, Kurt Schrader has no problem taking cash from corporations and dark money,” Jamie McLeod-Skinner, an emergency response coordinator and attorney, told Sludge. “While residents across Oregon are struggling to afford prescription drugs and housing, Schrader is blocking lower prescription drug prices for his Big Pharma donors. That’s why I don’t take corporate PAC money and support a ban on members of Congress trading stocks.”
Last week, McLeod-Skinner’s campaign announced that it had raised $540,000 in individual contributions, including over $305,000 in the first quarter of this year, from more than 2,000 Oregonians, with 88% of contributions at less than $200. As of the end of last year, Schrader’s campaign had reported nearly $3.6 million in cash on hand. The media monitoring alert viewed by Sludge tallied the Schrader campaign’s spending on ads at $940,000 heading into the primary. In a rare step, four of six Democratic county parties in the district endorsed the challenger, McLeod-Skinner, with one of the parties citing its research on Schrader’s voting record favoring corporate-backed policies.
