A Shadow Looms: Dark Money Tied to AOC is About to Shred Biden and Buttigieg

Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., addresses The Road to the Green New Deal Tour final event at Howard University in Washington, Monday, May 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

An organization linked to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made a big announcement Tuesday: It’s shelling out over half a cool mil on digital ads bashing former VP Biden and Indiana’s Mayor Pete.

Let’s talk Organize for Justice, as described by RedState’s Brandon Morse:

According to the Daily Caller, AOC has ties to her own dark money group known as “Organize for Justice” which can raise unlimited amounts of money from anonymous donors, and which has ties directly to Justice Democrats, a PAC controlled by Ocasio-Cortez and her chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti:

The group, Organize for Justice, is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, meaning it can raise unlimited sums of money without having to disclose the identity of its donors to the public.

Organize for Justice’s website states that it is the “sister organization” of Justice Democrats, the PAC that, according to corporate filings, Ocasio-Cortez and her chief of staff have held control over since December 2017.

Now let’s talk contradiction:

Dark money is used to manipulate electorates. It is the enemy to democracy. Period.

When politicians and corporations weaved their dark web of campaign finance, they created a ticking time bomb for foreign adversaries.

To make our democracy safer, we need to get big money OUT. https://t.co/OYX62jboZH

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 17, 2018

Back to organizing for justice, as per HuffPost, $500,000 worth of mud is coming.

In fact, Quartz reports the group’s already forked over $20,000 on roughly 40 anti-Biden Facebook ads, which were published on a new paged called “Watercooler Politics.”

From Quartz, via Yahoo Finance:

“Sometimes the candidate that seems like the safest choice isn’t the safest choice,” reads the ad on which Organize for Justice has spent the most money, at least $7,500, as of Monday.

That’s reminds me of Cory Booker’s puzzling argument that he wasn’t the “safe bet,” and — therefore — he could win (? — here).

In addition to doling lessons on safety, OFJ’s also thanking Joe for all the prisoners:

In close second is an ad on which at least $5,500 has been spent, which reads: “The United States has the largest prison system in the world. As Senator, Joe Biden helped build it.”

Both ads have been shown about half a million times, if not more, to South Carolina voters since Dec. 19.

SC’s the fourth state to vote for the Dem nominee, and it’s a Biden stronghold.

Or it was.

Joe’s trended with black voters.

So:

It seems likely that the ads are meant to appeal to African-American voters in particular, based on the the prison-related message and also on an electability argument, factors many political strategists believe resonate with that demographic group. It’s not clear how Organize for Justice has used Facebook’s powerful targeting tools to seek its voters; Facebook doesn’t publish the choices that advertisers make.

As for Pete — who definitely hasn’t done well with the black demographic (here) — lookout, Jack. It’s comin’.

Meanwhile, Marianne and Cory are splitsville, Bernie and Elizabeth are fighting (here), and Hunter Biden may get some more unwanted attention via Ukraine and Impeachment Madness.

But as all the craziness swarms, rest easy that we’ve got some in Washington fighting for consistency — the kind that can’t be mired by money.