When do the shenanigans customary to presidential election politics cross the line? That is the question as both parties boost third-party efforts apprised to be spoilers taking votes away from their main opposition in the final days of the 2024 campaign.
Greetings, Fellow Freedom Lovers
“A dark money group linked to Kamala Harris campaign attorney Marc Elias is boosting the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate through a series of YouTube ads in battleground states, an apparent ploy to pull conservative votes away from Donald Trump,” the Washington Free Beacon reported October 25.
Civic Truth Action, a super PAC that made its debut in July, has spent more than $1.5 million to air ads in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada, the news site relates. The ads hail Libertarian presidential nominee Chase Oliver as “a ‘true conservative’ who will ‘abolish income taxes’ and ‘dismantle the nanny state,’ according to the company’s ad database,” the Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross notes.
One ad running in Pennsylvania is aimed squarely at males aged 18-34, Ross wrote. “The media says voting for the person who will eliminate income taxes and protect freedoms is a waste. You know what I say? Screw ’em, I’m voting for Chase Oliver," the narrator proclaimed.
Elias isn’t the only Democratic heavyweight who sees Libertarians as a useful wedge against Trump. As reported by multiple outlets, groups that have ties to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) are spending big money to aid the third party’s candidates in Alaska, Ohio, and Montana congressional races.
GOP PAC: Jill Stein Is the Real Environmentalist
To the shock and consternation of Democrats, Republicans are apparently playing this same tricky politics game, too. Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein has been dogged by accusations from establishment blue forces that her campaign, which is bound to peel progressive votes away from Kamala Harris, is being propped up by Republican support. And while there may be a little hyperbole in these claims, GOP groups certainly are taking advantage of the opportunities presented by Stein’s presence in the race.
Jill Stein (Photo by Mattie Neretin/Getty Images)
The Republican-tied Badger Values PAC has spent “at least $307,000” on “direct mail or other advertising” that names Stein, a prominent DC newspaper reported on October 25.
“As President, Jill Stein Would End Pollution in Our Great Lakes and Rivers,” one direct mail item states. “Kamala Harris and Co. Don’t Care About Our Environment. VOTE FOR JILL STEIN by November 5th.”
“The group has the same name, address and treasurer of a group that registered in 2022 in Wisconsin to support the failed Republican primary bid of state attorney general candidate Adam Jarchow,” the paper observes.
None of this is unusual in the hardboiled world of electoral politics. But is it fair play when big-name party advocates misrepresent an organization they control as belonging to their rival?
Reid Hoffman Politics
Whale Democratic donor Reid Hoffman has a history of funding what many would call campaign efforts. In 2019, the LinkedIn founder financially backed a group that created fake Russian bots and phony Facebook pages to steer Alabama Republican voters away from party Senate nominee Roy Moore.
After Moore had safely lost, Hoffman apologized for his actions, saying he wasn’t aware of how his money was being spent.
Hoffman is working on the 2024 race as well. “A super PAC launched this year to ‘empower’ Republican women to vote against Donald Trump is funded almost entirely” by Hoffman, wrote Ross of the Free Beacon. Hoffman “has given $518,000 since July to Women4Us Inc., which reported roughly $644,000 in campaign contributions since July 1. Another super PAC funded heavily by Hoffman, One For All Committee, has contributed $86,000 to Women4Us, according to campaign finance disclosures.”
Women4Us was birthed in the Never Trump orbit. Co-founders Renee Lafair, Brittany Prime, and Stephanie Sharp “met in February 2024 at the Principles First Summit in Washington, DC,” the organization’s website states. Principles First is a group of establishment Republicans tightly tethered to perennial Trump basher Bill Kristol and his associates. Kristol is featured prominently as an “ally” on the Women4Us site.
It may be viable to claim to be a Republican who opposes Donald Trump, but how valid is a group created to “fill a void in the organization and outreach to center-right women,” as Women4US puts it, when its existence is wholly dependent on the financial largesse of one of the biggest Democratic megadonors in the nation? Is that just politics?
Instead of things getting murkier, the lines may be unblurring. With ex-Republican congresswoman and Never Trump stalwart Liz Cheney sharing the stage with Kamala Harris at multiple campaign rallies and Reid Hoffman funding Bill Kristol’s parlor games, the official aligning of establishment Democrats with establishment Republicans becomes more evident by the day.
