Subject: Who's behind W Spann LLC?
From: "Patrick Gaspard, Democrats.org" <[email-masked]>
To: "Robert Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2011 16:20:45 -0400

The Democratic Party
-----------------------
Robert --

So get this: A few months ago someone created a corporation, immediately gave $1 million to a political front group supporting Mitt Romney, and then dissolved the corporation. 

We don't know what kind of business the now-defunct firm, "W Spann LLC," was in -- or claimed to be in, anyway. The lawyer listed as its founder won't respond to inquiries, and the office building listed as the company's headquarters has no record of its existence.

There's no way to tell where the money came from or who was responsible. 

Mitt Romney might be fine with that. We're not.

That's why we don't accept money from PACs or Washington lobbyists. It's why President Obama discloses the names of the major fundraisers for his campaign. And it's why our chair -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz -- has called on Republicans like Romney to do the same. 

But while these groups are out there accepting this corporate money, the only thing we can do is match those checks dollar for dollar with donations from everyday people.  

Please help us fight back -- chip in $3 or more to pay for infrastructure and organizing teams to defeat these front groups:

http://my.democrats.org/Front-Groups2

The so-called "Super PAC" on the receiving end of this money isn't directly controlled by Romney -- it's run by a group of his friends, including one who served as legal counsel to his 2008 campaign. But that hasn't stopped Romney from appearing at the group's events. And he hasn't ruled out raising money for the PAC directly. 

When asked, these guys say they've done nothing wrong -- and that they've fully complied with FEC reporting requirements. But independent watchdog groups are so concerned about this situation that they've called on the Justice Department and other entities to launch a criminal investigation into the matter. 

Legal or not, it's sleazy. One reporter even summed it up like this: "This is more or less how money moves around [in] Russian politics."

We've got a lot of work to do to strengthen the campaign finance laws. Indeed, Democrats passed a bill to do just that in the House of Representatives last year. But Republicans killed it in the Senate. And with the GOP in charge in the House now, clean-elections laws are going nowhere until we get a new Congress.

In the meantime, though, the only thing we can do to counter this type of corruption is to do the exact opposite -- raise money from people giving whatever they can afford. Can you chip in $3 or more today?

http://my.democrats.org/Front-Groups2

Thanks,  

Patrick

Patrick Gaspard 
Executive Director 
Democratic National Committee

**************************************************************
Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Democratic National Committee, 430 S. Capitol St. SE, Washington DC 20003
**************************************************************

Contributions or gifts to the Democratic National Committee are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, click the link below:

http://my.democrats.org/unsubscribe