Stockard on the Stump: Dark-money complaint headed to Tennessee Election Finance Registry

Better late than never, Tennessee’s campaign finance watchdog will take up a sworn complaint against a dark-money group that’s been pounding U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn with a TV ad calling her “queen pharma mama.”

The Registry of Election Finance is set to consider the complaint by Chip Buck of Pall Mall, a Blackburn surrogate, at a Sept. 15 meeting.

Falling five weeks after the Aug. 6 gubernatorial primary, the meeting won’t produce anything that would affect next week’s outcome. In fact, some might say the board’s decisions rarely produce anything other than coffee shop talk. But sometimes you gotta dance with what you got.

Buck’s complaint says Alexandria, Virginia-based American Exceptionalism Institute (say that three times fast) failed to register with the state even though it likely spent more than $5,000 to attack Blackburn, a violation of state law, and failed to disclose that it used artificial intelligence, or some other duping technology, in the ad. Buck told the Lookout he wasn’t connected to the Blackburn campaign, despite speaking on her behalf at a campaign event and wearing “Marsha Marsha Marsha” stickers in photos with her and his wife. He declined to say anything else to the Lookout but is seeking an investigation into the group that’s been running at least two sets of ads attacking Blackburn.

The “queen pharma mama” ad, a spoof that Blackburn’s attorney demanded be taken off the air this week for defaming her, harkens to the senator’s time in the U.S. House when she sponsored a bill — written by a pharmaceutical lobbyist — that was designed to make sure patients received their medication but wound up stopping DEA agents from intercepting large shipments of drugs that flooded small communities with opioids during a national epidemic. Blackburn, at that point, had accepted about $120,000 in contributions from pharmaceutical companies, and she’s up to about $560,000 these days, according to recent reports. All told, Blackburn has netted more than $23 million in fundraising while serving in Congress.

The Lookout hasn’t been able to turn up much about the American Exceptionalism Institute, other than it’s a nonprofit group that raises and spends money.

Blackburn backer seeks investigation into dark-money ads against gubernatorial candidate

Interestingly enough, Buck’s complaint, which was notarized July 10 and received by the Registry July 20, claims the group started running ads June 10, which appears to be long before the “queen pharma mama” ad came out.

Regardless of the time frame, this week’s mud-slinging ordeal is a bit perplexing. Attack ads are part of the game, but Blackburn’s people apparently felt this one was garnering too much traction as the race with U.S. Rep. John Rose tightens. (Oops, almost forgot to mention state Rep. Monty Fritts, who is busy trying to prop up Christianity.) 

Blackburn’s cease-and-desist letter put newfound focus on the ad and reminded everyone that her staff said she would find a way to deal with “unintended consequences” after the Washington Post and “60 Minutes” reported on the pharmaceutical law she co-sponsored.

No doubt, it was a calculated risk, as was filing the sworn complaint, which will keep the matter in the public eye for another two months, at least.

Then again, allowing the ad to keep running through Aug. 6 could have been the death knell for a campaign that once seemed to guarantee victory. In some instances, Blackburn has acted as if she’s already been sworn into office. Heck, somebody’s got to run the state — or not. We haven’t seen, or heard, much out of term-limited Gov. Bill Lee in months.

But getting back to the sworn complaint. If you’re hoping for some sort of penalty for the American Exceptionalism Institute, remember that the Registry’s investigation couldn’t turn up the North Carolina restaurateur named Brandon Crawford who purportedly made a $7,000 donation to the Faith Family Freedom Fund PAC that spent money to help state Rep. Todd Warner beat Republican Rep. Rick Tillis in 2020. Here’s a hint: Crawford’s existence is doubtable, at best.

The Registry dismissed a complaint by Tillis’s campaign manager about illicit collusion with the PAC.

Blackburn goes after dark-money group calling her ‘queen pharma mama’

Yet testimony showed former House staffer Cade Cothren ran the PAC secretly after persuading a former girlfriend to form it.

Cothren was pardoned by President Donald Trump after being convicted on federal fraud and conspiracy charges to secretly tap state lawmakers’ constituent mailer accounts.

The Registry board levied civil penalties totaling $80,000 against Cothren for misleading the state about the 2019 political action committee. His attorneys were expected to appeal, which is par for the course, because this stuff stretches on forever, forever, forever … .

It adds up

The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition, a clean-energy political action committee, is committing $700,000 to ads against U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles as he tried to fend off former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher in the newly-gerrymandered 5th Congressional District.

That brings the group’s spending to $2 million against Ogles, who received a Trump endorsement and is benefiting from spending to the tune of nearly $660,000 from the House Freedom Caucus.

On a rampage

Warner, who uses Cothren for campaign work, is trying to rebound from President Donald Trump’s endorsement of state Sen. Brent Taylor of Shelby County as they vie for the Republican nomination in the newly-gerrymandered 9th Congressional District.

The Marshall County farmer said people in the largely rural district stretching from Memphis along the southern Tennessee line to Williamson and Rutherford counties are “struggling” with the price of fuel and groceries and raised questions about Trump’s policies.

“I don’t think he’s as popular as he was. You ain’t gotta quote me on that, or you can. I don’t care. It don’t matter at this point. I feel like his popularity is down,” said Warner, who remains a Trump supporter, keeps a life-size cutout of the president in his state office and sent at least one mailer saying the president needs his help to rebuild America.

Taylor said in a text statement that Warner’s “disparaging remarks” about the president and his agenda “reveal his true feelings about the America First movement.”

Also running in the primary are perennial candidate Charlotte Bergmann of Memphis and Jeremy Thompson, a retired U.S. Army sergeant.

“What’s your name …”

A perusal of Sen. Blackburn’s federal finance reports this week turned up a couple of interesting contributors. One guy named “Joseph Dimaggio” kicked in a little cash, and another named “Jesus Christ” of D.C. gave around $230 in small contributions during the latest reporting period. The cash apparently is coming in through the WinRed fundraising platform, which is a major money maker. Don’t worry, this reporter couldn’t make it through all 279,000 contributions.

Anyone who’s ever followed baseball knows about the great Joe Dimaggio who led the New York Yankees to multiple World Series titles and holds the all-time record with a 56-game hitting streak. Now we know where you have gone, “Joltin” Joe.

But “Jesus Christ”? You just don’t see that name every day, unless you’re in constant repentance. 

Should someone have raised a red flag? For one thing, they tell me foreign nationals aren’t allowed to donate to federal campaigns, and he did come from Galilee. Blackburn could even be accused of accepting money from “immigrants.” Gasp. 

More than likely, this will never see any form of investigation, even if a Rose surrogate files a complaint. 

But considering Jesus could perform all sorts of miracles, including raising the dead, turning water to wine (one of my favorites) and feeding the 5,000 with a handful of fishes and chunks of bread, couldn’t he come up with more than a couple hundred bucks?

“I don’t care what they may say / Jesus is just alright, oh yeah.” *

*Doobie Brothers, “Jesus is Just Alright”