Andy Kroll

Reporter

Andy Kroll is Mother Jones' Dark Money reporter. He is based in the DC bureau. His work has also appeared at the Wall Street Journal, the Detroit News, Salon, and TomDispatch.com, where he's an associate editor. He can be reached at akroll (at) motherjones (dot) com. He tweets at @AndrewKroll.

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GOP Governor to Karl Rove: Take a Hike

—By Andy Kroll

| Tue Feb. 19, 2013 10:53 AM PST

Karl Rove.

Karl Rove, the Republican political whiz, is still grappling with blowback from the unveiling of his latest venture, the Conservative Victory Fund. A combination super-PAC and dark-money nonprofit, the Fund will spend millions on advertising in contests where Republicans believe they only have a shot at winning the November general election if the right candidate emerges from the GOP primary. In other words, Rove wants to prevent future Todd Akins and Richard Mourdocks.

The latest Republican to join the Rove haters is Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, who over the weekend said he'd ripped Rove and the Conservative Victory Fund in a recent phone call with the strategist. "I basically told Karl Rove that what he was doing is counter-productive and he needs to stay out of it," Branstad told the Associated Press.

Rove and his new venture have driven a wedge between establishment Republicans and the ascendant conservative wing of the GOP. Matt Kibbe, the president of the conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks, recently described the furor over the new Rove super-PAC as "a little bit like gang warfare." One tea party leader, Jenny Beth Martin, told the Hill she considered Rove's new outfit a direct challenge to the tea party, adding that hard-line conservatives like herself are "ready to rise to the challenge."

The 2014 primaries are more than a year away, but already the Conservative Victory Fund is eyeing races in Iowa, Georgia, and West Virginia. But Branstad, the Iowa governor, says Rove and his allies have their strategy all wrong. Branstad favors a more "diplomatic" approach (he declined to say what that entailed—a friendly game of Oujia, perhaps?) to ensuring that Republicans who win primary elections can also win in November. From the AP's story:

But the targeted effort conflicts with a more diplomatic approach favored by Branstad and other mainstream Republicans wary of offending important officeholders and factions. Branstad, who is influential as the five-term governor of a political swing state that hosts the first nominating contest of each presidential campaign, was especially inflamed by indications the Rove organization would target Iowa arch-conservative Rep. Steve King if he tried to run for the state's open Senate seat in 2014.

There is similar tension about Republican candidates in West Virginia, where the GOP hopes to pick up a seat long held by Democrats, and in Georgia, where Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss' retirement has set off an internal fight between hard-right conservatives and the GOP establishment.

Branstad, in an interview with the Associated Press, said Rove's plan to use fundraising and negative advertising against suspect Republicans was "a mistake."

"If some outside group that has no connection to Iowa attacks somebody from Iowa, that is not smart," Branstad said.

In the weeks after Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin announced his retirement, Branstad has used private breakfasts with King and his House colleague Tom Latham to discuss who would be the strongest contender for seat, which has been held by Democrats for more than 30 years.

The Rove v. Tea Party story, needless to say, has quite a ways to go.

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Michigan Republicans Really, Really Want to Allow Concealed Guns in Schools

—By Andy Kroll

| Mon Feb. 11, 2013 1:39 PM PST

Damn the veto, full speed ahead for more guns in schools!

That may as well be the rallying cry for some Republican lawmakers in Michigan. GOP Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed legislation in mid-December that would have allowed concealed guns on the grounds of schools, churches, and daycare facilities. But State Rep. Greg MacMaster (R) is undeterred. He recently introduced the "Michigan School Protection Act," which would allow licensed teachers and administrators to carry concealed pistols at school, the Associated Press reports. MacMaster, whose legislation has the support of numerous state GOP lawmakers, told the AP that his bill would let schools decide how to implement on-campus concealed carry policies. The speaker of the Michigan House, Republican Jase Bolger, has yet to embrace the new bill, saying lawmakers need to "take a breath" before moving ahead on the measure. But Bolger has also questioned the wisdom of making schools gun-free zones, suggesting he might be open to MacMaster's legislation.

On December 13, the day before the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the GOP-controlled Michigan legislature approved concealed-carry legislation for schools, churches, and daycare centers. Post-Newtown, citizens barraged Snyder's office with emails and phone calls urging him to veto the bill, which he did. "While we must vigilantly protect the rights of law-abiding firearm owners, we also must ensure the right of designated public entities to exercise their best discretion in matters of safety and security," Snyder said in a statement. "These public venues need clear legal authority to ban firearms on their premises if they see fit to do so."

Snyder did sign two other gun-related measures at the time, one streamlining the background check process for handgun purchases and another easing the sale of rifles and shotguns between buyers and sellers in states bordering Michigan. During a recent visit to an elementary school, Snyder sounded bearish on the idea of more guns in schools. "I don't view dwelling on guns as the big conversation we should be having," he told MLive.com. "If you look at the tragedy at Sandy Hook and the issues there, one of the big things we need to look at is the issue of mental health, and the issues of how do we help kids that have needs and different challenges in their life."

MacMaster's isn't the only divisive gun bill introduced by Michigan GOPers lately. In mid-January, 13 Republican state senators offered the "Michigan Firearms Freedom Act," a measure that would exempt guns or ammunition made in Michigan from federal regulations. Michigan joined nearly three-dozen other states in introducing such legislation. The measure is, for now, a purely symbolic one: There are no gun or ammo makers in Michigan.

Exclusive: Donors Trust, The Right's Dark-Money ATM, Paid Out $30 Million in 2011

—By Andy Kroll

| Mon Feb. 11, 2013 7:53 AM PST

Last week, I reported on an obscure yet powerful group called Donors Trust, a dark-money ATM funding the conservative movement with hundreds of millions of dollars in mostly anonymous money. Donors Trust bankrolls the Heartland Institute, a shrill flag-bearer for climate-change denialism; the American Legislative Exchange Council, the right-wing bill mill; and a slew of think tanks and advocacy shops promoting an anti-union, free-market agenda. As The Nation's Ari Berman recently reported, Donors Trust is also the sole funder of the Project on Fair Representation, a group trying to gut the Voting Rights Act.

When I published my Donors Trust story, though, the picture was incomplete. There's a lag of a year or more between when Donors Trust, a nonprofit, raises and spends its millions and when it publicly discloses its activities. At the time I reported my story, the most recent IRS filing I could draw on covered only 2010. Over the weekend, however, I obtained a copy of Donors Trust's 2011 filing—previously unavailable anywhere online until now.

Here's what the latest filing shows us: Donors Trust is only getting bigger. In 2011, the group received more than $39 million in donations, an increase of $10 million from 2010, and handed out almost $30 million—both record sums. As in years past, recipients of Donors Trust cash include the biggest players in conservative politics today: the David Koch-chaired Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the Cato Institute, the FreedomWorks Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, and the influential State Policy Network.

Like all of its previous IRS filings, Donors Trust's 2011 paperwork does not include a shred of information about the identity of Donors Trust's bankrollers. That's partly why the nonprofit is increasingly popular: At a time when conservative donors find themselves singled out by political candidates and the media, Donors Trust offers anonymity. When Donors Trust money lands at Heritage or Cato, it doesn't include the name of the original source of the money; it simply says Donors Trust. Increasingly, as this latest filing shows, conservative donors are choosing to funnel their money through Donors Trust instead of giving it themselves, meaning more of the money fueling conservative politics is draped in secrecy. "We just have this great big unknown out there about where all the money is coming from," Robert Brulle, a sociologist at Drexel University who studies money in the conservative movement, recently told me.

Here is Donors Trust's full 990 form:

Here is a list of all of Donors Trust's 2011 grants*:

*Correction: Donor Trust's 2011 grant list has been corrected to show a $40,000 grant to the Center for Independent Thought, not a $540,000 grant.

Penny Pritzker, Longtime Obama Fundraiser, May Finally Get Her Cabinet Position

—By Andy Kroll

| Thu Feb. 7, 2013 3:03 PM PST

Businesswoman and Obama fundraiser Penny Pritzker.

Early in President Barack Obama's reelection campaign, when it looked as if he would be buried in an avalanche of money by Republican super-PACs and dark-money nonprofits, I talked to a lot of Democratic strategists and fundraisers who were fretting over the potential cash imbalance between Obama and Rove, the Kochs, and the rest of the GOP. Thinking about how to beat back that tide of cash, many of them raised the same question: Where is Penny Pritzker?

Pritzker, the Chicago businesswoman whose family owns the Hyatt hotel chain, chaired Obama's national fundraising operation during his 2008 campaign, helping the campaign raise nearly $750 million. Post-election, she was rumored to be Obama's top pick for secretary of the Department of Commerce. Yet the job ultimately went to someone else, and Pritzker went on to play a lesser role for Obama in 2011 and 2012, relinquishing her role as chief fundraiser (although she still bundled several hundred thousand dollars). Unlike mega-donors Jeffrey Katzenberg and Fred Eychaner, Pritzker irked Democratic fundraisers by not supporting the pro-Obama super-PAC Priorities USA Action. "The word was she wanted Commerce and didn't get it and is all pissed off," one well-connected Democratic strategist complained to me last summer.

Now, it looks like Pritzker might get her commerce gig after all. Bloomberg News quotes three anonymous sources saying Obama could soon name Pritzker as his new commerce secretary. A president naming one of his top fundraisers to a cabinet position is not uncommon in Washington; fundraisers and donors are often rewarded with ambassadorships—or, in a few cases, cabinet jobs. This is how a winning presidential candidate thanks his biggest supporters. Indeed, folks who fundraise for a presidential campaign often go into the process eyeing a plush gig on the other side—if their candidate wins, of course. "You always have people that are interested in what's next for them" in political fundraising, a former senior Obama campaign staffer says.

None of this is to say Pritzker lacks the qualifications for the job. She has years of experience in the private sector, having run a real estate company and served on the boards of Hyatt, the credit-reporting company TransUnion, and the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. That business experience, though, has caused her problems in the political world. Her family partially owned a bank that was ensnared in the subprime mortgage debacle, a blemish on her resume that hurt her chances of securing the commerce secretary job after the 2008 campaign.

But the subprime debacle is in the rear-view mirror in Washington, and Pritzker appears to be on the cusp of finally joining the Obama administration. If she does go to the Department of Commerce, it will mark a milestone in a decades-long friendship between Obama and Pritzker. In the 1990s, Pritzker met the future president through his brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, on a YMCA basketball court in Chicago. From the Y to the White House: that is quite a journey.

Two Years Later, The Florida Bar Takes Action Against Foreclosure Baron David J. Stern

—By Andy Kroll

| Tue Feb. 5, 2013 1:07 PM PST

A caricature of David J. Stern, portrayed as Superman, as it appeared on a commemorative T-shirt.

Way back in August 2010, I sounded the alarm about a fellow named David J. Stern, a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who'd gotten rich off the housing meltdown of the mid-2000s. Stern ran a law firm that handled foreclosure cases as fast as possible for big banks and the quasi-governmental housing corporations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But as I revealed, Stern's law firm, paid per case, increasingly cut corners and, in some cases, duped judges in Florida's overwhelmed court system in the race to foreclose on more people and make more money. (One local judge said a key document filed by a lawyer in Stern's firm was "fraudulently backdated, in a purposeful, intentional effort to mislead the defendant and this court.") Stern's firm, I noted, was among the largest of a thriving breed of law firms profiting off of the housing crisis—and called them "foreclosure mills."

Days after my 4,600-word investigation into Stern's operation appeared, the Florida attorney general's office launched its own probe of three of the state's largest foreclosure mills. The big banks soon cut ties with Stern, as did Fannie and Freddie. Later, Fannie and Freddie cut ties with all foreclosure mills like Stern's, after an inspector general report (citing Mother Jones, among others) criticized their use of such firms. Yet through it all, the Florida Bar, the enforcer of ethics for the state's lawyers, publicly did nothing, to the dismay of homeowners, attorneys, and judges on the other side of Stern's misdeeds.

No longer. The Palm Beach Post reports that the Bar is looking to bring disciplinary action against Stern resulting from 17 different complaints over the backdating of foreclosure documents, misleading local courts, failing to appear before an appeals court in a class action, and for his attorneys failing to appear in foreclosure hearings. The Bar decided to pursue action against Stern after internal grievance committees—similar to a grand juries—found probable cause in various Bar complaints filed against Stern.

Stern's attorney, Jeffrey Tew, told the Post that the Bar had already closed 19 complaints against Stern without any repercussions. "David didn't do anything wrong, ethically or otherwise," Tew said. "He had a very complete system of supervision and didn't participate in any of the individual situations."

There is little left of Stern's business empire. His law firm shuttered in March 2011 after the banks and Fannie and Freddie yanked their foreclosure cases out of his hands. The next day, DJSP Enterprises, Stern's short-lived foreclosure processing operation, told investors it would voluntarily delist from the NASDAQ stock exchange. It was quite a downfall for a man whose firm, a few years before, litigated hundreds of thousands of cases for the biggest banks in America, and who was so assured of his abilities and power that he gave T-shirts to investors depicting himself as Superman.

Stern is no longer the Superman of foreclosure lawyers. But for the defense attorneys and homeowners and judges streamrolled by Stern's foreclosure machine, long-delayed action by the Florida Bar is better than nothing.