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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Mayor Mike Bloomberg Will Spend $12 Million to Push Gun Control Through Congress

—By Andy Kroll

| Sat Mar. 23, 2013 4:48 PM PDT

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg wants new gun control legislation so bad that he's set to spend a staggering $12 million of his own money on ads targeting US senators in a dozen states.

As the New York Times reports, Bloomberg's new wave of ads, which begin on Monday, support universal background checks for nearly all gun purchases, but do not mention a ban on assault weapons. The ads, run under the auspices of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group funded and co-chaired by Bloomberg, will target Sens. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Patrick Toomey (R-Penn.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Dan Coats (R-Ind.), and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).

This Is How the NRA Lies to Gun Owners About Obama's Agenda

NRA's School Security Plan Cites Phony Shooting

This Collection of NRA Ads Reveals Its Descent Into Crazy

The NRA Myth of Gun-Free Zones

Gunmakers and the NRA Bet Big on Silencers. What Could Go Wrong?

Investigators Discover NRA Materials in Newtown Killer's House

EXCLUSIVE: Unmasking the NRA's Inner Circle

Meet the NRA's Board of Directors

The NRA Myth of Arming the Good Guys

How the NRA and Its Allies Helped Spread a Radical Gun Law Nationwide

See our full special report on gun laws and the rise of mass shootings in America.

Bloomberg's $12 million ad buy further cements his position as the main political force challenging the clout of the National Rifle Association. For decades, the NRA has used its money and manpower to oust politicians who support any new regulation of guns in America. The threat of NRA attacks helped stifle any effort at new gun laws, including requiring background checks for most gun purchases and reinstating the ban on assault rifles, which expired in 2004. Now, by pumping money into Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Independence USA, his super-PAC, Bloomberg hopes to counter the might of the NRA, while giving cover to pro-gun-control legislators.

Here's more from the Times on Bloomberg's new ad blitz:

In each [state], the commercials urge support for the measure to require background checks for nearly all firearms purchases, not just those in gun stores, the most debated element of the legislation and a coveted goal of gun control advocates.

Mr. Bloomberg has singled out Mr. Flake, who already voted against the expansion of background checks in the Senate Judiciary Committee, by producing a special, scolding commercial aimed at Arizona. "Flake's vote," the ad declares, equals "no background checks for dangerous criminals."

The mayor, who over the years has spent tens of millions of dollars to support his favored candidates, holds the power to use his "super-PAC" to wield influence in the midterm Congressional elections next year and beyond. He said he would heavily favor "candidates who will stop people from getting killed."

"There is an easy measure of how you decide who those are," he said, noting that gun rights groups rate lawmakers. "The NRA keeps score of it for you. They are public information."

To those who might fear his financial might, he added: "If they pass sensible gun legislation, there is not an issue."

Bloomberg has scored a handful of recent gun-related victories. He pumped nearly $10 million into Independence USA in the 2012 elections; the super-PAC went on to spend $3 million to defeat Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.), a pro-gun rights congressman. Independence USA also spent millions last month in the Democratic primary for Illinois' 2nd congressional district to defeat Debbie Halvorson, who had an "A" rating from the NRA. Democrat Robin Kelly, whom Bloomberg supported, ultimately cruised to victory.

The NRA has said it plans to fire back at Bloomberg with an advertising campaign of its own. And an NRA lobbyist told the Times that it's confident that many Americans won't buy into Bloomberg's message. "What he is going to find out is that Americans don't want to be told by some elitist billionaire what they can eat, drink and they damn well don’t want to be told how, when and where they can protect their families," Chris Cox, the NRA's top lobbyist, said.

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EXCLUSIVE: State Dept. Hid Contractor's Ties to Keystone XL Pipeline Company

A top expert who helped write the government's latest Keystone report previously consulted on three different TransCanada projects—a fact the State Department tried to hide.

—By Andy Kroll

| Thu Mar. 21, 2013 3:00 AM PDT

A woman protests the Keystone XL pipeline at a rally in Washington, DC, on October 7, 2011. Elbert Barnes/Flickr

Late on a Friday afternoon in early March, the State Department released a 2,000-page draft report downplaying the environmental risks of the northern portion of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would ferry oil from Canada's tar sands to refineries in Texas, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. But when it released the report, State hid an important fact from the public: Experts who helped draft the report had previously worked for TransCanada, the company looking to build the Keystone pipeline, and other energy companies poised to benefit from Keystone's construction. State released documents in conjunction with the Keystone report in which these experts' work histories were redacted so that anyone reading the documents wouldn't know who'd previously hired them. Yet unredacted versions of these documents obtained by Mother Jones confirm that three experts working for an outside contractor had done consulting work for TransCanada and other oil companies with a stake in the Keystone's approval.

When the Keystone report—officially known as a "draft supplemental environmental impact statement"—was released, environmental activists ripped it as shoddy and misleading. Russ Girling, TransCanada's CEO, cheered the report as "an important step" toward receiving President Barack Obama's final stamp of approval for the pipeline.

Outside contractors (managed by the State Department) wrote the Keystone report, which neither endorsed nor rejected the Keystone pipeline. The contractor that produced the bulk of the report was Environmental Resources Management (ERM), an international consulting firm. On the day the State Department published the Keystone impact report, the agency also released a cache of documents that ERM submitted in 2012 to win the contract to produce the Keystone environmental report. That cache included a 55-page filing in which ERM stated it had no conflicts of interests writing the Keystone report.

But there was something strange about ERM's conflict-of-interest filing: The bios for the ERM's experts were redacted.

[Read the full article]

Virginia Gov. Candidate Ken Cuccinelli: Outlawing Slavery and Outlawing Abortion Are Part of the Same Fight

—By Andy Kroll

| Wed Mar. 20, 2013 9:09 AM PDT

Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who is running for governor this year, has a knack for controversy. He told state colleges they couldn't include "sexual orientation" in their anti-discrimination policies. (Current Gov. Bob McDonnell assured the academy that no discrimination was tolerated.) He led a witch hunt against prominent climate scientist Michael Mann. (Cuccinelli is a climate change denier.) He requested that the exposed left breast of Virtus, the Roman goddess adorning the state's two-century-old seal, be brought in from the cold. ("Breastgate," the affair was called.)

And now, the latest addition to the Cuccinelli canon. On Tuesday, Virginia Democrats released a video of Cuccinelli comparing the fight to end slavery to the anti-abortion movement. "Over time, the truth demonstrates its own rightness, and its own righteousness," he said. "Our experience as a country has demonstrated that on one issue after another. Start right at the beginning: slavery. Today, abortion."

Here's the video, taken by a Democratic tracker in June 2012:

Cuccinelli added: "History has shown us what the right position was, and those were issues that were attacked by people of faith aggressively to change the course of this country. We need to fight for the respect for life, not just for life but for respect for life. One leads to the other."

A Cuccinelli spokeswoman told the Associated Press the release of the video was an effort by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, the former head of the Democratic National Committee, to "run a contentious campaign that divides Virginia."

Scandal-Plagued Menendez Donor Feted Obama and Chauffeured Harry Reid on His Jet

—By Andy Kroll

| Wed Mar. 20, 2013 7:39 AM PDT

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

Salomon Melgen is the eye doctor, investor, and big-time political donor embroiled in controversy for his cozy relationship with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), one of the most powerful Democrats in the Senate. On two occasions, Menendez pressed government officials—once over Medicare and Medicaid billing practices and another time over Latin American governments not honoring trade-related contracts—in ways that appeared to benefit Melgen, who has donated handsomely to Menendez and Democratic causes. Menendez also took two round-trip flights on the doctor's private jet, reimbursing the doctor only after the details spilled into public view.

Menendez, it turns out, wasn't the only powerful politician Melgen feted. Politico reported Tuesday night that Melgen hobnobbed with President Obama at 2010 fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (though Melgen was peeved at Obama's reluctance to fully schmooze him). Melgen also ferried Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on his private jet to a fundraiser in Boston for Majority PAC, a super-PAC devoted to electing Senate Democrats and run by former Reid aide Susan McCue. Reid flew back to Washington with Melgen. Reid's office said the senator reimbursed Melgen for the flights.

Politico gleans some more details about Melgen's quirkiness as a big-time bankroller:

Some rich folks looking for special treatment would work through a lobbyist with experience navigating government bureaucracy.

Not Melgen—he was his own lobbyist, with access to lots of cash and a private jet owned by his company.

He went to top officials about the Dominican government’s reluctance to implement a $500 million port cargo-screening contract with one of his companies and to challenge the finding that another of his companies overbilled Medicare.

While he was glad-handing politicians, Melgen was living the high life. He was driven around South Florida by a chauffeur in a customized Audi A8 and invited all manner of politicos to his mansion in the Dominican Republic.

Melgen keeps an enviable collection of photos with politicians—including one of him golfing with Bill Clinton—and bragged of using his plane to transport the rapper Pitbull to a super PAC fundraiser at the Democratic National Convention last summer, according to sources who know him.

Yet Democratic fundraisers interviewed for this story say Melgen fits a particular model of naive, high-maintenance donor: the type that expects politicians to help further their business or philosophical interests but don’t know enough about the process to figure out if they’re getting anything for their money.

Let's not forget that Melgen is under federal investigation over a port deal in Latin America and his company's Medicare billing practices. The Senate ethics committee, meanwhile, is probing Menendez's trips on Melgen's plane, and a grand jury is looking into the senator's advocacy on Melgen's behalf, according to the Washington Post.

Even if nothing comes of these probes, the whole affair has been an embarrassment for Menendez. You can bet other politicians with even the faintest connection to Melgen will be distancing themselves from the donor so as to avoid any future stories like Tuesday's Politico item.

Sen. Carl Levin Plans to Grill The IRS Over Dark Money

—By Andy Kroll

| Tue Mar. 19, 2013 8:44 AM PDT

Sen. Carl Levin, right, in the Detroit Red Wings jersey.

In his Tuesday column, the New York Times' Joe Nocera hails Democrat Carl Levin, the tough, irascible senior senator from Michigan who will retire at the end of his sixth term in December 2014. Nocera calls Levin "the Senate's muckraker," and he's right: As the top Democrat on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Levin has probed shady mortgage dealings, the dark world of derivatives, feckless ratings agencies, and more. He famously said "shitty deal" a dozen times during a hearing with Goldman Sachs executives on, well, Goldman's shitty mortgage deals.

At the end of his column, Nocera drops in this juicy detail:

Toward the end of my interview with Levin, he let slip a tantalizing tidbit. Sometime in the next few months, the permanent subcommittee plans to call the Internal Revenue Service to task for allowing the political super PACs to be classified as tax-exempt 501(c)(4)s. "Tax-exempt 501(c)(4)s are not supposed to be engaged in politics," he said. "It is against the law to do so." Then he added, with a certain undeniable relish, "We're going to go after them."

Oh, boy!

Oh, boy, indeed! Finally, someone in power plans to grill the IRS on why it is allowing hundreds of millions of dollars in secret money to flow through supposedly nonpartisan "social welfare organizations" and into our elections. Levin's comments aren't a complete surprise. In his retirement announcement, Levin said his investigative subcommittee will "look into the failure of the IRS to enforce our tax laws and stem the flood of hundreds of millions of secret dollars flowing into our elections, eroding public confidence in our democracy."

We're keenly interested in dark money here at Mother Jones, and as Mother Jones' own dark money reporter—yep, it's there in my bio—I can't wait to see what Levin digs up. Levin and his staff declined multiple interview requests, so you'll just have to keep an eye on this space as the story develops.