October 13, 2010: Moments ago, in conjunction with Public Citizen, Protect Our Elections filed a complaint with the FEC against Crossroads GPS, claiming that the 501c(4) nonprofit is, in fact, a political committee and should be subject to the restrictions and disclosure rules for political committees.
Crossroads GPS was formed in July 2010 by Rove and Gillespie, former Republican National Committee chairman. It shares offices with American Crossroads, a registered political committee created this year that also is the brainchild of Rove and Gillespie, according to published reports.
Rove has boasted on Fox News that American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS were avenues for donors who have "maxed out" contributions to federal Republican political committees to funnel money into the 2010 elections. So far, both groups have spent about $18 million to influence key Senate races. American Crossroads' board chairman told one newspaper that both groups planned to spend nearly $50 million on the Senate races."
Crossroads GPS is therefore violating numerous provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act by failing to register as a political committee, failing to file political committee financial disclosure reports and failing to comply with the political committee organizational requirements, the complaint says.
"American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS are this year's poster children for everything wrong with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allowed an avalanche of money to corrupt our elections," said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen "They have raised ten of millions in secret money and spent that money in a partisan manner. We believe Crossroads GPS is abusing its tax exempt status by engaging in full-time political activity. This is the first post-Citizens United election, and the abuses alleged in our complaint clearly demonstrate that current laws are being ignored. A constitutional amendment is needed to overturn the ruling and stop corporations from using unlimited funds to buy politicians and hijack our democracy."