CREW Exposes Koch Brothers' Influence in Pennsylvania
January 16, 2014
By Carrie Levine
In 2011, a new Pennsylvania nonprofit, All Votes Matter, began spending tens of thousands of dollars lobbying in favor of changing how Pennsylvanias electoral votes are awarded to presidential candidates. Instead of awarding all 20 electoral votes to the winner of the states popular vote, the group wanted to allocate one vote to the winner of each of the states 18 congressional districts, with the remaining two electoral votes going to the winner of the popular vote.
The plan was widely viewed as giving Republicans an opportunity to pick up some electoral votes in Pennsylvania, which was considered a battleground state. The proposal won support from several prominent Pennsylvania Republicans, including Gov. Tom Corbett and state House and Senate leaders, but others in the party opposed it, including the head of the state Republican party and members of the congressional delegation, and the change was never made.
All Votes Matter was headed by William Sloane, a former chief counsel for Pennsylvanias House Democrats, but most of the support for the proposal came from Republicans and the group hired a prominent Republican firm to lobby state legislators during the period leading up to the 2012 elections.
The source of the money behind All Votes Matter, which was organized under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, was a mystery. The group refused to reveal its donors identities.
A new analysis of nonprofit tax filings by CREW, however...
http://www.citizensforethics.org/blog/entry/koch-network-mysterious-group-pushing-shift-pennsylvania-electoral-votes
Read more about CREW's research in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Ethics group says politics fueled GOP's quest to change voting rules
http://articles.philly.com/2014-01-18/news/46304622_1_house-democrats-electoral-votes-matter