An influential demographic analysis firm founded and run by Democratic operatives with close ties to Hillary Clinton repeatedly violated federal law in 2014 by coordinating its work with dozens of congressional Democrats and the party’s three major national campaign committees.
The charge was described in a 29-page complaint filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, a right-leaning nonprofit watchdog. Fifteen pages of the complaint were required to list all of the entities the accountability foundation alleged were involved in multiple violations of the Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1971.
Catalist, the Washington, D.C.-based firm at the heart of the allegations, was accused of “providing candidates and federal party committees data and list-related products and services at below-market rates, constituting excessive, source-prohibited, and unreported in-kind contributions” to the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Also named in the complaint were nearly 400 Democratic campaign committees, including Obama for America, the re-election committee for DNC national chairman Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, and the re-election committee for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Additionally, the complaint charged that Catalist engaged “in an illegal coordination scheme where the common vendors use their specific products and services to exchange their campaigns and parties data with soft-money groups making independent expenditures.”
The nonprofit watchdog further charged that Catalist was “established, financed, maintained and/or controlled by the Democratic National Committee.” The complaint was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon’s Lachlan Markay.
Catalist was founded in 2006 by Harold Ickes, a former senior White House advisor in the Clinton administration. The group describes itself as providing “progressive organizations with the data and services needed to better identify, understand, and communicate with the people they need to persuade and mobilize.”
The firm “maintains and constantly updates a complete national (50 states, plus the District of Columbia) database of over 280 million persons (more than 190 million registered voters and 90 million unregistered adults),” according to its website.
Combined with its demographic analysis capabilities, the firm claims it can “generate individual-level models of partisanship, voter turnout likelihood, and propensity to take action or support a variety of issues.”
The firm played a major role in the Democrats sweep of the 2006 congressional elections and was a pioneer in applying sophisticated statistical and demographic analytical tools to massive databases of voter behavior and interests information.
Besides serving as deputy White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton, Ickes was an advisor in Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and could be expected to have a significant role in her 2016 bid for the White House.
Catalist is among 21 Democratic groups that have benefitted from dark-money funding from the Democracy Alliance, described by Markay as “a shadowy network of liberal and Democratic donors that has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to leading left-wing political and policy groups.” Dark money is funds contributed by wealthy individuals and groups who wish to remain anonymous.
Former U.S. Attorney Matthew Whitaker, who heads the nonprofit watchdog, estimated that Catalist and the other committees and allied groups named in the complaint spent more than $100 million in illegally coordinated and unreported campaign contributions in 2014.
“It is abundantly clear that Catalist and numerous Democratic organizations have operated outside of the law since its inception,” Whitaker said, urging “the Federal Election Commission to perform an immediate and thorough investigation into the behavior of these groups and, should they be found guilty of violating federal law, be punished swiftly for their wrongdoing.”
Whitaker added that “the illegal coordination of Catalist and those with whom they work is a shameful and regrettable reminder that some individuals in the political system believe they are above the law. They are not. The American public deserves better.”
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.
