Pelican State News

An appellate court’s reversal of a case brought by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry will pull the curtain back a little further on the influence realized by millions in dark money that progressives have donated to state and local election officials, writes Hayden Ludwig of the Capital Research Center (CRC), which investigates the activity of nonprofits in public affairs.

The case involves two nonprofits, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), and the group Ludwig calls CTCL's "secretive ally," the New Venture Fund. 

"CTCL and New Venture Fund will soon be defending themselves in court again," he said.

The Capital Research Center says it studies unions, environmentalist groups and a wide variety of nonprofit and activist organizations. 

In the recent ruling, the Louisiana Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that dismissed a lawsuit brought by Landry against the groups for granting more than $1.1 million to elections officials in 13 parishes to ostensibly help fund the management of elections during the pandemic. The money was donated to the nonprofits by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in Louisiana and in other states as well.

Landry had argued that state law was clear that “no individual, including Mark Zuckerberg, should supersede the people's elected representatives.”

“Our elections should never be for sale,” he further said. “Private money should not fund our elections.”

The appellate court agreed, ruling, the attorney general “has stated a course of action to protect an interest of the state by preventing the funding of elections with private money.”

Ludwig said that since October 2020, when Landry first filed the suit, his group has learned more about how dark money has found its way into election management. But it remains unclear the role the New Venture Fund, part of the Arabella Advisors’ $1.7 billion “dark money empire,” had in spreading around the Zuckerberg money, or Zuckerbucks, particularly leading up to the 2020 general election.

“We do know that it operated under the trade name the Center for Secure and Modern Elections, [CSME],” Ludwig writes, “and that it has a lobbying arm, CSME Action, which is a front for the New Venture Fund’s 501(c)(4) lobbying sister,’ the Sixteen Thirty Fund. This kind of relationship is common among politically active nonprofits and front groups in the Arabella network.”

The CRC has been digging into the workings of CTCL and other nonprofits since before the 2020 November elections. CTCL, for instance, says it is nonpartisan but is headed by a group of former Democratic operatives, according to the CRC.