Americans for Job Security

Americans for Job Security (AJS) is a Virginia-based 501(c)(6) pro-business league.[1][2] The group has operated since 1997 and runs issue advertisements nationwide. It is not required to disclose its political contributions or expenditures.[3]

Michael Dubke, David Carney, and several business groups helped start Americans for Job Security in 1997. Carney was political director for President George H. W. Bush, and Dubke was the first executive director and then president of Americans for Job Security until April 2008, when Stephen DeMaura, recruited by Carney, took over.[4]

In 2002, AJS ran over $1 million in advertising attacking Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, who was running for the US Senate from NH in opposition to Republican John Sununu. In the 2008 rematch between Shaheen and Sununu, AJS again funded advertising attacking Shaheen.[5] In 2012, it bought $8 million worth of ads opposing Obama's reelection.[6]

Complaints have been filed with the FEC stating that AJS should lose its 501(c)(6) status, which is reserved for "business leagues and trade associations" rather than groups that seek to influence elections.[7][8]

Operation Trenchcoat

In Alaska, the Pebble Mine proposal was opposed for endangering commercial fishing, and supported for creating jobs. Alaskan financier Robert Gillam paid $2 million to join AJS, as encouraged to by Dubke, expecting the money to be used to oppose the mine. Instead, AJS passed almost all of it onto another nonprofit, Alaskans for Clean Water, set up to push a ballot initiative, Alaska Clean Water Initiative, 2008, aimed at imposing clean-water restrictions on the mine, by a group that included Art Hackney, a local Republican consultant and board member of AJS. The Alaska Public Offices Commission investigated, and AJS paid a $20,000 settlement without admitting guilt, agreeing not to help anyone make anonymous contributions in the future which involved Alaska elections, but without the agreement applying to other states.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 McIntire, Mike (September 23, 2010). "Hidden Under Tax-Exempt Cloak, Political Dollars Flow". New York Times. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Americans for Job Security". FactCheck.org. Annenberg Public Policy Center. August 19, 2010. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  3. ↑ Andrew Wheat, "DeLay’s Beautiful Laundrette', October 21, 2005] Texas Observer
  4. ↑ "Americans for Job Security — how a shadow group hustles for funds". Center for Public Integrity. 2010-10-26. Retrieved 2017-02-17.
  5. ↑ Huffington Post (July 1, 2008) "Sununu front group attacks Shaheen in NH"
  6. ↑ Bykowicz, Julie (September 28, 2012). "Business Group Runs – Literally – $8 Million in Ads". Bloomberg Business.
  7. ↑ NPR (September 15, 2008) "Controversial pro-business group targets Dems" Archived November 2, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Public Citizen press release (April 11, 2007)
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