Super PAC money flowing into R.I.’s U.S. Senate race leaves even the candidate it benefits confused • Rhode Island Current

A New York-based economic think tank has asked a super PAC with multiple addresses to remove its website from an ad campaign supporting the U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Patricia Morgan against Democratic incumbent Sheldon Whitehouse.

The request from the progressive Roosevelt Institute comes after the group Roosevelt Society Action aired a 30-second TV spot attacking Whitehouse as he seeks a fourth-term on Capitol Hill.

“After 18 years in Washington, Sheldon Whitehouse has left us waiting with wasteful spending and backroom deals,” a stern-voiced narrator says. “It’s time for real change — it’s time for Patricia Morgan.”

That message in support of Whitehouse’s GOP challenger played twice on Rhode Island TV sets during the Oct. 27 Sunday Night Football game that saw the San Francisco 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys. The commercial is slated to air again, twice when the Indianapolis Colts play the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, Nov. 3 and once during FOX’s college football game Saturday, according to recent filings with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Roosevelt Society Action has addresses in Wisconsin and Alabama and one treasurer in Alabama who is listed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). It also has at least $200,000 to spend in the Ocean State, according to an FEC filing. 

The group doesn’t have a phone number or any public profile that would indicate why it’s interested in a U.S. Senate race in solidly blue Rhode Island. A Rhode Island Current poll conducted in September showed Whitehouse led Morgan 52% to 37%.

“That is bizarre,” Matthew Ulricksen, an associate professor of political science for the Community College of Rhode Island, said in an interview Wednesday. “It never even crossed my mind that a super PAC would be spending for Pat Morgan — something’s going on here.”

Targeting sports fans

A Rhode Island Current analysis of FCC documents found the group has committed $25,000 toward television ads during NFL and college football matches, as well as slots during the first four games of the World Series. The anti-Whitehouse ads have not aired during New England Patriots games — a team which sits at a 2-6 record.

Filings with the FEC also show Roosevelt Society Action spent over $102,000 for printing, postage, and design on pro-Morgan mailers starting Oct. 17.

Morgan, a West Warwick state representative who chose not to seek reelection to run for the U.S. Senate, told Rhode Island Current the outside spending was a welcome surprise in her uphill funding battle against Whitehouse — who has far and away the biggest campaign fund of any Rhode Island politician.

In the pre-election FEC filing submitted Oct. 24, Whitehouse’s campaign had $2.2 million on hand. Morgan reported around $62,000.

“It’s nice to know that there’s somebody else that understands this is an important race,” Morgan said. “Sheldon is really vulnerable and he has been so stridently hyperpartisan.”

The Whitehouse campaign does not see the super PACs sudden presence as a sign of vulnerability in his re-election bid.

“Out-of-state dark-money special interests are parachuting into Rhode Island because Sheldon is leading the charge to take away billionaires’ massive power in elections and at the Supreme Court,” campaign coordinator Laura Fusco said in a statement. “Rhode Islanders deserve to know who is trying to influence their votes.”

Super PAC’s origins obscure

Roosevelt Society Action’s statement of organization filed with the FEC lists one name associated with the group: Treasurer Kayla Glaze, an Alabama woman tied to Washington D.C. firm Crosby Ottenhoff Group — where she has worked as a certified public accountant since 2019, according to her LinkedIn profile. 

The FEC website lists Glaze as the treasurer of more than 130 political action committees across the nation since 2019, most of which support Republican causes.

Glaze did not respond to multiple requests for comment via phone and email.

The PAC’s third quarter filing with the FEC lists a $200,000 contribution on Sept. 17 from a home in Hudson, Wisconsin — an address associated with Thomas Datwyler, a consultant who has headed up the financial operations for dozens of Republican candidates and political committees in recent election cycles.

Datwyler was accused of wire fraud by a GOP super PAC in Nevada in July and is under investigation by the Mississippi Attorney General for allegedly violating the state’s campaign finance and reporting laws. He was also briefly listed as the treasurer for former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who later attacked Datwyler on X and accused the treasurer of wire fraud in a federal complaint.

“We do a lot of work around the country right from Hudson,” Datwyler said in an email Tuesday. 

But he insists he is not behind Roosevelt Society Action. He said the group’s treasurer is Glaze.

Datwyler asked Rhode Island Current to email him with the filing showing his address being used. When forwarded a copy, he wrote back, “Oh man they have my home address!”

“I literally don’t know how they got my own address other than, maybe it’s like, on a bank for something, and then they just went with it,” he said in a phone interview Thursday.

Datwyler does have at least one Rhode Island connection: Timothy Mellon, the banking heir and railroad magnate who is among the top supporters of former president Donald Trump. 

OpenSecrets found Mellon has spent over $165 million into the campaigns of Trump and other GOP congressional candidates this year. The Salt Lake Tribune in 2022 reported Mellon was among the top contributors to Liberty Champions PAC — of which Datwyler was the treasurer — to support the reelection of the U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

But Datwyler said Mellon has no involvement in the Roosevelt Society Action, though he said it was possible Mellon did contribute to the group after the most recent FEC filing deadline, which was Oct. 16. 

Datwyler said the Roosevelt Society Action PAC’s primary funder is a couple from Florida but he could not disclose their identity.

Roosevelt Institute ‘not affiliated in any way’

At the end of the PAC’s anti-Whitehouse ad is the link to a website, rooseveltinstitute.org. 

But that website is for a progressive economic think tank in New York City connected to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. The Institute does have a project called the Roosevelt Society, but its listed purpose is to be “a community of people bonded by a pro-equity worldview — fighting for an economy and democracy that are more progressive.”

Institute spokesperson Meredith MacKenzie de Silva said the nonprofit is “not affiliated in any way with the Roosevelt Society PAC.”

“The Institute was not aware of the use of its URL by this PAC and is taking immediate action to stop it,” she said in a statement Thursday.

MacKenzie de Silva told Rhode Island Current the institute does have a PAC, but it’s called “Roosevelt Forward.”

“But we haven’t produced or paid for any political ads this cycle,” she said. “We have done some pretty wonky writing on economic proposals.”

Why spend in Rhode Island?

Though perplexed as to why Roosevelt Society Action has a sudden interest in Rhode Island’s U.S. Senate race, Ulricksen, the CCRI professor, has his theory: super PACs make money.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United ruling in 2010, Ulricksen said an industry has grown around super PACs and political nonprofits. OpenSecrets found over 2,400 super PACs have raised over $4.2 billion this election cycle, with $2.5 billion spent as of Oct. 30.

“The amount of money we spend on elections here in the United States is frankly quite sickening,” Ulricksen said. “It’s almost not even about the candidates anymore.”

Instead, he said the industry is more about self-styled consultants who pitch to deep-pocketed people who either know little about politics or might be passionate about a single issue or candidate. Those consultants can then take commission from expenditures from either production studios or printers they own.

“And that’s what makes it so difficult to put this cork back in the bottle — so many people are making money,” he said.

Another reason for the Roosevelt Society’s focus on Rhode Island is that right-leaning groups want Whitehouse to spend more money on his own race instead of transferring funds to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to spend on tighter elections such as the race between Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and GOP challenger Tim Sheehy.

“This could be an unofficially coordinated action,” Ulricksen said. “Never underestimate the banality or drollness of rich Americans to think that they can use their money to influence something.”

The Whitehouse campaign has spent $1.1 million toward TV ads since the summer, according to FCC filings.

The case of the unknown footage

The Roosevelt Society Action ad begins with stills of Whitehouse against a fiery background that shows the U.S. Capitol bathed in red. Glitchy visual overlays and ominous audio accompany the scene, before the voiceover proclaims,“It’s time for real change.”

Enter Morgan, who is seen in a montage of professionally-filmed clips where she strolls the white marble steps of the Rhode Island State House, works at her office desk and meets with constituents, some of them college students. The b-roll has a clearly staged quality and looks crisp in comparison to the Photoshopped inferno the ad uses to depict Whitehouse. But where the footage originated is unclear.

FEC rules prohibit campaigns from directly coordinating with super PACs, though there is some gray area on what can be done. Candidates in the past have uploaded b-roll to their YouTube channels, for PACs to later pick up and edit.

But none of the footage in Roosevelt Society’s ad was on any of Morgan’s social media pages. It’s certainly not from the Rhode Island House Minority Office, Chief of Staff Sue Stenhouse said Thursday.

Morgan, who represented the House District 26 seat from 2011 to 2019, returned to the General Assembly in 2021 after an unsuccessful run for governor. She is one of nine State House Republicans, but has not caucused with the party since her return.

“She’s not part of our caucus and that was by her decision,” Stenhouse said. 

Stenhouse said the footage could have been shot for ads during Morgan’s 2018 gubernatorial bid. Morgan lost the primary 56.4% to 40.1% to then-Cranston Mayor Allan Fung (who went on to lose to Gina Raimondo in the general election). 

Morgan confirmed the video clips are “older footage” from her time in the State House. But she was clueless as to how the Roosevelt Society obtained it.

“They didn’t contact me, I have no idea,” she said. “I honestly have no idea — I’m just happy that they’re here.”