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Conservative Groups Launch $2 Million-Plus Campaign Targeting Senior Biden Appointees’ Dark Money Ties

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Judicial Crisis Network, Heritage Action for America, and Americans for Public Trust on Thursday announced a more than $2 million joint media and grassroots campaign against two of President Joe Biden’s senior nominees: Xavier Becerra for secretary of Health and Human Services and Vanita Gupta for associate attorney general.

The campaign focuses on the dark money that continues to flow into prominent Democrats’ hands, through radical organizations such as Arabella Advisors. The advocacy group effort is directly targeting “pay-to-play,” a strategy that permits campaign contributions from businesses or enterprises seeking government contracts.

“Dark money groups led by Arabella Advisors, among others, now want payback for helping Joe Biden get elected,” said Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust. “Mr. Biden promised unity, but his nominees to high positions and his policy prescriptions reveal an extreme liberal agenda, on which these dark money groups are trying to cash in.”

A “dark money” organization is a political nonprofit that is not required by law to disclose its donors. While Judicial Crisis Network and Heritage Action for America are classified under this designation, they have not had even a sliver of the impact that disturbing leftist dark money groups have. Dark money organizations spent about $145 million to elect Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, whereas only about $28 million went toward the Donald Trump campaign, according to Bloomberg.

In other words, what are these secretive groups hiding? And why is it that the Democrats are the ones relying on dark money to win elections?

“President Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, has spent his entire career fighting for socialized health care, catering to the abortion industry, trampling on Americans’ religious freedom, and pushing the policies of liberal dark money groups,” Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action for America, said in a statement. “If confirmed, he would bring his extreme agenda to HHS. Heritage Action is working to expose the radical personnel and policies being advanced by this administration, and we are urging every Senator to reject Becerra’s nomination.”

An advertisement by Judicial Crisis Network discusses Gupta’s ambiguous stance on law and order, evident by her support for the Marxist organization Black Lives Matter. The Washington Free Beacon reported a few weeks ago that Gupta did not mention her father, Rajiv L. Gupta, on a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire. That relationship, however, presents a conflict of interest because of Justice Department investigations from 2017 to 2020 into environmental law violations at DuPont, where Gupta’s father sits on the board of directors. Gupta’s father is the chairman of Delphi Automotive and has served on the board of several Fortune 500 companies, including DuPont de Nemours Inc.

“That form asks the nominee to identify family members likely to trigger ethical tripwires. She did list her husband’s ongoing practice with the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, where he serves as legal director,” Kevin Daley wrote in the Free Beacon.

“In Vanita Gupta, President Biden has nominated a liberal activist who supports defunding the police and brings to the job her experience leading a left-wing dark money group. President Biden promised to unify and heal this country, but he couldn’t have picked a more divisive figure to help lead the DOJ,” said Carrie Severino, president of Judicial Crisis Network and a Federalist senior contributor.

In 2019, Capital Research Center broke a bombshell report concerning the $2.4 billion that Arabella Advisors has pumped into politics for Democratic politicians since 2006. The company is for-profit and furnishes left-wing political influencers, foundations, and wealthy donors with specialized consulting services.

Worth reported in November 2017 that Arabella Advisors is the largest philanthropy consultancy in the U.S, “catering to more than half of the 50 largest grantmaking foundations in the country.” Through four separate non-profits, titled Sixteen Thirty Fund, New Venture Fund, Windward Fund, and Hopewell Fund, Arabella has been a major force behind the scenes for the left. The group employs a “money-mixing” formula that essentially moves funds around to various designated organizations, all of which make their way to Arabella directly.

Some recent “grassroots” activism initiatives by Arabella includes funding protests for all of Trump’s judicial nominees — most prominently Brett Kavanaugh — pushing for environmentalism policies that amount to a modern-day religion, and mobilizing against the Department of Health and Human Services for its revoking of Obamacare mandates that previously forced independent religious groups to subsidize birth control.

The report also showed that from 2007 to 2017, Arabella provided its “advisors” with more than $76 million in management fees.

The Judicial Crisis Network, Heritage Action for America, and Americans for Public Trust have coordinated for hard-hitting advertisements to run on cable news networks condemning the nominations. The coalition will also be focusing on direct communications, such as text and email. An advertisement by Heritage Action for America says Becerra “supports government-run healthcare,” “sued Catholic nuns” when he was the California attorney general, and plans to “decriminalize illegal immigration.” Becerra “is not a doctor,” and remains the “wrong appointee during the Covid-19 pandemic,” it also argues. CatholicVote, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Susan B. Anthony List are among those that have expressed support for this initiative.

“President Biden’s chosen personnel and policies make his rhetoric about unifying the nation impossible to believe. Divisive nominees like Xavier Becerra, who used his power as California AG to relentlessly persecute Catholic nuns and pro-life Americans, and Vanita Gupta, who would like to defund the police, show Biden is far more concerned about repaying the extreme liberal special interests that poured resources into his election,” said Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote. “If Becerra and Gupta are confirmed, basic protections for people of faith — and their very way of life — will be under constant attack.”

Notably, Judicial Crisis Network and Heritage Action for America coordinated during the October 2020 confirmation hearings of now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett, launching more than $10 million in advertisements signaling their support for the Trump nominee.

Gupta’s confirmation hearings with the Judiciary Committee have not been formally scheduled. The confirmation hearings in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions for Becerra will commence Feb. 23.