Was a recent PAC push poll only funneling funds?

Another apparent push poll plagued the Lowcountry on May 4, as a conservative political action committee telephoned many registered voters with negative messages about Democratic candidate Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

The recorded message that prompted verbal responses was conducted on behalf of the Americans in Contact PAC, the push poll confirmed at its closing.

After determining which candidate the called voter supported, the poll questioned respondents for yes/no responses to opinions on labor, health care and abortion.

The recording then offered misleading messages on each topic, such as “Colbert Busch wants labor unions to take over our workforce,” multiple persons who received yesterday’s call confirm.

Not only was the poll done to apparently steer voters toward Republican candidate Mark Sanford, though; it could also have been in AIC’s own interest, or that of one of its officers, as well.

The registered treasurer of AICPAC is Gabriel S. Joseph III, who also owns and operates ccAdvertising, a political polling company in the D.C. suburb of Centreville, Va.

Last year, 62 percent of AICPAC’s expenditures ($158,527) went to Joseph’s ccAdvertising, indicating what might amount to a legal offense by the non-profit organization.

For example, in 2007 Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) was investigated when his Superior California PAC was found to have spent 15 percent of all its expenditures on a company operated solely by his wife.

The process is sometimes referred to as "funnelling" - collecting donations for one purpose only to redirect them elsewhere, sometimes for the sole advantage of the collector.

Joseph’s company was also featured in national news last year for a using a questionable loophole that allowed an otherwise-banned advertising practice.

Both the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Federal Communications Commission prohibit auto-dialed text messages that are unsolicited.

Joseph’s ccAdvertising circumvented those laws in 2012 by having the messages originate and be called from a website.

The current push poll isn’t a first-time incident for Americans in Contact.  Since its 2008 creation through 2012, 55 percent of all AICPAC expenses were paid to treasurer Joseph’s company, totaling $336,859, according to FEC records accumulated by Open Secrets.

The sum of all contributions made by this PAC – to political parties, candidates and committees combined – is only $70,350, though, just over 10 percent of the total money AICPAC collected in donations.

All of its contributions were to Republican officials and groups. The largest donation it made was in 2010 to Georgia’s Rep. Tom Price ($7,500).

Persons who received yesterday’s call doubt that AICPAC actually noted their responses, given that it was simply a recorded message that requested verbal responses instead of push-button answers, such as “push one if you favor Sanford, push two if you favor Colbert Busch.”

This could cement the calls’ purpose to be of misleading intent, says Lachlan McIntosh, campaign consultant and proprietor of McIntosh Consulting.

“That's the thing about push polls,” McIntosh says. “They don't care what your response is; it’s all about spreading information.”

AICPAC’s efforts may not be having the desired effects, though.

Richard Hayes, chair of the Dorchester County Democratic Party, also received the push poll telephone call on May 4.

Referring to the organization’s record of paying its own treasurer’s company, Hayes says “That means (AICPAC) is ripping off the Sanford campaign, and that’s fine with me.”