Crossroads GPS Argues Ads Attacking Candidates Aren't Political

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Crossroads GPS Argues Ads Attacking Candidates Aren't Political (VIDEO)
Posted: 05/07/2012 8:27 am Updated: 05/07/2012 10:57 am

WASHINGTON -- Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, the political ad-buying organization cofounded by Republican strategist Karl Rove in 2010, has officially submitted its first tax forms with the Internal Revenue Service, and as expected, the group is formally requesting that the IRS treat it as a nonprofit operating under section 501©(4) of the tax code.

But that's a tricky proposition for a group that spends the vast majority of its money on ads decrying one political candidate or another.

The hitch is that the tax code says 501©(4) groups "must be operated exclusively to promote social welfare" -- the promotion of which "does not include direct or indirect participation or intervention in political campaigns on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office."

<..> That would include ads like one attacking Democratic Virginia Senate candidate Tim Kaine for being “Obama’s partisan cheerleader,” or one savaging Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who at the time was running for reelection, for having “sold out to Obama,” or one attacking progressive Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren for, of all things, siding with big banks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07...f=politics

Citizens United + Karl Rove = Do What They Want