According to reporting by CNN on Monday, it appears that during this year’s mid-term elections shadowy outside Conservative campaign groups and official Republican Party campaigns may have used public, though “hidden in plain sight,” Twitter accounts and secret codes to communicate with one another in a clandestine scheme designed to get around campaign finance laws that make direct communication and coordination between the two illegal.
If accurate, the report bolsters arguments made by critics of the enormous role that outside money has played in recent elections. In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision, which has flooded the electoral landscape with hundreds of millions of unaccountable dollars, independent groups—including SuperPACs or independent 501(c)4 groups like Karl Rove’s American Crossroads—are not allowed to coordinate with the political parties running candidates. Experts have said the courts have been niave to believe that such coordination is not going on.
In this case, according to CNN’s Chris Moody, it appeared that the Twitter accounts of at least two Conservative groups—American Crossroads and the American Action Network—were among a small group of users accessing an account that was also being monitored by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). In the course of its investigation, CNN reached out to the NRCC for comment about the account. Minutes later, the outlet reported, the Twitter account in questions, as well as others under suspicion, were all deleted.
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