An obscure Super PAC that has contributed millions in support of Democratic Alabama Senate candidate Doug Jones has deep ties to the Democrat’s national fundraising apparatus — a fact the group has taken steps to conceal due to the Democratic Party’s unpopularity in Alabama.
Highway 31 contributed $4.1 million in combined support of Doug Jones and opposition to Republican Roy Moore. The group is a joint venture funded by the two largest national Democratic PACs – Senate Majority PAC and Priorities USA Action. It is run with the help of a group of Alabama Democrats, multiple senior officials familiar with the arrangement told Politico.
The arrangement was unknown prior to the Tuesday report because federal election law does not require PACs to reveal their donors until after an election.
Jones has campaigned on a platform of independence from Democratic leadership and has disputed President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he would act as a “puppet” of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The two Washington-based PACs, which collect checks from the wealthiest liberal donors in the country, spent a combined $280 million to elect former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“Highway 31 continues to follow every appropriate rule and regulation. The PAC will file contributors per the FEC reporting schedule,” Adam Muhlendorf, a spokesman for the group, told Politico.
Highway 31, named for the route that cuts through the center of the state, spent more than $2.1 million in December alone on direct mail and digital and television ads, according to FEC filings. One such ad alleged Moore, who has been accused of molesting a 14 year old and sexually assaulting a 16 year old while in his thirties, was banned from Gadsden Mall. Moore called the allegation “patently false” and demanded the ad be pulled.
Jones’ efforts to distance himself from the national party abated slightly in the days leading up to the Tuesday election as former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden recorded robocalls that were dispatched Monday.
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