A Washington-based watchdog group is seeking help from the public in an effort to shed light on undisclosed campaign contributions and “expose corporate election influence.”
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is asking employees to blow the whistle on their employers if they have information that a company has been giving money for a political cause.
“You might have heard something at your company about your corporation donating money for these political ads,” CREW Director Melanie Sloan said in a statement released on the group’s website.
Democrats have pushed the issue of undisclosed donations in an effort to make the case that Republican candidates are funded by foreign sources and American industries trying to stop President Barack Obama’s agenda.
The CREW director said she is surprised that not more information has come to light with regard to undisclosed donations.
“In a way, it’s kind of surprising that it’s been so secretive given all the money that’s been pouring into political ads and the corporate money,” she said in an interview with The Daily Caller. “You’d think there would be more information coming out because that involves several people and people aren’t that good at keeping secrets. But we have not.”
Sloan noted in the pitch to potential whistleblowers that CREW is interested in getting information on donations for both Democrats and Republicans. She encouraged members of the public to submit anonymous tips to the group but stressed that the group is not promoting illegal activity.
“We’re not looking for someone to go and steal information and it’s not like we’re advocating it,” Sloan told TheDC. “But somebody might know something. And just because you know something doesn’t mean you’re in any way necessarily banned from repeating it.”
Sloan noted that CREW has five researchers who review everything on the tip line and no information is released without first being proven correct.
“If somebody were to give us a tip, in order for us to do anything, they have to give us information that could be corroborated,” Sloan said. “If someone gives us a tip that doesn’t include some kind of documentary evidence, we look into. But based just on anonymous tips we wouldn’t just put something out.”