Retirees’ donations are under scrutiny
Obscure PAC based in the U.. S. Virgin Islands is one of the top spenders
In less than two years, Sacramento resident Charles Paulsen has written at least 10 checks to a Republican fundraising committee based in the Virgin Islands, but he’s not quite sure what it does or why he keeps giving.
“They got my name probably, and since I was sympathetic to Republicans, I continued, I guess,” Paulsen, 89, said of his repeated donations to VIGOP, a political committee established by the chairman of the Virgin Islands Republican Party. In all, he’s given more than $ 700 to the group, records show. “I don’t think I’ve ever been to the Virgin Islands. That’s in the Caribbean, isn’t it?”
Donations from hundreds of retirees such as Paulsen have helped make VIGOP, an obscure fundraising committee from the tiny U. S. territory, one of the top- spending political action committees in a constellation of groups tied to Vir-
ginia- based political treasurer Scott B. Mackenzie.
Mackenzie, whose spending practices have drawn intense scrutiny in recent years, has served as treasurer of more than 20 PACs at some point in this cycle. Three of them, including VIGOP, have collected more than $ 1 million for the 2016 election. In each case, more than half the contributions larger than $ 200 came from retirees.
A large share of the donations these groups took in went to fund operating expenses instead of direct contributions to Republican candidates. In the case of VIGOP, more than half of its contributions went to Forth Right, a direct- mail firm with ties to Mackenzie.
Sheila Krumholz, who examines political spending as head of the non- partisan Center for Responsive Politics, called Mackenzie an “outlier” in the world of federal elections. Her tally of about 1,200 PACs that are aligned with Democrats or Republicans or other ideological groups shows that, on average, 26% of what they take in is spent on political contributions.
“Mackenzie is giving virtually zero percent in campaign contributions for his biggest committees,” she said. “He’s in a different league because he has a slew of these ( PACs). People think they are giving to these various operations, but there’s a whole lot of self- dealing going on.”
In an interview, Mackenzie defended his practices, saying the PACs’ operating costs are high because “it’s expensive to fundraise.”
Both he and John Canegata, chairman of the Virgin Islands Republican Party, said
“The older generation remembers how great this country was and knows it can be great again, and that’s why they are giving their money.” Scott B. Mackenzie
the committee is not preying on the elderly. “The older generation remembers how great this country was and knows it can be great again, and that’s why they are giving their money,” Mackenzie said. “They hate what they see going on now.”
VIGOP’s operations have been the source of considerable friction between Canegata and several other officials in the local party. The infighting has gained more attention in recent weeks as Canegata and other party officers tussle over which delegates to send to the Republican National Convention.
Many of the elderly donors to VIGOP are repeat givers.
A USA TODAY review found 16 people had donated at least 20 times to VIGOP through the end of February. Fifteen were retirees, who gave a total of $ 28,027.
Canegata said the committee has had three complaints in a four- year period from the children of people who received the committee’s fundraising solicitations. He said party officials complied with the requests to remove their names.
Debbie Carrico of Buckhannon, W. Va., said she got help from the West Virginia attorney general’s office to strike her father’s name from VIGOP’s mailing list in 2014 after he received multiple pleas for money from a “Stop Hillary Now” PAC. The fine print showed it was a “project of VIGOP.”