NYT:

“This is clearly an organized effort and an attempt by these groups to raise money for themselves,” said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who added that she was the target of a similar attack during the 2013 Senate debate over gun safety legislation. “They hurt our party, they hurt our Congress and they hurt our country.”

Organizers of the petition efforts said such criticism was unfair and propagated mostly by entrenched politicians who have lost their way.

“That is an absolute self-serving lie fostered by people who are usually on the receiving end of political attacks of these organizations,” said Dan Backer, whose Virginia-based consulting firm, DB Capitol Strategies, is treasurer and legal adviser to several of the groups, including the Tea Party Leadership Fund, the Constitutional Rights PAC and the Conservative Action Fund.

Campaign finance documents examined by The New York Times show that the PACs and other groups running many of these petition drives have a history of spending most of the money they raise on consulting firms, as opposed to using it to support political candidates, a stark contrast to how most PACs function.