For example, Conscience of the Progressives is actually funded by conservatives and last year sent election mailers to aid Republicans in swing-district legislative races. It is funded almost wholly by another PAC named Send A Message, whose prime donor is Peter Zieve, an aerospace entrepreneur who gave $1 million to support Donald Trump in 2016 and who has drawn scrutiny for expressing anti-Muslim sentiments.
Thus, an election ad by Conscience of the Progressives last year showed Send A Message PAC as the only top donor.
On the other side, New Direction PAC supports progressive candidates. In 2018, three of its top five donors were PACs, according to state campaign-finance records, including two Democratic Party spending groups. And the third PAC? Almost all of its funding came from those two same Democratic spending groups.
It’s a tactic called “gray money” and it’s a popular strategy in Washington and around the nation for shielding the flow of money. Through a series of “nesting doll” PACs, campaigns or political parties can cloak donations by individuals, corporations, industry associations or labor unions.