Correct the Record

Last updated
Correct the Record
Predecessor American Bridge 21st Century
Formation2015
Founder David Brock
TypeSuper PAC
PurposeSupported Hillary Clinton's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
Methods Opposition research against Bernie Sanders & Donald Trump
Websitecorrectrecord.org (Deactivated Dec 31, 2016)

Correct the Record was a hybrid PAC/super PAC founded by David Brock. It supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. The PAC aimed to "find and confront social media users" who posted "unflattering messages about the Democratic front-runner". [1] [2]

Contents

History

The organization was created in May 2015 when it spun off from American Bridge 21st Century, another Democratic Super PAC. It coordinated with Clinton's 2016 U.S. presidential campaign via a loophole in campaign finance law that it says permits coordination with digital campaigns. [3] [4]

Purpose

In July 2015, Correct the Record teamed with Priorities USA Action, another pro-Clinton super PAC, to create a fundraising committee called American Priorities '16. [5]

In October 2015, historian Allida Black and political strategist Connor Shaw launched "Let's Talk Hillary" in partnership with Correct the Record and Wild Onion Media. The $1 million project was used to give Hillary Clinton's long time friends and co-workers a platform to describe the woman they knew. The project was largely considered a success and awarded numerous awards, including the Golden Donkey in 2015. [6]

In April 2016, Correct the Record announced that it would be spending $1 million to find and confront social media users who post unflattering messages about Clinton in a "task force" called "Barrier Breakers 2016". [3] [2] In addition to this, the task force aimed to encourage Sanders supporters to support Clinton and to thank both "prominent supporters and committed superdelegates". [7] The organization's president, Brad Woodhouse, said they had "about a dozen people engaged in [producing] nothing but positive content on Hillary Clinton" and had a team distributing information "particularly of interest to women". [8] A spokesperson also claimed that posts from the organization were "always identified" as being from it. [1]

The Super PAC ran ads against Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary. [9] [10]

In September 2016, Correct the Record announced a project called "Trump Leaks". Correct the Record said it would pay anonymous tipsters for unflattering scoops about Donald Trump, including audio and video recordings and internal documents. [11]

On December 31, 2016, the official website was deactivated from its host's servers WPEngine. [12]

Legality

Super PACs, officially known as "independent expenditure-only committees", are political committees that are legally only allowed to make expenditures that are independent of specific campaigns and which are not coordinated with a candidate or political party. However, Correct the Record says its activities do not fall under this campaign coordination ban restriction, relying on a 2006 Federal Election Commission "Internet exemption" regulation that said that content posted online for free is off limits from regulation. According to FEC rules, online postings do not technically count as campaign expenditures, which allows independent groups to consult with candidates about the content they post on their sites. [13]

Criticism

In June 2016 Correct the Record was criticized over the hiring of Sidney Blumenthal who was paid 200,000 per year for part time work. Critics charged that his hiring was politically motivated. [14]

During the 2016 election Correct the Record suspended former Clinton adviser Burns Strider over allegations of sexual harassment.

Related Research Articles

David Brock is an American liberal political consultant, author, and commentator who founded the media watchdog group Media Matters for America. He has been described by Time as "one of the most influential operatives in the Democratic Party".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernie Sanders</span> American politician and activist (born 1941)

Bernard Sanders is an American politician and activist who is the senior United States senator from Vermont. Sanders is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history but has a close relationship with the Democratic Party, having caucused with House and Senate Democrats for most of his congressional career and sought the party's presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, coming second in both campaigns. He is often seen as a leader of the U.S. progressive movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 United States presidential election</span> 58th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket, businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket of former secretary of state and First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinton and the junior senator from Virginia Tim Kaine, in what was considered one of the biggest political upsets in American history.

Priorities USA Action is a progressive political action committee and is the largest Democratic Party super PAC. Founded in 2011, it supported Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. It was the primary super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign. It focuses mainly on high-dollar donors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statewide opinion polling for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries</span>

This article contains opinion polling by U.S. state for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries. For currency and accuracy, please note the specific dates for each polling as listed below. For the significance of the earliest state votes, the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, see United States presidential primary – Iowa and New Hampshire. To know when any given state votes, see the timeline of primaries and caucuses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries</span> Selection of the Democratic Party nominee

Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 4,051 delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention held July 25–28 and determine the nominee for president in the 2016 United States presidential election. The elections took place within all fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories, and Democrats Abroad and occurred between February 1 and June 14, 2016.

The following is a timeline of major events leading up to, during, and after the 2016 United States presidential election. The election was the 58th quadrennial United States presidential election, held on November 8, 2016. The presidential primaries and caucuses were held between February 1 and June 14, 2016, staggered among the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories. The U.S. Congress certified the electoral result on January 6, 2017, and the new president and vice president were inaugurated on January 20, 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robby Mook</span> American political campaign strategist and campaign manager

Robert E. Mook is an American former political strategist. He was the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

Hillary Clinton is an American politician from the state of New York who was the Democratic Party's 2016 nominee for president of the United States. Clinton is the first woman in U.S. history to be nominated for president of the United States by a major political party. She was defeated in the 2016 general election by Republican Donald Trump.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign</span> First presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders

In the 2016 presidential campaign, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders sought the Democratic Party's nomination in a field of six major candidates and was the runner up with 46% of the pledged delegates behind former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who won the contest with 54%. Sanders, the junior United States senator and former Representative from Vermont, began with an informal announcement on April 30, 2015, and a formal announcement that he planned to seek the Democratic Party's nomination for President of the United States on May 26, 2015, in Burlington, Vermont. Sanders had been considered a potential candidate for president since at least September 2014. Though he had previously run as an independent, he routinely caucused with the Democratic Party, as many of his views align with Democrats. Running as a Democrat made it easier to participate in debates and get his name on state ballots.

Fundraising plays a central role in many presidential campaigns, and is a key factor in determining the viability of candidates. Money raised is applied for the salaries of non-volunteers in the campaign, transportation, campaign materials, media advertisements and other contingencies. Under United States law, officially declared candidates are required to file campaign finance details with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) at the end of every calendar month or quarter. Summaries of these reports are made available to the public shortly thereafter, revealing the relative financial situations of all the campaigns.

Seth Bringman is a political campaign strategist for the Democratic Party in the United States. He most recently served as spokesperson for Stacey Abrams.

The American Independent, formerly known as Blue Nation Review or Shareblue Media, is an American liberal news website. The American Independent's monthly reach is reported to be 140 million across platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Massachusetts Democratic presidential primary</span>

The 2016 Massachusetts Democratic presidential primary took place on March 1 in the U.S. state of Massachusetts as one of the Democratic Party's primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillary Victory Fund</span>

The Hillary Victory Fund was a joint fundraising committee for Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and 33 state Democratic committees. As of May 2016, the Fund had raised $61 million in donations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social media in the 2016 United States presidential election</span> Overview of social media usage in the 2016 U.S. presidential election

Social media played an important role in shaping the course of events leading up to, during, and after the 2016 United States presidential election. It enabled people to have a greater interaction with the political climate, controversies, and news surrounding the candidates. Unlike traditional news platforms, such as newspapers, radio, and magazines, social media gave people the ability to comment below a candidate's advertisement, news surrounding the candidates, or articles regarding the policy of the candidates. It also allowed people to formulate their own opinions on public forums and sites and allowed for greater interaction among voters. The accessibility of information online enabled more voters to educate themselves on candidates' positions on issues, which in turn enabled them to form unique opinions on candidates and vote on those opinions, ultimately impacting the election's outcome.

The 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak is a collection of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails stolen by one or more hackers operating under the pseudonym "Guccifer 2.0" who are alleged to be Russian intelligence agency hackers, according to indictments carried out by the Mueller investigation. These emails were subsequently leaked by DCLeaks in June and July 2016 and by WikiLeaks on July 22, 2016, just before the 2016 Democratic National Convention. This collection included 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments from the DNC, the governing body of the United States' Democratic Party. The leak includes emails from seven key DNC staff members, and date from January 2015 to May 2016. On November 6, 2016, WikiLeaks released a second batch of DNC emails, adding 8,263 emails to its collection. The emails and documents showed that the Democratic Party's national committee favored Clinton over her rival Bernie Sanders in the primaries. These releases caused significant harm to the Clinton campaign, and have been cited as a potential contributing factor to her loss in the general election against Donald Trump.

The People for Bernie Sanders is a grassroots movement that arose to support the candidacy of Bernie Sanders during the Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign. People for Bernie, independent from the official campaign and largely organized via social media, grew to over 1 million followers on Facebook. Founded by Occupy Wall Street participants, People for Bernie Sanders became a major organizing force for progressive figures during the 2016 presidential campaign, responsible for coining the hashtag #feelthebern. People for Bernie is closely linked to other progressive groups like National Nurses United and Democratic Socialists of America.

Pride PAC is the first LGBT political action committee. Founded in February 2012, it supported Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. It focused mainly on small donations raised online through its website and is dedicated to using the powers of social media to encourage voter registration and candidate advocacy in the fight for full equality.

Tara McGowan is an American political strategist and journalist. She was the co-founder and CEO of multiple organizations which have been noted for large expenditures on digital advertising in preparation for the 2020 United States presidential election, including the political organization Acronym, the company Lockwood Strategy, and the media company Courier Newsroom. She was the director of the advertising branch of Priorities USA Action, which was the primary super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, and was a digital producer for the re-election campaign of Barack Obama. Previously, she was the press secretary for United States Senator Jack Reed. In 2021, she stepped down from Acronym to build media full-time as head of a new company, Good Information Inc.

References

  1. 1 2 "Be nice to Hillary Clinton online — or risk a confrontation with her super PAC". Los Angeles Times. May 9, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Foran, Claire (May 31, 2016). "A $1 Million Fight Against Hillary Clinton's Online Trolls". The Atlantic. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  3. 1 2 Halper, Evan (May 9, 2016). "Be nice to Hillary Clinton online — or risk a confrontation with her super PAC". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  4. ↑ Nurik, Chloe (January 22, 2016). "Correct the Record". FactCheck.org. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  5. ↑ "Two 'Super PACs' Backing Hillary Clinton Join Fundraising Forces". New York Times. July 31, 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  6. ↑ Rucker, Phil. "Super PAC launches 'Let's Talk Hillary' to reveal a softer side of Clinton". the Washington Post.
  7. ↑ "Barrier Breakers 2016: A Project of Correct The Record". Politico.
  8. ↑ Ben Luke, Artists raise millions for Hillary Clinton .
  9. ↑ "Bernie Sanders Brushes Off Clinton Super PAC Attacks". Time. 17 September 2015.
  10. ↑ "Hillary Clinton wrong that no negative ads have hit Bernie Sanders". Politifact.
  11. ↑ Seitz-Wald, Alex (September 15, 2016). "Democratic Super PAC to Pay for Dirt on Donald Trump". NBC News. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  12. ↑ Wayback Machine archive capture of 404 page taken on December 31, 2016
  13. ↑ Gold, Matea (May 12, 2015). "How a super PAC plans to coordinate directly with Hillary Clinton's campaign". Washington Post. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  14. ↑ Mathis-Lilley, Ben (2016-06-28). "Democrats Accidentally Reveal How Much Sidney Blumenthal Gets Paid for Knowing Hillary Clinton". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2022-05-08.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.