Crossroads, Coordination and Funding

Jessica Yellin reports at CNN:

Crossroads GPS also doubles as something of a venture capital fund for organizations that support its policy goals. In 2010 it gave $4 million to Grover Norquists' Americans for Tax Reform -- now famous for the no taxes pledge -- and $3.7 million to the National Federation of Independent Business, which is leading the challenge to the President's health care law in the courts.

"We provide financing to them to do the issue work that they do very effectively," explains Law.

This makes Crossroads a hub for a growing network of organizations on the right.

That's troublesome to some Democrats, who are outraged by the apparent coordination with other outside spending groups.

They point to Carl Forti, the political director of American Crossroads. "Why doesn't the media expose Carl Forti?" more than one Democrat has asked. Forti, wears another hat, overseeing Mitt Romney's Super PAC, Restore Our Future. Some Democrats call this an obvious conflict of interest.

Law says not at all. "It's totally appropriate" for independent Super PACs to communicate. In fact, he says, coordinating with "other independent groups that are active on the center right" is "an important part of our model." The only prohibited activity is coordinating with the candidates and their staffs....

[Spokesman Jonathan] Collegio says the people behind American Crossroads hope it becomes an enduring force. "There was always a desire to be a permanent fixture on the center right."