Organizing for Action is in the news again, Aaron Blake reports at
The Washington Post:
[In] another example of the often-blurry lines between politicians and independent outside groups, Obama has effectively begun sharing his eponymous @BarackObama Twitter account with the group, and he will continue to tweet on it, according to an Organizing for Action spokeswoman.
Organizing for Action says it now controls the account, which has nearly 29 million followers and previously served as Obama’s personal and campaign account. The bio for @BarackObama says “This account is run by Organizing for Action staff. Tweets from the President are signed -bo.”
Organizing for Action spokeswoman Katie Hogan confirmed that the feed will continue to feature Obama’s tweets, as it did when it was run by his campaign.
...
“The fact that President Obama’s Twitter account is being managed by Organizing for Action is one more example that shows that OFA is functioning as an unprecedented, privately funded arm of the presidency that accepts unlimited contributions from wealthy donors,” said Fred Wertheimer, head of the Democracy 21 watchdog group. “OFA represents bad public policy and a terrible precedent for the future, as other federal officeholders can be expected to go down this dangerous path.”
Melanie Sloan, the head of another watchdog group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Obama might even be breaking the law.
“By outsourcing President Obama’s tweets, the White House might well be violating the Presidential Records Act, which requires preservation of presidential records,” Sloan said.
