Wikimedia Commons / Gage Skidmore
Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is seeking a third six-year term in office.
Truth and Courage PAC — an entity partially funded by a deal Cruz struck with San Antonio-based radio company iHeartMedia to carry his podcast — shelled out $1 million in the second quarter to pay for door knocking and phone banking by the Texas Republican's reelection campaign.
The expenditures, paid to political consulting group Catamaran Consulting, were recorded in Truth and Courage's Sept. 4 filing with the Federal Election Commission. The documents also show the super PAC spent $2.3 million so far this year backing Cruz's campaign for a third term.
The deal to distribute Cruz's The Verdict With Ted Cruz podcast became the target of a federal complaint filed this spring by campaign-finance watchdogs. The groups argue the arrangement, which purportedly funnels advertising royalties from the podcast to Truth and Courage, suggests Cruz is violating a federal law that bars candidates from having direct involvement in super PACs.
Under that law, super PACs such as Truth and Courage can raise unlimited amounts of cash to back federal candidates and accept direct corporate donations. However, federal candidates can’t “solicit, receive, direct, transfer, or spend funds” on behalf of super PACs.
Cruz's camp has repeatedly said its dealings with iHeartMedia are legal, adding that the senator isn't paid for his three-times a week podcast. They also have said he doesn't tell Truth and Courage how to spend its money.
Neither Cruz's office nor iHeartMedia responded to the Current's request for comment on Truth and Courage's Sept. 4 filing.
Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United — one of the watchdog groups seeking a federal probe of Cruz's podcast deal — said the newly filed documents shine a light on the crooked nature of the senator's fundraising.
“Ted Cruz’s corruption knows no bounds. He continues to operate a corrupt, illegal scheme to funnel corporate ad revenue into his super PAC to help his tough reelection," Muller said in an emailed statement. "But this also is yet another important reminder as to why Texans need to fire Ted Cruz and elect Colin Allred, who has fought to root out corruption and put government back on the side of working families since day 1.”
The FEC complaint filed by End Citizens United and fellow watchdog group Campaign Legal Center alleges the senator is using his deal with iHeartMedia to skirt federal laws seeking to rein in corporate funding for candidates.
"It takes a great deal of incredulity to believe this super PAC is operating completely independently from the Cruz campaign," said Brett Kappel, a Washington, D.C.-based campaign finance attorney who's worked for both Republicans and Democrats. "But that's something the FEC is supposed to be looking into because of this complaint."
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