A swing-seat congressional primary in Nebraska that’s already swarming with outside spending has a new twist with a familiar ring. Big money from a pro-Israel super PAC was en route to help its preferred candidate, but the ham-fisted attempt to conceal that support may backfire on its intended beneficiary, centrist New Democrat–endorsed candidate Denise Powell.
Since mid-March, outside groups have spent $2.93 million (as of April 29) in Nebraska’s Second Congressional District, supporting Powell and opposing state Sen. John Cavanaugh, a populist candidate with an extensive personal and family political history in the Omaha region that the district encompasses. Cavanaugh had been the early favorite in the race for the open seat vacated by Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) and won by Democrats in the last two presidential elections. The nearly $3 million already poured into the contest is an enormous amount for the relatively modest media market of Omaha and environs. The election is May 12.
Some of that outside money was scheduled to come from Democratic Majority for Israel, a pro-Israel super PAC. DMFI had made a $176,050 ad buy for the week of April 27. The group filled out issue advertisement agreement forms with WOWT, the NBC affiliate in Omaha, among other stations. The WOWT agreement was signed by Michael D’Ettorre of the media placement agent Grassroots Media. Jay Peterson, the treasurer of DMFI PAC, is listed on the form. The form states that the ad was submitted to the station last Friday, April 24.
WOWT filled out a “buy sheet” for the ads, showing precisely when they would run throughout the day, with slots in the morning and evening local news broadcasts, Meet the Press, The Today Show, Saturday Night Live, the NBA playoffs, the Kentucky Derby, and various prime-time programs.
AdImpact, which tracks political ad spending, reported that “DMFI PAC … placed a new broadcast flight from 4/27-5/4” and that $33,340 was already placed, a reference to the WOWT and other ad buys.
But there was a problem. At a Nebraska Young Democrats forum, candidates running in the Second District were asked on tape whether they would accept money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) or DMFI. AIPAC and DMFI share donors and have the same basic outlook on the Israel-Palestine question. Cavanaugh rejected any AIPAC or DMFI support, and then Denise Powell answered the question at 2:20 of the video by saying directly, “Yes, I’m not accepting money from any special-interest group in this category,” referring to Israel.
This led to a mad scramble. On Friday afternoon, the word went out that the DMFI ads attacking Cavanaugh would be taken down. By Monday, New Democrat Majority PAC, the super PAC associated with the centrist New Democrat Coalition, had increased its ad purchase by the same amount as the DMFI purchase, with the same reservations on the same broadcast and cable channels. The New Democrat ad buy now totals $750,000.
An internal email from 5:21 p.m. on Friday from Hearst Television, which owns the ABC affiliate in Omaha, states: “Cancel spending for DMFI PAC and moving money to New Democratic Majority.”
Apparently, a couple of DMFI spots did sneak through. An advisory from Spectrum, the cable company serving the smaller market of Springfield, Nebraska, advised that “because of the lateness of the cancellation the small system in Springfield … ran $659 worth of ads.”
Sure enough, the Federal Election Commission does list an expenditure in the race from DMFI PAC in the amount of $659 for ads opposing Cavanaugh. The filing also lists $1,211.10 in production expenses. But the rest of the ad buy was simply transferred and picked up by New Democrat Majority PAC. The advisory states that “the remainder of this spending has been moved to … New Democratic Majority,” totaling $39,341.
Punchbowl initially reported on the situation, but did not release the emails or ad buy sheets. Grassroots Media and DMFI PAC did not respond to a request for comment.
“This is another example of Dark Money Denise doing what she does best: moving dark money through the political system,” the Cavanaugh campaign said in a statement. “DMFI is spending on behalf of Denise Powell and they are hiding the spending through the New Democrat Majority PAC because Powell has publicly rejected their support.”
Powell has continued to reject the idea that she is benefiting from DMFI. On a local YouTube show called 1st Sky Omaha on Wednesday, Powell said that “I have not accepted any money, I have not solicited any money from AIPAC, J Street, DMFI, any organization in this space.”
A Powell spokesperson made a similar statement to the Prospect. “She has not taken any money or endorsements from any interest groups on this issue because it’s important that voters trust her to be an independent voice, and that has not changed,” the spokesperson said. “As you know, campaigns cannot coordinate with independent expenditure activities and we have no control over outside spending.”
Asked whether Powell would condemn the shell game of spending or call publicly for New Democrat Majority PAC to take down the ads that were transferred to them from DMFI, the Powell campaign did not respond.
The ad that New Democrat Majority is running focuses on threats to the “Blue Dot,” Omaha’s ability to send one electoral vote to a Democrat despite the state voting Republican. (Nebraska, like Maine, authorizes each of its individual congressional districts to cast one Electoral College vote for the presidential candidate who carries that district.) “If Cavanaugh wins, the governor would appoint his replacement to the legislature,” the narrator says, “creating a MAGA supermajority to eliminate the Blue Dot, helping Republicans keep the White House, ban abortion, and gut voting rights.”
Powell’s campaign reiterated this message in their comments to the Prospect. “John Cavanaugh is trying to distract voters from the fact that if he leaves his legislative seat, Gov. Pillen will replace him with a MAGA Republican, giving him the votes to swing our next presidential election,” the spokesperson said.
The issue is not so clear-cut. Republicans already have a supermajority in the unicameral legislature, and several of them in the Omaha area oppose changing the Blue Dot. What’s more, Nebraska Democrats are contesting five legislative seats in the state, with national funding support, and are likely to at least offset a potential Cavanaugh departure, if not pick up multiple seats beyond that in an expected Democratic wave. Finally, if the Blue Dot did change, Democrats in Maine, the other state that apportions by electoral district, have said they would do the same thing, eliminating Republican chances to earn an electoral vote in that blue state and wiping out any impact from Nebraska.
But the Blue Dot controversy may now take a back seat in this highly engaged district to the concealment of pro-Israel super PAC spending that Powell insists she has rejected.
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