Kavanaugh Pal To Star In Right Wing Ad Blitz

Politico reports:

The Judicial Crisis Network is planning a $1.5 million television ad campaign that will feature a longtime friend of Kavanaugh’s, according to a person familiar with the buy.

“We are not going to allow a last-minute smear campaign destroy a good and decent man who has an unblemished personal record,” the person said.

JCN has already spent millions pressing for the Senate to confirm Kavanaugh after helping install Neil Gorsuch to the court last year and pressuring Republicans to keep Merrick Garland from the Supreme Court in 2016.

From the Brennan Center:

JCN reportedly spent a staggering $7 million to block the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland and $10 million to back the nomination of Neil Gorsuch. More recently, JCN has run ads reportedly worth over $800,000, pressuring senators to confirm Trump’s federal judicial nominees for lower courts.

Because of lax disclosure laws, JCN, like other “social welfare organizations,” is generally not required to disclose its donors. What is known about JCN’s funding comes from publicly available tax filings and tends to generate more questions than answers.JCN’s recent funding, for instance, can be traced only as far as a single opaque donor.

In 2016, JCN’s primary financier was the Wellspring Committee, a conservative nonprofit that donated $23 million to JCN. Of Wellspring’s $32 million in receipts that year, $28.5 million came from a single, anonymous donor. Wellspring also funds the conservative law group the Federalist Society, whose executive vice president, Leonard Leo (currently on leave), has advised the Trump administration on judicial nominations.

The Judicial Crisis Network was launched in 2004 as the Judicial Confirmation Network. And then we got a black president.