2016/06/29 Council Agenda Packet

L America Rising was reportedly a direct response to the Democrat's own opposition research group, American Bridge (remember the now former Republican Senator Todd Akin's legitimate rape' remarks came from an American Bridge tracker). At the same time as the PAC was launched, a for-profit company America Rising LLC was also formed to carry out paid work on behalf of its allies in the Republican movement. Joining the PAC, the LLC and AR2 is a fourth group—the private company Definers Public Affairs—that shares the politically-linked leadership of America Rising and several staff members with the other groups. For example, AR2's executive director Brian Rogers is also a ,enior Vice. }' esident at Definer-. Rogers is a former senior adviser to Republican Senator John McCain and held key roles in McCain's run for the US presidency in 2008.As reported on Huffington Post, Rogers also had a short stint working for Al Gore's AR2's communications director is who moved straight out of the offices of Marco Rubio's failed campaign for the Republican nomination. Before that stint,Adler was a research analyst at America Rising LLC and a"war room" researcher for Republicans. , another former Republican party researcher for the RNC and NRSC, is now AR2's deputy communications director. Definers Public Affairs: Private Political Operatives For Corporate Hire The well-connected political operatives at Definers are offering to do for corporations what they have been doing for their friends in politics—dig for dirt and track their opponents. According to the Definers website,the company will"build and influence media narratives, move public opinion and provide powerful ammunition for your public relations and government affairs efforts." Matt Rhoades, the founder of Definers,was Mitt Romney's campaign manager when the former Massachusetts governor ran for president in 2012. Definers president Joe Pounder,who co-founded America Rising LLC, is also a veteran of Marco Rubio's campaign and a former research director at the Republican National Committee. According to , Pounder and Rhoades have been working to try and discredit investigative journalist and author Jane Mayer. The New Yorker's Mayer has become a target over her detailed reporting of the oil billionaire Koch brothers and their outsized influence on the US political right. AR2 has been registered with the IRS as a not-for-profit 501(c)4"social welfare"organisation– meaning it does not have to disclose its funders but is generally allowed to spend up to half its cash on political activity. The funders of AR2 are not known and 501(c)4 groups do not have to declare them.