Records Name Secret Donors for GOP Drives

Individuals and companies who contributed to other conservative causes were secret financial backers of organizations that aired hard-hitting TV spots to help GOP congressional candidates, according to bank records.

The contributors were able to legally donate unlimited amounts of money in obscurity because the independent groups were not obligated to identify their backers.

A list of donors obtained Wednesday by the Associated Press included a California fruit grower who wanted to oust a Democratic congressman, a Florida woman who owned a chain of convenience stores, a restaurant chain, the former head of a children’s products company and a group called the Economic Education Trust.

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee investigators obtained the records from Crestar Bank in Richmond, Va., in response to a subpoena. The donors’ names were supposed to be deleted but were mistakenly left in the records.

The money went to three entities: Triad Management, a political consulting firm that refers conservative donors to nonprofit groups, and two nonprofit organizations, Citizens for Reform and Citizens for the Republic Education Fund. Both ran ads attacking Democratic congressional candidates during the 1996 election.