Where Have All the Pro-Choice Republicans Gone?

Ask the Republicans for Choice PAC. A new report by the Center for Public Integrity has revealed that one of the largest organizations working towards getting pro-choice GOP candidates elected to Congress has spent less than 5% of its budget on political campaigns in the last decade.

In the last five years, just half of one percent of the one million dollars Republicans for Choice has spent was toward a political candidate, committees or expenditures. Via the report:

By comparison, Federal Election Commission data show the average federal PAC in the recent 2007-2008 cycle dedicated about 35 percent of spending to contributions aiding federal candidates. A comparison to other PACs on both sides of the abortion debate shows that similar groups spend a much greater portion of their funds on candidates and campaigns.

Where did RFC’s money go? Much of the group’s spending has been for consulting companies owned by the PAC’s chairwoman, Ann E. W. Stone. Those firms — along with payments to reimburse Stone’s expenses for travel, entertainment, and automobile repairs — comprise more than two-thirds of RFC PAC’s expenditures since 2006. And hundreds of dollars more went to pay for Stone’s parking tickets.

Stone says that her group’s overhead is high because, unlike most political action committees, it does not have affiliated interest groups to share administrative expenses. And she notes that much of the organization’s activity goes beyond the election of political candidates.

Smells like bullshit to me, especially after checking out the “Politics” section of their website which hasn’t been updated since 2004. And their “Projects” page is, well, I’ll let you see for yourself:

We all know that the pro-choice Republican community is generally not as, well, vibrant in numbers as their Democratic or Independent counterparts. But if any of pro-choice Republicans are wondering where their elected pro-choice GOPers are, you might want to ask these folks — although I’d expect their answer to be as empty as their website.

Via TPM.