In a series of tweets, Allied Progress, the self-proclaimed consumer watchdog, called out a competing group Protect America’s Consumers (a non-profit organization known to be been hypercritical of the CFPB) calling the organization a “super shady AstroTurf group.”
What is ironic about this situation is that Allied Progress has its own history of acting as a shady AstroTurf front group. The organization is a project of the New Venture Fund (NVF), a 501(c)(3) organization that manages over 100 organizations. NVF groups support a cornucopia of left-wing initiatives.
According to the Allied Progress’s donation page, all donations are listed as donations to NVF, meaning it is nearly impossible to see who’s funding Allied Progress, and all donations to the organization could theoretically be supporting any one of the NVFs other left wing front groups.
Along with Allied Progress, NVF manages Allied Progress’ lobbying arm, Allied Progress Action, which was hypercritical of President Trump’s cabinet nominees, and acted as a Democrat attack dog. The group’s Trump Transparency Project ran television ads against the nominations of Labor Secretary appointees Andy Puzder and Alexander Acosta, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnunchin.
Considering all of this evidence, it seems as though Allied Progress is the poster child of an “AstroTurf” group. To publicly proclaim Protect America’s Consumers organization to be “sketchy” is hypocritical at best.