Watchdog Group Asks IRS To Investigate Funding of Texas Restoration Project

The Texas Freedom Nework has written the IRS (full text of letter) asking it to investigate whether the Niemoller Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, engaged in improper partisan political activity in 2005. In a press release yesterday, TFN said that the Foundation spent $1.26 million to fund the activities of the Texas Restoration Project. The Texas Restoration Project hosted thousands of pastors and their spouses at six "Pastors’ Policy Briefings", during which Governor Rick Perry, then seeking reelection, spoke. TFN charges that "speakers and organizers were enthusiastic in their praise for Gov. Perry at each of the events. They also encouraged pastors at the gatherings to mount voter registration drives and turn congregants out at the polls. The group's ostensible goal was to win voter approval in November 2005 for a state constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage and civil unions. Those efforts, however, appear to have masked a sophisticated voter identification and mobilization strategy intended to benefit the Perry campaign in 2006..." Yesterday's Dallas News reports on developments and denials by the governor's office of any improper conduct.