HudsonValleyBlog: PACs, pledges and America Rising in the 19th Congressional District

America Rising, a conservative opposition research super PAC, has dipped its toes into the 19th Congressional District race and weighed in on the candidacy of Zephyr Teachout.

In an email sent on Jan. 28 the super PAC criticized Teachout, a Democrat who announced her candidacy last week, for not giving a definitive answer on accepting money from outside groups. It also criticized her for running the pro-campaign finance reform group MAYDAY PAC.

Since then Teachout has weighed in and asked all the candidates running in 19th to pledge to disavow super PAC spending on their behalf.  All candidates would pledge to reject outside spending on advertising and pay a penalty equal to half the amount of any outside expenditure supporting their campaign to a charity of the opponent’s choice.

America Rising PAC, based in Arlington Virginia, touts itself “as an organization on the right for the sole purpose of exposing the truth about Democrats through video tracking, research, and communications,” according to its website. The group spent more than $700,000 last year and a story describing the group in The Washington Post said called them “the most important entity in the GOP’s 2014 sweep” aside from the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

This article was excerpted from HudsonValleyBlog. Click here to read the full article online.