How Biden’s FCC nominee became a major campaign target

The push to tank [Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate] Gigi Sohn’s nomination for the Federal Communications Commission has been bolstered by conservative groups taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in attack ads. In the past year, two conservative nonprofits — the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) and the Center for a Free Economy (CFE) — have placed at least $246,000 in Facebook ads opposing Sohn, according to a review of digital ads archives. Facebook does not disclose the exact amount paid or reach garnered for ads on the site, but its database shows that the two groups’ paid messages have been shown to users at least 14.8 million times. The bulk of the spending has come from AAF, an opposition research group that has targeted dozens of Biden’s nominees. The ads, some of which were still running as of last week, hammer Sohn over what they call her “extremist defund the police politics” and cite opposition to her nomination from the Fraternal Order of Police, a group made up of law enforcement officials. Jeff Hauser, founder of the progressive watchdog group Revolving Door Project, said the spending makes the campaign among the most sprawling of any targeting a Biden pick.