Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman’s wife has been working for a left leaning "non-partisan" 501(c)(4) nonprofit group called Public Campaign, reports the National Review.
Shulman’s wife, Susan L. Anderson is the senior program adviser for Public campaign and appears to have actively participated with the Occupy Wall Street movement according to Public Campaign’s 2011 annual report. Public Campaign’s donors are also left-wing in nature and include the Streisand Foundation and Healthcare for America Now.
[Public Campaign’s] board members have connections to prominent liberal organizations such as Demos, Media Matters, and NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Public Campaign, not surprisingly, is strongly opposed to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling, calling it "judicial activism and arrogance at its worst." Nick Nyhart, the president and CEO of Public Campaign, said the justices’ decision amounted to "stomping on voters’ hope for change." However, the group’s press shop was eerily silent on February 7, 2012, when President Obama reversed his opposition to Super PACs — provided they were organizations like Priorities USA Action, which would go on to run ads blaming Mitt Romney for a woman’s death from cancer. Public Campaign did weigh in on the IRS scandal, albeit in rather dismissive fashion. "There are legitimate questions to be asked about political groups that are hiding behind a 501(c)(4) status," Nyhart told ABC News. "It’s unfortunate a few bad apples at the IRS will make it harder for those questions to be asked without claims of bias."
While no evidence suggests that Anderson had any influence on Shulman, the news comes at a difficult time for the IRS, as the bureau faces mounting scrutiny after targeting Tea Party groups and allowing excessive spending.