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July 27, 2010; Source: Los Angeles Times | With the impending 2010 Congressional and gubernatorial elections, we can now begin to monitor how nonprofits are created to support various candidates. Take immigration for example.

Republicans have done poorly at the polls with Latinos, especially as anti-immigrant voices get louder within the Republican caucus.  That doesn’t help Republican candidates running for office in California where there are lots of Latino voters, so up pops a group called the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles announcing a $1 million effort to help Carly Fiorina’s campaign. Former Hewlett Packard CEO, Fiorina, is the Republican candidate running against incumbent Democrat, Barbara Boxer, for the U.S. Senate.

But what is this partnership and who bankrolls it?  As NPQ readers will remember, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Citizens United case has made it easier for “independent” 501(c)(4) organizations to engage in partisan political campaigning so long as they don’t coordinate their activities with the candidates themselves.  The Latino Partnership is apparently affiliated with a (c)(4) called American Principles in Action, which itself is the “nonprofit political arm” of the American Principles Project, dedicated to promoting conservative values and conservative candidates.

The Latino Partnership’s executive director is Alfonso Aguiar, and Karyme Lozano, a telenovela star is a board member.  Lozano is known as supporting an anti-abortion agenda, but appears to be gay-friendly, having been named queen of the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade in 2008.  The Partnership has some other significant board members such as anti-tax apostle Grover Norquist and Princeton’s high profile conservative theorist Robby George.  Organizations with Norquest and George usually aren’t penny ante.  So who is funding this new addition to the Fiorina campaign?—Rick Cohen