NYT: The Federal Election Commission said on Thursday that it had formally dropped a case looking into whether former President Donald J. Trump violated election law with a payment of $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election to a pornographic-film actress … Continue reading
Category Archives: campaign finance
NYT: The Federal Election Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend that Congress ban political campaigns from guiding donors by default into recurring contributions through prechecked boxes, a month after a New York Times investigation showed that former President Donald J. Trump’s … Continue reading
New analysis from Alan Griffith and Thomas Noonen. Abstract: During each election cycle, the city of Seattle distributes four $25 vouchers to every registered voter, which may be donated to and redeemed by campaigns for city office. Through a difference-in-differences … Continue reading
Free Speech for People: The Federal Election Commission divided 3-3 on Free Speech For People’s 2017 complaint against the oil company Citgo, its Venezuelan state-owned parent company, and President Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee. The FEC’s general counsel agreed with Free Speech For … Continue reading
LA Times: Facebook, Google and Blue Shield of California are among the companies that contributed $226 million to government causes on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s behalf last year, an unprecedented level of spending that is raising alarms about the influence large … Continue reading
Adam Liptak for the NYT: The Supreme Court on Monday seemed skeptical of California’s demand that charities soliciting contributions in the state report the identities of their major donors.A majority of the justices appeared to agree that at least the two groups … Continue reading
I just listened to the oral argument in this case (listen here). You can read my tweet thread. Here is my general takeway: California is likely to lose. It collected donor information for law enforcement purposes but allowed the information … Continue reading
Maggie Haberman for the NYT: Former President Donald J. Trump is backing a group whose officials say will aim to combat the sprawling Democratic donor network Democracy Alliance, the latest attempt by Mr. Trump to put his imprint and involvement … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy on AFP. … Continue reading
Politico: Joe Biden campaigned on raising taxes on companies and the wealthy. It didn’t dissuade some of America’s biggest companies and richest donors from helping to fund his inauguration.Many of them opened up their checkbooks for Biden’s inaugural committee, helping … Continue reading
NYT: Yet as the Senate prepares to begin work on a sweeping voting rights and elections overhaul bill, the two parties are bitterly divided over a proposal to restructure the enforcer of campaign finance rules, a central plank of the … Continue reading
Ian Millhiser for Vox: The Supreme Court will hear a major case on April 26 that could fundamentally alter the Court’s approach to laws requiring political organizations to disclose their donors — a change that could make it much easier … Continue reading
NYT: Republicans who were the most vocal in urging their followers to come to Washington on Jan. 6 to try to reverse President Donald J. Trump’s loss, pushing to overturn the election and stoking the grievances that prompted the deadly … Continue reading
Politico: Most House Republicans who objected to the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory saw their small-dollar fundraising rise in the first three months of this year compared to the same quarter in 2019, in the latest indication that Republicans … Continue reading
Reihan Salam in the Atlantic: As it stands, the For the People Act aims to encourage small donations to congressional campaigns by providing a sixfold federal-government match to donations of $200 or less. Congressional candidates who opt in to this … Continue reading
Axios: Political advertising has quickly begun to migrate over to connected TV (CTV), or digital and streaming television, according to new data.Why it matters: “If the current trends of explosive growth in CTV viewership continue, we could see a tipping … Continue reading
WSJ: Dozens of chief executives and other senior leaders gathered on Zoom this weekend to plot what several said big businesses should do next about new voting laws under way in Texas and other states.Kenneth Chenault, the former chief executive … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy is a guest of Dahlia Lithwick on Slate’s “Amicus” podcast. … Continue reading
Just wow: The NRCC’s prechecked recurring donation box makes people disavow Dear Leader Trump to uncheck. https://t.co/TH8sURaZ9P https://t.co/xb4yglZIdW pic.twitter.com/irKFTcKlt5— Tim Miller (@Timodc) April 7, 2021 And more: This is the NRCC's homepage prechecked donation box right now.Unchecking makes supporters a … Continue reading
You can watch here (with registration, about 18 minutes into the show), or read the transcript. … Continue reading
Alexander Fouinaies in APSR. Abstract: In more than half of the democratic countries in the world, candidates face legal constraints on how much money they can spend on their electoral campaigns, yet we know little about the consequences of these … Continue reading
NYT reports. … Continue reading
Jane Mayer for The New Yorker: In public, Republicans have denounced Democrats’ ambitious electoral-reform bill, the For the People Act, as an unpopular partisan ploy. In a contentious Senate committee hearing last week, Senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, slammed the … Continue reading
Axios: A Pro-Biden group, operating with the White House’s blessing, plans to raise unlimited funds — and grant donors anonymity — as it prepares to promote and protect the president’s agenda from the outside.Why it matters: By not capping anonymous … Continue reading
Updated report from Issue One: One of the open secrets of Washington is that both the Democratic and Republican parties strong-arm influential legislators to raise astronomical amounts of campaign cash. Referred to as paying “party dues,” lawmakers are pressured to … Continue reading
NYT: Mr. Trump’s maneuvering is born partly out of his anger toward Republican leaders who he feels were disloyal when they edged away from him after Jan. 6. The former president is also being encouraged by people like Dick Morris, … Continue reading
Politico: President Donald Trump told political advisers Thursday that he’s chosen longtime ally Corey Lewandowski to run a yet-to-be-formed super PAC as part of his expanding post-presidential political apparatus, according to multiple people familiar with the discussion.The decision was made … Continue reading
WaPo: A day after JPMorgan Chase announced it would freeze its political contributions in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the nation’s largest bank made an unpublicized move indicating it may not be eager to … Continue reading
A great choice for the FPPC. Congrats Abby! … Continue reading
Axios: In the second half of 2020, Donald Trump’s reelection campaign shelled out seven figures to an influencer marketing business linked to his White House’s former chief digital officer.Why it matters: The payments bought promotion from prominent conservative brands and social … Continue reading
Bill Snyder at Stanford Business. … Continue reading
NYT: Former President Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party leveraged false claims of voter fraud and promises to overturn the election to raise more than a quarter-billion dollars in November and December as hundreds of thousands of trusting supporters … Continue reading
WaPo: Former president Donald Trump’s new political action committee raised $31.5 million in the weeks after Election Day through a flurry of fundraising appeals purporting to fight election fraud and help Republicans maintain their majority in the Senate, new filings show.But by … Continue reading
Bloomberg: President Joe Biden benefited from a record-breaking amount of donations from anonymous donors to outside groups backing him, meaning the public will never have a full accounting of who helped him win the White House.Biden’s winning campaign was backed … Continue reading
Anna Massoglia for Open Secrets: Former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign aides played key roles orchestrating a rally protesting certification of President-elect Joe Biden‘s victory in the 2020 presidential election before hundreds of rioters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. But the full extent … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy blogs. … Continue reading
NYT: The death of Sheldon G. Adelson, the casino magnate who used his vast fortune to tip the balance of power in Washington over the last decade by helping Republicans take control of the House, the Senate and eventually the White … Continue reading
So reports the Las Vegas Review Journal. Condolences to his family. Adelson and his wife gave at least $218 million in contributions to federal candidates and committees just in the 2020 election cycle. … Continue reading
WSJ: Two of the biggest U.S. banks and other corporations said they are pausing or reviewing their political action committee donations in the wake of last week’s riot at the Capitol.JPMorgan JPM -0.01% Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. C -0.09% said they are pausing all PAC donations to … Continue reading
The Court’s order list is here. Here’s an earlier explanation from the Philanthropy Roundtable: For those following donor-privacy issues, there was an important development in the case known as Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra in mid-December. The current status of this litigation is … Continue reading
Details of event about the new Primo/Milyo book: In recent decades, and particularly since the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, lawmakers and other elites have told Americans that stricter campaign finance laws are needed to improve … Continue reading
AP reports: The Democrats running for Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats each raised more than $100 million over two months, a massive haul that eclipsed campaign contributions to their Republican opponents and reflects the high stakes of the twin contests.Jon Ossoff, … Continue reading
AP reports. … Continue reading
Michael Malbin has been one of the most important and careful scholars tracking empirical developments in campaign finance as a professor at SUNY Albany and for 21 years as director of the influential Campaign Finance Institute. I rely on CFI … Continue reading
NYT: Donald J. Trump will exit the White House as a private citizen next month perched atop a pile of campaign cash unheard-of for an outgoing president, and with few legal limits on how he can spend it.Deflated by a … Continue reading
Tampa Bay Times: The name of the mystery donor behind a $550,000 effort that helped promote no-party candidates in three key Florida Senate races, including one that is under investigation, was changed in campaign finance reports over the weekend.While making … Continue reading
Philanthropy Roundtable: For those following donor-privacy issues, there was an important development in the case known as Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra in mid-December. The current status of this litigation is that the plaintiffs have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case … Continue reading
Politico: President Donald Trump couldn’t make it any clearer: He needs his supporters to fork over cash for the all-important Georgia Senate runoff elections.“We MUST defend Georgia from the Dems!” he wrote in one recent text message. “I need YOU … Continue reading
WaPo: The Senate on Wednesday confirmed three members to the Federal Election Commission, restoring the agency’s ability to conduct official business after months without a voting quorum and bringing the panel to its full slate of six members for the … Continue reading
Roger Sollenberger for Salon: A super PAC that claims to advocate for wounded veterans raised millions of dollars this year, but spent only $18,000 of it on political activity. The rest of the money was spun off to administrative and marketing services, including to three companies … Continue reading