Fredreka Schouten for CNN: But the legal fine print on each shows that a new Trump fundraising arm, Save America, actually will get the first cut of any money that comes in. And because spending rules for leadership PACs are … Continue reading
Category Archives: campaign finance
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy for the Brennan Center. … Continue reading
AP: Trump has promised to contest President-elect Joe Biden’s win in court. But the fine print indicates much of the money donated to support that effort since Election Day has instead paid down campaign debt, replenished the Republican National Committee … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy for the Brennan Center. … Continue reading
WaPo: In the wake of the election, President Trump’s supporters have been peppered with texts and emails asking for donations to support legal battles contesting his loss to President-elect Joe Biden.“We can’t allow the Left-wing MOB to undermine our Election,” … Continue reading
This is not a surprise at all and I was always mystified by anyone who thought this Court would agree to hear a campaign finance case to make things more regulatory. The trend is decidedly in the opposite direction. … Continue reading
New from Bruce Freed, Karl Sandstrom, and Dan Carroll: How has the Trump presidency impacted corporate political disclosure and accountability? The answer might come as a surprise. It’s been a boon and a boom.Over the past four years, more large … Continue reading
NRA Victory Fund is a super PAC that does not make campaign contributions. Yet there is now a $5,000 contribution listed to Trump for President. Perhaps this is an error and it came from another fund. We’ll see. UPDATE: A … Continue reading
Quite a story in ProPublica today: Debbie Chacona oversees the division of the Federal Election Commission that serves as the first line of defense against illegal flows of cash in political campaigns. Its dozens of analysts sift through billions of … Continue reading
Great new reporting from Andy Kroll: The disinformation operation was christened “Project Clintonson.” It brought together two notorious figures in Republican political circles, Blackwater founder Erik Prince and Trump adviser Roger Stone. Their objective couldn’t have been more explicit.“We do not … Continue reading
Karl Sandstrom at Law360. … Continue reading
Axios podcast speaks to Ciara Torres-Spelliscy. … Continue reading
Bloomberg: Bloomberg Green examined political donations by businesses in the S&P 100 and the U.S.-based members of the Climate Action 100, a group representing the world’s largest corporate contributors to climate change. For every dollar these corporations gave to one … Continue reading
Stat: The Affordable Care Act has driven a huge boost in revenue for pharmaceutical companies — but ironically, $1.5 million in drug industry donations last election cycle were funneled to Republican state attorneys general who will soon make a case … Continue reading
NYT: President Trump’s re-election campaign committee ended September with only $63.1 million in the bank despite canceling some television buys late last month, leaving him badly outmatched financially against Joseph R. Biden Jr., who reported $177.3 million in cash on hand … Continue reading
ReCode reports. … Continue reading
Ellen Weintraub NYT oped: Among many other recent developments not likely on anyone’s 2020 bingo card, a Supreme Court decision about foreign aid and legalized prostitution has shattered perceived constraints on the authority of the United States to robustly defend … Continue reading
Steven Sholk: I am pleased to announce that an updated version of my article, A Guide to Election Year Activities of Section 501(c)(3) Organizations, has been published by Practising Law Institute as part of its 2020 Course Handbook for the … Continue reading
Campaign Finance Institute: Independent spending (IEs) in the general elections of 2020 for the U.S. House and Senate reached $1.035 billion as of October 15. This is nearly one-third of a billion dollars more than congressional IEs as of the … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy for the Brennan Center. … Continue reading
Politico: Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam Adelson gave $75 million to a super PAC that flooded battleground states with anti-Joe Biden ads in September, a huge investment from the GOP megadonors as President Donald Trump slipped in … Continue reading
Politico: Democratic candidates and left-leaning groups raised $1.5 billion through ActBlue over the last three months — a record-smashing total that reveals the overwhelming financial power small-dollar donors have unleashed up and down the ballot ahead of the 2020 election.From … Continue reading
Politico: Joe Biden announced Wednesday evening that his campaign and affiliated committees raised $383 million in September, breaking a record he had just set the prior month as his campaign continues to ride a surge of online donations.Biden, the Democratic National Committee … Continue reading
Release. … Continue reading
NYT: The Trump campaign has suggested that Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former White House aide, pay for an ad campaign costing nearly $1 million as a “corrective” remedy for her critical comments about President Trump in her 2018 book and … Continue reading
Politico: The online fundraising edge that Democrats have enjoyed for years has mushroomed into an overpowering force, with small-dollar donors smashing “donate” buttons over the last three months to process their disgust for President Donald Trump, fury with Senate Majority … Continue reading
WaPo: Democrat Jaime Harrison raised a record-breaking $57 million in the past three months in his bid to unseat Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), shattering the mark for a Senate candidate.The single-quarter haul Harrison raised from July through September smashes … Continue reading
NYT: Donald J. Trump needed money.His “self-funded” presidential campaign was short on funds, and he was struggling to win over leery Republican donors. His golf courses and the hotel he would soon open in the Old Post Office in Washington … Continue reading
I’m going to have a lot more to say about this after the election: On Thursday, in a conference call with a group of lobbyists, Mr. McConnell vented that the party’s Senate candidates are being financially overwhelmed because of small-dollar … Continue reading
I have written this piece for New York. It begins: When Judge Amy Coney Barrett sits for questions before the Senate Judiciary Committee in mid-October, no doubt Democrats will pepper her with questions about whether she would recuse herself in any Trump v. Biden election lawsuit to come … Continue reading
Looking forward to reading this new book from David Primo and Jeff Milyo. … Continue reading
Tuscon.com: The Arizona Court of Appeals has reinstated a 2017 law that opens the door to “dark money” contributions to political races.The judges said Tuesday that the Republican-controlled Legislature was within its rights to decide that any group the Internal … Continue reading
Bloomberg Government: The 2020 election has generated a record $13.3 billion in federal campaign contributions, funding a barrage of political advertising that strategists say risks blurring candidate messaging.The unprecedented outpouring of campaign cash raised through Sept. 28 is more than … Continue reading
The Wisconsin GOP sent a letter yesterday claiming that it would be improper “electioneering” and/or vote buying for MLB and the Brewers’ Racing Sausages to encourage early voting. The legal citations in the letter seem … off. The assertions with … Continue reading
CNN: Facebook (FB) has allowed political advertisers to target hundreds of misleading ads about Joe Biden and the US Postal Service to swing-state voters ranging from Florida to Wisconsin in recent weeks, in an apparent failure to enforce its own platform rules … Continue reading
Video Insider: Political ads have followed consumers to popular streaming services. But unlike traditional TV broadcasters, streamers are not required to disclose how ads are targeted or who is viewing them. And while social media platforms have begun to come under … Continue reading
Shane Goldmacher for the NYT: Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign said on Sunday that it entered September with $466 million in the bank together with the Democratic Party, providing Mr. Biden a vast financial advantage of about $141 million over President … Continue reading
Politico: Republican Party megadonors are racing to bail out President Donald Trump’s cash-strapped reelection campaign, with a newly formed super PAC pouring a further$25 million into battleground states.Preserve America is set to begin running a trio of TV commercials savaging … Continue reading
NYU: Transparency in political ads is vital to ensuring safe and fair elections, but transparency is difficult if advertisers are not required to disclose details about targeting and sources of funding. While TV broadcasters must disclose information about political ads … Continue reading
CNBC: Casino magnate and Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson is plotting a spending blitz to support President Donald Trump with just under 50 days to go until Election Day, CNBC has learned. Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands, is looking to spend … Continue reading
NBC News: When allies of former President Barack Obama set up a super PAC to support his 2012 re-election, the White House disowned the group, The New York Times published a scathing editorial and former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin gave a … Continue reading
NYT: Michael R. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and presidential candidate, announced Sunday that he planned to spend $100 million in Florida in the coming weeks to support Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s presidential candidacy.The pledge came as new polls showed a particularly … Continue reading
WaPo: President Trump’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and two affiliated fundraising committees on Wednesday announced raising $210 million in August — a sizable sum that still lags behind Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s record-breaking haul last month.The RNC said $76 million … Continue reading
Politico: Most campaigns merely post their television spots on the site. Trump’s YouTube channel, however, is a voluminous and unique collection of news, campaign ads and original web shows. Negative ads like “Don’t let them ruin America” are paired with … Continue reading
Over the next few days I will blog some of the panels likely to be of interest to ELB readers. Here’s the first: Author Meets Critics panel Sponsor: Campaign Finance Research GroupSubject: “A Neo-Madisonian Perspective on Campaign Finance Reform, Institutions, Pluralism, … Continue reading
Bloomberg: President Donald Trump has discussed spending as much as $100 million of his own money on his re-election campaign, if necessary, to beat Democratic nominee Joe Biden, according to people familiar with the matter.The billionaire president has talked about … Continue reading
NYT: Five months later, Mr. Trump’s financial supremacy has evaporated. Of the $1.1 billon his campaign and the party raised from the beginning of 2019 through July, more than $800 million has already been spent. Now some people inside the … Continue reading
Big story in WaPo. … Continue reading
Ciara Torres-Spellscy: Good news is infrequent when you’re on the anticorruption beat. Notable recent incidents, for example, have included the sentencing of a former U.S. congressman’s wife for misuse of campaign funds and the resignation of a North Carolina state legislator who … Continue reading
NYT: Mr. Trump’s tendency to turn to the courts — and the legal issues that have stemmed from norm-breaking characteristics of his presidency — helps explain how he and his affiliated political entities have spent at least $58.4 million in … Continue reading