CBC EDITORIAL INVESTIGATES: Outside campaign money dominates N.C. elections (PART ONE; Monday, June 24, 2024)
CBC EDITORIAL INVESTIGATES: Outside groups spending on N.C. campaigns. Who they are? What they want? (PART TWO: Tuesday, June 25, 2024)
CBC EDITORIAL INVESTIGATES: Voters’ ballots must speak louder than those who secretly finance campaigns (PART THREE; Wednesday, June 26, 2024)
CBC EDITORIAL INVESTIGATES: Outside campaign money dominates — the-data
Category Archives: campaign finance
“New Pro-Trump Super PAC Quietly Spends Millions on G.O.P. Ground Game”
Republicans have quietly formed a new super PAC that is preparing what appears to be a significant push to persuade former President Donald J. Trump’s voters to vote early or by absentee ballot.
The group, America PAC, was created last month and remains fairly secretive. But over the last two weeks, it has spent $6.6 million on behalf of Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, according to public filings, vaulting it suddenly into the top tier of pro-Trump outside groups in the general election.
On its little-publicized website, the group is collecting voters’ information and encouraging them to register to vote, to request an absentee or mail ballot, or to pledge to vote, calling the race “the most consequential election of our lifetime.”
People who enter their ZIP code are directed to the form on an official state election website where they can complete their voter-registration forms. Voters who put in their information for an absentee ballot are assured that they will be sent more information shortly. And those who pledge to vote are informed that the super PAC will “stay in touch” with them.
“Disappointment and ‘depression’: Biden’s biggest fundraisers watch their advantage vanish”
Joe Biden’s campaign planned to bury Donald Trump in an avalanche of cash.
Instead, his allies are bracing for a slugfest without the benefit of a fatter wallet, as financial reports showed Trump outraising Biden in back-to-back months, hauling in huge sums after his 34 felony convictions and erasing Biden’s longstanding financial edge.
Democrats in recent days largely downplayed Trump’s new financial lead in the same way Trump’s allies had when Biden was running ahead in the money race — saying the president would have enough money to compete.
But privately, several Democratic strategists and donors were reeling.
“There was the strategy of raising all this money on the front end so we could have this huge edge,” said one Biden bundler, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “The whole point of it was to come out with a sizable cash advantage and, you know, we’re now even and it’s June. … I have no other word for it other than ‘depression’ among Biden supporters.”
Another major Biden bundler, also granted anonymity, called the development “disappointing, but not surprising.”
“A Guide to Election Year Activities of Section 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) Organizations”
Steven Sholk’s latest update.
“Trump raised so much last month he erased Biden’s cash advantage”
Former President Donald Trump’s huge May fundraising haul erased President Joe Biden’s longstanding cash advantage as the two gear up for a rematch.
Trump’s campaign had $116.6 million in the bank at the end of May, compared to $91.6 million for Biden.
It wasn’t due to poor fundraising on the incumbent’s part — Biden’s campaign saw a decent fundraising rebound in May after a weak showing the month prior. But Trump’s fundraising while he was on trial in New York that month, punctuated in the final days when he was convicted, was enough to surpass Biden in campaign cash, something that had long been seen as a crucial strength of his.
“Timothy Mellon, Secretive Donor, Gives $50 Million to Pro-Trump Group”
Timothy Mellon, a reclusive heir to a Gilded Age fortune, donated $50 million to a super PAC supporting Donald J. Trump the day after the former president was convicted of 34 felonies, according to new federal filings, an enormous gift that is among the largest single disclosed contributions ever.
The donation’s impact on the 2024 race is expected to be felt almost immediately. Within days of the contribution, the pro-Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., said in a memo that it would begin reserving $100 million in advertising through Labor Day.
The group had only $34.5 million on hand at the end of April, and Mr. Mellon’s contribution accounted for much of the nearly $70 million that the super PAC raised in May. On Wednesday and Thursday, the super PAC began reserving $30 million in ads to air in Georgia and Pennsylvania around the Fourth of July holiday.
Mr. Mellon is now the first donor to give $100 million in disclosed federal contributions in this year’s election. He was already the single largest contributor to super PACs supporting both Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running as an independent. Mr. Mellon has previously given $25 million to both.
“Dark ‘Oro y Plata’ in Montana: The Green Amendment’s Defense of Campaign Finance Transparency”
Lucas Della Ventura has written this article, 48 Wm. & Mary Env’t L. & Pol’y Rev. 385 (2024). Here is the abstract:
In the post–Citizens United dark money age, state disclosure regulations are the last line of defense for citizens to learn who is behind unlimited independent expenditures and electioneering communications flooding their states. Underpinning the ability of state governments to promulgate such transparency measures are the informational benefits provided to the public. However, the Supreme Court’s decision in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta to invalidate a California disclosure regulation on dark money groups, marks disclosure regulations—the Court’s repeated fallback when striking down more robust campaign finance regulations—with a bull’s-eye. In the face of repeated legal challenges to disclosure regulations, advocates for transparency should conceptualize the scope of the informational interest more broadly to encompass not only the interests of voters, but also the interests of states in upholding state constitutional rights dependent on disclosure information. States like Montana, which have affirmative duties under their constitutions to protect the right to a clean and healthful environment, also known as “green amendments,” have a compelling interest in upholding disclosure provisions because such protection hinges on the information provided by campaign finance disclosures.
“Mystery fundraising firm takes in millions from the Trump campaign”
Former President Donald Trump’s political operation has routed more than $3 million so far this year through a Delaware limited liability company whose owners are not publicly disclosed, according to campaign finance records — a strategy that mirrors past efforts to mask exactly how his campaign is spending donor cash.
The money has been paid to Launchpad Strategies LLC, a company that appears to have been incorporated in Delaware in November, according to state business records and lists a Raleigh, North Carolina, post office box as its address in campaign finance filings. Since it was formally incorporated, the company has received $3.1 million in payments from the Trump campaign and an affiliated joint fundraising committee….
Little is known about Launchpad Strategies LLC beyond its existence and the millions of dollars it has taken in from a presidential campaign.
It has never done other political work for state-level or federal candidates, according to federal and state campaign finance disclosure filings. The first payment from the Trump operation was on Dec. 18, just over a month after the company appears to have been incorporated in Delaware.
The company’s website offers no information about services it offers or who runs it. A contact page that offers people a place to reach out and ask questions appears inactive, and multiple requests for comment NBC News tried to send through the site went unanswered.
“Mini Madoff” gets 18 months for fake Super PAC (and credit card fraud)
Christopher Richardson was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty in March in the Americans for Progressive Action affair.
Sentences for campaign finance fraud charges seem to be of interest lately.
“En Banc Court Hears First Amendment Challenge to Campaign Finance Restriction”
Trane Robinson reviews arguments in the Sixth Circuit’s National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC case, about limits on political party expenditures coordinated with particular candidates. It’s an issue that’s been in the deregulatory community’s sights for a while now, and an important case that will once again likely test the staying power of precedent in the federal judiciary.
House Judiciary on Manhattan DA and Trump prosecution
The House Judiciary committee held a hearing this morning on the NY case against Donald Trump, with a witness list including FEC Commissioner Trey Trainor, as well as Missouri AG Andrew Bailey, Ambassador Norm Eisen, and Elizabeth Price Foley. Testimony is here; Trainor’s got an additional op-ed in the Daily Caller with a summary of his part.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and lead prosecutor Matthew Colangelo have apparently agreed to testify in a follow-up hearing one day after Trump’s sentencing.
Hard to beat this split-screen
NBC News on courting older voters with phone banks and pickleball.
WaPo on courting younger voters with beer and birth control.
And the money quote: “‘You have to be able to drink the beer whether you voted or not,’ said Brian Svoboda, a campaign finance attorney at Perkins Coie LLP.”
[Also: don’t forget the soundtrack.]
“America’s Top 100 Donors Heavily Favor Trump and the Republicans”
Mother Jones parses the most recent campaign finance data.
Politico has thoughts (“Wall Street Titans Shake Off Qualms and Embrace Trump”), which Anthony Scaramucci echoes.
“$800,000 wire transfer from billionaire donor to US Chamber raises curtain on dark money”
The lede in The Hill:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce received an $800,000 wire transfer from billionaire donor Hank Meijer days after it endorsed his son, then-Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), in a contentious 2022 primary, according to previously unreported internal emails reviewed by The Hill.
. . .
But because the ad — titled “Thank you, Rep. Peter Meijer” — does not explicitly advocate for his election or defeat, the pro-business lobbying giant did not have to legally disclose the donation from Hank Meijer, the co-chair and CEO of the Meijer chain of superstores. It also did not have to disclose any other potential contributions behind the $1.8 million it told the FEC it spent on “electioneering communications” that cycle.