Category Archives: campaign finance

“A Win Against Dark Money Eight Years in the Making”

September 5, 2020, 8:16 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

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… Continue reading

“How Trump Draws on Campaign Funds to Pay Legal Bills”

September 5, 2020, 8:11 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

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… Continue reading

“OpenSecrets unveils new online ads database”

September 3, 2020, 7:34 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Release: With the digital-dominated 2020 election shifting into high gear, OpenSecrets is releasing a new searchable, sortable online ads database that provides comprehensive details about political ad spending on Google and Facebook. OpenSecrets is tracking over 80,000 online political advertisers, more… Continue reading

“You Don’t Have to Yell: How Television Corrupted Campaign Finance”

September 3, 2020, 7:29 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Podcast: Ciara Torres-Spelliscy discusses her new book “Political Brands”, which examines the use of commercial branding in politics, and how its high costs paved the way for the runaway costs of elections, and the corrupted campaign finance system that… Continue reading

“Has Citizens United Increased Corruption? An Examination of Public Corruption Prosecutions”

September 3, 2020, 7:27 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

New study for the Institute for Free Speech: Ten years after the decision, this report asks if such claims about Citizens United were correct. Did the Supreme Court’s ruling that corporations and unions can speak without limit and contribute unlimited… Continue reading

“Biden posts stunning monthly cash haul: $365 million”

September 2, 2020, 9:48 amcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

Politico: Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee reported raising a record $365 million in August, surprising even seasoned party fundraisers and putting to rest fears that President Trump would drown him in campaign spending.The staggering cash coincides with Biden… Continue reading

“Assessing Group Incentives, Independent Spending, and Campaign Finance Law by Comparing the States”

September 1, 2020, 7:27 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

CFI release: The surge in independent spending (IEs) in state elections between 2006 and 2018 cannot adequately be explained by the Supreme Court’s decisions that seemed to liberate IEs a decade ago. Moreover, the spending by ideological and issue groups… Continue reading

“Tracing the Money Behind the Supreme Court Case Against Obamacare; Most of the state attorneys general suing to dismantle the Affordable Care Act were elected with corporate backing.”

August 31, 2020, 8:37 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy for the Brennan Center.

“Political Giving Should Be Private; Americans of both parties worry they’ll be canceled for making donations to a campaign or cause.”

August 27, 2020, 8:38 amcampaign financeRick Hasen

Brad Smith WSJ oped.

“Managers Gave to GOP Groups Accused of Racial Gerrymander Push”

August 25, 2020, 10:24 amcampaign finance, Voting Rights ActRick Hasen

FundFire (subscription only): Asset management firms gave at least $1.5 million between 2010 and 2018 to Republican-affiliated groups that promoted redistricting efforts that were later struck down by federal courts for disenfranchising Black voters, according to data in a new … Continue reading

D.C. Circuit Strikes FEC Rule Which Limited Disclosure of Contributions Funding Independent Expenditures

August 21, 2020, 9:51 amcampaign finance, federal election commissionRick Hasen

Big win for more effective disclosure rules.

“Democrats push to revamp political money system that’s boosting their campaigns; ‘Dark money’ is funding half of spending on House, Senate ads”

August 19, 2020, 5:03 pmcampaign financeRick Hasen

Roll Call reports.

“Trump’s Policies Are a Boon to the Super Rich. So Where Are All the Seven-Figure Checks?”

August 16, 2020, 10:18 pmcampaign finance, campaignsRick Hasen

NYT: Mr. Trump is hardly lacking for cash; he has received huge numbers of small donations online from a fervent grass-roots base, and he raised a jaw-dropping $165 million in July for his campaign and the two fund-raising committees that… Continue reading