From a DOJ release: The Office also announced today that it has previously reached a non-prosecution agreement with AMI, in connection with AMI’s role in making the above-described $150,000 payment before the 2016 presidential election. As a part of the … Continue reading
Category Archives: campaigns
NYT reports. … Continue reading
NBC News: McCrae Dowless, the man whose “get-out-the-vote” activities are the center of the election fraud investigation in North Carolina, told a local political campaign volunteer that he was holding onto 800 absentee ballots, according to a new affidavit obtained … Continue reading
Fredreka Schouten for CNN. … Continue reading
Shane Goldmacher for the NYT: It is one of the most potent and feared weapons in the arsenal of modern American politics: the super PAC. But as three dozen Democrats ponder presidential runs in 2020 and begin to design their … Continue reading
Charlie Savage in the NYT: President Trump defended himself on Monday against prosecutors’ accusation that he directed illegal payments ahead of the 2016 election to two women to stay silent about alleged extramarital affairs with him, insisting that the payments were “a … Continue reading
I spoke to the PBS News Hour about the President and the alleged campaign finance violations. … Continue reading
Politico: The Democrat in a North Carolina congressional race marred by accusations of election fraud said Monday that his team is already preparing for the possibility of a special election that would supersede the allegedly tainted contest held last month. … Continue reading
Philly Inquirer reports. … Continue reading
This Chicago Tribune story shows us how little has changed since Abner Mikva’s “we don’t want nobody nobody sent: To get on the ballot, Krupa was required to file 473 valid signatures of ward residents with the Chicago Board of … Continue reading
Politico: “They pick these people who’ve self-destructed their life, then they’re guinea pigs for whatever comes along to make a dollar,” said Sarah Jane Benson, whose family owns a restaurant in Bladenboro. “If it hadn’t been McCrae, it’d been somebody … Continue reading
Great to talk to June Grasso of Bloomberg Law. Listen. … Continue reading
Corporate Counsel: Midterm contribution records from Political MoneyLine show corporations gave big to both parties in the AG races. For instance, DAGA’s top contributors were unions such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers ($350,000), its top donor. But Altria Group Inc. ($200,000), … Continue reading
NYT: The congressional campaign of Mark Harris disclosed late Thursday night that it owed more than $34,000 in connection with an absentee ballot and voter turnout operation that has prompted fears of election fraud and called the North Carolina Republican’s … Continue reading
BuzzFeed: The allegations that Republicans tampered with absentee ballots in a close North Carolina election represent the most serious federal election tampering case in years, one that allegedly stole votes from elderly black voters in the state’s rural south. Now two women intimately involved with McCrae … Continue reading
WSOC reports. … Continue reading
Politico: The House GOP campaign arm suffered a major hack during the 2018 election, exposing thousands of sensitive emails to an outside intruder, according to three senior party officials. The email accounts of four senior aides at the National Republican … Continue reading
Tampa Bay Times: The Florida Democratic Party has hired an investigator to dig into altered “cure affidavit” forms sent out to voters whose mail-in ballots had missing or non-matching signatures, according to a statement released by the party’s lawyer. “Upon … Continue reading
Bob Bauer for The Atlantic: It is a strange turn of events when a president famous for denouncing “fake news” is discovered to have entered into an agreement with a media organization to finance the concealment of very real but politically … Continue reading
Philip Bump for WaPo. … Continue reading
Reuters: If the goals of spreading divisive content have remained the same, the methods have evolved in multiple ways, researchers say. For one, there has been less reliance on pure fiction. People have been sensitized to look for completely false … Continue reading
Politico: House Democrats have exploited campaign finance law to pay rent for dozens of campaign offices used by their candidates in 2018 — an arrangement that’s further padded the party’s massive financial advantage in the midterms even as Republicans cry … Continue reading
Follow the Money blog. … Continue reading
CFI Analysis. … Continue reading
Y’all Politics. … Continue reading
Bob Bauer and Ryan Goodman for Just Security. … Continue reading
Splinter reports. … Continue reading
CPI: Want to influence Tuesday’s midterm election but keep your identity secret from voters? No problem. Here’s how you do it: Step 1. Pick a super PAC name, treasurer and bank account. Step 2. File a short form with the … Continue reading
Arkansas Online: A federal judge on Thursday denied Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Courtney Goodson’s request for an injunction to stop attack ads that have been airing against Goodson during her re-election campaign. The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Brian Miller, came … Continue reading
Public Citizen: Fifty-six rich election donors have poured at least $2 million each into super PAC groups this election season, more than double the level in the 2014 midterms and a record for any midterm election, according to a report (PDF) by … Continue reading
This is interesting. Also interesting: the use that is being made of Facebook’s disclosure requirements. Sure seems to me to be an argument for mandatory disclosure of campaign ads. Don’t voters want to know who is behind these messages. … Continue reading
ProPublica: A Facebook ad in October urged political conservatives to support the Trump administration’s rollback of fuel emission standards, which it hailed as “our president’s car freedom agenda” and “plan for safer, cheaper cars that WE get to choose.” The ad came … Continue reading
Campaign Finance Institute: The year 2018 saw a record number of women candidates competing in major party primary elections*, with another record number making it through to next week’s general election. An analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute of pre-general … Continue reading
Fredreka Schouten for CNN. … Continue reading
NYT: A structure unknown even to some of those involved, Floridians for a Fair Shake and 13 other groups around the country are funded and coordinated out of a single office in Washington, with the goal of battering Republicans for … Continue reading
Release via email: More than 500 leadership PACs operated by sitting members of Congress raised over $150 million so far this election cycle. Of this sum, more than 60 percent came from political action committees (PACs) connected to companies, trade … Continue reading
NYT: For the final two weeks of the election, Democratic campaigns and outside groups are on track to substantially outspend Republicans, strategists on both sides say. Democrats are set to spend $143 million on television advertising in House races, compared … Continue reading
Ken Doyle for Bloomberg (I miss his daily Money & Politics report in my inbox): “Shadow parties,” outside groups allied with Democratic and Republican leaders, are eclipsing traditional political parties, according to two new studies of campaign spending in the … Continue reading
AP: Kansas election officials are reviewing text messages claiming to be from President Donald Trump and telling residents that their early votes hadn’t been recorded, as Democratic leaders were quick Thursday to worry that they were part of efforts to … Continue reading
News & Observer: A voter said Rep. Chris Malone asked her whether she was preparing to vote twice while she waited at an early-voting site this week, in an attempt to intimidate her. Another woman said she overheard a man … Continue reading
CPI: ActBlue, a nonprofit whose online fundraising tools have been used to varying degrees by nearly every Democrat running for Congress, says it has raised more than $2.9 billion for Democrats and progressive organizations since its founding in 2004. September was the biggest … Continue reading
Campaign Finance Institute: Independent expenditures (IEs) reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for general election House and Senate contests have continued on a record pace, totaling $695 million through October 21st. This is $103 million more than on the … Continue reading
NYT: The most recent round of campaign finance disclosures, filed Saturday, showed that Republican national party committees, candidates in key House and Senate races and their top unlimited-money outside groups, or “super PACs,” had $337 million on hand as of … Continue reading
WaPo: The Justice Department on Friday charged a Russian woman for her role in a conspiracy to interfere with the 2018 U.S. election, marking the first criminal case prosecutors have brought against a foreign national for meddling in the upcoming … Continue reading
Nate Silver: The fundraising numbers are so good for Democrats — and so bad for Republicans — that it’s a little bit hard to know quite what to make of them. From a modelling standpoint, we’re extrapolating from years in which fundraising … Continue reading
KC Star: A conservative activist with Project Veritas posed as an intern with U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s campaign and had access to voter information, according to a stack of documents McCaskill’s lawyer delivered to Attorney General Josh Hawley’s office Friday. … Continue reading
Open Secrets: This year’s midterm election cycle is slated to become the first and only member of the $5 billion club. The Center for Responsive Politics projects that more than $5 billion will be spent during the 2018 election, making … Continue reading
This is very interesting, though I don’t give it much chance (for example, it doesn’t cite to a single law that the allegedly false speech violates). … Continue reading
Back in April, I had a post where I expressed skepticism that Facebook’s plan for voluntary disclosure of who is running political ads will actually work. Here’s a snippet: Here’s a hypothetical to flesh out some issues. Let’s assume that … Continue reading
CNET: On Oct. 7, during the first round of Brazil’s presidential election, Facebookemployees noticed something suspicious on the social network. A story posted to Facebook incorrectly claimed the election was delayed because of protests. The company’s data scientists and operations team … Continue reading