Dark Money Fuels Texas Senate Primaries

Texas Tribune: “If Texans want to know who’s funding the deluge of ads in the final stretch of the U.S. Senate primaries, they’ll need to keep guessing.”

“The race is awash with dark money, or contributions from political nonprofits that are not legally obligated to disclose donors, according to campaign finance reports that were due Thursday.”

“A super PAC supporting one of the Democratic candidates, James Talarico, reported $6.1 million in contributions from Jan. 1 through Feb. 11. But more than half that came from a political action committee that was entirely funded by a dark money group on its last monthly report.”

“And as Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston tries to squeeze into a primary runoff on the Republican side, a group supporting him — and another opposing him — are also being mostly funded by anonymous sources, according to the filings with the Federal Election Commission.”

“Taken together, the reports show that big-money interests are heavily invested in the Texas primaries — but unwilling to reveal their identities at a critical juncture of the race.”