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Stat of the Day

April 4, 2021 at 6:23 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The 2020 Trump campaign accounted for up to 3% of all credit card fraud claims in the entire country, the New York Times reports.

Filed Under: Business of Politics

You Can Now Invest In ‘Republican’ Mutual Funds

March 26, 2021 at 4:25 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “Values-based investing options for conservatives have lagged behind those available to investors concerned about climate change, diversity and animal rights. Now conservatives are taking a page from liberal investors when it comes to their escalating criticism of technology companies that have banned former President Donald Trump and others from their platforms.”

“The fund boycotts Facebook Inc., Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and roughly 20 other companies that it views as overly progressive in their corporate politics.”

Filed Under: Business of Politics

Companies Already Back to Donating to Election Deniers

March 26, 2021 at 12:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Daily Beast identified five companies that appear to have gone back on their suspension of donations to Republican lawmakers who objected to the 2020 election results: AT&T, Cigna Health, Ford Motors, Pfizer, and Wells Fargo.

Filed Under: Business of Politics

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GOP Appeal to Jeff Bezos Backfires

March 13, 2021 at 6:02 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

HuffPost: “Amazon announced plans to stop selling all books that frame transgender and other sexual identities as mental illness, a decision it reached after four Republican senators complained to CEO Jeff Bezos last month when the company pulled a single book on the subject from its virtual shelves.”

Filed Under: Business of Politics

Long-Shot GOP Candidates Pay Huge Sums to Go Viral

March 2, 2021 at 5:30 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Washington Post has an eye-opening look at the big cuts fundraising firms take to help new candidates running for office go viral — many of who are running in deep-blue districts with little chance of winning.

An example: “By the end of Kim Klacik’s campaign, she would raise a staggering $8.3 million and pay nearly $3.7 million of it to Olympic Media… Klacik, now a frequent Fox News and Newsmax commentator, lost to Mfume in Maryland’s 7th Congressional District by more than 40 percentage points.”

Filed Under: Business of Politics

The Big Money In Being Anti-Trump

February 11, 2021 at 8:27 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Associated Press: “Since its creation, the Lincoln Project has raised $90 million. But only about a third of the money, roughly $27 million, directly paid for advertisements that aired on broadcast and cable, or appeared online, during the 2020 campaign.”

“That leaves tens of millions of dollars that went toward expenses like production costs, overhead — and exorbitant consulting fees collected by members of the group.”

Also interesting: “Of the $90 million Lincoln Project has raised, more than $50 million has gone to firms controlled by the group’s leaders.”

Filed Under: Business of Politics

Pillows Are the New Ideological Battleground

February 4, 2021 at 3:48 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg tweeted that he was launching a pillow company to compete against MyPillow, which is led by Trump supporter CEO Mike Lindell.

Filed Under: Business of Politics

Yellen Earned Millions In Speaking Fees

January 1, 2021 at 10:12 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for Treasury secretary, collected more than $7 million in speaking fees during more than 50 in-person and virtual engagements over the past two years, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Filed Under: Biden Transition, Business of Politics

Trump Applied to Trademark ‘Telerally’

July 23, 2020 at 9:17 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump’s private company filed a trademark application last week that suggested that it is starting a new line of business: organizing ‘telerallies’ for political campaigns,” the Washington Post reports.

“That could mark a shift in the company’s business model. Since Trump took office, his business has been paid millions by political campaigns, including Trump’s reelection effort. But it always remained one step away from politics: The company rented out ballrooms and office space to campaigns but did not market itself as a political company or offer services related to rallies or reaching voters.”

“The trademark application suggests that has changed. By filing it, trademark experts said, the company is saying it intends to enter this business soon.”

Filed Under: Business of Politics

Huckabee’s Company Accused of Scamming Parents

July 17, 2020 at 7:28 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s education company is giving away its educational booklets — such as “The Kids Guide to President Trump” — for free, or just $1 per item, in a “patriotic bundle” special, the HuffPost reports.

“But the offer is far from free. Parents across the country described a bait-and-switch scheme that they said duped them into signing up for $20-per-month subscriptions without their knowledge. Many said that Learn Our History ignored their repeated requests to cancel the subscriptions, leaving them locked into payments for products that they never wanted in the first place — all so their children can learn Huckabee’s version of history, which critics described as ‘pretend,’ ‘kiddie propaganda’ and ‘full of Christian nationalist revisionism and right-wing political propaganda.'”

Filed Under: Business of Politics

Meet Brad Parscale

May 20, 2020 at 1:38 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The Lincoln Project has a new video suggesting Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is getting rich off of the president’s campaign.

Their message: “Don, you got conned… by your IT guy.”

Filed Under: 2020 Campaign, Business of Politics

West Virginia Poised to Allow Political Gambling

April 8, 2020 at 12:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“West Virginia appears poised to become the first state in the U.S. to allow gambling on politics, a move that would let people turn their Trump-versus-Biden predictions into cash,” Bloomberg reports.

“The West Virginia Lottery, which oversees betting in the state, said Tuesday that officials initially approved a plan to let FanDuel Inc. and other sportsbooks offer political wagers, but needed time ‘to fully work through the implications and research it further.'”

Filed Under: Business of Politics

Federal Subpoenas Seek Info on Giuliani’s Business

November 25, 2019 at 3:47 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Subpoenas issued to people with ties to President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and his associates indicate a broad federal investigation into possible money laundering, obstruction of justice and campaign-finance violations, and suggest that prosecutors are looking closely at the work of Mr. Giuliani himself,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports the federal investigation into two associates of Giuliani “is exploring a wide range of potential crimes — including wire fraud and failure to register as a foreign agent — as prosecutors dig into the pair’s interactions with the president’s personal lawyer and the main pro-Trump super PAC.”

Filed Under: Business of Politics

Small-Donor Revolution Creates Pay Day for Middlemen

November 25, 2019 at 3:44 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “What these grassroots supporters may not realize is that, in making small, repeated contributions, they have, in aggregate, delivered a huge payday for the middlemen, often large banks and financial institutions that process those payments.”

Filed Under: Business of Politics

Republicans Used to Ignore Trump Resorts

November 11, 2019 at 5:50 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “Between 2012 and 2014, campaigns and political groups spent a combined $69,000 at Trump businesses… But since June 2015, when Trump announced he was running for the White House, political spending at the president’s properties has topped $19 million.”

Filed Under: Business of Politics

Political Spending at Trump Properties Surpasses $20M

October 29, 2019 at 10:38 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Federal political committees have spent more than $20 million at businesses owned by President Trump since the 2008 cycle, according to OpenSecrets.

“Roughly 99% of that money has come since the start of the 2016 cycle, when Trump announced his bid for president and began spending campaign money at his own properties.”

Filed Under: Business of Politics

Giuliani Paid $500K By Indicted Associate’s Firm

October 14, 2019 at 11:36 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rudy Giuliani was paid $500,000 for work he did for Fraud Guarantee, a company co-founded by the Ukrainian-American businessman arrested last week on campaign finance charges, Reuters reports.

Filed Under: Business of Politics, Lobbyists

Trial Exposes Seamy Side of Washington’s Elite

August 27, 2019 at 7:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “It is a trial tailor-made to grab the attention of this city’s power brokers: In a federal courtroom this month, one of Washington’s most prominent lawyers — a former White House counsel and attorney to global statesmen and other icons — is battling criminal charges of lying to investigators about his work for a shady foreign client.”

“But the most riveting aspect of the case against the lawyer, Gregory Craig, is not his innocence or guilt. Rather, it is the depiction of the seamy world of power brokers like Mr. Craig that prosecutors have painted during nearly two weeks of testimony and in an array of court filings.”

Filed Under: Business of Politics, Lobbyists

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Word of the Day

Gerrymander: The term “gerrymander” refers to the practice of manipulating the boundaries of electoral districts in order to benefit a particular political party or group.

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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