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Kyrsten Sinema’s Campaign Committee Keeps Spending

July 15, 2025 at 5:40 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In late April, the campaign committee of former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema made an odd expenditure, even by contemporary political standards: It dropped $352 at a self-described ‘naturally based wellness provider’ that provides chiropractic, massage and ‘shockwave therapy’ services from a shopping center in Cave Creek, Arizona,” NOTUS reports.

Filed Under: Campaign Finance

Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations

June 30, 2025 at 6:49 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

ProPublica: “In 2023, while Kristi Noem was governor of South Dakota, she supplemented her income by secretly accepting a cut of the money she raised for a nonprofit that promotes her political career, tax records show.”

“In what experts described as a highly unusual arrangement, the nonprofit routed funds to a personal company of Noem’s that had recently been established in Delaware. The payment totaled $80,000 that year, a significant boost to her roughly $130,000 government salary. Since the nonprofit is a so-called dark money group — one that’s not required to disclose the names of its donors — the original source of the money remains unknown.”

“Noem then failed to disclose the $80,000 payment to the public.”

Filed Under: Campaign Finance

Trump Takes Aim at ActBlue

April 24, 2025 at 10:49 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In a shot at ActBlue, the left’s major online donation platform, President Donald Trump plans to sign a presidential memorandum on Thursday cracking down on foreign contributions in American elections,” Politico reports.

“Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office is expected to be involved in the crackdown, the person said, though further details about the mechanism she will use were not immediately available. The order is expected to specifically target ActBlue, which Republicans have long claimed could be exploited by foreign actors.”

Filed Under: Campaign Finance


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Wisconsin Court Race Cost More Than U.K. Election

April 2, 2025 at 5:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Don Moynihan: “Money is a an aggressive growing tumor at the heart of American democracy. The 2023 Wisconsin state supreme court race cost $56 million, a national record at the time. The 2025 version blasted that out of the water, and could end up costing almost twice that much.”

“To give a sense of out-of-kilter we are, a single state court race saw significantly more spending than the entire United Kingdom national election.”

Filed Under: Campaign Finance

Trump’s Press Secretary Took Illegal Donations

January 30, 2025 at 3:35 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“When White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s failed congressional campaign amended its filings last week — revealing that she appears to have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in excessive donations that she never paid back — the campaign also revealed that it broke another fundamental rule of political fundraising: don’t take money from businesses straight to the bank, NOTUS reports.

“Before spending donations from businesses, campaigns are supposed to do due diligence to make sure the contribution is allowable. But according to years of reprimanding letters from the Federal Election Commission, Leavitt’s campaign frequently failed to follow these basic legal guidelines. And now, as Leavitt takes the briefing room podium, her unsuccessful campaign from 2022 still owes businesses tens of thousands of dollars.”

Filed Under: Campaign Finance

Nonprofit Admits Secretly Aiding Stacy Abrams’ Campaign

January 15, 2025 at 12:20 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A nonprofit founded by Stacey Abrams, a Georgia Democrat, admitted on Wednesday that it had violated state law by concealing the fact that it had campaigned for her during her 2018 run for governor,” the New York Times reports.

“At the time of that campaign, the group was led by Raphael Warnock, who was later elected to the Senate as a Democrat from Georgia.”

Filed Under: 2018 Campaign, Campaign Finance

Senators Say Campaign Treasurer Stole Their Money

January 14, 2025 at 2:33 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“At least four Democratic political committees suspect their former campaign treasurer is behind the “misappropriation” of hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds,” Rolling Stone reports.

“The committees — including those led by Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner — have alerted law enforcement officials and federal regulators and continue to internally investigate the matter.”

“The alleged misappropriations of funds are the latest in a string of high-profile thefts and unauthorized financial transactions that have recently walloped federal political committees of all partisan stripes, collectively costing them millions of dollars.”

Filed Under: Campaign Finance

Eric Adams Denied Public Matching Funds

December 16, 2024 at 10:53 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Election officials on Monday denied a request from New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ 2025 campaign for millions in public matching dollars,” Politico reports.

“The decision — based on bookkeeping irregularities and a federal criminal case against the mayor involving straw donors — deals a body blow to the beleaguered mayor’s reelection effort, which he must now redouble to make up for the withheld cash.”

Filed Under: Campaign Finance, City Hall

The Most Expensive Presidential Election in History

November 5, 2024 at 12:46 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump “have together spent $3.5 billion in their race for the White House, making the 2024 presidential campaign the most expensive U.S. general election in history,” the Financial Times reports.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Campaign Finance

Judge Won’t Block Elon Musk’s Voter Lottery

November 4, 2024 at 5:27 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“A Philadelphia judge is allowing Elon Musk’s America PAC to continue its million-dollar giveaway to registered swing state voters,” ABC News reports.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Campaign Finance

Elon Musk Denied in Effort to Move Case to Federal Court

November 1, 2024 at 3:27 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A federal judge has rejected Elon Musk’s bid to move the Philadelphia lawsuit over his voter lottery scheme to federal court.

Filed Under: Campaign Finance

Elon Musk Seeks to Move Lottery Lawsuit to Federal Court

October 31, 2024 at 8:40 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Elon Musk and his political action committee are seeking to move the Philadelphia District Attorney’s lawsuit targeting their $1 million swing state voter lottery to federal court,” CNBC reports.

Filed Under: Campaign Finance

Dark Money and ‘Gray Money’ Fund Hidden Agendas

October 31, 2024 at 5:19 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Big-money operatives are taking advantage of lax rules at the end of the campaign to hide the true source of their money until after the election is called — or for forever,” the New York Times reports.

Filed Under: Campaign Finance

Elon Musk’s Super PAC Sued Over Lottery for Voters

October 28, 2024 at 10:49 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a political action committee controlled by billionaire Elon Musk from awarding $1 million to registered voters in swing states,” CNBC reports.

Filed Under: Campaign Finance

U.S. Elections Cost More Than Anywhere Else

October 28, 2024 at 10:35 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Wall Street Journal: “What many Americans may not realize is that U.S. elections are an outlier, especially compared to other industrialized democracies. Canada’s campaign typically lasts between 36 and 50 days. The total campaign bill for its 2021 election: $69 million in today’s dollars—about 1/27th the price tag per voter south of the border. U.S. elections cost about 40 times more per person than the U.K. or Germany.”

Filed Under: Campaign Finance

Elon Musk Got Warning Letter for Lottery Scheme

October 23, 2024 at 2:59 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Justice Department’s head of election crimes sent a warning letter to Elon Musk’s America PAC Monday, alerting it that it was a crime to knowingly offer anything of value to register to vote or vote,” 24sight News reports.

“The warning letter did not specify any immediate legal action, but it did spell out the penalties for breaking U.S. voting laws, including possible imprisonment of up to five years.”

CNN: Justice Department warns Elon Musk that his $1 million giveaway to registered voters may be illegal.

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Campaign Finance

PAC Paying Trump’s Legal Fees Runs Dry

October 21, 2024 at 4:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Save America, the leadership PAC that Trump has used to pay his legal bills and those of some of his associates, raised $1.4 million in September and spent $4 million, most of it on lawyers, demonstrating how the former president’s legal problems have continued to strain campaign resources.”

“The group had less than $2 million left in cash and owes nearly $5 million in legal debt.”

Filed Under: Campaign Finance

Democrats Adopt Loophole GOP Using to Save on Ads

October 21, 2024 at 7:11 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Democrats are starting to use a campaign finance loophole to save big bucks on TV advertising — after failing to stop Republicans from doing the same,” Politico reports.

“Earlier this month, the Federal Election Commission deadlocked on a case brought forth by Democrats asking whether joint fundraising committees can run ads for candidates, as some Senate Republicans have been doing for months.”

Filed Under: 2024 Campaign, Campaign Finance

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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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