Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) told supporters “he skirted the state’s campaign finance laws by inviting another Republican to run against him as a token candidate in next month’s primary so he could raise more money for the November general election,” NBC Montana reports.
Said Knudsen: “I do technically have a primary. However, he is a young man who I asked to run against me because our campaign laws are ridiculous.”
“The Federal Election Commission quietly issued an advisory opinion last week allowing candidates to raise unlimited money for issue-advocacy groups working on ballot measures in elections in which those candidates are on the ballot,” the New York Times reports.
“The opinion, issued in response to a request from a Nevada-based abortion rights group, could significantly alter the landscape in the fall in terms of the capacity that candidates aligned with these groups have to help them raise money.”
“The decision applies to all federal candidates, but with a presidential election taking place in six months, the biggest attention will fall to that race. If Mr. Biden can solicit money for abortion-rights ballot measures, he can add to an already-existing fund-raising advantage that his team currently has over Mr. Trump.”
“The Lincoln Project — a super PAC that ranks among former President Donald Trump’s leading antagonists — lost $35,000 in what it described to federal regulators as ‘fraudulent’ transactions committed by cyberthieves,” Raw Story reports.
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“In recent weeks, a number of news reports have delved into the legal questions about a super PAC generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate revenue from a popular podcaster: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX),” the Daily Beast reports.
“While legal experts cited in those reports have floated serious potential campaign finance issues with the arrangement, it appears that Cruz—a notorious Federal Election Commission troll—may have landed upon yet another seemingly unprecedented loophole in election laws: He’s turned a super PAC supporting him into a media company—and is funding it himself.”
Politico: “And outside spending continues to increase dramatically. Across all federal races, super PACs have spent more than $430 million on independent expenditures already this cycle… up from $176 million at this point in 2020.”
“The expanded role for outside groups has been accompanied by new fundraising tactics and financial relationships. … Super PACs have begun to bridge the divide between a candidate’s outside ventures and their political pursuits.”
Sen. Mike Braun’s (R-IN) Senate campaign “owes the federal government $159,000 for violating campaign finance rules during the 2018 election, among the largest fines in the federal agency’s history,” the Indianapolis Star reports.
Ryan Cooper: “The sheer comical excess of the Menendez indictment illustrates how rampant political corruption is in this country. The reason people getting nailed by law enforcement for corruption tend to be people with literal gold bars and stacks of cash sewn into their jackets is because of Supreme Court decisions making it impossible to prosecute instances of corruption that are somewhat more deniable.”
“In McDonnell v. U.S., the Court unanimously overturned the conviction of a former Virginia governor and his wife who had set up meetings with officials for a pharmaceutical company while taking valuable gifts from the company’s owner. In FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate, it ruled that candidates can loan their campaigns money, and then pay themselves back with donor cash after the election is over and the victor is known—effectively opening a window labeled ‘bribes here.’ And in Citizens United v. FEC, of course, they legalized effectively limitless corporate spending in politics…”
“So while Menendez was doing the kind of idiotic corruption that actually may have run afoul of the remaining shreds of anti-corruption law, now he is taking advantage of a more subtle variety: spending his campaign money on his legal bills. Should he actually contest the Senate election this year, he is absolutely certain to lose—a recent poll found him with 75 percent disapproval among New Jersey residents—and he’s already given up on seeking re-election as a Democrat. But pretending to be running allows him to spend his remaining campaign funds on his legal defense.”
“A Pennsylvania man on Thursday pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges following a 2020 Politico investigation into a super PAC that said it was spending millions of dollars in battleground Senate races but didn’t actually exist,” Politico reports.
“Tammy Murphy has been talking like a campaign finance reformer, calling the amount of money in politics ‘disgusting,’” Politico reports.
“But as New Jersey’s first lady, Murphy spent a year and a half leading a dark-money group without disclosing donors. Now she has a super PAC supporting her bid to replace Bob Menendez in the U.S. Senate.”
“Bipartisan ethics regulators in Wisconsin have recommended felony charges against one of Donald Trump’s fundraising arms and other Republicans in a scheme that they say was meant to circumvent campaign finance laws to take out a powerful GOP lawmaker who has turned against Trump,” the Washington Post reports.
“The prosecution referrals became public Friday and add to the legal troubles of the former president, who is already facing 91 charges in four cases in other jurisdictions.”
Wispolitics.com: “The recommendations for prosecution pose another potential legal headache for Trump, who clashed with Robin Vos in 2022 after the longtime Assembly speaker refused his calls to try to overturn Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election results. “
Daily Beast: “Campaign donor refunds have been a part of political finances since modern contribution limits were first instituted in 1972. But just over 50 years later, Donald Trump’s political operation seems to have found a novel workaround, with the campaign reporting just one individual refund—for $400—over the entirety of last year.”
“On paper, Trump’s refund rate is virtually impossible. His campaign has not solved this persistent problem of overpayments. His donors are, in fact, breaking the donation limits—dozens and dozens of them.”
“The super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. padded its war chest with millions of dollars in contributions from one of the best-known private security executives in the country, Gavin de Becker,” Politico reports.
“And then it did something remarkable: it returned nearly all of the funds, making his contributions effectively a loan.”
“The move shocked campaign finance watchdogs who said they’ve never seen such an arrangement before. De Becker’s contributions helped the PAC report a high fundraising total that can, in turn, be seen as a sign of legitimacy for the committee. All told, de Becker made $10 million in donations to the super PAC; $9.65 million of which was returned.”
“In a federal election complaint filed on Friday, the Democratic National Committee accused Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a super PAC backing his independent presidential bid of illegally coordinating on a $15 million petition drive intended to qualify him for the ballot in several states that could be crucial to President Biden’s re-election prospects,” the New York Times reports.
“The 11-page complaint to the Federal Election Commission described the arrangement as an in-kind contribution to Mr. Kennedy’s campaign by the super PAC, American Values 2024, one that violated federal campaign finance laws and breached long-established financial barriers between candidates and outside groups.”
“Herschel Walker is still sitting on a pile of campaign cash, leading many political observers to wonder how he plans to spend that dough,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“The failed Republican U.S. Senate candidate filed financial disclosures this week that show his campaign account holds nearly $4.4 million.”
Washington Examiner: “A little-known organization fighting for ‘the interests of progressive voters through public advocacy’ is quietly overseeing an unusual ‘fellowship’ to ensure repeat Democratic congressional hopefuls get paychecks between runs.”
“Tax experts have questioned whether New Politics Leadership Academy may have violated its charity status by compensating congressional hopefuls, with the Federal Election Commission receiving at least one formal complaint against a candidate in 2020 over the individual being ‘paid to run for Congress by Democratic groups.”
“A shadowy super PAC behind millions of dollars worth of television ads in Montana is showing voters how rules and regulations set by the Federal Election Commission can sometimes fall short of their intended purpose,” The Messenger reports.
“Typically, when a super PAC launches ads worth over $10,000, groups have to disclose which candidate they are supporting or opposing, how much money the expenditure costs, when the ads were disseminated, and the firm who executed the ad within 48 hours of making the communication.”
“Despite airing millions of dollars worth of attack ads, Last Best Place PAC hasn’t issued a single 48-hour notice of independent expenditures. It’s unclear who exactly is behind the ads.”
“For years, dark money groups have enjoyed certain advantages that offer donors anonymity — putting the proverbial ‘dark’ in ‘dark money,'” the Daily Beast reports.
“But late last month, one small outside group quietly told election law regulators to shove off when watchdogs demanded to see the group’s donors, a move that legal experts say could signal a profound shift in campaign finance disclosure laws, making dark money even darker just in time for the 2024 election.”
“Three allied political action committees funded by leaders of the cryptocurrency industry will be starting 2024 with a combined $78 million as they aim to be key influencers during the pivotal election cycle,” CNBC reports.
“The massive amount of cash that the PACs are prepared to use in support of likely pro-crypto candidates running for seats in both the House and Senate shows how the cryptocurrency industry is still trying to influence elections despite some recent headwinds.”
Taegan 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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