Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 194
What Just Happened?
“Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), a leading Republican fundraiser who has worked to build a national political profile, has been hit with a hefty fine for violating federal campaign finance rules,” the Daily Beast reports.
“On Friday, officials at the Federal Election Commission disclosed they had fined Crenshaw’s campaign committee $42,000, after the campaign failed to properly return more than $220,000 in illegal campaign contributions.”
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, revealed in a new interview that he donated “about the same amount of money” to both Democrats and Republicans, but that all his donations to Republicans was “dark money,” Semafor reports.
Bankman-Fried explained that he didn’t disclose the donations because “liberal” reporters would “freak the fuck out.”
He added: “I’ve been their third biggest Republican donor this year as well.”
“A Republican political strategist was convicted of illegally helping a Russian businessman contribute to Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016,” the Washington Post reports.
“Jesse Benton, 44, was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for a different campaign finance crime, months before he was indicted again on six counts related to facilitating an illegal foreign campaign donation. He was found guilty Thursday on all six counts.”
“One of the biggest conservative dark money organizations in the nation was boosted last year by two separate anonymous gifts, each totaling more than $425 million dollars,” Politico reports.
“The money sent to DonorsTrust, a 501(c)(3) charity that has become one of the most influential conduit of funds in Republican-leaning circles, was a huge chunk of the more than $1 billion the group brought in in 2021… They are among the largest ever donations to a politically-connected group.”
“Republican politicians and associated committees are sending out desperate fundraising emails begging the GOP faithful to help save America by getting behind Herschel Walker in his Dec. 6 runoff race against Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock,” NBC News reports.
“But what’s not immediately clear to recipients is how little of that money is going to Walker’s campaign: just a dime for every dollar given by small donors.”
“Walker’s campaign, which has trailed Warnock’s in fundraising throughout the election, is now asking fellow Republicans to stop their fundraising practices — or at least start sharing more with the candidate.”
New York Times: “While both parties have their billionaires, Republicans have many more. Of the 25 top donors this cycle, 18 are Republican, according to Open Secrets, and they have outspent Democrats by $200 million. Billionaires make up 20 percent of total Republican donations compared with 14.5 percent of Democratic donations.
“Liam Madden, the Republican nominee in the open race for Vermont’s lone seat in the U.S. House, during a radio interview Thursday morning described in detail a self-funded scheme to inflate his campaign donations during the primary cycle in order to qualify for candidate debates,” VT Digger reports.
“Madden claimed to have ‘drained’ his wife’s business’s bank account and distributed roughly $25,000 amongst family members — including his toddler son, June — who then donated the money to his campaign. Madden said he is now recouping the money by collecting a salary from his campaign.”
Said campaign finance expert Saurav Ghosh: “He just appears to be ignorant of the fact that he’s just confessed on an interview on air to breaking campaign finance laws.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “has millions at his disposal, yet his campaign has not returned $213,000 in contributions from a fugitive charged with making illegal straw donations,” the Miami Herald reports.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) received $555,000 from his campaign account two months ago to cover old personal loans, Insider reports.
It comes after Cruz successfully challenged a law that capped the amount candidates could repay themselves.
“Donald Trump’s political operation has spent more money since he left office on lawyers representing the former president and a pair of nonprofits staffed by former Cabinet members than it has on Republican congressional campaigns,” the Washington Post reports.
Tim Miller: “As it turned out, grass-roots fund-raising is also what ending democracy looks like. As with any other mass movement, people-powered campaigns followed the standard Hofferian trajectory: beginning as a cause, turning into a business and becoming a racket. Our online fund-raising system is not only enriching scam artists, clogging our inboxes and inflaming the electorate; it is also empowering our politics’ most nefarious actors.”
“It is how Donald Trump and his cast of clueless coupsters raised nine figures to ‘stop the steal’ that they had fabricated to try to stay in power. It is one way our most extreme candidates dominate the conversation and gain power in our political system. It has redirected money from politicians who work to find compromises that might just help people, diverting it instead to those who either have no chance to win or, worse yet, can win and want to undermine that work for their own ends. And it’s hard to imagine how we can stop it.”
A USA Today analysis “found billionaires contributed nearly $675 million so far this election cycle – with almost all of that coming from the top 50 mega-rich givers.”
“That’s more than 10% of the total pumped into the political system, a gigantic proportion compared to their miniscule share of the population. There are roughly three billionaires for every million adults in the United States.”
National Journal: “Trump has more than $100 million sitting in his three main political-action committees—Save America PAC, Make America Great Again PAC, and the Save America Joint Fundraising Committee. Using some sleight of hand, the former president could exploit these funds for another presidential campaign. There are open questions, though, about the methods he used to raise the money, and whether all his disbursements are relevant to a campaign.”
“While the Federal Election Commission is known for its relatively toothless enforcement, experts say the Justice Department could potentially charge him with wire fraud, adding another case to his mounting legal problems.”
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Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Vance and his allies have spent about $30.6 million on ads. Ninety-two percent of that is coming from outside groups, nearly all of which is from Senate Leadership Fund PAC, which has close ties to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. About $2.4 million is coming directly from Vance’s campaign.”
“Even though Vance and his allies are spending almost three times as much as Ryan, they’re only getting about 20% more airtime. That’s largely because candidates, under federal law, get much better prices compared to outside PACs.”
“Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked legislation requiring disclosure of so-called ‘dark money’ in elections,” the HuffPost reports.
Washington Post: “Spending in election cycles by corporations and the ultrawealthy through so-called dark money groups has skyrocketed since the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC, which allowed incorporated entities and labor unions to spend unlimited amounts of money to promote or attack candidates.”
President Biden plans to plug a Senate bill that would require super PACs and so-called “dark money” groups to disclose donors who give $10,000 or more during an election cycle, the Washington Post reports.
“Sitting on top of more than $115 million across several political committees, Donald Trump has positioned himself as a uniquely indomitable force in the GOP who would almost certainly have the resources to swamp his rivals if he launched another presidential campaign,” the AP reports.
“But that massive pile of money is also emerging as a potential vulnerability. His chief fundraising vehicle, Save America PAC, is under new legal scrutiny after the Justice Department issued a round of grand jury subpoenas that sought information about the political action committee’s fundraising practices.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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