“Candidates for office were practically swimming in grassroots money over the last few cycles, as politics increasingly went online and the money followed,” Politico reports.
“This cycle, the well is drying up.”
“A Politico analysis of federal campaign finance data found a dramatic downturn in small-dollar donations across the board.”
“Dan Cox, the rightwinger who lost the Maryland governor’s race last year, has been telling the press that he doesn’t know who was behind a July 3 statement of candidacy in his name. He even said he alerted the Federal Election Commission to the matter,” the Daily Beast reports.
“It should be a short investigation: The person was the treasurer Cox had hired to do just that.”
“The Daily Beast has obtained emails and text messages that show Cox planned a congressional bid since at least mid-June.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) “is paying himself back hundreds of thousands of dollars for loans he made to his prior Senate campaigns, despite claiming he wouldn’t seek to recoup the money from donors,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“Johnson previously claimed that he wouldn’t seek to repay the $8.4 million in outstanding loans he claimed his campaign owes him for loans in his 2010 and 2016 campaigns.”
“More than seven months after losing his U.S. Senate bid, Republican Herschel Walker’s campaign still has nearly $4.5 million in its account. And some donors are pressing to get their contributions back,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“The campaign of embattled Rep. George Santos, who is facing federal indictment on fraud and money laundering charges, paid the congressmember $85,000 in the second quarter of this year,” Politico reports.
“Though the New York representative says he is running for reelection, he spent virtually nothing on campaigning.”
“The payments the campaign made to Santos stemmed from hundreds of thousands of dollars that the congressmember previously loaned to his campaign. Those loans had sparked questions about how Santos had so much money to lend his political efforts.”
“An acquaintance of New York City Mayor Eric Adams is at the center of an alleged straw-donor scheme, announced by the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Friday, that funneled tens of thousands of dollars in illicit contributions to the Democratic mayor’s campaign,” Politico reports.
“Dwayne Montgomery is a retired deputy inspector with the NYPD, where he overlapped with Adams before the mayor retired to pursue a political career.”
“According to an indictment unveiled by Bragg Friday, Montgomery was among six people charged with an elaborate scheme to circumvent campaign finance laws and ply the campaign with cash in the hopes of currying favor for future business deals with the city, once Adams was elected.”
Politico: “Super PACs have been growing in strength for more than a decade, but this cycle are swimming in more money than ever. They have started earlier, with more than $14 million in independent expenditures in the primary already… compared with around $950,000 at this time in 2015.”
“The groups are also taking new approaches, deploying staffing at campaign events, paying for door-knocking operations and even sending fundraising texts on candidates’ behalf. Some of the new strategies could test the legal limits on coordination between campaigns and super PACs.”
Mother Jones obtained a list of 36 wealthy contributors who last year wrote big checks to support No Labels’ effort to win 2024 ballot lines in states across the nation.
“Among the No Labels backers are donors who contributed millions of dollars to Republican causes, such as past GOP presidential candidates and super-PACS connected to Republican congressional leadership, and several who have poured money into the Democratic presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden. One donor provided a big chunk of political cash to Donald Trump.”
“Generally, these No Labels supporters, who mostly made contributions of $5,600 to its 2024 project, appear to favor conservative candidates, though many have played both sides of the aisle, financing Republican and Democratic politicians.”
“Once considered natural political allies, the Republican Party and big business are drifting apart. One sign of their estrangement: GOP lawmakers are weaning themselves off money from corporate political-action committees,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Republicans are now less dependent on corporate and industry PACs than at any time in the past three decades… Instead, they are turning to smaller donations from millions of individuals who tend to be wary of big-businesses priorities such as free trade.”
“Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is using her growing national profile to raise money for federal candidates through a new political action committee,” Bridge Michigan reports.
“An aide to the second-term Democrat on Monday filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to form the ‘Fight Like Hell PAC,’ echoing a slogan Whitmer used as she fought for legal abortion rights last year during her own successful re-election campaign.”
“Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has quietly changed state guidelines, essentially giving its blessing for a state-level political committee he previously ran to move millions of dollars to a super PAC helping his presidential campaign,” NBC News reports.
“For years, elections officials said such a transfer to federal super PACs would not be allowed. But in March — just months before DeSantis formally launched his bid for president — officials at the Florida State Department, the DeSantis administration entity that regulates state elections, changed its handbook to assert that such moves are allowed.”
“The timing is notable because a state-level political committee DeSantis led for the past five years, known as Friends of Ron DeSantis, is widely expected to transfer $80 million to a federal super PAC called Never Back Down that is supporting his just-launched bid for president.”
“A super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential run has raised $500,000 into a separate draft committee that is expected to be transferred directly to his campaign in the coming days,” CBS News reports.
“The group, ‘Never Back Down’ has been encouraging donors to contribute online to the ‘Draft DeSantis 2024 Fund,’ a super PAC created in early March to house money from DeSantis donors until his campaign launch. Super PACs can raise unlimited funds, but they are generally considered expenditure-only, meaning they cannot contribute directly to a candidate.”
“Campaign finance experts called the move ‘unprecedented’ and had mixed reactions on if it violated FEC regulations.”
Rep. George Santos (R-NY), “the New York Republican under indictment for campaign finance violations, appointed himself as his own campaign treasurer Friday,” Bloomberg reports.
“Santos follows a line of people overseeing his campaign finances since his November election: Nancy Marks, a longtime New York GOP operative who resigned as his treasurer in January; Thomas Datwyler, who denied ever accepting the job after his name appeared on FEC paperwork; and Andrew Olson, who had never served as a campaign treasurer and whose only identifying information was a Google email address.”
New York Times: “A group of conservative operatives using sophisticated robocalls raised millions of dollars from donors using pro-police and pro-veteran messages.”
“But instead of using the money to promote issues and candidates, nearly all the money went to pay the firms making the calls and the operatives themselves, highlighting a flaw in the regulation of political nonprofits.”
“During his ill-fated run for U.S. Senate last year, Herschel Walker repeatedly declined to answer even simple questions about his policy stances, his background and how he would vote if elected,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“He appears to be taking a similar strategy as a defeated candidate as he faces new questions about his campaign finances.”
“Walker and his wife have declined to answer repeated questions from the AJC about accusations that he directed more than half a million dollars in campaign donations to one of his own businesses.”
Common Dreams: “Newly released tax filings by Schwab Charitable—one of the nation’s largest sponsors of what are called donor-advised funds—offers another major piece of information on how this ‘dark money‘ moves.”
“Three churches in West Texas have made financial contributions to a pastor running for a hotly contested seat on the Abilene City Council, a clear violation of federal rules prohibiting nonprofits and churches from endorsing candidates,” the Texas Tribune reports.
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.