“A federal appeals court said on Wednesday that Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison can pursue his investigation into Republican online fundraising giant WinRed over an allegedly deceptive marketing scheme that bilked unwitting donors out of untold amounts of cash,” the Daily Beast reports.
WinRed Lost Millions In Midterm Elections
“The GOP’s much-touted, small-dollar fundraising platform WinRed, created in response to the Democratic-aligned ActBlue, lost millions of dollars during the midterm election cycle, according to top Republicans,” the HuffPost reports.
“One Republican familiar with the privately held entity’s finances said it lost about $6 million over 2021 and 2022. A second confirmed the loss but believed the total was not quite that high. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.”
Limit on Campaign Donations Skyrockets
The Federal Election Commission announced that that contribution cap was sizably increasing for this cycle, from $2,900 to $3,300, mainly due to inflation, Politico reports.
George Santos Relative Says They Never Donated
Mother Jones: “According to Santos’ campaign filings with the Federal Election Commission, his recent campaign pulled in more than $45,000 from relatives who lived in Queens. This included a mail handler who gave more than $4,000, a painter who donated the maximum of $5,800, and a student who also contributed $5,800. One of Santos’ relatives, who was recorded as giving $5,800, says that they did not make any donation to Santos.”
Said one Santos relative: “I’m dumbfounded.. It’s all news to me. I don’t have that money to throw around!”
Treasurer for George Santos Quits
“The longtime campaign treasurer and trusted aide of embattled Representative George Santos has resigned, potentially exacerbating the congressman’s already troubled finances,” the New York Times reports.
“The treasurer, Nancy Marks, whose resignation was made public on Tuesday in letters filed with the Federal Election Commission, has been with from Mr. Santos since his first run for office, assisting with accounting and fund-raising and joining him in at least one for-profit business endeavor.”
“Much of what Ms. Marks oversaw is the focus of several complaints filed with the F.E.C.; Mr. Santos, a Republican elected in November to represent New York’s Third Congressional District, is also the subject of separate inquiries by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.”
Retracing George Santos’ Steps in Miami
A Miami Herald review of Rep. George Santos’ (R-NY) campaign spending “in the region raises questions about some of his campaign reports, and about what, exactly, he did here — aside from holding a fundraiser on a yacht in Fort Lauderdale, which event organizers say did happen.”
“The managing partner of a diner where the campaign reported spending more than $200 over back-to-back days said he had no receipts matching items on the campaign reports.”
“A $199.99 stay at the high-end W South Beach hotel — where room rates are typically more than $700 per night — was flagged by the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center in a wide-ranging complaint with the Federal Elections Commission earlier this month as improbable.”
“Even his payments at a public beachside parking lot on Miami Beach, where the campaign listed payments as small as $3 and as big as $100, were deemed puzzling by the city’s parking department.”
Meadows Ally Faces Campaign Finance Charge
“A family friend of Mark Meadows has been charged with accepting an illegal campaign contribution during an ill-fated 2020 run to succeed the former Trump White House chief of staff in Congress,” Politico reports.
“Lynda Bennett, who lost in a 2020 Republican primary campaign to Madison Cawthorn, accepted a contribution from a family member totaling at least $25,000, according to charging paperwork filed by prosecutors.”
Many of George Santos’ Donors Don’t Seem To Exist
Mother Jones: “The contributions are among more than a dozen major donations to the 2020 Santos campaign for which the name or the address of the donor cannot be confirmed, a Mother Jones investigation found. A separate $2,800 donation was attributed in Santos’ reports filed with the Federal Election Commission to a friend of Santos who says he did not give the money.”
“Under federal campaign finance law, it is illegal to donate money using a false name or the name of someone else.”
The FEC Wants Answers from George Santos
Rep. George Santos’ (R-NY) campaign committee “is facing new questions from federal regulators after submitting paperwork listing a new treasurer who says he never took the job,” the AP reports.
“The Federal Election Commission sent a letter Thursday to the Devolder Santos for Congress campaign seeking clarity on the switch. It’s the latest scrutiny for the New York congressman who has been caught fabricating many elements of his life story.”
Another Mystery in George Santos’ Campaign Filings
“A Republican technology firm says it is asking Rep. George Santos (R-NY) to correct yet another apparent error on his campaign spending records,” NBC News reports.
“Santos reported paying WinRed more than $206,000 to process donations to his 2022 campaign, records show. But that amount doesn’t match up with how much money Santos actually raised.”
“A Republican fundraising platform, WinRed charges candidates a 3.94% fee for contributions made online by credit card. At that rate, Santos would have had to have raised more than $5.2 million through WinRed to warrant a $206,000 payment to the firm.”
George Santos Made Series of Puzzling Payments
Rep. George Santos’ (R-NY) campaign briefly reported making 1,200 small payments that totalled $254,000 to “anonymous” but then amended its filing to remove them, the Washington Post reports.
Santos Lists New Treasurer Who Denies Working for Him
“With a disclosure filing deadline approaching as questions swirl around his use of campaign funds, embattled Rep. George Santos’ campaign appears to be left without a treasurer,” ABC News reports.
“On Wednesday, several fundraising committees associated with the freshman congressman from New York filed amendments to their statements of organizations, notifying the Federal Election Commission of a new treasurer.”
“But the newly listed treasurer, Thomas Datwyler, a veteran campaign finance treasurer who has served on multiple other political organizations, says he does not work for the Santos campaign and that the filings were signed under his name without his consent.”
George Santos Has a $199 Problem
“Rep. George Santos’ congressional campaign reported dozens of transactions just cents below the threshold that would have triggered a requirement to preserve spending records — an unusual spending pattern that is now part of broader complaints about alleged financial improprieties,” Politico reports.
“Santos, who admitted in December that he faked parts of his biography, already faces a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission alleging his campaign repeatedly reported suspicious expenses. Those included eight charges of exactly $199.99 at an Italian restaurant in Queens and another $199.99 charge at a Miami-area hotel where rooms do not usually go for less than $600 per night. The specific amount matters because campaigns are required by law to keep receipts or invoices for expenses greater than $200.”
George Santos Admits Loan to Campaign Wasn’t His Money
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) “filed a flurry of amended campaign finance reports, telling the feds, among other things, that a $500,000 loan he gave to his campaign didn’t, in fact, come from his personal funds as he’d previously claimed,” the Daily Beast reports.
“However, while the new amended filing told us where the funds did not come from, it also raised a new question—where did the money come from?”
Who Funded Michigan Campaigns?
Michigan state senators raised, on average, only 11% of their campaign funds in that period from the districts in which they ran, MLive reports.
Nearly half of elected legislators in both the House and Senate won election after raising no more than 10% of their money from the constituents they sought to represent.
PACs represented a majority of the fundraising for 33 campaigns of the 38 elected senators, and for 66 representatives in the 110-member House.
Dark Money Group Linked to Leonard Leo Is Dissolved
“A dark money group tied to conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo was dissolved three days after Politico inquired about whether it helped to facilitate the multi-million-dollar sale of former White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway’s polling company,” Politico reports.
Online Fundraising Tactics Turn Off Voters
Politico: “Doubling down on mass emails and texts is still a way to raise significant cash, and federal candidates and committees raised a combined $3.3 billion on ActBlue and WinRed, the parties’ primary online fundraising platforms, during the 2022 cycle.”
“But people who work in the field are growing concerned that fundraising appeals are crowding out newsletters, volunteer efforts and other forms of communication amid the insatiable and never-ending hunt for cash.”
Santos Struck Curious Business Deal with GOP Operative
Mother Jones: “As multiple investigations—federal, state, and local—envelope Santos and local Republicans demand he resign, one person who might be able to provide answers about his puzzling money trail is a veteran GOP operative named Nancy Marks, who was the the treasurer of Santos’ two congressional campaigns.”
“Not only was she a key part of his political machine—and deeply tied into Republican politics locally and nationally—she was a business partner of Santos. Her story, which has yet to draw much public examination, is an important component of the Santos tale.”
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- …
- 35
- Next Page »