“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.
Emails Reveal Herschel Walker Money Scandal
“When Herschel Walker emailed a representative for billionaire industrialist and longtime family friend Dennis Washington in March 2022, he seemed to be engaging in normal behavior for a political candidate: He was asking for money,” the Daily Beast reports.
“But unbeknownst to Washington and the billionaire’s staff, Walker’s request was far more out of the ordinary. It was something campaign finance experts are calling ‘unprecedented,’ ‘stunning,’ and ‘jaw-dropping.’ Walker wasn’t just asking for donations to his campaign; he was soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars for his own personal company—a company that he never disclosed on his financial statements.”
Small Donors Have Made Democracy Worse
David Byler: “Small-dollar donors were supposed to save democracy. Reformers had hoped that grass-roots political fundraising — connected by the internet and united against corruption — would become a formidable force to counter the money that wealthy individuals funnel to candidates.”
“Only half of that would become true. Small-dollar donors are indeed powerful today — but they have made politics worse, not better.”
“This has manifested in different ways depending on the party. For Republicans, small-dollar donors have bankrolled bomb-throwers who treat Congress like the Thunderdome. For Democrats, they have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on ridiculous, fantasy-driven campaigns. And even when they flood a race with cash, they do little to lessen the influence of big donors.”
How DeSantis Could Unlock $86 Million for 2024 Bid
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to jump into the Republican presidential primary in the coming months with an $86 million pot of donor money—and a legally questionable strategy for using it,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The cash, currently sitting in a Florida political committee fund, would need to take a circuitous path to help him: It is illegal to use money raised for a state election to run for federal office, meaning Mr. DeSantis can’t simply transfer it into a presidential campaign account.”
“Instead, Mr. DeSantis’s allies plan to give the funds to a new super PAC led by some of his closest friends.”
Top Republicans Balk at WinRed’s Plan to Charge More
“A battle over a threatened price increase has exposed growing tensions between top Republican Party officials and the company with a virtual monopoly on processing Republican campaign contributions online,” the New York Times reports.
“Party leaders have risen up in opposition to the proposed price increase, which would siphon millions of dollars from GOP campaigns less than 20 months after the company, WinRed, had said its finances were robust enough to forego an extra fee on every transaction.”
“Democrats process most online donations through ActBlue, which, unlike WinRed, is an independent nonprofit.”
DeSantis Super PAC Acts Like Shadow Campaign
Washington Post: “Activists at 27 universities will soon begin meeting twice a month to organize their peers under the banner of Students for DeSantis. Office space supporting the Florida governor’s presidential ambitions will open in each of the early-voting states. And names have already been gathered by clipboard in Iowa to launch a door-knocking army.”
“But none of these efforts will be a part of the as-yet-unannounced DeSantis campaign. Rather they are being funded and organized by Never Back Down, a technically independent super PAC that unlike federal candidates can accept donations of any value from wealthy individuals and corporations.”
“The arrangement marks a new frontier in the rapidly shifting campaign finance landscape that governs presidential efforts, as outside groups allied with candidates behave more and more like traditional campaigns.”
Small Donors Abandon Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin
“Small donors have largely abandoned Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin as they have strayed from the Democratic Party, although they are attracting larger donors with ties to a centrist organization,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Ms. Sinema of Arizona and Mr. Manchin of West Virginia each raised less than 1% of their campaign money between Jan. 1 and March 31 from donors who gave $200 or less. Those are among the lowest percentages in the Senate—and well below their previous grassroots fundraising levels, Federal Election Commission filings show.”
George Santos’ Mysterious Campaign Loans
Daily Beast: “Rep. George Santos (R-NY) announced Monday that he would, counter to previously reported promises, run for another term in Congress. But it’s his latest campaign finance report—filed just a few days earlier—that’s truly mystifying watchdogs, as Santos made yet another seemingly inexplicable change to a central question about his finances: How, and now when, did he loan his campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars?”
“The latest filing changed four things about the more than $700,000 in questionable loans that Santos made to his 2022 campaign: the dates he made them, the dates they came due, the amounts of the individual loans, and the total amount.”
Nikki Haley Inflated Her Fundraising Totals
“Earlier this month, Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign touted an impressive number: A news release said the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador had raised more than $11 million in the six weeks since launching her campaign for the GOP nomination,” the Washington Post reports.
“But filings on Saturday with the Federal Election Commission show that her campaign drastically overstated its haul. The campaign appears to have double-counted money it moved among various committees.”
Trump Ignores Deadline for Financial Disclosure
“Former President Donald Trump has a minor addition to his mounting pile of legal challenges after he failed to meet the deadline to disclose his personal financial holdings,” the New York Times reports.
“But the threatened initial penalty — a meager $200 — is the latest sign of how weak federal enforcement of campaign laws has become.”
Peter Thiel’s Secretive Spending
Important Context: “The Thiel Foundation, the nonprofit charity of billionaire and right-wing megadonor Peter Thiel, gave millions of dollars in 2021 to a secretive donor-advised fund that has funneled money into groups that spread Covid denial as well as hate groups, federal tax records reveal.”
Prosecutors Want Sam Bankman-Fried Donations Returned
Federal prosecutors are demanding that lawmakers disgorge political donations from indicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his employees, Semafor reports.
Trump Argues Hush Money Payments Weren’t for Campaign
“Donald Trump’s legal team recently urged the Manhattan district attorney’s office not to indict the former president over his role in paying hush money to a porn star, arguing that the payments would have been made irrespective of his 2016 presidential candidacy,” The Guardian reports.
“The lawyer who represented the Trump team at the meeting with the district attorney’s office, Susan Necheles, also argued that campaign funds had not been used for the payments to the porn star, known as Stormy Daniels, and were therefore not a violation of campaign finance laws.”
Ex-GOP Candidate Enters Guilty Plea
Lynda Bennett (R), who ran for Congress last year in North Carolina, pleaded guilty to a federal campaign finance violation related to a loan from a family member that prosecutors said was falsely portrayed in campaign reports as originating from her own personal funds, the AP reports.
Feds Looking Into Trump’s ‘Recount’ Campaign
Daily Beast: “When the Federal Elections Commission rejected a recent Freedom of Information Act request related to Donald Trump’s ‘recount’ expenses after the 2020 election, the campaign watchdog had a conspicuous reason for turning down the petition: Trump’s political spending after he left the White House is currently the subject of an FEC enforcement matter.”
The ‘Apolitical’ Heiress Who Isn’t
The New York Times published lengthy profile of billionaire heiress Elizabeth Koch who described herself as “apolitical,” a claim that the reporter apparently didn’t challenge.
However, Koch has donated tens of thousands to Republican politicians and the Koch Industries PAC.
PAC Money Fell Slightly for Electoral Count Objectors
“Donations from corporate and trade association PACs declined in the 2022 cycle by 10 percent to Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 election for President Joe Biden,” Roll Call reports.
Sam Bankman-Fried Charged with 300 Illegal Donations
“Embattled cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried directed tens of millions of dollars of illegal campaign contributions to elected officials, prosecutors alleged in a new superseding indictment unsealed Thursday in a Manhattan federal court,” NBC News reports.
“Bankman-Fried became one of the biggest Democratic donors in the country during last year’s midterm elections, with a net worth estimated at one point to be greater than $20 billion and dreams of spending up to $1 billion on the 2024 presidential contest.”
“But Bankman-Fried’s political giving was not all it seemed… The indictment accuses Bankman-Fried of directing at least 300 illegal campaign donations, totaling up to $100 million, to both Democrats and Republicans through two other unnamed FTX executives that acted as ‘straw donors‘ to hide the true source of the funds.”
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