FTM follow Money $
3 22 new subcat of research tools:
merri ok
---
2 24 open secrets DB
---
11 26
Industry contributions
$506.7 million
from tracked cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence industry companies and individualsⓘ
PAC funds on hand
$386.9 million
held by crypto- and AI-focused committees
PAC spending
$249.6 million
spent directly on federal elections this cycle
These three figures aren’t additive — they show the same money at three different stages, as it flows from donors to PACs to elections. » Follow the money flow
...
Top races influenced by crypto and AI industry super PAC money
| Candidate | State | Office | Support | Oppose | Direct contributionsⓘ | Goal achieved?ⓘ | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jon Husted (R, incumbent) | OH | Senate (2026 special) | $40,017,244 | $115,000 | $188,000 | Defeated in the general election | |
| Alex Bores (D) | NY | House District 12 | $19,218,316 | $8,155,897 | $550,912 | Defeated in the Democratic primary | |
| Sherrod Brown (D) | OH | Senate (2026 special) | — | $24,032,487 | $58,000 | Won the general election | |
| Dan Osborn (I) | NE | Senate | — | $13,476,276 | $6,176 | Defeated in the general election | |
| Barry Moore (R) | AL | Senate | $12,883,185 | — | $38,600 | Won the general election |
» All races with crypto and AI industry spending
-=-=
follow the $ tool?
https://dashboard.advancedemocracy.org/main/#section-primer
Tracking Political Donations in the Complex U.S. Campaign Finance System
The United States Federal Election Commission (FEC) refers to all entities whose primary purpose is collecting, distributing, or spending money in U.S. federal elections as committees. There are different types of committees, including Candidate Committees, Party Committees, and Political Action Committees (PACs).
After an individual or entity donates to a committee, that committee can spend the money on campaign activities like advertising, or spend the money on non-campaign expenses, including transferring the funds to other committees. Tracking these “committee-to-committee transfers” is key to understanding the U.S. campaign finance system, as donations given to a specific committee may ultimately be transferred and spent by other committees.
ADI’s Accountability Dashboard lets users trace transfers of money from one committee to another committee in U.S. politics.
Tracking political donations from committee to committee using public FEC records can be an arduous process. ADI’s Accountability Dashboard seeks to make it easier for individuals, journalists, and policy makers to identify and analyze these transfers.
Entities whose “major purpose”1 is influencing federal elections are required to register as committees with the FEC and report how they raise, spend, and transfer money. A significant amount of committee activity involves transfers. For example, in the 2020 election cycle, there were approximately 13,500 committees registered with the FEC. These committees reported 1.5 million transfers, totaling over $4 billion.2
Please see the Primer tab for details on how to use and interpret the data produced by this dashboard.
---
---
SEE ALSO DOCUMENTED
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/10/25/exxon-faces-consequences-climate-denial
ExxonMobil, the $78 billion fossil fuel giant, has been lying to its shareholders about the threats of climate change, according to New York Attorney General, Barbara Underwood, following a multi-year investigation.
The New York state lawsuit, filed Wednesday, accuses Exxon of a “longstanding fraudulent scheme” to mislead investors on “the company’s management of the risks posed to its business by climate change regulation,” according to The New York Times. Citing messaging to the public that was inconsistent with internal practices, Underwood brought the lawsuit under the Martin Act, which empowers her to investigate and prosecute securities fraud.
The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has reported on Exxon’s illegal and unethical efforts to undermine climate science and hide the global impact of its operations for years.
In 2016, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) and Common Cause complained to the IRS that Exxon was running an illegal scheme to use the American Legislative Exchange Commission (ALEC) to promote its climate denial policies and legislative agenda “in gross violation of ALEC’s 501(c)(3) charitable status.”
The Industry Plan to Sow Doubt over Climate Science
Evidence presented in the joint CMD/Common Cause IRS filing showed that Exxon had pumped more that $1.7 million into ALEC between 1998 and 2014 to finance lobbying activities that cast doubt on climate science and promoted public policies benefiting the corporation.
The Exxon/ALEC scheme arose from a 1998 “Global Climate Science Communications Action Plan,” authored by the American Petroleum Institute (API). The stated mission of the API plan was to “inform the American public that science does not support the precipitous actions Kyoto [International Climate Treaty] would dictate, thereby providing a climate for theright policy decisions to be made.” [emphasis added]
Exxon was listed as a source of funding for the plan, while ALEC was listed as a “potential fund allocator.” Public records show that Exxon’s funding of ALEC subsequently increased.
Exxon’s more recent efforts to rehabilitate its public image around climate change led the oil giant to split with ALEC in July 2018, reportedly over ALEC’s opposition to the EPA’s findings on greenhouse gases.
Collusion Between Republican AGs and Industry Lobbyists
In 2016, CMD exposed secret, closed-door meetings between state attorneys general and fossil fuel interests to coordinate push-back against New York’s investigation of Exxon. [LA JOLLA SUMMIT?]
CMD published an audio recording of a meeting where representatives of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) — organizations historically funded in part by Exxon — discussed strategies with Republican attorneys general.
The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) facilitated the private sessions, a premium service that the pay-to-play organization provides to corporations that pay RAGA up to $125,000 per year.
“These documents reveal a serious conflict of interest: RAGA is facilitating secret meetings between the profit-motivated fossil fuel industry and attorneys general to engineer pushback on investigations of ExxonMobil — and then raising money from oil and gas companies to keep those same Republican attorneys general in office,” saidNick Surgey, CMD’s Research Directorat the time.
History of Misinformation Campaigns
---
https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2022/03/21/the-dirty-dozen-the-biggest-nonprofit-funders-of-climate-denial/
....
All nonprofits identified by CMD that gave $10,000 or more to the top climate misinformation groups from 2014–20 are listed in the table below.
:{:{}:
}:
tABLE 2
Top Nonprofit Climate Denial Funders, 2014-20
Numerous charities, private foundations, and trade associations have bankrolled the climate misinformation movement.
Page 1 of 4
Table with 9 columns and 53 rows. Currently displaying rows 1 to 15.
Donor 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 TOTAL
1 DonorsTrust/Donors Capital Fund $3,293,850 $3,816,850 $3,676,750 $2,422,000 $3,830,200 $2,101,732 $1,416,500 20,557,882
2 Searle Freedom Trust $839,500 $589,500 $1,140,000 $940,000 $1,096,000 $754,000 $985,000 6,344,000
3 Sarah Scaife Foundation $350,000 $610,000 $842,000 $875,000 $960,000 $715,000 $1,245,000 5,597,000
4 Mercer Family Foundation $885,000 $100,000 $1,075,000 $970,000 3,030,000
5 Dunn Foundation $1,200,000 $250,000 $325,000 $200,000 $350,000 $350,000 $350,000 3,025,000
6 Bradley Foundations $344,376 $318,876 $458,500 $519,000 $280,000 $475,000 $110,000 2,505,752
7 American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers $365,000 $275,000 $470,000 $400,000 1,510,000
8 Koch Foundations $100,128 $431,891 $333,028 $413,016 $84,000 $99,049 $18,749 1,479,861
9 Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program $38,500 $228,500 $265,000 $230,000 $235,000 997,000
10 Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund $35,525 $21,350 $27,867 $241,355 $212,310 $231,055 $201,952 971,414
11 National Philanthropic Trust $150,000 $175,000 $175,500 $176,000 $200,000 876,500
12 Bartley J. Madden Foundation $45,000 $270,000 $270,000 $250,000 $30,000 865,000
13 Thomas W. Smith Foundation $150,000 $175,000 $200,000 $200,000 725,000
14 The 85 Fund $700,000 700,000
15 Ed Uihlein Family Foundation $10,500 $129,000 $35,000 $115,000 $115,000 $140,000...
----
---
FTM$
The favorite DAF sponsor of the Right is DonorsTrust. Used heavily by Charles Koch,Robert Mercer, and Adolph Coors, it pours money into a network of right-wing charities and social welfare nonprofits. DonorsTrust gave more than $8.4 million to Project Veritas from 2014-18, or nearly one-third of the group’s contribution revenue. DonorsTrust’s yearly contribution rose from $607,000 in 2014 to a high of $2.4 million in 2017. Several members and staff of DonorsTrust have close ties to Koch-backed operations. The related Donors Capital Fund gave $20,000 to Project Veritas from 2014-15.
Project Veritas has a 501(c)(4) political arm, Project Veritas Action Fund, to which the billionaire, Trump-supporting Mercer family has steered funds. In 2018, a nonprofit called Making America Great, chaired by Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of former Renaissance Technologies co-CEO and Breitbart News funder Robert Mercer, donated $750,000 to the action fund. The Mercer Family Foundation has not donated directly to Project Veritas in recent years, but it’s possible it has used DonorsTrust to do so. From 2014-18, the foundation gave $10.9 million to DonorsTrust, including nearly $8.2 million in 2018, a big increase from previous years. By shifting more of its charitable dollars through DonorsTrust, the family is effectively hiding its donations from the public. In 2012, Robert Mercer donated $25,000 to Project Veritas through his LLC Gravitas Maximus.
---
---