SuperPac 2

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see main for older

(also tag? new one 6 25 SuperPak)

NO MERRI

Trump’s MAGA Inc. SuperPAC Donor List is Littered with Corporate and Billionaire Influence Buyers

WASHINGTON D.C. — President Trump’s MAGA Inc. SuperPAC received $1 million or more from 58 donors since January, according to the SuperPAC’s most recent campaign finance disclosure filed last week.

The million-dollar donor list includes numerous corporate and billionaire donors with interests in influencing the Trump administration, including two crypto companies that were facing SEC investigations that have since been dropped and a seller of “skin substitute” products that benefited from the delay of a Biden-era Medicare rule to limit spending on their products.

“The real question this mega-donor list raises is not ‘how much,’ but ‘who from?’” said Jon Golinger, democracy advocate for Public Citizen. “By taking contributions from wealthy individuals and industries who want something from government, Trump’s SuperPAC has used pay-to-play to raise big money from special interests like a legalized shakedown.”

Public Citizen analyzed the new MAGA Inc. SuperPAC filing with the Federal Election Commission, covering the period of January 1 – June 30, 2025, and found the following:

Corporations gave $73.2 million

Billionaires gave $49.2 million

Cryptocurrency corporations, executives, and investors gave $41.7 million

Fossil fuel corporations and executives gave $26.8 million

Healthcare corporations and executives gave $12 million

Donations of $1 million or more from corporations and billionaires included:

$25 million (combined) from Energy Transfer LP and CEO Kelcy Warren. Energy Transfer is suing the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, asking a judge to declare the agency’s in-house enforcement system unconstitutional.

$16 million from Jeff Yass, a billionaire who owns a stake in TikTok’s parent company. TikTok is facing a Department of Justice lawsuit alleging violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

$10 million in February 2025 from Foris Dax, Inc., which operates Crypto.com. Crypto.com was under investigation by the SEC over allegations of allegedly trading unregistered securities. The SEC investigation was reportedly dropped in March 2025.

$5 million from the “skin substitute” company Extremity Care. In April 2025, the Trump Administration postponed implementation of a Biden-era rule that would limit Medicare spending on skin substitute products.

$1 million (combined) in January 2025 from Gemini Trust Company (DBA Gemini) co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. At that time, Gemini was under investigation by the SEC for allegedly trading unregistered securities. The SEC investigation was reportedly dropped in February 2025.

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an 12 25

Politico reports a group of Trump-aligned super PACs are working to oust Indiana Republicans who have opposed flagrant mid-decade redistricting giving Republicans a boost in preserving their House majority.

Andrew Kolvet, spokesperson for Turning Point, told POLITICO that the group would partner with other aligned PACs to dedicate an “eight-figure spend” to “primary people that are standing in the way of the president’s agenda.”

“We look at Indiana as a test case and a cautionary tale, potentially one or the other, it’s their choice,” said Kolvet. “This is a super high priority, and we’re going to be working with the local, grassroots to make sure their voices heard and their priorities are not steamrolled by an out-of-touch elected class.”

Politico reports Indiana state House Republicans released a draft congressional map earlier this week that would flip the state's congressional map from a Republican advantage of 7-to-2 to 9-to-0. But the effort has faced resistance from some of the state’s Republicans, including Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, who remains opposed to the plan.

Other opposition comes from state senator Michael Bohacek (R), who announced he would not be supporting Trump's mid-decade redistricting plan after he called Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) a slur. The Republican lawmaker said on his official Facebook page that as a parent of a child with Down Syndrome, he couldn't endorse Trump's plan due to his use of the word.

Despite Republicans having a 40-10 supermajority in the chamber, it has repeatedly rejected Trump’s calls — including by recent vote to adjourn. Around the same time that was happening in mid-November.

Some Indiana Republicans are already getting threats of violence from MAGA elements angered that they are opposing the power grab, with nearly a dozen state lawmakers reporting that they have been the victims of SWAT or doxing attempts.

Read the Politico report at this link.

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an 11 25

A new report in *The Atlantic* shows that despite President Donald Trump's campaign having ended a year ago, he has not stopped fundraising — and is now sitting on a $2 billion windfall.

"I want you to keep going," Trump told his top fundraiser Meredith O'Rourke the morning after he won his second term, The Atlantic reports.

Trump's second inaugural committee raised $241 million, "about $90 million more than organizers needed to fund the events — and nearly four times as much as Joe Biden had raised for his own inauguration, in 2021. But that was just the beginning," write Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker.

Trump, they write, wanted money for "political operations that many politicians support," but he also wanted it for "technically apolitical causes."

Among those causes, they write, include those that "offered corporations and wealthy individuals a chance to make tax-deductible contributions, including a dramatic White House renovation, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (now under his control), his presidential library and a celebratory Army parade on his birthday."

"By August, Trump estimated that he had collected at least $1.5 billion since the election, more than all the money raised to support his 2024 campaign over two years, including funds raised by supportive independent super PACs," they report.

That amount is now near $2 billion, according to two people who spoke with the authors anonymously.

"Trump has kept careful track of the money coming in, regularly calling O’Rourke late at night for updates," according to the report. "He monitors who is giving, who is not, and the role of lobbyists who bundle donations, those familiar with his efforts told us."

"At times, the actual donation amount is less important to the president than the percentage of the donor’s overall assets. He thanks the most generous benefactors at swanky events at the White House and his clubs," they add.

"Trump and his aides cast donations to his political groups or priorities as acts of patriotism," they write.

Much of this windfall comes from companies or people who have business with the government, they report, including defense contractors, crypto investors and tech companies.

"A select group of companies and executives — Amazon, Lockheed Martin, Coinbase, Palantir CEO Alex Karp — are top donors to multiple Trump projects," they note.

None of this, they say, is normal, and "nothing on this scale was ever attempted by a sitting president prior to Trump."

"And he’s just getting started. He hasn’t stopped,” a third anonymous source tells them, “and I don’t anticipate that we will stop.”

Trump's "relentless fundraising" has alarmed ethics watchdogs, they write, despite Trump advisors saying his donations are merely from those who "support his political agenda."

Media and technology companies that Trump has sued, they report, "have collectively made $85 million in payments to some of his pet projects in order to settle the lawsuits," including Paramount and the parent company of YouTube.

“There are people being asked to do 10-to-25-million-dollar checks for the ballroom, for the inauguration, for the presidential library,” another person familiar with the requests tells The Atlantic. “That spigot is never going to close, ever. This is just the cost of doing business. They will write a multimillion-dollar check to avoid the $2 billion lawsuit. It’s a business decision.”

Trump continues to raise money for his library, and for the midterm elections in 2026, they say, but he is also collecting "funds for a dark-money group, Securing American Greatness," they write.

Trevor Potter, a former Republican chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, tells The Atlantic in a statement, "While it is not unusual for lame duck presidents to fundraise for their Libraries, what we are seeing from President Trump in his first year of office is shockingly unprecedented."

“The president’s seemingly insatiable drive for money from corporations and billionaires seeking government favors (or merely hoping to procure protection from Trump attacks on their business interests) sends a clear signal to everyday Americans that their needs come far behind those of the ultrawealthy who are buying access and favor," Potter adds.

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2024

candidate?id=N00023864

BAR GRAF

Campaign Committee	Outside Groups	Combined	Combined
Total Raised	$463,662,725	$988,954,718	$1,452,617,443
Total Spent	$448,966,052	$1,021,577,998	$1,470,544,050
Cash on Hand	$9,872,696	$59,814,147	$69,686,843
Debts	$6,679,437	-	-
Date of Report	November 25, 2024	February 06, 2025

Large Contributions	$321,528,118	69.38%
Small Individual Contributions (< $200)	$133,553,173	28.81%
Other	$8,362,996	1.80%
Candidate self-financing	$0	0.00%
Federal Funds	$0	0.00%

Larry Lessig vs. Dark Money | How To Fix It with John Avlon - YouTube ]//

latest-filings-campaign-finance-court-battle-argue-maine-has-legal-right-regulate-super

10 25 me morn star

The next piece of the puzzle for the group hoping to get the U.S. Supreme Court to establish greater regulations on money in elections was laid on Wednesday.

Two appeals were filed in the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston after a federal district court in July ruled that a 2024 Maine law overwhelmingly passed by voters was unconstitutional. The law placed limits on contributions to political action committees that independently spend money to try to support or defeat candidates, commonly referred to as super PACs.

One of the briefs is from Attorney General Aaron Frey on behalf of the state of Maine. The other is from the committee behind the referendum and the non-profit Equal Citizens, spearheaded by legal scholar Lawrence Lessig, who has been attempting to bring this issue to the high court for years.

Both make the case that the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission actually allows for super PACs to be regulated.

The brief from the interveners incorporates a second originalism argument, which is notable since the party that instigated the lawsuit is made up of conservative political action committees.

Charles Miller of the Institute for Free Speech and Joshua Dunlap of Pierce Atwood (now nominee for the First Circuit) filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Maine in 2024 on behalf of Dinner Table Action, which was founded by state Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) and activist Alex Titcomb, and For Our Future, which is run by Titcomb. They argue that the law restricts free speech.

These dueling arguments have been known, but in an interview ahead of the filing Wednesday Lessig told Maine Morning Star that the intervener’s brief also argues that a component of the recent district court opinion rejects the reasoning that served as the foundation for super PACs in the first place, aiding their case.

After reviewing the filing on Wednesday, Miller said he doesn’t think that’s novel. He’ll be issuing his full rebuttal on behalf of the plaintiffs next month.

Before then, friend of the court briefs are expected next week and could add additional layers to the argument.

After oral arguments in early 2026, a ruling could come before the summer.

If the court decides in favor of the law, the issue could be in the Supreme Court by the fall of 2026. If the First Circuit rules otherwise, the path to the high court would become more difficult.

How the district court opinion plays in

Since Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, the Supreme Court has allowed contributions to be regulated when there is a risk of “quid pro quo” corruption, essentially a favor for a favor. In the case of elections, if there is a risk someone could be making a donation to a candidate in exchange for a favor, then Congress can regulate that contribution. In 2010, the Supreme Court extended this reasoning to corporations and unions in Citizens United,ruling that those entities can otherwise spend unlimited amounts of money on elections because they have free speech rights under the First Amendment.

Three months later, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in SpeechNow.org v. FEC that contributions to PACs cannot be regulated either, as long as the PAC is “independent” of the campaign.

The state of Maine and interveners argue SpeechNow misinterpreted Citizens United.

The ruling was never reviewed by the Supreme Court, though other lower federal and state courts agreed. In each one of those cases, the courts ruled that contributions to independent political action committees created no risk of “quid pro quo” corruption, so they couldn’t be regulated.

But in U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Frink Wolf’s opinion in the district court in July, she essentially conceded that there is a risk of corruption. “Contributions to independent expenditure PACs can serve as the quid in a quid pro quo arrangement,” she wrote.

Lessig said that finding makes it “the most extreme opinion of any federal court in the history of this jurisprudence.”

However, Frink Wolf went on to write, “I am not persuaded that the Defendants’ arguments on this point can be squared with Citizens United.”

That’s where she and those backing Maine’s law diverge.

“The district court further erred by adopting the reasoning of out-of-jurisdiction decisions striking down similar contribution limits,” the brief filed by Frey reads. “Those cases did not bind the district court, just as they do not bind this Court.”

Maine sued over new campaign finance law, but that was supporters’ plan all along

What the state of Maine and the interveners are seeking is not to change the limits on expenditures in Citizens United. They think the question the Maine referendum raises — whether contributions to a committee that makes independent expenditures can be limited — is not answered in Citizens United.

“Nothing in Citizens United or in any subsequent Supreme Court case disturbs the longstanding precedent securing to the people the power to prevent quid pro quo corruption or its appearance by limiting the size of contributions,” the brief filed by the interveners reads.

Under the logic of Citizens United, independent expenditures are uncoordinated and create no risk of quid pro quo corruption, but donations to a committee that makes independent expenditures may or may not be coordinated. Therefore, they argue, they create the risk of quid pro quo corruption and can be regulated by Congress.

Further, Frey’s brief adds that “the district court should have recognized that the changed campaign landscape in Maine and the United States unleashed by SpeechNow supports Maine’s important interest in imposing modest limits.”

Republican-turned-independent state Sen. Rick Bennett, who is running for governor in 2026 and was on the ballot question committee, told Maine Morning Star, that the case in Maine “gives the courts a chance to correct a 15-year mistake, return power to the people, and begin restoring trust in our democracy.”

The state of Maine is giving the Supreme Court a gift. You're saying to John Roberts, here's a case where you could decide this case and the whole country will say, ‘Huzzah.’

– Lawrence Lessig

Another member of the ballot committee, Cara McCormick, said in defending Maine’s new law, “we go to court not in anger but in faith that our democracy will listen to its people and grow even stronger through them.”

Miller, the plaintiff’s lead counsel, disagrees with their interpretation.

“They’re trying to focus on the fact that, theoretically, a candidate could solicit a donation for independent expenditure, but the law doesn’t target that,” Miller said. “It targets any contribution for independent expenditure.”

As an example, Miller said someone could corrupt a politican by giving money to his daughter, “but there’s no reporting requirements on donations to daughters of senators.” In that regard, he added, “there are lots of things that can be corrupted, a donation to a presidential library arguably can be corrupted.”

An originalism argument

The overarching point the interveners are making is that the original meaning of the First Amendment would not have blocked state legislatures or the people from limiting the size of contributions to political action committees.

“The Supreme Court has never considered the question of what the original meaning of the First Amendment means in the context of campaign finance jurisprudence,” Lessig said.

The originalist argument they’re making is typically a conservative one, so Lessig believes it would fare well with the current conservative-leaning Supreme Court. He also believes that’s why the plaintiffs want to prevent that argument from advancing beyond the First Circuit.

“That’s what gave us the new Second Amendment, that’s what overturned Roe versus Wade — it’s originalism,” Lessig said. “But here, it goes against their politics.”

Last week, the plaintiffs filed a motion to dismiss the group’s appeal.

Ultimately, Lessig views the issue of regulating super PACs as a nonpartisan one. Both Republicans and Democrats benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars from super PAC spending last election, Democrats more so than Republicans.

“The state of Maine is giving the Supreme Court a gift,” Lessig said. “You’re saying to John Roberts, here’s a case where you could decide this case and the whole country will say, ‘Huzzah.’”

October 23, 202511:39 amThis story has been updated to include a statement from Cara McCormick and details of the Attorney General's brief.

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ggl 7 25

[### Crypto industry amasses colossal war chest for elections

Politico

https://www.politico.com › news › 2025/07/15 › crypto...](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/15/crypto-super-pacs-war-chest-key-house-votes-00452356)

1 day ago — Since the 2024 campaign ended, crypto firms have doubled down: The PAC network has raised $109 million since Election Day. The latest ...

A super PAC group funded by cryptocurrency companies will enter the upcoming midterm elections with more than $140 million in the bank, according to new fundraising data shared first with POLITICO — a mammoth sum that now looms large over an effort to pass industry-friendly legislation in the House this week.

The group, known as Fairshake, raised $52 million in the first half of 2025, piling onto an already huge sum of crypto campaign cash that could be wielded against lawmakers who oppose the industry’s Capitol Hill agenda — and boost the political fortunes of those who support it.

The PAC network’s fundraising highlights how top crypto firms are plowing ahead with a lobbying strategy that overtly uses political spending to get their way from Congress. The group includes three affiliated super PACs — Fairshake, Protect Progress and Defend American Jobs — that collectively spent $135 million supporting industry allies and taking down crypto critics in Congressional races across the country last year.

Spending by the group in the 2024 campaigns helped take down key roadblocks to the industry’s policy agenda, including former Senate Banking Chair Sherrod Brown, who lost his Ohio re-election campaign to Republican Bernie Moreno — a crypto enthusiast who benefited from more than $40 million of crypto PAC spending. The PACs also boosted industry supporters in dozens of other House and Senate races across the country, including the California Democratic Senate primary and hotly-contested House races in Alabama, Arizona and Virginia.

Since the 2024 campaign ended, crypto firms have doubled down: The PAC network has raised $109 million since Election Day. The latest fundraising haul comes as the House is preparing to take up landmark crypto legislation this week that would help legitimize digital assets as mainstream financial products and craft bespoke new rules governing the sector.

“Fairshake is stronger than ever as we remain focused on our mission of building lasting support for crypto and blockchain innovation,” said Josh Vlasto, spokesperson for the PAC group. “We are building an aggressive, targeted strategy for next year to ensure that pro-crypto voices are heard in key races across the country.”

The PAC is primarily funded by three companies: the venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, which invests heavily in digital asset startups, and the crypto firms Coinbase and Ripple.

Fairshake’s latest fundraising haul includes $25 million donated by Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, along with previously announced contributions from Ripple Labs, Uniswap Labs, and the crypto entrepreneur Robert Leshner.

Coinbase’s chief policy officer, Faryar Shirzad, said in a statement that “crypto is already woven into America’s financial fabric,” and the company is “committed to fighting for the consumer protections and financial empowerment” that digital asset owners “deserve.”

The top Washington priority for the group’s top donors is a GOP-led crypto market structure bill expected to go to the House floor on Wednesday that seeks to create a first-ever crypto regulatory regime by divvying up oversight of digital assets between securities and commodities regulators.

Republicans leading the push for that bill are seeking to win over as many Democrats as they can ahead of the floor vote in order to show that the measure has political viability in the Senate, where bipartisan support is needed to clear a 60-vote threshold. A similar GOP-led proposal passed the House with 71 Democratic votes last year — as Fairshake was beginning to ramp up for the 2024 campaign — but concerns over the Trump family’s business entanglements in crypto may make matching that figure difficult this week.

Some Democrats are considering voting against the sweeping market structure measure but supporting a second, narrower crypto bill affecting so-called stablecoins that the House is expected to send to President Donald Trump’s desk on Thursday.

The crypto super PACs, though, have signaled that the vote breakdown on the broader bill, led by House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.), will be their primary consideration as they weigh how to deploy their 2026 haul. The group spent more than $30 million benefiting House Democrats during the last campaign.

A non-profit dark money group that is affiliated with the Fairshake PACs called the Cedar Innovation Foundation said in a statement Monday that Hill’s so-called CLARITY Act is “the most important vote members will take this Congress.”

// Trump Border Czar Tom Homan: ‘There Will Be No Amnesty’ | The Conversation

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4 25 email}:

Representative Summer Lee has introduced landmark legislation that would place a $5,000 per calendar year limit on contributions to super PACs in federal elections, effectively abolishing them. We worked closely with Representative Lee’s office in drafting this legislation. By passing it, we bring ourselves one step closer to a democracy of, by, and for the people.

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11 24 brian email

This election cycle, our democracy has been staggered by blow after blow. We cannot pretend otherwise; to do so would be to accept that this hamstrung system is the one with which we must live. It is not and we do not accept that it is. We will keep fighting for our democracy.

So we face the facts. We know Donald Trump, twice impeached and responsible for inciting an insurrection when he lost the 2020 election, was declared the President-Elect following the 2024 election. We know that he is disqualified to hold this office under the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause of the U.S. Constitution, but was permitted to remain on the ballot because of a corrupt and broken Supreme Court. We know that he infused his campaign with violent, racist rhetoric that to at least some of his supporters is a feature, not a bug.

We know that Trump and Harris raised a combined $2.7 billion, with more than $1 billion coming from super PACs and other sources outside of their official campaigns. We know that for all federal elections, outside expenditures exceeded $4.5 billion, shattering previous records set in 2020. We also know that the majority of that spending came from super PACs.

We know that, in the shadow of Trump’s repeated threats against a free press, billionaire-owned newspapers refused to endorse a candidate over the opposition of staff. We know that social media platforms are flooded with disinformation and that our access to the words of others—whether they be friends, journalists, or anyone else—is subject to the whims of algorithms designed to maximize profit over truth.

We know that Trump—currently facing multiple federal criminal charges for interfering with the 2020 election and stealing classified documents—is unlikely to be prosecuted while he holds office, and that the Supreme Court has granted him immunity for crimes arising from his “official acts.” We know that he was in violation of the emoluments clause when he took office in 2017 and is poised to remain in violation of the emoluments clause when he takes office again in 2025.

We know that our judicial branch is mired in corruption and partisan scandals that have been uncovered not by official investigation but by journalists—all without consequence. We know that the Supreme Court and lower courts across the country continue to render decisions that erode voting rights and anti-corruption laws.

Big money in politics does not and cannot coexist with political equality. Free speech should not be a zero-sum game. But in the hands of oligarchs and the politicians and judges who rely on them, that is what it has become. Where money has been given the status of speech and corporations the status of people, where our mechanisms of sharing speech and knowledge is shaped by profit maximization, then some voices can and do silence others. This is dangerous on its face, and it is particularly dangerous where, as we see now in our country, powerful voices are targeting marginalized and vulnerable communities. They do so in order to foment racist, violent support for their causes, to intimidate those who oppose them, and to make it seem as if silence in the face of oppression is the safest course.

It is not. It may be the safest course for billionaire newspaper owners and profit-maximizing social media companies, but it is not the safest course for the people of this country or for the United States. We know this. We know that our democracy will not be saved by accepting its billionaire/corporate capture as fait accompli. And we know that there are elected officials, judges, grassroots organizers, journalists, lawyers, institutions, and ordinary people all across the nation who remain committed to our democracy—including those voters in Maine who overwhelmingly voted to abolish super PACs in elections in their state.

With this knowledge—the good and the bad—Free Speech For People remains committed to its ongoing fight to protect our democracy and our elections for people and not corporations and to lift up the promise of political equality for all. We will continue to demand accountability from our judges and our elected officials, including the President. We will carry on our work to challenge big money in politics and unchecked corporate power, and we will celebrate every step that moves us closer to an equitable, just, democratic society.

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~ trump 2020

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Mitch McConnell benefits from corporate cash. And corporations benefit from him.

Walker Davis and Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel

April 22, 2021

Perhaps more than any other politician, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has both vigorously defended and benefited from the windfall of large-dollar, often anonymous money flooding elections over the past decade. He has fought in the vanguard of the forces blocking bipartisan reform while helping to raise millions from corporate interests from CEOs, anonymous dark money groups and massive gifts to his allied political committees.

In public, McConnell claims that his advocacy for more money in politics is all about defending free speech, but behind closed doors, he reportedly told other Senators that it is actually about winning elections. Given the massive sums he has helped raise to power both his own campaigns and those of other senators, it is not surprising that he wants to keep the corporate cash flowing — and will use any excuse and any tool at his disposal to do so.

As a legislator, McConnell has championed some of the same industries that have helped him win elections. This mutual dependence means that McConnell needs America’s campaign finance system to stay broken in order for him to hang on to power.

McConnell has welcomed money in politics

Oct 14, 1999

McConnell vocally opposed — and later used the filibuster to block — the bipartisan McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms which would have limited the ability of corporations to spend on politics.

Mar 27, 2002

A more limited version of their reforms known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) is enacted. McConnell sued the Federal Election Commission to limit the power of the law. He lost in the Supreme Court, but it was only a matter of a few years before the Court, under new Chief Justice John Roberts, began striking down the very rules it had upheld in the McConnell case.

Jun 25, 2007

The Supreme Court ruled in FEC v Wisconsin Right to Life decision, which began rolling back BCRA regulations and opening the floodgates for dark money, which exploded from $6 million in the 2006 election cycle to nearly $103 million in 2008. McConnell submitted an amicus brief in support of WRTL.

Jan 21, 2010

McConnell applauded the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which paved the way for corporations to spend massive sums on politics, saying, “For too long, some in this country have been deprived of full participation in the political process. With today’s monumental decision, the Supreme Court took an important step in the direction of restoring the First Amendment rights of these groups.”

Apr 07, 2021

McConnell spoke out against the For the People Act, which aims to cut down on corporate influence in politics and expand voting rights. He has also criticized it in meetings with Senate colleagues.

Multiple avenues for corporate cash

Corporations can’t legally give to candidates’ campaign committees, but their chief executives can, and McConnell is a top recipient of CEO cash. In the 2020 election cycle alone, he raised more than $250,000 from 37 different Fortune 500 CEOs, more than any other candidate in a competitive race.

Not only has McConnell raised a lot of money from corporate executives, but he may be particularly reliant on them because only a small fraction of his donations come from his constituents in Kentucky. In the 2020 cycle, less than eight percent of donations to his campaign came from his home state.

Super PACs and dark money groups are allowed to raise money in unlimited sums from corporations directly. They can raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations and spend the contributions on elections. McConnell is closely aligned with a super PAC called the Senate Leadership Fund that helps elect Republicans to the Senate.

Elected officials aren’t supposed to solicit large donations to super PACs, but there are ways around those rules. McConnell has reportedly helped raise money for the super PAC. Last year, the group’s president, who is a former McConnell aide named Steven Law, said, “There’s no way we would be where we are financially without Leader McConnell’s disciplined and tireless promotion of our efforts to hold the Senate.” McConnell called the group a “huge help.”

The Senate Leadership Fund relies heavily on corporations for its fundraising, taking in millions from corporate interests each cycle. In the 2020 cycle, it received $6.5 million from the National Association of Realtors, $5 million from the American Petroleum Institute, $4.4 million from Chevron, $2.6 million from Reynolds tobacco, $2 million from Koch Industries, and $1.25 million from Pilot gas stations. Chicken processing company Mountaire gave $500,000 last cycle, its first-ever contribution to the group.

The Senate Leadership Fund’s biggest donor of all last cycle was a sister dark money group, also run by Law, called One Nation. One Nation also spends to back Republican control of the Senate. While One Nation does not reveal its donors, CREW and others have identified five-figure, six-figure, and seven-figure contributions from insurance, health care, and oil interests, respectively. A recently-filed disclosure shows the pharmacy company CVS gave One Nation $1.75 million last year. CVS also gave a matching contribution to the group Majority Forward, an analog dark money group to One Nation that helps elect Senate Democrats.

How McConnell has helped big industries, and reaped campaign cash

From early on in the pandemic, McConnell took the position that Congress should give corporations legal protections when their employees got sick on the job. That was good news to the meat processing industry, whose employees were facing pressure to keep coming to work while sick, in spite of rising cases.

McConnell’s advocacy for liability protections coincided with a jump in the meat processing industry’s financial support. In addition to the $500,000 that Mountaire gave to the Senate Leadership Fund, McConnell’s campaign took in more in donations from the meat processing industry last cycle than any other member of Congress, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He’d never topped that list before. The last time he was up for reelection, he wasn’t in the top twenty recipients of the industry’s cash, raising less than a third of the $37,000 they kicked in 2019 and 2020.

McConnell raising money from the meat processing industry while going to bat for them on policy is illustrative of the relationship he’s had as a “special friend” to corporate interests that have also included tobacco, coal, and pharmaceutical manufacturers. McConnell has used his position in the Senate to aggressively advocate for traditional corporate priorities like lower corporate taxes and limited regulations. In turn, he’s been a top beneficiary of corporate political spending.

This all shows that while Mitch McConnell defends money in politics with dubious claims of wanting to protect the First Amendment, his own dependence on corporate money is like nothing the founding fathers could have ever imagined.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Politicians can be accountable to their constituents instead of corporations, and there’s already a bill with the Senate that would be a huge step in that direction. The For the People Act is a significant campaign finance and democracy reform that amplifies the voice of grassroots donors and drags anonymous money out of the dark. If we know anything about Mitch McConnell, it’s that he will try to block the bill using the filibuster, because his political operation depends on limited access to the vote and limitless corporate cash in elections. He can’t be allowed to succeed.

an 8 23

no lnx

Machine gun-maker violates federal election law with illegal super PAC donation

Mark Alesia

and Raw Story

August 13, 2023

An Ohio maker of firearms and warfare weaponry, which says its “notable customers” include the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy, has violated federal election law.

Ohio Ordnance Works of Chadron, Ohio, whose fully automatic machine guns are “currently deployed by U.S. and international forces” and “ready for battle right out of the box,” will pay a $19,000 fine, according to an agreement with the Federal Election Commission.

The company admitted making money from the U.S. government as a contractor and, later, making a $100,000 donation to a right-wing super PAC, said the conciliation agreement with the FEC, a bipartisan regulatory agency.

That’s against federal election law, which bars “contributions to political committees by any person who enters into a contract with the United States or its departments … if payment on such contract is to be made in whole or in part from funds appropriated by Congress.”

ALSO READ: Oops, I did it again: This Democratic congresswoman violated a federal law for a second time

A complaint to the FEC said Ohio Ordnance Works made the donation in 2022 to the Club for Growth Action, which lists as a priority “defeating big-government Democrats in red seats and swing districts and replacing them with pro-growth conservatives.”

Club for Growth Action refunded the $100,000 contribution in May of this year, and the FEC did not penalize thesuper PAC.

As a super PAC, Club for Growth Action may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for and against political candidates, and it frequently does so in support of conservative politicians.During the 2021-2022 election cycle alone, it spent nearly $70 millionto back or attack federal-level candidates, according to nonpartisan research organization OpenSecrets.

Ohio Ordnance Works had argued that while it did have a “master contract” with the Defense Logistics Agency, an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense, it wasn’t a federal contractor because there were no active purchase orders when it made the donation to Club for Growth Action.

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But the FEC’s legal office disagreed, and the agency’s six commissioners — three Republicans, three Democrats — unanimously voted to approve the $19,000 fine.

Ohio Ordnance Works says it has “grown into a world class manufacturer of light, medium, and heavy machine guns able to compete globally with much larger manufacturers.”

The company’s website features the OOW249 Squad Automatic Weapon (S.A.W.), which “provides infantry fire teams with the heavy volume of fire of a machine gun combined with light weight and accuracy. It fires the NATO standard 5.56mm cartridge from a belt or magazine, and is capable of engaging targets out to 800 meters.”

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wealthy Donors and Fossil Fuel Interests Pump Millions into Super PACs for 2020 Elections

February 28th, 2020 by Alex Kotch Leave a Comment

…PAC ($2.1 million). Warren A. Stephens, CEO of investment bank Stephens, Inc.: $3.6 million. 1820 PAC ($250,000), America First Action ($500,000), Congressional Leadership Fund ($750,000), Security is Strength PAC ($50,000),…

===

aha: kind of scary that a superpac (which is spozed to be indep?) is throwing around its wt as if it's a legit org, not a effing slush fund of dark $ whose main purpose is to give cover to funder and cand on neg attack ads (often right before election when cannot be countered/debunked?)

one wonders if this is local tv stations stading up for democracy and free speech, or their refusal to play ref, or more darkly, they just want the massive ad revenue flowing from dark money superpacs

OMG

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/read-the-letter-trumps-campaign-sent-to-tv-stations-threatening-the-fcc-could-pull-their-licenses-over-coronavirus-ad/

no lnx

Read the letter Trump’s campaign sent to TV stations threatening the FCC could pull their licenses over coronavirus

Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement March 26, 2020

Lawyers for President Donald Trump’s official Super PAC, America First Action, tried to get TV stations in key battleground states to stop airing an anti-Trump ad that focuses on his horrific mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis. The TV stations refused to pull the ad, placed by the pro-Biden Super PAC Priorities USA (PUSA), which rightly noted that the pro-Trump Super PAC did not even have standing to make the demand.

So President Trump’s official campaign stepped in to do what his Super PAC could not.

Attorneys for the Donald J. Trump for President campaign sent a Cease and Desist letter to those TV stations demanding they stop airing the anti-Trump ad.

Not only did they make that demand, but they threatened that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which the President controls in that he appoints its commissioners, could pull their broadcast licenses if they did not comply.

The letter reads in part: “your station has an obligation to cease and desist from airing [the ad] immediately to comply with FCC licensing requirements, to serve the public interest, and to avoid costly and time-consuming litigation.”

It also says “we formally demand that your station refuse to continue airing it to meet your responsibilities not to broadcast false information,” which is ironic given the number of falsehoods and lies Trump tells on a daily basis which are often broadcast by news networks.

It adds, “your station has a responsibility to ‘protect the public from false, misleading or deceptive advertising,’” and threatens that “your failure to remove this deceptive ad … could put your station’s license in jeopardy.”

This is the ad the Trump campaign claims is “patently false, misleading, and deceptive,” says he did not call the coronavirus a “hoax,” and essentially claims the ad says he did.

Trump refused to take the threat of the coronavirus seriously, now he won’t take responsibility as his administration has been totally unprepared for this crisis. pic.twitter.com/Jdh1GY9HHS

— Priorities USA (@prioritiesUSA) March 23, 2020

The letter can be read on the Trump campaign’s website.

===

https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2020/02/28/wealthy-donors-fossil-fuel-interests-pump-millions-super-pacs-2020-elections/

Independent political spending groups are readying their arsenals to flood the airwaves with 2020 election ads praising their preferred candidates or attacking those they don’t like. Right-wing millionaires and billionaires and fossil fuel corporations are helping them do so.

Leading the pack are Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, the midwestern executives of shipping supply giant Uline, having donated a total of $19.4 million to seven super PACs from January 2019 through January 2020.

Oil and materials conglomerate Koch Industries has donated the most of any corporation so far, giving nearly $5.3 million to three super PACs, including $4 million to AFP Action, which is the sister group of Charles Koch’s flagship political nonprofit, Americans for Prosperity. Also funding AFP Action is the group’s predecessor, Freedom Partners Action Fund, which gave nearly $6.5 million.

Conservative super PACs owe thanks not just to Koch Industries but to a number of other fossil fuel companies, a trade group, fossil fuel executives and their spouses, and heirs to fossil fuel fortunes. Fossil fuel interests donated nearly $18.8 million to conservative super PACs and hybrid PACs–committees that operate both a super PAC and a traditional PAC–from January 2019 through January 2020.

Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Valero all gave over $1 million to GOP super PACs. Executives such as Western Refining Chairman Paul Foster, Midland Energy CEO S. Javaid Anwar, and coal producer Alliance Resource Partners CEO Joe Craft gave six- or seven-figure sums.

The Megadonors

Richard Uihlein has emerged as a key Republican megadonor in the last several years. In 2010, he was 36th on the list of top donors to outside political spending groups at the federal level. Over that decade, he inched up the ladder until he vastly increased his spending in 2018, giving nearly $38 million to outside groups.

In the current election, Uihlein’s giving appears to be continuing this upward trend. Since last year, Richard and his wife, Elizabeth Uihlein, have given the most money–$12.5 million–of any donor to Club for Growth Action. But they also gave large amounts to the pro-Trump America First Action ($1.5 million), Americas PAC ($1.5 million), House Freedom Action ($1 million), Kentucky Tomorrow ($250,000), Restoration PAC ($2.5 million), and Senate Conservatives Action ($125,000). In total, the couple has delivered $19.4 million to conservative super PACs.

In May 2016, Elizabeth Uihlein landed on the Trump Victory Committee, which raised money for the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, after considerable political spending.

The Uihleins have also spent heavily in state elections, boosting the 2014 campaign of Republican Bruce Rauner, who became governor of Illinois. Richard Uihlein has expressed anti-gay and anti-transgender views and has backed extremist candidates such as Alabama’s Roy Moore, a right-wing evangelical accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women.

Timothy Mellon, the majority owner of transportation holding company Pan Am Systems and an heir to the Mellon steel fortune, donated $10 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, which spends money to boost Republican House candidates, for the second election cycle in a row. In addition, Mellon gave $2.5 million to Senate Republicans’ main super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund.

Mellon is a big Republican Party donor who donated $1.5 million in 2010 to Arizona’s legal defense fund as it fought lawsuits over its harsh anti-immigrant law SB 1070. In 2014, he put $30,000 into the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee and donated the maximum allowed amount to Carson’s presidential campaign the following year. In the current election cycle, Mellon has donated mostly to GOP candidates, but gave the maximum allowed amount of $2,800 to Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s (D-HI) campaign.

Mellon is related to the Scaife family, which, through the Scaife family foundations, is one of the biggest bankrollers of the right-wing movement, including several hate groups.

Other top donors who have given multiple millions of dollars to GOP super PACs include:

Jeff Yass, managing director of investment firm Susquehanna International Group: $4.1 million. Club for Growth Action ($2 million) and Protect Freedom PAC ($2.1 million).

Warren A. Stephens, CEO of investment bank Stephens, Inc.: $3.6 million. 1820 PAC ($250,000), America First Action ($500,000), Congressional Leadership Fund ($750,000), Security is Strength PAC ($50,000), Senate Leadership Fund ($1.5 million), Waiting for Women Action Fund ($500,000).

Paul E. Singer, president of hedge fund company Elliott Management Group: $3.5 million. Congressional Leadership Fund ($1 million), Senate Leadership Fund ($2 million), Waiting for Women Action Fund ($500,000).

Stephen A. Schwarzman, CEO of private equity firm Blackstone: $3 million. 1820 PAC ($500,000), Congressional Leadership Fund ($2.5 million).

In total, 24 individuals and couples have given $1 million or more to conservative super PACs since 2019....

me big donors contributed individually and through their companies. Mountaire Farms CEO Ronald Cameron donated $2.8 million of his own money, including $1 million to AFP Action, while his company donated $500,000 to both the Congressional and Senate Leadership Funds.

Six members of the family of Education Sec. Betsy DeVos, including her husband, Dick DeVos, combined to donate a total of $2.3 million to super PACs: America First Action ($400,000), Better Future MI Fund ($700,000), the Congressional Leadership Fund ($450,000), and the Senate Leadership Fund ($750,000).

Koch Industries Leads Corporate Contributions

CMD tracked $23.5 million in direct corporate donations to conservative super PACs since 2019, much of which came from fossil fuel companies—most prominently, Koch Industries.

In addition to donating $4 million to AFP Action, Koch Industries gave $500,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund and $750,000 to the Senate Leadership Fund. The company gave nearly $5.3 million to super PACs from 2019 through January 2020.

Real estate conglomerate Hillwood Development Co. gave close to $3.1 million to GOP PACs, including $1.1 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, $1 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, and $1 million to Engage Texas, a super PAC funded by Texas-based companies and business executives that launched in June 2019 “with the goal of registering hundreds of thousands of new voters and convincing them to help keep the state red in November.”

Hillwood Development founder Ross Perot, Jr. gave $10,000 to Texans for a Conservative Majority, a super PAC that was founded in 2013 by a corporate lobbyist to help reelect Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and came out of hibernation last year to help the senator keep his seat again.

Oil giant Chevron added $1 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, $750,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund, and $15,000 to Maverick PAC. ConocoPhillips ANS Marketing Company, a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, donated $1 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and $250,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund. Oil and gas pipeline company Energy Transfer donated $1 million to Engage Texas and $100,000 to Texans for a Conservative Majority.

Thirty-seven companies and one trade group gave more than $100,000 to conservative super PACs from 2019 through January 2020.

...

https://publicintegrity.org/federal-politics/donald-trump-army-super-pacs-maga-nonprofits/

At the outset of Donald Trump’s bid for the White House, he blasted super PACs on Twitter as “scams” and “unfair” and disavowed such outside help.

Then he changed his tune.By the end of his 2016 campaign, more than a hundred super PACs and similar groups had spent more than $72 million on his behalf, helping him defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.

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Trump’s army of organized support has expanded since then, with a dozen or so major nonprofits and super PACs pushing his policy platform and priming the public for Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign. Many of the groups feature former Trump staffers or campaign aides. Trump and his surrogates frequently appear at events hosted by some of the ventures.

Other pro-Trump groups, however, spent four, five or even six figures paying their own leaders and employees, filling the coffers of their consulting firms instead of spending money to boost Trump’s political future.

The Center for Public Integrityhas this month analyzed the activities of each of these organizations. Read on to make sense of what political committees, super PACs and nonprofit groups are actively in orbit around Trump’s own 2020 re-election committee:

America First Action Inc.

Type: super PAC

A group of former Trump aides designed the super PAC America First Action and a nonprofit arm, America First Policies, to push Trump’s policy platform. Even Vice President Mike Pence traveled across the country to attend America First events and help raise money. Dallas investor Doug Deason and Roy Bailey, a partner at Giuliani Partners LLC, handled the finances for the two groups. Former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., is the groups’ vice chairwoman. The super PAC collected $39 million from 2017 through 2018. It spent $29.2 million on political messages during that time, mostly attacking Democrats such as former Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Sen. Jon Tester of Montana.

[Donald Trump Jr., and Kimberly Guilfoyle hold hands during a rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate John James in Pontiac, Mich., on Oct. 17, 2018. (AP/Paul Sancya)]

America First Action attracted multimillion dollar contributions from real estate developer Geoffrey Palmer, philanthropist Cherna Moskowitz, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and Adelson’s wife, philanthropist Miriam Adelson. Trump last year awarded Miriam Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors.

The group has also hired and paid firms associated with former Trump employees or backers. They include: Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway’s former firm, the Polling Company ($476,000); former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s firm, Green Monster Consulting ($75,000); former Milwaukee sheriff and Trump booster David A. Clarke’s firm, DAC Enterprises ($92,000); current Trump campaign manager, Brad Parscale, and his firm Parscale Strategy LLC ($184,000); and Trump campaign aide Katrina Pierson’s Pierson Consulting Group ($60,000). The super PAC also paid former White House spokesman Sean Spicer’s firm RIGWIL LLC $46,000. Spicer is now the super PAC’s senior adviser and spokesman. Additionally, the group chose to frequent Trump properties, paying about $415,000 to the Trump International Hotel and restaurants inside.

America First Policies

Type: nonprofit

High turnover has plagued this nonprofit, which has chosen not to disclose its donors. Rebekah Mercer, daughter of conservative megadonor Robert Mercer, considered funding the group, but left for another nonprofit called Making America Great. At its outset in January 2017, this 501(c)(4) “social welfare” nonprofit hosted big names in Trump’s orbit. Among the co-founders and initial staffers:

Parscale,Trump’s current campaign manager

former deputy White House Chief of Staff Katie Walsh, who left to return to the Republican National Committee as a senior adviser

adviser Nick Ayers, who left to become Pence’s chief of staff

former Pence aide Marty Obst

Pierson, who is now a senior adviser for Trump’s 2020 campaign

Brad Parscale, campaign manager for President Donald Trump, waits for his arrival during a campaign rally for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, at Houston Toyota Center on Oct. 22, 2018, in Houston. (AP/Evan Vucci)]

Trump’s former deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, also co-founded the group. But he left in March 2017 and has since been indicted and has pleaded guilty, in a matter unrelated to America First Policies, to making a false statement to prosecutors and violating foreign lobbying laws.

The nonprofit and its sister super PAC were chaired by Thomas Hicks Jr., now co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Hicks was a national finance chairman for Trump’s 2016 campaign. The nonprofit’s 2017 board of directors includes Dallas financial executive Bailey, oil billionaire Harold Hamm and Douglas Ammerman, a retired partner at auditor KPMG LLP, according to the group’s latest tax filing. The nonprofit’s president is Brian Walsh, former president of conservative outside groups American Action Network and the Congressional Leadership Fund.

Walsh declined to speak with the Center for Public Integrity. Communications director Erin Montgomery said the group is “not prepared to share our 2020 plans publicly at this time.”

Because it’s a nonprofit, the organization isn’t required by law to disclose its donors. But a review of Internal Revenue Service filings indicate Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America gave America First Policies $2.5 million, tobacco company Reynolds America donated $1.4 million, Southern Company donated $1 million, CVS Health gave $500,000 and Dow Chemical gave $100,000. In total, the nonprofit raised $22.2 million in 2017.

The group paid for advertising, telephone calls and “grassroots advocacy” to support repealing the Affordable Care Act and boost Trump’s’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, immigration reform and confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nonprofit’s 2017 tax filing shows it also paid $2.8 million to Parscale’s company for “media advocacy services” and $160,000 to Obst’s firm for “consulting.”

Committee to Defend the President

Type: hybrid super PAC

Formerly named “Stop Hillary PAC,” the Committee to Defend the President spent $3.4 million during the 2016 election on anti-Hillary Clinton ads, using messaging centered around the 2012 Benghazi attacks, in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed. The group raised $6.9 million from 2015 to 2016, and $8.9 million during the 2018 election. It spent $4.4 million on Trump-positive messages. The super PAC also attacked Democrats such as failed Senate candidate Phil Bredesen in Tennessee and Sen. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin. The group has $720,000 in the bank as of Dec. 31.

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“The Committee is focused on defending President Trump — and when necessary his allies in Congress and elsewhere, as it did to great effect in Tennessee last cycle where we spent over $1 million to elect Marsha Blackburn [to the U.S. Senate in Tennessee],” said Ted Harvey, the group’s chairman and a former Colorado state senator. “Our efforts will take whatever form makes the most sense at the time…”

In April 2018, the hybrid PAC sued the FEC, alleging the agency failed to act on a complaint the PAC filed against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. The Committee to Defend the President charged that Clinton violated federal law by funneling $80 million in contributions through state parties. The case is pending.

Great America PAC

Type: hybrid super PAC

Great America PAC, which aims to re-elect Trump and pro-Trump candidates, probably won’t involve itself in the Democratic primary.

“We’re fine letting the Democrats publicly out-crazy one another for the next year before we tar whatever looney tune comes out of their ‘process,’” Great America PAC attorney Dan Backer said in an email.

Ed Rollins, President Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager, is chairman of this hybrid super PAC, formerly known as TrumPAC. The super PAC’s executive director, Brent Lowder, is also the president of Apex Strategy Group, which Great America PAC paid $492,429 in 2016 and $150,000 in 2018. Rollins received a total of $240,000 in 2017 and 2018 for “payroll and strategic consulting.”

Eric Beach, the finance chairman for Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign, was a former co-chairman of Great America PAC. Beach is a managing partner at Frontline Strategies & Media, a public affairs firm that Great America PAC paid more than $5 million from 2015 to 2018, more than any other committee paid it during both cycles.

The committee raised close to $29 million during the 2016 election, spending almost $24 million of those funds on pro-Trump ads. From 2017 to 2018, the group spent $5.4 million to support Trump. It also spent a few hundred thousand dollars backing Republicans running in U.S. House and U.S. Senate races, including Roy Moore in Alabama. Its top donors from 2016 include Marvel Entertainment CEO Isaac Perlmutter ($5 million), now-deceased Houston Texans owner Robert McNair ($2 million) and banker Andy Beal ($2 million). In 2018, megadonors such as Robert Mercer of Renaissance Technologies ($400,000) and Richard Uihlein of U-Line Corp ($100,000) topped its list of contributors.

Attorney Dan Backer (right) speaks with Shaun McCutcheon (left) at a Federal Election Commission meeting in February 2015. (Center for Public Integrity/Dave Levinthal)

“Our ability to be nimble and adapt is what made Great America PAC the largest pro-Trump group in 2016, and his biggest champion since,” Backer wrote.

The super PAC has been riddled with scandals.

In May 2016, Jesse Benton, a former leader of the group, was found guilty on campaign finance charges in connection with his 2012 work on Republican Ron Paul’s presidential campaign. A federal appeals court upheld the charges, which preceded Benton’s work with Great America PAC, in May 2018. Before that, The Telegraph published an investigation in which reporters posed as consultants for a Chinese national wanting to donate to pro-Trump groups, which is illegal. Benton allegedly said he was a consultant for Great America PAC and apparently offered the reporters a way to disguise the foreign donation to the group. Backer, the super PAC’s lawyer, denied the super PAC engaged in any activity of the sort. Benton left the group in May 2016.

Also in 2016, the super PAC mistakenly published donor information not normally made public, such as email addresses and cell phone numbers for hundreds of its backers. A month later, it erroneously published credit card numbers for 49 donors. The super PAC offered free security monitoring to the donors and said it changed its data collection and compliance processes.

Great America Alliance

Type: nonprofit

The nonprofit Great America Alliance shares staff and resources with its partner super PAC, Great America PAC. Tomi Lahren, the conservative political commentator, was a senior aide to the nonprofit before leaving it for a job at Fox News. Andy Surabian — a former Steve Bannon aide and war room director of Trump’s 2016 campaign — also was a senior adviser. The nonprofit reported it spent $1.5 million in 2017 to educate voters about health care, taxes, national security and trade. It spent $291,000 on political campaign activity, according to a filing with the IRS.

Tomi Lahren seen at Politicon 2016 at The Pasadena Convention Center on June 25, 2016, in Pasadena, Calif. (Invision via AP/Colin Young-Wolff)

News reports from 2017 stated Gingrich and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani were in talks to become co-chairmen of Great American Alliance, but Backer, the group’s attorney, said that did not happen. The nonprofit’s 2017 tax filing lists Brent Lowder as president, Beach as executive director and Christina Needham, a senior associate attorney at political.law, founded by Backer, as director.

The 501(c)(4) “social welfare” nonprofit raised $3.5 million in 2017, according to the latest tax filing available. It also paid $955,000 that year to public affairs firm Frontline Strategies, which is owned by Eric Beach, a former director of the group now “retained to provide management services.” It also paid $369,000 to Campaign Solutions, the political consulting firm of the Committee to Defend the President’s Ted Harvey, and $123,000 to Apex Strategy Group, owned by the nonprofit’s president Brent Lowder.

Future45

Type: super PAC

Future45 is a super PAC heavily funded by the deep-pocketed Ricketts family, which owns the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Future45 brought in $6.3 million in 2018, including from other megadonors such as philanthropist Helen Schwab, Elliott Management Group’s Paul Singer and Citadel LLC’s Kenneth Griffin. The super PAC poured $5.8 million into 2018 midterm messaging attacks on Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rep. Maxine Waters of California, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

The group is led by Brian Baker, longtime political adviser to the Ricketts family.

“The Democrats tried to nationalize the midterms around Trump, and we tried to push back against that, and show the extreme elements in the Democratic Party,” Baker told the Center for Public Integrity. “Little did I imagine the conversation would stay the same but the characters would change. It used to be all about Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters but nowadays it’s all about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.”

45Committee

Type: nonprofit

The super PAC Future45 also has a sister “social welfare” nonprofit, 45Committee, which raised about $48.6 million from 2015 to 2017, according to federal tax filings.

“In 2017 and 2018, we were one of the leading groups pushing the tax reform bill, and really fought the nomination fight for the high profile nominees like the Supreme Court or Secretary of State,” said Baker, the president. 45Committee has not publicly reported its donors and is under no legal obligation to do so. But other tax filings show it received grants from Wellspring Committee ($750,000), the Judicial Crisis Network ($250,000) and Ricketts-connected Ending Spending ($75,000). That’s only a fraction of what’s in its bank account: the nonprofit’s tax filings show it received four donations in 2017 that were each worth $7.5 million.

45Committee distributed its own grants in 2017 to the Mercer-funded Secure America Now ($2 million), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ($350,000), Judicial Crisis Network ($200,000) and the NRA Institute for Legislative Action ($70,000), among others. The group reported spending $21.6 million on political campaigning and $18.9 million on issue ads.

45Committee’s latest tax filing shows Baker became chairman and president after conservative strategist Brian Walsh left the role in September 2016. CNBC contributor and former George W. Bush aide Sara Fagen is on the board of directors, as well as Randy Scheunemann, a lobbyist for foreign governments at Orion Strategies, and Rob Collins, a lobbyist and strategist who helped push Neil Gorsuch’s appointment to the Supreme Court.

Rebuilding America Now

Type: super PAC

This super PAC was started by California financier Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant and chairman of the president’s inaugural committee. It spent more than $21 million during the 2016 election attacking Democrat Hillary Clinton and boosting Trump, although it’s been mostly dormant since. Now-U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., led the committee.

The group’s past activity has caught Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s attention.Prosecutors note former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was “instrumental” in setting up Rebuilding America Now at the same time he was Trump’s campaign chairman, an apparent violation of federal law. (The super PAC also began paying Ken McKay, a former Trump campaign adviser, days after he left Trump’s campaign, seemingly violating the 90-day cooling-off-period rule.) The group also hired Manafort’s longtime associate, Laurance Gay, as chairman. During the 2016 cycle, the super PAC paid Gay $330,000 and McKay $295,000 for “political strategy consulting.”

A spokesman for McKay and Gay told Reuters they were Trump volunteers who didn’t “possess strategic information,” so they said the cooling-off-period rule didn’t apply.

In court filings, prosecutors say Manafort lied to investigators about a $125,000 wire transfer in 2017 to the super PAC in order to cover a debt, The New York Times reported. A federal judge ruled in February 2019 that despite agreeing to cooperate, Manafort lied to Mueller’s team during its Russian interference investigation. He will be sentenced in March.

In 2016, the super PAC accepted six-figure donations from megadonors such as Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, real estate developer Palmer and former WWE wrestling executive Linda McMahon, now Trump’s Small Business Administration administrator. It also took $100,000 from Anthony Scaramucci, later Trump’s communications director for one week; $200,000 from coal outfit Murray Energy and $225,000 from private prison operator GEO Corrections. (The nonpartisan watchdog Campaign Legal Center filed an FEC complaint accusing GEO of violating the federal contractor donation ban. The case is pending.)

“Although GEO Corrections Holdings Inc., the company that made the donation, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the GEO Group, it is a non-contracting legal entity and has no contracts with any governmental agency,” company spokesperson Pablo Paez told VICE News in a statement, saying the donations to Rebuilding America Now are “compliant with all applicable federal election laws.”

In 2018, Rebuilding America Now received $30,000 in donations, with $25,000 coming from Florida real estate developer E. Llwyd Ecclestone Jr.

From 2017 to 2018, Rebuilding America Now spent most of its $2 million on paying Gay ($775,000) and McCay ($210,000) for consulting fees. It also used its money to fund travel and high-priced dinners — at places such as The Trump International Hotel in Washington and BLT Prime in Washington. It reported no money during that time on overtly pro-Trump communications.

Great America Committee

Type: leadership PAC

Great America Committee is the first leadership PAC that a vice president created while in office.

Pence formed Great America Committee — not to be confused with the two other pro-Trump groups starting with “Great America” — in May 2017 to help boost other Republicans. The move was so unusual that many believed Pence was setting himself up for his own presidential run. That didn’t happen — instead, Pence doled out $886,000 in 2018 to candidates such as Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky. and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. The leadership PAC also gave $5,400 to Trump’s presidential campaign.

In this March 15, 2016 file photo, Donald Trump’s then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski (left) listens as Trump speaks in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP/Gerald Herbert, File)

The PAC raised $4.1 million in 2018. Since forming, it spent $70,000 for consulting services at Green Monster Consulting, the firm of Trump’s former campaign manager, Lewandowski. It also paid $332,000 to MO Strategies, the firm of Obst, Pence’s senior political adviser, who was also the senior adviser of pro-Trump nonprofit America First Policies and executive director at the Trump super PAC Great America Committee. The PAC paid the firm for “finance and political strategy consulting.”

America Fighting Back

Type: hybrid super PAC

“We must protect Donald Trump and his agenda from impeachment,” declares America Fighting Back, led by former 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.

Cain appears in an America Fighting Back ad in which he says Democrats’ “mission is to remake America and implement their socialist agenda.” The group asks viewers to call a 1-800 number to pledge their support for President Trump. The phone number directs a dialer to a recording of Cain bashing the “phony Russian delusion witch hunt.”

Businessman Herman Cain, who ran for president as a Republican in 2012, appears in an advertisement for his America Fighting Back PAC committee. (Screenshot)

Cain then asks callers to make a contribution. America Fighting Back, formed in July 2018, raised $347,000 during 2018, accepting donations from Citizens United founder and America Fighting Back co-chair Floyd Brown ($45,000) and the family trust of Edward Robson, a retirement community developer ($10,000). It reported spending $171,500 on pro-Trump messaging, although some of that messaging — such as Cain’s advertisement — serves the dual purpose of soliciting money for America Fighting Back itself.

The PAC’s executive director is Lori Klein Corbin, former Arizona state senator and national committeewoman for the state. Its chief strategist is Todd Cefaratti, a former 2012 campaign aide to Newt Gingrich.

Make America Number 1

Type: super PAC

Ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Make America Number 1 has yet to make the splash it did in 2016. Previously a Ted Cruz-backing super PAC named Keep the Promise I, the group rebranded to Make America Number 1 and spent $4.4 million attacking Clinton. Before Citizens United Chairman David Bossie left in 2016 to work as Trump’s deputy campaign manager, he ran the super PAC. Megadonor Rebekah Mercer took over managing the group.

Robert Mercer with his wife Diana Mercer (right) and daughter Rebekah Mercer (left) at the 2014 World Science Festival Gala. (Sylvain Gaboury/PMC, ©Patrick McMullan)

It was primarily funded by Robert Mercer, Marcus and Clarium Capital’s Peter Thiel, as well as Erik Prince, brother of Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and the founder of the controversial security firm formerly known as Blackwater USA. The super PAC also paid $5.7 million to Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct data firm that harvested Facebook users’ data without permission.

During the 2018 midterms, the super PAC raised only $807 in small donations, and spent $379,000 mostly on legal expenses and upkeep. The super PAC starts 2019 with $699,000 in the bank.

* * * * *

Other political groups and nonprofits that don’t primarily advocate for Trump have nevertheless been instrumental in advocating for his election. They include:

National Rifle Association

Type: nonprofits, PAC, super PAC

The National Rifle Association spent about $30.3 million to directly boost Trump during the 2016 presidential election, more than any other group that cycle.

The association may have gone a step further: An investigation by The Trace found that Trump’s campaign and the NRA used the same consultants to air TV ads, an apparent violation of the law that prohibits campaigns and outside groups from coordinating.

What’s more, federal investigators are exploring ties between NRA officials and the Russian government. Russian national Maria Butina pleaded guilty in December 2018 to conspiring to illegally act as a foreign agent. She admitted trying infiltrate the NRA and convince its members that Russia is a friend, not an enemy, to the U.S. The effort was apparently backed by at least one Russian official, Alexander Torshin, a former deputy governor of the Russian Central Bank. Russian President Vladimir Putin may have even approved the effort, according to a U.S. intelligence report reviewed by The Daily Beast. NRA officials did not respond to the Center for Public Integrity’s numerous requests for comment.

Citizens United

Type: nonprofit

The organization behind the pivotal campaign finance U.S. Supreme Court case, Citizens United v. FEC, Citizens United’s super PAC spent $182,000 on pro-Trump messages in 2016.

Donald Trump, left, reacts to the crowd as he shakes hands with co-host David Bossie at the Freedom Summit, Saturday, May 9, 2015, in Greenville, S.C. (AP/Rainier Ehrhardt)

People affiliated with the group have had a hand in other organizations backing Trump: Its president, Bossie, was Trump’s 2016 deputy campaign manager, while founder Brown is co-chairman of the super PAC America Fighting Back. Citizens United hasn’t reported any pro-Trump expenditures since he was elected.

“I am an outspoken supporter of this president and will help him in whatever way is most beneficial to his re-election,” Bossie told the Center for Public Integrity.

Committee to Restore America’s Greatness

Type: super PAC

Two months after Roger Stone exited the Trump presidential campaign, the notorious political operative formed a pro-Trump super PAC in October 2015.

The group stayed in business a little more than a year, raising $587,000 yet only spending $16,000 on pro-Trump billboards. The group’s largest donor was film and television producer John Powers Middleton.

===

https://truthout.org/articles/corporate-cash-leaks-into-democratic-campaigns-despite-anti-pac-pledge/

4/19

Money remains an influential factor in campaign outcomes. Nearly 90 percent of top spenders in 2018 House races claimed victory in their campaigns. And more than 85 percentof top spenders in Senate races won.

===

new 2/19

GOP donor Russell Taub indicted for paying himself $1 million through ‘scam PAC’

By Karl Evers-HillstromFebruary 21, 2019

A former Republican congressional candidate and major 2018 GOP donor has been indicted for using a super PAC to funnel…

https://www.alternet.org/strategies-let-super-pacs-delay-revealing-their-donors-until-after-elections-are-gaining-popularity

NEW

Strategies That Let Super PACs Delay Revealing Their Donors Until After Elections Are Gaining Popularity — With Both Parties

In total, super PACs have spent at least $21.6 million this cycle in 78 congressional races before disclosing who donated that money — $15.7 million of it during primary races. In many cases, that disclosure came after voters had gone to the polls.

ProPublica October 10, 2018, 2:21 AM GMT

no many lnx

Allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell used a blind spot in campaign finance laws to undercut a candidate from their own party this year — and their fingerprints remained hidden until the primary was already over.

Super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money in elections, are supposed to regularly disclose their funders. But in the case of Mountain Families PAC, Republicans managed to spend $1.3 million against Don Blankenship, a mustachioed former coal baron who was a wild-card candidate for a must-win West Virginia Senate seat, in May without revealing who was supplying the cash.

The move worked like this: Start a new super PAC after a deadline for reporting donors and expenses, then raise and spend money before the next report is due. Timed right, a super PAC might get a month or more undercover before being required to reveal its donors. And if a super PAC launches right before the election, voters won’t know who’s funding it until after they go to the polls.

The strategy — which is legal — is proving increasingly popular among Democrats and Republicans. The amount of super PAC spending during the 2016 congressional primaries in which the first donor disclosure occurred after the primary election totaled $9 million. That figure increased to $15.6 million during the 2018 congressional primaries and special elections.

Backers of Mountain Families PAC didn’t respond to a request for comment. It is one of 63 super PACs this election cycle that have managed to spend money to influence races and postpone telling voters who funded them, according to an analysis by Politico and ProPublica of Federal Election Commission data.

Voters bear much of the cost when they head to the polls without information on who funded a PAC that tried to sway their votes, said Meredith McGehee, executive director at the nonpartisan watchdog group Issue One.

“The whole idea behind disclosure is that one of the factors that voters can, and understandably should, take into account in judging the message is who the messenger is,” McGehee said.

Super PACs were created after the Supreme Court in the Citizens United decision ruled that people and corporations had the right to spend unlimited amounts of money on independent expenditures such as funding ads or mailers, but that they couldn’t hide that spending from the public.

But while they can’t keep donors secret forever, super PACs are increasingly figuring out methods of temporarily masking donor identities that are either legal or fall into gray areas that rarely attract regulators’ attention.

One tactic is the one Mountain Families PAC used, which is likely to be replicated for the general election. A new super PAC that starts between Oct. 18 and Nov. 6 could spend money right before Election Day without having to disclose its donors until after the midterm results are tallied. (There are 11 super PACs that together have spent at least $5.8 million since the primaries but should begin disclosing their donors on Oct. 15, when the next FEC filing is due.)

Another involves going into debt to pay for advertising and other campaign-related activities, and fundraising later to pay off those debts. A super PAC that does this would not have to disclose donors until well after the money is spent.

In the case of Mountain Families PAC, Blankenship was increasingly popular among the state’s anti-Washington set. So D.C. Republicans behind the PAC avoided disclosing they were behind ads attacking Blankenship — “Isn’t there enough toxic sludge in Washington?” asked one of them — until after the primary.

Then they revealed their identity and dissolved the super PAC entirely.

Here are more examples of PACs that have delayed disclosing their donors this cycle — and how they did it:

As Republican Martha McSally battled two opponents in the Arizona Senate primary, a super PAC called Red and Gold spent $1.7 million attacking McSally, airing television ads that said McSally had supported an “age tax” on older people’s health insurance. But shortly after filing its initial paperwork with the FEC, Red and Gold notified the commission it was going to file on a monthly basis, which meant its first disclosure wasn’t due until Sept. 20, three weeks after the primary election.

When Red and Gold finally disclosed its funders, it was revealed that Senate Majority PAC, which is aligned with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, was the main funder of Red and Gold and had meddled in the primary in an attempt to hurt McSally’s chances of victory and boost a weaker Republican. Chris Hayden, spokesman for Senate Majority PAC, said that “Senate Majority PAC and Red and Gold have followed the FEC reporting schedule and follow the law governing super PACs.”

A super PAC called Ohio First PAC has been in operation since the start of April and has spent $774,822 helping Republican Jim Renacci in the Ohio Senate race. But it has only disclosed raising $79,200 from donors. Instead of disclosing donations, Ohio First’s filings with the FEC show the committee has hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to vendors for advertising and mailers, and almost no fundraising yet. The PAC did not respond to a request for comment.

The FEC has sent the PAC twoletters about possible late filings for some of its spending; the committee said in correspondence in August that it is working to resolve any issues.

During the week leading up to a seven-way Democratic primary in Illinois in March, a super PAC called SunshinePAC blitzed the battleground 6th Congressional District with $130,000 in mailers and phone calls. Because it started spending money so late in the race, SunshinePAC didn’t have to reveal its donors before the primary.

But nearly a month after the election, SunshinePAC revealed its lone funder: Tom Casten, the father of primary contender Sean Casten — raising questions about whether the super PAC was really independent from the campaign. By then, Sean Casten had eked out a victory in the primary by 2,177 votes.

Tom Casten said in an interview that “there was no effort or conversation about reporting in the delayed form” when he gave to SunshinePAC, and that “I certainly didn’t ask for it.” Greg Bales, campaign manager for Casten for Congress, said in an email that “as with any outside group, there was no coordination between Sean or the campaign and that group on their spending or disclosure practices.” SunshinePAC did not respond to a request for comment.

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superpac816

Note this includes "Dark money" , used to refer to groups that can keep their donors anonymous. So the social welfare nonprofits, or 501c4s, and the trade associations, or 501c6s, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are dark money groups.The IRS has different categories for nonprofits. A charity, for instance, is a 501c3 — not allowed to do much politicking, if any.

superpacs do have to disclose?

===

https://sunlightfoundation.com/2015/10/30/the-difference-between-super-pacs-and-dark-money-groups/

r an investigative report by The Washington Post revealed several super PACs acting in support of his campaign, Donald Trump acted swiftly, condemning the activities of the super PACs and ordering his attorneys to send cease and desist letters to several groups.

This action, as well as the placement of television ads by a dark money group supporting Marco Rubio, has triggered a debate within the Republican party about the impact of money in the election, with both Trump and fellow GOP hopeful Jeb Bush taking swings at each other about the influence of dark money in the election.

We were glad to hear candidates having a spirited discussion about the role of money in the 2016 election cycle. However, a lot of the headlines mentioned Trump rejecting “dark money” in particular. (Probably because the title of his press release was “Donald J. Trump Calls On All Presidential Candidates to Return Dark Money Sent to Super PACs.”)

We reached out to the Trump Campaign for clarification; what exactly did Trump mean when he used the term dark money? Press contact Hope Hicks confirmed that Trump means all money given to super PACs in particular; however, like other political action committees, super PACs do have to file regular financial disclosure forms with the Federal Election Commission, including the source of donations and the amounts given. That’s why we generally refer to super PAC funds as “unlimited money.”

Here’s the huge caveat: Because super PACs are permitted to accept money from entities that do not have to make the sources of their funding public, such as 501(c)(4) groups, it’s possible for them to keep the names of actual donors hidden from the public. We call this “dead-end disclosure.”

Since campaign finance can be a complicated issue, we thought we would do a quick 101 for super PACs versus dark money for the 2016 election cycle.

Here are some of the key characteristics of unlimited money from super PACs, also referred to as “independent expenditure groups.”

No limit on the dollar amount of contributions

Do disclose donors

Cannot coordinate with or donate money to candidates

Federal Election Commission has jurisdiction over these organizations

In election years, file reports on donors either monthly or quarterly, as well as reports on independent expenditures within either 24 or 48 hours (based upon the date and amount of the expenditure); in nonelection years, file reports on donors monthly or semi-annually, as well as reports on independent expenditures within either 24 or 48 hours (based upon the date and amount of the expenditure)

Here’s an example of a super PAC disclosure form from the FEC, Karl Rove’s American Crossroads. Note how each donor is listed out with specific details:

http://freespeechforpeople.org/

superpacs

https://freespeechforpeople.org/speechnow-v-fec-case-created-super-pacs-challenge/

SpeechNow v. FEC – The Case that Created Super PACs, and Our Challenge

Posted on January 27 2018 by Ron Fein

January 27 marks the eighth anniversary of oral argument in the case that created super PACs. Contrary to popular belief, super PACs were not created by the Supreme Court in Citizens United, but rather by a subsequent lower court decision called SpeechNow v. FEC, argued on January 27, 2010 (just six days after the Citizens United decision).

As we explained in 2015, there are significant cracks in the legal foundation that created super PACs, and several converging developments in election law, constitutional law and even criminal law suggest the end may be in sight.

As a matter of practical reality, empirical research shows that top donors to super PACs are generally the same people as top donors to candidates and political parties, with ample opportunities to exchange super PAC contributions for political favors in a quid pro quo corruption scheme, whether or not the super PAC “coordinates” its media purchases with the campaign. In fact, a federal judge recently went out of his way to reaffirm in a criminal bribery case that contributions to super PACs can be part of bribes, notwithstanding Citizens United, although he found that the particular facts of that case didn’t support a bribery charge.

As a matter of legal doctrine, as explained in a forthcoming article by a group of pre-eminent constitutional scholars, SpeechNow simply misapplied Citizens United: “In Citizens United the Supreme Court struck down limits on a political group’s expenditures while the issue in SpeechNow was the validity of limiting contributions to a political group.” That distinction between limits on expenditures versus limits on contributions is critical because since Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court has recognized different standards of scrutiny for limits on contributions and limits on expenditures. Unfortunately, then-Attorney General Eric Holder decided not to appeal SpeechNow to the Supreme Court, on the (clearly mistaken in retrospect) theory that the SpeechNow decision would “affect only a small subset of federally regulated contributions.” Now, there’s good reason to think that Chief Justice Roberts and/or Justice Kennedy would be willing to overrule SpeechNow even if they are not prepared to retreat on Citizens United.

So how do we do it? Learn more about Lieu v. FEC, our federal lawsuit challenging SpeechNow (covered here in the Washington Post), and about our legislative efforts in St. Petersburg, Florida, Massachusetts, and elsewhere to challenge super PACs.

---

===

In January 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could spend unlimited amounts of dough on political activities, so long as it’s done independent of a party or candidate. (As an aside, we’d like you to know that you can contribute as much as you want to the ProPublica snack cache. We would never be influenced by money, or pretzels, but I know investigative reporters on full stomachs are more likely to investigate that thing you are sure is important but that everybody else thinks is lame. Just saying.) One of the concerns about the so-called “Citizens United” ruling was that foreign corporations would find ways to influence elections. And now they have. Japanese corporation Nintendo has ensured 30-and-under voting will be nonexistent at polling stations that don’t harbor a Pokemon. But also possibly of interest: An investigation by The Intercept found that California-based investment company (it’s really hard to tell what it invests in beyond real estate) American Pacific International Capital Inc., owned by a Chinese couple, found a way to contribute $1.3 million to the Jeb Bush Super PAC Right to Rise USA. But, actually, so? That alone isn’t really the interesting part. Your three Ws:

What is the interesting part?

Well, according to The Intercept, that the contribution may well have violated the law, which bars foreign owners from any involvement in the political donation decision-making of their U.S.-based companies. According to a memo obtained by The Intercept, the Chinese owners were following a strategy laid out for them by a politically powerful American lawyer. (The lawyer told The Intercept that his memo was meant “to ensure compliance with the law.”) But actually, that’s still not the most interesting part.

What, for goodness sake, is the most interesting part?

To me, the most interesting part is how one of the Chinese owners — Gordon Tang — offered an Intercept reporter 200,000 dollars (not sure what country’s dollars he meant) if she didn’t mention unverified claims on Chinese-language websites that accused him of criminal activity. (It’s also interesting that the reporter recorded the convo.)

What’s most important, though?

Overall, the multi-part Intercept investigation is basically the first, published, step-by-step account of how the Citizens United ruling allows foreign-owned businesses to use domestic companies or subsidiaries to attempt to influence the American political process. Am I worried about that? I dunno, there’s a Pokemon under my desk, so I can’t pay attention right now.

They Said It

“I don’t even know why you want to be a reporter, reporters make so little money.” — Gordon Tang, to the reporter he offered money. I’m sure she hadn’t thought of that.

https://www.propublica.org/article/update-fec-looking-at-super-pac-that-hyped-penny-stock

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/12/gop-billionaires-cant-seem-to-buy-this-election.html

...

Rove’s 2012 crash is having profound effects on the 2016 Republican primary. To begin with, George W. Bush’s Brain is no longer considered much of a brain. “I gave Rove $500,000. What did I get for it? Nothing!” Langone told me. Two of Rove’s most generous 2012 funders, Texas billionaires Bob Perry and Harold Simmons, have since passed away, and their heirs have turned off the cash spigot. “Everyone is still shocked Romney lost,” says Simmons’s widow, Annette. “I haven’t committed at all.” So far this year, Crossroads has raised just $784,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Rove insists he’s still a player. “We’ll be involved in the Senate races,” he told me. “Depending on who the presidential nominee is, we may be involved in that, but that’s a long way off.” What Rove is not is anywhere near the center of the Republican Party. “But for his perch on Fox News, Karl would be in political Siberia,” says a top Republican strategist. “The going joke is that he must have a picture of Roger Ailes in his underwear to keep his contract.”

It’s not just that Rove is personally marginalized. Donors have awakened to the realization that topflight consultants can earn millions from campaigns regardless of whether they win. “It bothers a lot of people that politics has become a cottage industry. Everyone is taking a piece of this and a slice of that,” says California winemaker John Jordan, a former Rove donor. “Crossroads treated me like a child with these investor conference calls where they wouldn’t tell you what was really going on. They offered platitudes and a newsletter.”

Working under the assumption that they can support a campaign better themselves, donors are building their own organizations, staffed by operatives who report to them. “A lot of people who felt betrayed in 2012 set out to build political structures,” says Kellyanne Conway, president of the pro–Ted Cruz super-pac Keep the Promise I, which is backed by hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer. Mercer is a prime example of the new breed of activist donor. This presidential cycle, he has donated more than $30 million to a quartet of pro-Cruz super-pacs. A computer scientist by training, Mercer is also part owner of a political data firm called Cambridge Analytica, which boasts on its website that it employs “psychographic profiling” to recruit voters. As a result, Mercer’s pacs have shunned the traditional strategy of saturation TV coverage. Instead, Mercer is focused on targeted radio buys, digital outreach, and field organizing.

The savviest GOP candidates have capitalized on this shift. In fact, Cruz’s campaign fund-raising apparatus seems designed to let donors roll up their sleeves. Cruz contributors can specify how they want their money spent, much in the way universities allow benefactors to earmark their donations for a new science wing or aquatics center. “If you’re a donor, you can say, ‘I want to see this money used for Iowa,’ ” one strategist told me. “It’s a way to entice donors. They look at it like fantasy football.”

The new billionaire-backed operations style themselves as models of superior sophistication. During the last Republican primary, Sheldon Adelson bankrolled Newt Gingrich’s campaign essentially by writing blank checks with little or no oversight. Compare that to the super-pac funded by Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts, who has his own political staff and demands accountability. “I’m used to saying the Ricketts’ spend their super-pac money like it’s their own money — because it is,” the family’s political adviser, Brian Baker, told me.

Or look at the network being built by Elliott Management founder Paul Singer. In 2014, Singer created the American Opportunity Alliance, a group of roughly 40 Republican financiers who gather regularly for secret meetings with candidates. This fall, Singer threw his weight behind Marco Rubio and urged his members to do the same. In the general election, Singer will be a player with America Rising, the opposition-research firm headed by Romney’s dark-arts wizard Matt Rhoades. Instead of funding TV ads, Rhoades’s group offers Singer more predictable returns: It is narrowly focused on digging up dirt on Democrats, for example by sending video trackers to events in order to build a library of unflattering material.

It’s all about retaining control. In October, billionaire investor Carl Icahn announced he was launching a $150 million super-pac to lobby for corporate tax reform. “At the risk of being immodest, we have one of the best records on Wall Street. And I like doing things myself,” he told me. “Too many cooks spoil the soup.”

John Jordan now supports Republican candidates through his own super-pac, which applies the lessons he’s learned from winemaking. He, too, is backing Marco Rubio. “I know really well how to sell things. I make my own ads,” Jordan said. “The quality of ads produced by most of the ad-makers is just so bad that they’re ineffective. Have you looked at Jeb’s ads? They’re terrible! It’s unforgivable.”

Perhaps Bush is the perfect case study: The candidate who has underperformed the most is the one with a 2012-style campaign, who steered all his major donors into one super-pac. That organization, Right to Rise USA, is run by the grizzled strategist Mike Murphy, who succeeded in bundling a $100 million war chest and is now finding himself on the receiving end of donor backlash. Last month, for instance, a group of major Bush supporters held a conference call to vent about Murphy after he outlined his strategy in an interview to Bloomberg Politics. “These guys got rip-shit,” said one person briefed on the call.

Rubio's main backer, Paul Singer, uses his American Opportunity Alliance super PAC to fund "digging up dirt on Democrats, for example by sending video trackers to events in order to build a library of unflattering material."

up 5x

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/09/five-fold-upsurge-super-pacs-dark-money-groups-spending-far-more-than-in-12-cycle-at-same-point-in-campaign/

.,..

f any type of group is in vogue, it’s the “single-candidate” committee, according to FEC data, and that means a boon for conservative groups in terms of sheer spending power. Of the 40 organizations that have spent the most so far in the 2016 cycle — a list that includes political nonprofits, super PACs and business associations — more than half are dedicated to one candidate and one race. The same is true of the top 20 biggest spenders, which includes 11 single-candidate groups.

The rise of single-candidate operations gives conservative organizations an edge in a presidential race marked by a large crop of Republican presidential candidates. Of the 20 biggest spenders, just one has a liberal viewpoint: the establishment-Democrat-backing Senate Majority PAC.

In 2013, back when single-candidate groups spent just under $2.7 million before September, 14 of the top 20 biggest spenders had supported liberal candidates or opposed conservative ones.

The super PAC supporting Chris Christie, America Leads, is at the head of the pack in terms of spending this time around, having laid out $4.7 million to support the New Jersey governor’s bid for the GOP nomination. Right to Rise, the super PAC that had raised more than any other as of mid-year — four times more than all super PACs combined at this point in 2012 — has reported spending $2 million to backJeb Bush, the former governor of Florida. But Right to Rise reportedly is shelling out a whopping $24 million for ads in Iowa and New Hampshire that began running last week; that money is just beginning to show up in FEC reports.

Democrats know how far they’re down, and essentially admitted to the FEC two weeks ago that though they deem some of Republicans’ tactics legally questionable, they’ll do the same if given the green light.

Meanwhile, as of mid-September 2015, groups with the single-candidate designation have spent $16.2 million. That’s more than 55 times as much as the 2012 generation spent at this point and outpaces 2014’s single-candidate super PACs by $14 million. Single candidate groups would go on to spend $269 million by the end of the 2012 cycle, and $62.6 million in 2014.

[scary graph]

...

Having yet to spend even 6 percent of what they have reported raising, single-candidate groups have cash stockpiled for ad buys, voter calls and mailers, regardless of the course Democrats choose.

“Dark money” advantages

Republican advantages may go beyond sheer numbers. In “America Next,” Gov.Bobby Jindal (R-La.) has the backing of the first single-candidate “dark money” group to report spending to FEC this cycle. This 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, which can accept unlimited donations without revealing donors’ names, is one of several functioning almost as de facto arms of the campaigns themselves, continuing a trend that began only in 2014.

While Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, have single-candidate super PACsproviding them big-money firepower this cycle from sources that are disclosed to the public, they have not yet taken the step of incorporating single-candidate dark money organizations into the mix. That’s not to say that liberal dark money groups are entirely silent: Planned Parenthood has reported spending $74,057 attacking Clinton’s opponents.

America Next has already helped Jindal in a least a couple of ways: The group bought $340,537 in television ads explicitly supporting Jindal’s candidacy for president after months of paying Jindal’s travel bills as he jetted around the country giving policy speeches before declaring himself a candidate.

Most of the Republican candidates, like Jindal, are backed by politically active nonprofits set up to provide donors an anonymous avenue to support a candidate, and some — in particular the pro-Rubio Conservative Solutions Project — havespent heavily on ads supporting their candidate. By framing its support for Rubio as issue ads, though, Conservative Solutions has avoided having to report that spending to the FEC.

But for some of the multi-candidate “dark money” groups, even their FEC-reported spending is higher than in 2014. Americans for Prosperity, for example, never reported spending to the FEC before May of an election year. But as of Sept. 21, more than a full year before the 2016 election, the group has spent $1.6 million, according to its reports to the agency, making it the fifth-highest-ranking outside spending group so far this cycle.

===

misc outrages 7/15

Republican Jeb Bush gave a speech on Monday about the need to reform Washington from the inside out—by limiting when ex-congressmen can lobby Congress. Excuse me, but how does that fly from the candidate who raised 88 percent of his campaign cash from the penultimate insiders: people donating $2,700, the legal maximum? (Bernie got 2 percent from them).

Nonetheless, a rash of supposedly progressive democracy groups took Bush at his word and praised his proposal that no one in Congress should be allowed to lobby for six years. “A positive step,” said Every Voice’s Adam Smith. Could be “substantive,” said the Center for Responsive Politics. “Strong,” said Common Cause’s Miles Rappoport.

Despite all the “we need to know more” caveats accompanying these comments, it is upside down to believe that the Bush dynasty’s latest heir is about to decouple party insiders from lucrative post-office lobbying. That's because a big part of his nomination strategy is based on getting hundreds of Republican National Convention votes from those same insiders who are Republican delegates.

You don't bite the hand that feeds you, when party bosses and incumbents hold 437 of the 1,235 non-pledged votes needed for the Republican nomination. Want another reality check on the sentiments of these GOP insiders?

This week, House Republicans attached fine print to an unrelated bill that would ban the White House from issuing an order to require federal contractors and non-profits (the loophole that created Super PACS) to reveal their political donations and donors. Many of those GOPers were elected after Republican state legislatures gerrymandered districts and adopted a range of newly restrictive voting laws—in the same spirit as Scott Walker’s just-announced plan to destroy Wisconsin’s election oversight board. They favor gaming the rules, doing whatever it takes to win and cashing out.

The WaPo noted there was some resistence to Jeb’s lobbying reforms in the beltway. No kidding.

This week's news provided an additional counterpoint underscoring why reversing decades of economic policies creating America’s inequality quagmire is so hard. Tuesday was the fifth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank reform law, which was passed to rein in Wall Street excess after 2008’s global financial meltdown.

The White House issued a long release touting the law’s stronger consumer protections, which have stopped commercial banks from gouging customers. It’s collected and paid back $10.1 billion to 17 million people, it said, and tried to make financial institutions more transparent and curb excess risk. The GOP has not fought the law like Obamacare; instead it's blocked one-third of its rules from taking effect, complaining all along that it would harm the economy.

Meanwhile, outsized CEO pay—the most easily understood indice of greed—is still sky high. Two high-profile Wall Streeters, Goldman-Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon—just joined the ranks of the world’s billionaires. So the financial reform law, imperfect as it may be and hated by the GOP, has not exactly been bad for Wall Street's elite.

===

m gold wapo 7/15

The 2016 presidential contenders are stretching the latitude they have to work with their independent allies more than candidates in recent elections ever dared, taking advantage of a narrowly drawn rule that separates campaigns from outside groups.

For the first time, nearly every top presidential hopeful has a personalized super PAC that can raise unlimited sums and is run by close associates or former aides. Many also are being boosted by nonprofits, which do not have to disclose their donors.

The boldness of the candidates has elevated the importance of wealthy donors to even greater heights than in the last White House contest, when super PACs and nonprofits reported spending more than $1 billion on federal races. Although they are not supposed to coordinate directly with their independent allies, candidates are finding creative ways to work in concert with them.

Before former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) announced his bid in mid-June, the Right to Rise super PAC filmed footage of him that the group plans to use in ads. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign is collaborating directly with Correct the Record, a super PAC providing the Democratic hopeful’s team with opposition research.

Top advisers to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) have been positioned at two big-money groups as they await his presidential announcement next week. GOP candidate Carly Fiorina has gone even further, outsourcing core functions such as rapid response and event preparation to her allied super PAC, the aptly named CARLY for America.

[graphic]

The widespread cooperation — which many campaign finance experts say stretches the legal boundaries — indicates that candidates and their advisers have little fear that they will face serious scrutiny from law enforcement, despite the Justice Department’s successful prosecution this year of a Virginia campaign operative for illegal coordination.

[Graphic: The 2016 presidential contenders and their big-money backers]

One main reason: Under Federal Election Commission rules, there is no wall dividing candidates and independent groups. In practice, it’s more like a one-way mirror — with a telephone on each side for occasional calls.

“The rules of affiliation are just about as porous as they can be, and it amounts to a joke that there’s no coordination between these individual super PACs and the candidates,” said Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.), who has sponsored legislation that would put stricter limits in place.

A close reading of FEC regulations reveals that campaigns can do more than just publicly signal their needs to independent groups, a practice thatflourished in the 2014 midterms.

Operatives on both sides can talk to one another directly, as long as they do not discuss candidate strategy. According to an FEC rule, an independent group also can confer with a campaign until this fall about “issue ads” featuring a candidate. Some election-law lawyers think that a super PAC could share its entire paid media plan, as long as the candidate’s team does not respond.

But those who defend the current system say that broader rules could infringe on rights to free speech.

“Every discussion you have cannot trigger illegal coordination,” said Lee E. Goodman, a Republican appointee to the FEC.

“I understand some people look at relationships between candidates and independent spenders and sense that those relationships are too cozy,” he added. “Yet the courts have said that you cannot prohibit friendships and knowledge of each other.”

[Why super PACs have moved from sideshow to center stage for presidential hopefuls]

But many experts say that the limited-coordination rules are emblematic of an outdated, incoherent and often contradictory campaign finance framework.

“We’re at this transitional point where the way money is raised and spent and the costs of campaigns have changed so dramatically,” said Bob Bauer, a prominent campaign finance lawyer who served as White House counsel for President Obama. “The problem isn’t that the law isn’t being enforced — the problem is that we need to rethink the whole thing from the ground up.”

Political strategists on both sides of the aisle agree, saying that navigating the complex legal thickets is increasingly difficult.“If you talk to three lawyers, you are likely to get three different answers,” said Phil Cox, executive director of America Leads, a super PAC supporting Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey. “The system makes no sense. It’s crying out for reform. We need to put the power back in the hands of the candidates and their campaigns, not the outside groups.”

At the moment, though, an overhaul of campaign finance has little bipartisan support in Congress. And members of the long-polarized FEC appear more divided than ever. A discussion at a recent public meeting about stricter regulations devolved into hostile barbs.

The public is left with the sense that no one is following the rules, said Ellen L. Weintraub, one of the Democrats on the FEC.

“There is this basic notion that super PACs are supposed to be separate from the candidates,” she said. “They look at what’s going on, and they say: ‘This doesn’t look separate. Where are the lines?’?”

A sweeping boundary was drawn by the Supreme Court in its seminal 1976Buckley v. Valeo decision, which said that political activity by outside groups must be done “totally independently” of candidates and parties. A similar standard was set in the 2002 McCain-Feingold Act, which said that independent expenditures cannot be made “in cooperation, consultation, or concert” with a candidate.

But in practice, defining coordination has not been easy. The FEC wrestled mightily with where to draw the lines, issuing regulations that were challenged repeatedly in the courts.

A set of FEC rules approved in 2010 prohibits a campaign from coordinating with an independent group on a paid communication. The agency laid outspecific tests to determine whether a campaign has illegally shared internal strategy used to guide an independent group’s advertising.

But the rules do not ban coordination in general — much less conversations between each side.

[Republican operative sentenced to 2 years in landmark election case]

Bobby Burchfield, a Republican campaign finance lawyer, said that the clarity of current regulation helps avoid the kind of intrusive investigations into groups, such as the Christian Coalition, that the FEC once pursued. “That had the effect of suppressing and chilling political activity,” he said.

Now, there’s plenty of room to maneuver. Although a campaign cannot share private strategy with a super PAC, it can give a campaign information about its plans, as long the group is not sharing something of value that could be considered a contribution.

The FEC also has given candidates its blessing to appear at super PAC fundraisers, as long as they do not solicit more than $5,000 — a decision that came in response to a query from two Democratic super PACs in 2011.

Taken together, critics say, the narrow rules offer far too many opportunities for candidates and their well-funded outside allies to work in agreement.

The FEC “couldn’t imagine how bold people would be,” said Larry Noble, senior counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, which supports tougher restrictions.

Right to Rise, the super PAC run by longtime Bush adviser Mike Murphy, is set to serve as a massive external ad operation bolstering the former governor’s campaign. Murphy told donors in a recent conference call that before Bush announced his candidacy, the super PAC filmed footage of him that the group plans to use in digital and TV spots, according to an account in BuzzFeed.

“One of the new ideas that, you know, the governor had — he’s such an innovator — is we’re going to be the first super PAC to really be able to do just positive advertising,” Murphy said.

Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for Right to Rise, said that Murphy was referring to “Governor Bush’s historical preference for positive advertising, which was consistent in his previous elections and is no secret.”

Clinton’s campaign is working closely with Correct the Record, a liberal rapid-response group that refashioned itself as a super PAC this year. The group says it can coordinate directly with the campaign under a 2006 FEC rule that made content posted free online off-limits to regulation.

[How a super PAC plans to coordinate directly with Hillary Clinton’s campaign]

Correct the Record has more than 20 staffers and plans to disseminate much of its research on its Web site and through social media.

Any nonpublic information of value that it shares with the Clinton staff will be purchased, according to a campaign official.

Already, partisan critics have pounced, filing complaints with the FEC alleging that the pro-Bush and pro-Clinton super PACs are engaged in illegal coordination.

But if the agency launches an investigation, it would be a first. Since 2010, the FEC has yet to open an investigation into alleged illegal super PAC coordination, closing 29 such complaints. In 28 of those cases, the agency’s general counsel did not recommend pursuing the matters, according to Goodman of the FEC.

“We could capture all of this stuff if we had real rules,” said Fred Wertheimer, a longtime advocate of reducing the influence of big money on politics. “For all practical purposes, there are no prohibitions against coordination.”

===

CU followed by lower ct Speechnow.org

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/03/26/451808/two-year-anniversary-of-speechnoworg-v-fec-ruling/

Two years ago today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling in the Speechnow.org v. FEC which allowed for the creation of independent-expenditure only committees, commonly known as Super PACs. Combined with the unlimited corporate expenditures enabled by the Supreme Court’s earlier Citizens United decision, this case brought the campaign finance system to where it is now: more than $80 million spent already this cycle by Super PACs and more than two-thirds of their funding coming from just 46 rich donors.

opensecrets 8/14 organization donors

1 Fahr LLC/Tom Steyer $20,226,792 $0 $20,226,792 0% 100%

2 City of New York, NY $9,424,788 $500,000 $8,673,678 10% 90%

3 Democratic Governors Assn $8,129,618 $0 $8,129,618 0% 100%

4 Carpenters & Joiners Union $7,256,656 $250,000 $6,906,656 0% 100%

5 National Education Assn $6,452,000 $0 $6,396,750 0% 100%

6 Newsweb Corp $5,650,000 $0 $5,500,000 0% 100%

7 AFL-CIO $5,411,929 $0 $5,410,929 0% 100%

8 Elliott Management $4,837,249 $4,837,249 $0 100% 0%

9 National Assn of Realtors $4,141,562 $0 $0 0% 0%

10 Uline Inc $3,440,000 $3,440,000 $0 100% 0%

11 American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees $3,123,250 $0 $2,983,250 0% 100%

12 Renaissance Technologies $3,020,000 $3,020,000 $0 100% 0%

13 Euclidean Capital $3,000,000 $0 $3,000,000 0% 100%

14 United Steelworkers $2,774,374 $0 $340,000 0% 100%

15 Republican Governors Assn $2,700,000 $2,700,000 $0 100% 0%

16 Jordan Vineyard & Winery $2,012,703 $2,012,703 $0 100% 0%

17 Chartwell Partners $2,000,000 $2,000,000 $0 100% 0%

18 Cooperative of American Physicians $1,987,173 $0 $2,500 0% 100%

19 Plumbers/Pipefitters Union $1,869,944 $0 $1,835,000 0% 100%

20 Jobs & Progress Fund $1,685,000 $1,685,000 $0 100% 0%

21 Laborers Union $1,668,300 $250,000 $1,383,300 20% 80%

22 Baupost Group $1,650,000 $1,450,000 $200,000 90% 10%

23 Alliance Resource Partners $1,525,000 $1,525,000 $0 100% 0%

24 Government Integrity Fund $1,465,000 $1,465,000 $0 100% 0%

25 Stephens Inc $1,460,000 $1,460,000 $0 100% 0%

26 Mostyn Law Firm $1,367,500 $0 $362,500 0% 100%

27 Akt Development $1,357,000 $1,357,000 $0 100% 0%

28 Soros Fund Management $1,250,000 $0 $1,250,000 0% 100%

29 Contran Corp $1,200,000 $1,200,000 $0 100% 0%

30 JW Childs Assoc $1,165,000 $1,165,000 $0 100% 0%

31 Senate Majority PAC $1,123,129 $0 $1,123,129 0% 100%

32 Operating Engineers Union $1,123,000 $258,000 $815,000 20% 80%

33 Perry Homes $1,100,000 $1,100,000 $0 100% 0%

34 Jon Stryker Architecture $1,050,000 $0 $1,050,000 0% 100%

35 Equinox Partners $1,033,724 $1,033,724 $0 100% 0%

36 Citadel LLC $1,025,000 $1,025,000 $0 100% 0%

37 Boies, Schiller & Flexner $1,001,250 $0 $1,001,000 0% 100%

38 Herb & Marion Sandler/Sandler Foundation $1,000,000 $0 $1,000,000 0% 100%

38 National Air Traffic Controllers Assn $1,000,000 $50,000 $950,000 10% 100%

38 Trust Asset Management $1,000,000 $0 $1,000,000 0% 100%

41 American Federation of Teachers $950,000 $0 $900,000 0% 100%

42 American Bridge 21st Century $901,696 $0 $901,696 0% 100%

43 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $792,000 $1,500 $765,500 0% 100%

44 Communications Workers of America $788,850 $0 $788,600 0% 100%

45 American Federation of Govt Employees $781,595 $0 $781,595 0% 100%

46 Marcus & Millichap $750,000 $0 $750,000 0% 100%

47 TD Ameritrade $650,000 $650,000 $0 100% 0%

47 UNITE HERE $650,000 $0 $650,000 0% 100%

49 College Loan Corp $635,000 $635,000 $0 100% 0%

50 Research Affiliates LLC $620,000 $620,000 $0 100% 0%

51 Apercen Partners $600,000 $350,000 $0 100% 0%

51 Campion Advocacy Fund $600,000 $0 $600,000 0% 100

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/superpacs.php

searchable: http://politicalmoneyline.com/?src=rc-post

series: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/04/shadow-money-magic-five-easy-steps.html

===

OS 6/14

Senate Majority PAC $18,043,601 Liberal $28,316,315

Club for Growth Action $5,394,277 Conservative $6,211,925

House Majority PAC $4,077,440 Liberal $15,194,581

American Crossroads $3,861,365 Conservative $11,068,972

Independence USA PAC $2,970,014 Liberal $6,197,700

Ending Spending Fund $2,796,483 Conservative $3,696,929

Kentuckians for Strong Leadership supports McConnell $2,448,318 Conservative $3,329,645

Put Alaska First PAC supports Begich $2,293,811 Liberal $790,500

Values Are Vital opposes Radel $2,138,031 Conservative $2,112,000

Senate Conservatives Action $2,108,298 Conservative $2,366,182

Mississippi Conservatives supports Cochran $1,812,148 Conservative $2,162,143

Service Employees International Union $1,727,059 Liberal $2,598,861

Women Vote! $1,544,809 Liberal $2,623,741

Freedomworks for America $1,364,265 Conservative $2,582,922

National Assn of Realtors $1,355,950 $4,157,787

Americans For Common Sense supports Zeldin $1,330,496 Conservative $867,025

Americans for Progressive Action supports Gomez $1,326,826 Conservative $1,701,311

Liberty & Leadership Fund supports Benacquisto $1,117,981 Conservative $549,569

Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund $1,097,470 Conservative $9,857,176

CE Action Cmte $1,077,013 Liberal $1,972,892

Government Integrity Fund Action Network $1,047,880 Conservative $1,055,000

Citizens for a Working America PAC $1,031,000 Conservative $1,035,000

League of Conservation Voters $799,744 Liberal $1,844,867

American Unity PAC $714,208 Conservative $3,429,015

American Principles Fund $634,983 Conservative $968,824

Defending Main Street $606,818 Conservative $876,773

Mobilization Project supports Booker $532,445 Liberal $577,564

New Republican PAC $507,078 Conservative $1,146,099

Southern Conservatives Fund supports Kingston $492,000 Conservative $0

American Dental Assn $465,679 $153,500

Americas PAC $406,898 Conservative $450,000

Special Operations for America $373,738 Conservative $1,951,594

New York 2014 $372,266 Conservative $410,000

Freedom Pioneers Action Network $345,293 Conservative $60,216

Building a Better PA $342,500 Liberal $0

Now or Never PAC $293,326 Conservative $5,621

American Heartland PAC supports Ernst $246,503 Conservative $205,000

New Hampshire Priorities supports Innis $226,475 Conservative $174,025

US Jobs Council $215,500 Conservative $210,000

Grow NC Strong supports Tillis $199,410 Conservative $224,010

American Commitment Action Fund $191,087 Conservative $205,227

West Main Street Values supports Graham $178,107 Conservative $422,471

Patriot Prosperity PAC $176,987 Conservative $28

Keep Conservatives United $173,071 Conservative $153,750

Spirit of Democracy America $152,392 Conservative $181,375

Pure PAC opposes Peters $151,503 Conservative $155,000

Alaska's Energy / America's Values supports Sullivan $151,482 Conservative $155,100

Ninety Nine Percent supports Lynch $149,855 Liberal $255,250

NextGen Climate Action Cmte $145,684 Liberal $16,882,175

Planned Parenthood Votes $144,420 Liberal $2,632,745

Madison Action Fund $134,807 Conservative $175,450

Working for Us PAC $123,358 Liberal $0

Democracy Values Fund supports Turner $121,836 Conservative $135,000

Faith Family Freedom Fund $107,387 Conservative $19,268

A Bright Future $106,750 $109,980

Responsible Leadership For America supports Jorgensen $106,634 Conservative $195,575

America's Next Generation $106,132 Conservative $740,003

Progressive Kick $105,210 Liberal $277,439

Hometown Freedom Action Network $90,000 Conservative $0

Cmte for a Better Massachusetts supports Gomez $83,326 Conservative $95,700

Big Sky Freedom Fund supports Stapleton $83,090 Conservative $90,000

Freedom Frontier Action Network supports Mooney $82,253 Conservative $90,065

Women Speak Out PAC $80,681 Conservative $450,015

American Jobs Council $76,623 Conservative $85,100

Ensuring a Conservative Nebraska supports Osborn $70,900 Conservative $100,000

Empower Nebraska $67,080 Conservative $106,225

Kansans for Responsible Government $63,367 $0

Our Voice PAC $62,559 Conservative $186,149

New Prosperity Foundation $53,000 Conservative $189,026

Women Lead PAC $50,784 $208,469

Committee to Elect a Progressive Congress supports Sciortino $49,473 Liberal $57,500

Civic Innovation USA $48,944 $116,373

Principled Conservatives of Colorado $48,511 Conservative $0

CREDO Mobile Super PAC $44,318 Liberal $386,748

Leadership America PAC $43,823 Liberal $68,795

New Hampshire PAC to Save America $41,366 Conservative $0

Working for Working Americans $40,819 Liberal $4,580,208

Vote to Reduce Debt $40,000 Conservative $0

LetsAllVote.org $39,860 Conservative $0

AFL-CIO Workers' Voices PAC $37,591 Liberal $5,241,249

Concerned American Voters $35,024 Conservative $1,000

Conservatives Acting Together PAC $33,254 Conservative $22,950

Blue America PAC IE Cmte $32,547 Liberal $12,020

Progressive USA $32,381 Liberal $46,572

America's Liberty PAC $32,091 Conservative $275,089

Campaign for American Values $28,517 Conservative $167,787

Republican Super PAC $20,736 Conservative $31,000

Antelope Valley Taxpayers Assn $20,622 $0

National Right to Life Victory Fund $16,020 Conservative $399,645

South Forward IE PAC $16,003 Liberal $53,612

Opportunity Alliance PAC $15,000 $0

Conservative Strikeforce Super PAC supports Smith $12,294 Conservative $16,407

Coastal Conservative Fund $11,925 Conservative $30,000

Carolina Patriot Alliance $11,500 Conservative $20,000

Environmental Majority $9,121 Liberal $70,931

NEA Advocacy Fund $8,874 Liberal $5,319,546

Gem State Prosperity Fund supports Simpson $8,700 Conservative $108,000

Human Action Super PAC supports Paul $8,388 Conservative $15,148

Citizens for Responsible Leadership supports Matheny $8,182 Conservative $0

18-29 PAC $7,000 Conservative $15,022

If He Votes Like That in Salem opposes Conger $6,860 Conservative $106,000

New House Independent Expenditure Cmte $6,771 Liberal $34,628

Prescription for America's Future $6,425 Conservative $5,000

CatholicVote.org $5,836 Conservative $70,845

Revive America PAC $5,300 Conservative $148,134

America 360 Cmte $5,000 Conservative $0

We Deserve Better $3,900 Conservative $0

FedUp PAC $3,900 Conservative $0

Cowboy PAC supports Cheney $3,590 Conservative $38,500

Our America Inc $715 Conservative $3,000

United Mine Workers of America Power PAC $374 Liberal $0

Courage Campaign Super PAC $120 Liberal $22,745

Human Rights Campaign Equality Votes $50 Liberal $5,280

Coalition for Kentucky Job Creation $0 $0

Preserve the Constitution PAC $0 $0

Time for Hillary $0 Liberal $0

Campaigning For Justice $0 $0

Game Changer PAC $0 $0

A Kinda Sorta Better America Soon $0 $0

Wolfheel PAC supports Hagan $0 Liberal $0

Term Limits March $0 $0

DGA Action Individual $0 Liberal $0

Bitcoin Voters PAC $0 $0

Christians for $0 Conservative $0

Free Market Victory Fund $0 $0

Prokids PAC $0 $0

Right Turn Hawaii $0 Conservative $0

Cmte to Elect 51 $0 Conservative $0

Americans in Action $0 $0

Victory California $0 $0

Go Mississippi $0 Conservative $0

Gulf Coast Conservatives $0 Conservative $0

Carolinians for Common Sense Solutions $0 $0

We Vote Project $0 $0

Mallot-One Alaska PAC $0 $0

Voices for Our Generation $0 $0

Heartland Campaign Fund opposes Franken $0 Liberal $0

America for Technocratic Action $0 $0

Worker's Voice (OPEIU) $0 Liberal $0

Georgia Women Vote! supports Nunn $0 Liberal $0

Fund for Economic Prosperity Action $0 Conservative $0

Impact America Fund $0 Conservative $0

Unitas Inc $0 $0

For Our America PAC $0 Conservative $0

Ocean Majority PAC $0 $0

North Carolina Golden Crescent Fund $0 $0

Young Conservatives of America $0 Conservative $0

Enough is Enough PAC $0 $0

Jayhawk - Wildcat Fund- Action Network $0 $0

Montanans for Limited Government $0 Conservative $35,000

Detroit Forward-Federal $0 $0

American Opportunity PAC $0 Liberal $0

Urban Prosperity $0 $0

Climate Hawks Vote $0 $0

Jobs for Harlem $0 $100

Just Say No To Hillary PAC $0 Conservative $0

Dick Morris' Just Say no to Hillary PAC $0 Conservative $0

West Virginians for Results $0 $0

True Louisiana Leadership PAC $0 $0

Capitalist PAC $0 $0

Majority Rules PAC $0 $0

Women for a Strong America $0 $0

R2BNation Super PAC $0 $0

Big Data PAC $0 $0

Empower Central Valley $0 Conservative $0

Families for Liberty $0 $0

10 ^ 9+ $0 $0

1911 United $0 Liberal $20,808

420PAC.ORG $0 $0

50 State Strategy $0 Liberal $6,757

77 Million Republicans Fund $0 $441

9-9-9 FUND $0 Conservative $0

A Cantor Out of Tune $0 $0

A Promise to Our Children $0 Conservative $0

A Responsible Future $0 $0

A Super PAC for Hire $0 $40

Abamcis Securing the Second Amendment for America $0 $0

Abbey Road $0 $0

Abolish Recalls $0 $0

Accomplish Our Mission $0 Conservative $0

Accountability 2010 $0 Liberal $0

Accountability Coalition $0 $0

Accountability Project $0 $0

Action4Liberty $0 Conservative $13,691

Adelante Boricua $0 $0

Advancing Freedom Action Network $0 $25,000

Advancing International Relations $0 $0

Affordable Health Care for America $0 $0

African American Super PAC $0 $0

Agnst Americans/do not Recycle/Misspell Bengazi $0 $0

Akyumen Society $0 $0

Alabama Democratic Majority $0 $18,599

Alabama Horse Assn $0 $0

Alaska Horse Assn $0 $0

Alaska SalmonPAC $0 $0

Alaskans Standing Together $0 Conservative $0

All Citizens for Mississippi supports Cochran $0 Conservative $0

Allete Inc $0 $38,834

Alliance for A Better Minnesota $0 Liberal $0

Alliance for the Next Generation $0 $7,500

America 365 $0 $0

America Forever $0 $0

America Friendship $0 $0

America Matters $0 $0

America on the Move $0 Conservative $0

America Shining $0 Liberal $10

America Unleashed Super PAC $0 Conservative $50,000

America Votes Action Fund $0 Liberal $420,725

America's Families First Action Fund $0 Liberal $0

America's Road Ahead Fund $0 Conservative $21,940

America's Shared Values $0 $2,560

America's Super PAC/Eliminatn/America's Super PACs $0 $0

American Alliance for Africa $0 $0

American Bridge 21st Century $0 Liberal $8,547,456

American Citizens of Modest Means $0 $0

American Civil Rights Protection Super PAC $0 $0

American Conservative Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

American Conservative Union Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

American Crosswords $0 $0

American Dreams for Economic Development Super PAC $0 $0

American Electoral College Super PAC $0 $0

American Federation of Govt Employees $0 Liberal $496,093

American Foundations Cmte $0 Conservative $82,500

American Freedom Super PAC $0 $0

American Horse Assn $0 $0

American Human Rights Defense Super PAC $0 $0

American Jobs & Growth Alliance $0 Conservative $0

American Latino Alliance $0 $0

American LeadHERship PAC $0 $117,991

American League of Charitable Organizations $0 $0

American Legacy Alliance $0 Conservative $0

American Liberty PAC $0 $87,820

American Middle Class Causes Super PAC $0 $0

American Nurses Assn $0 Liberal $0

American People Today $0 $0

American Principles Super PAC $0 Conservative $25

American Priorities Joint Fundraising Committee $0 Liberal $0

American Priorities Super PAC $0 $0

American Sunrise $0 Liberal $1,177

American Tiger PAC $0 $0

American Tomorrow $0 $0

American Values $0 Liberal $0

American Values Coalition $0 Liberal $500

American Veto $0 $0

American Way Foundation Cmte $0 $0

American Wild Horse & Burro Assn $0 $0

American Working Families $0 Liberal $1,237,988

Americans for a Greater Voice $0 $0

Americans for a Better Future $0 Liberal $330,100

Americans for a Better Prosperity Super PAC $0 $0

Americans for a Better Tomorrow Period $0 $0

Americans for a Better Tomorrow Today $0 Liberal $0

Americans for a Good Presidential Choice Super PAC $0 $0

Americans for a Strong National Defense $0 $0

Americans for a Stronger Economy PAC $0 $0

Americans for Accountability in Leadership $0 Conservative $2,146

Americans for Affordable Housing $0 $0

Americans for America $0 $0

Americans for America PAC $0 $750

Americans for Cannabis Reform $0 $0

Americans for Conservative Leadership $0 $0

Americans for Excellence in Public Education $0 $0

Americans for Fairness & Security PAC $0 $4,355

Americans for Flat & Fair Tax Equality $0 $0

Americans for Freedom & Progress $0 $0

Americans for Gary Johnson $0 $0

Americans for Growth, Opportunity & Prosperity $0 Conservative $21,500

Americans for Liberty $0 $1,137

Americans for Logic $0 $0

Americans for Marco Rubio Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

Americans for More Rhombus $0 $0

Americans for New Leadership $0 Conservative $0

Americans for New Leadership in America Super PAC $0 $0

Americans for Posterity $0 $0

Americans for Prison Reform $0 $0

Americans for Real Change $0 $0

Americans for Responsible Solutions $0 $15,042,992

Americans for Rick Perry $0 Conservative $380

Americans for Solutions $0 $0

Americans for Tax Reform PAC $0 Conservative $87,950

Americans for the Conservation of Liberty $0 $0

Americans for the Protection of Life $0 Conservative $100

Americans for the Win Tomorrow $0 $0

Americans United for a Stronger Economy $0 $0

Americans Wanting Truth in Politics $0 Conservative $0

AmericaRisingPAC.org $0 $820,114

Amigos PAC $0 $0

AntiSuperPAC $0 $0

Arguemax.com $0 Conservative $0

Arizona Grassroots Action PAC $0 Conservative $50,000

Arizona Horse Assn $0 $0

Arizonans for Jobs $0 Conservative $240

Arkansas Horizon supports Cotton $0 Conservative $98,000

Arkansas Horse Assn $0 $0

Article II Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

Asian American Super PAC $0 $0

Asian Americans for Peace & Prosperity $0 $0

Autism Super PAC $0 $0

Battleground Texas $0 $3,114,151

Bearded Entrepreneurs for Advacement/Resp Democ $0 $52

Bears for a Bearable Tomorrow $0 $0

Because We Can PAC $0 $0

Believe in America $0 $0

Benghazi Truth PAC $0 Conservative $0

Better Tomorrow $0 $0

Bipartisanship is Good PAC $0 $0

Bitcoin Super PAC $0 $100

Black Men Vote $0 Liberal $0

Blue Pelican PAC supports Landrieu $0 Liberal $10,010

Blue South $0 Liberal $55

Blue South Project Super PAC $0 Liberal $0

Blue States Victory Super PAC $0 $0

Bluegrass Rural PAC $0 Liberal $5,240

Bluegrass Votes $0 $0

Blyth America $0 $0

Brady Bunch PAC $0 Liberal $0

BRAT PAC $0 $0

Brighter Future Fund $0 Conservative $100

Bringin' Sexy PAC $0 $0

Bucket Tea Party $0 Liberal $0

Build the Keystone Pipeline $0 Conservative $0

Building a Better Bluegrass $0 $0

Business Owners for Obama $0 $30

CADET $0 $0

Cain Connections PAC $0 Conservative $89,219

Cal Voters for Honest Government supports Baca $0 Liberal $5,100

California Assn of Physician Groups $0 $1,802

California Conservative PAC $0 Conservative $0

California for Liberty $0 $20

California Horse Assn $0 $0

California Republican Assembly $0 Conservative $0

Californians for a Stronger America $0 Conservative $0

Californians for Water Conservation $0 $0

Californians/Fiscally Conservative Ldshp $0 Conservative $1

Cambodian-Americans PAC $0 $0

Campaign for Primary Accountability $0 $41,166

Carmen's List $0 Liberal $0

Carolina Conservatives United $0 Conservative $0

Cascadia PAC $0 $0

Catholics for Common Sense $0 $0

Cats For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow $0 $0

CAUSE PAC $0 Liberal $0

Central Valley Independent PAC $0 Conservative $1,000

Central Valley PAC $0 $500

ChallengeDC $0 Conservative $0

Champions for Change $0 Conservative $7,575

Character Counts $0 Conservative $0

China Watch $0 $0

Choose Your Movement $0 $0

Christian Super PAC $0 $0

Christianity in Action $0 $0

Christians for a Change $0 Liberal $500

Christine PAC $0 Conservative $89,351

Citizen Legislature Act $0 $0

Citizens Advancing Oklahoma $0 $0

Citizens Against Super PACs $0 $0

Citizens Alliance for Better Candidates $0 $0

Citizens Benighted $0 $0

Citizens for America's Future $0 $20

Citizens for Better Cities $0 $23,458

Citizens for Conservative Leadership $0 Conservative $255,000

Citizens for Economic & National Security $0 Conservative $0

Citizens for Ethics in Government $0 Liberal $277

Citizens for Good Government $0 $540

Citizens for Immigration Justice $0 $0

Citizens for Prosperity & Good Government $0 Conservative $0

Citizens for Responsible Government $0 $0

Citizens for Strength & Security $0 Liberal $0

Citizens Protest Non Profit $0 Liberal $0

Citizens to Save America $0 $7,308

Citizens United for Educaiton $0 $3,950

Citizens United Super PAC $0 Conservative $1,500

Civil Liberties Assault Fund $0 $12,515

Civil Liberty United $0 $0

CleanSlateNow.org $0 $24,571

Clear the Way $0 $0

Cmte for a New Start in the Right Direction $0 $67

Committee for Economic Growth & Social Justice $0 $278,409

Cmte for Justice & Fairness $0 Liberal $0

Cmte for the Re-Election of the President $0 $0

Committee to Protect America's Allies $0 $0

Coalition for American Values $0 Conservative $1,720

Coalition for Women's Economic Development $0 $0

Coalition of Americans for Political Equality $0 Conservative $0

College Students for a Better America $0 $0

Colorado Future Fund $0 Conservative $0

Colorado Horse Assn $0 $0

Common Sense Conservative Cmte $0 Conservative $0

Common Sense For Americans PAC $0 $0

Communications Workers of America $0 Liberal $550,000

Community Coalition $0 $0

Concerned Taxpayers of America $0 Conservative $2,500

Concerned Voters for the Arts $0 $0

Congressional Leadership Fund $0 Conservative $1,319,028

Connecticut Horse Assn $0 $0

Connecticut Taxpayers Alliance $0 $0

Connecticut's Future PAC $0 Liberal $5,292

Conservative Action Cmte $0 Conservative $1,470

Conservative Action Network $0 Conservative $1,669

Conservative Media Action Cmte $0 Conservative $36

Conservative Renewal $0 Conservative $2,550

Conservative Solutions PAC $0 Conservative $10,100

Conservative Values Project $0 Conservative $4,199

Conservative Victory Project $0 Conservative $18,673

Conservative Warchest PAC $0 Conservative $7,050

Conservatives for Coal $0 Conservative $0

Conservatives for Freedom $0 Conservative $0

Constitutional PAC $0 $0

Cooperative of American Physicians $0 $2,005,348

Core Values PAC $0 $0

Crescent City Super PAC $0 $0

Crossroads Generation $0 Conservative $52,836

Crush Graham Cracker PAC $0 Liberal $2,694

CT Black Republicans & Conservatives $0 Conservative $0

Damian Palmer & Jack Pilgrim for a Better America $0 $0

Davis Advisory Group $0 $0

Defeat Hillary Super PAC $0 $0

Defend Our Homes $0 Liberal $0

Defenders of the Republic $0 $1,243

Defenders of Wildlife Action Cmte $0 Liberal $350

Defending Our Values $0 $0

Delaware Horse Assn $0 $0

Delta Diamond PAC supports Pryor $0 Liberal $3,000

Democracy Demands $0 $0

Democracy Stewards $0 $0

Democrats Against the Re-Election of Barack Obama $0 $0

Democrats Unlimited $0 $0

Detroiters Vote $0 $150

DGA Action $0 Liberal $10,028,192

Direct Selling Empowers Americans $0 $0

Disabled Citizens United $0 $0

Disassembly Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

DogPAC $0 Liberal $1,496

Don't Drink the Tea Party $0 $0

Downtown for Democracy $0 Liberal $0

Draft Bernie $0 Liberal $3,538

Draft Ted Cruz for President $0 Conservative $27,656

Dread Scott Super PAC $0 $0

Eastgate Victory $0 $36,949

Economic Innovation Action Fund $0 Liberal $0

Economic Strategy Group $0 $0

Elect a New Congress $0 $19,200

Emergency Cmte for Israel $0 Conservative $0

Emerges.Com PAC $0 $1,600

Empower Citizens Network $0 Conservative $50,900

Empower Iowa $0 Conservative $0

EmpowerMN.org $0 Conservative $18,136

EmpowerWI.org $0 Conservative $5,010

End Gridlock PAC $0 $675,005

End the Gridlock $0 Liberal $9,058

Endorse Liberty $0 Conservative $25

Energize PAC $0 $0

Engage Nevada Action $0 $25,000

Environment America Action Fund $0 Liberal $35,500

Environment Colorado Action Cmte $0 Liberal $0

Environmental Action PAC $0 $134,329

Equality for All $0 $0

Excellence in Government PAC $0 $520

Export USA Now $0 $0

Exposing Marxists PAC $0 $0

Extremely R Republicans $0 $0

Fair Share Action $0 Liberal $11,088

Farm Bureau PAC $0 Conservative $450

Fat Old Man PAC $0 $0

Faux News Super PAC $0 $0

Fight for the Dream $0 Conservative $0

Fight for Tomorrow $0 $376,013

FightBigotry.com $0 $0

Fightin' 9th PAC $0 $0

First in Science PAC $0 $0

FirstPAC for Political Freedom $0 $1,837

Fiscal Advocacy Fund $0 $100

Fix America Super PAC $0 $0

Florida Horse Assn $0 $0

Flyover Super PAC $0 $0

Forest Landowners Super PAC $0 $0

Forward Massachusetts $0 $0

Forward United Campaign Cmte $0 $0

Foundation for a Greater America $0 $23,159

Fraternity for All Super PAC $0 $0

Free Enterprise Leadership Initiative $0 $199

Freedom & Liberty PAC $0 Conservative $0

Freedom & Opportunity PAC $0 Conservative $4,089

Freedom Born Fund $0 Conservative $317

Freedom Fund for America's Future $0 Conservative $0

Freedom Fund of North America $0 $5,908

Freedom of Web $0 $0

Freedom PAC $0 Conservative $0

Freedom Partners Action Fund $0 Conservative $0

Freedom Path Action Network $0 Conservative $106

Freedom Plains Action Network $0 Conservative $0

Freedom Trail Action Network $0 Conservative $65

Freedom's Frontier supports Treadwell $0 Conservative $800

Friends for a Democratic White House $0 Liberal $0

Friends for Democracy in Libya $0 $0

Friends of the Majority $0 Conservative $0

Friends of Traditional Banking $0 $70,390

Friends United $0 Liberal $0

Full Time America $0 $0

Fund for Louisiana's Future supports Vitter $0 Conservative $1,667,073

Fund for Positive Liberty $0 $10

Garden State Liberty $0 $3,133

Gates of Learning $0 $0

Geaux PAC $0 $130

General Elector $0 $0

Genesis 1213 $0 $0

Georgia Freedom PAC $0 Conservative $0

Georgia Horse Assn $0 $0

Georgians Together supports Nunn $0 Liberal $40,000

Get Out The Vote PAC - (GOTV PAC) $0 $0

Global Democratic PAC $0 Liberal $0

Global Grand Challenges $0 $0

Go Forward America Super PAC $0 $0

Goal WestPAC $0 $70,944

Grand Old Principles $0 $0

Grassroots Action PAC $0 $0

Grassroots for Liberty $0 Conservative $0

Great American Super PAC $0 $0

Great Lakes Super PAC $0 $0

Green Home Relief $0 $0

Grow PAC $0 Conservative $2,891

Grow WV $0 $0

Guardians of Democracy $0 $0

Gulfstream America Super PAC $0 $0

Hall & Oates Fans for America $0 $0

Haphak America $0 $795

HappyPAC $0 $39

Hardworking Americans Cmte $0 Conservative $0

Harrison County WV Victory Fund $0 $0

Hawaii Horse Assn $0 $0

Heart of America PAC $0 Liberal $5,013

Heartland Project $0 $0

Heartland Resurgence $0 $0

Hillary 2016 $0 Liberal $2,000

Hillary Project $0 $0

HillaryClintonSuperPAC $0 $0

HillaryFTW $0 $0

HillaryPAC $0 Liberal $3,692

Hispanic Leadership Fund Action $0 Conservative $0

Hispanic Vote $0 Conservative $0

Hitch a Wang Bang Noodle 911 Night Long $0 $0

Homeowners Super PAC $0 $0

Humane United Group Super PAC $0 $0

Humans for Earth's Rights $0 $0

HungerPAC $0 $0

Hunter Defense Fund $0 $543,091

I'm a Good Dog PAC $0 $0

icPurple $0 $797

Idaho Horse Assn $0 $0

Idaho's Youth $0 $0

Illinois Horse Assn $0 $0

Immigration911 $0 Conservative $25,200

Impact Super PAC $0 $0

Improving Life in the Americas & Caribbean $0 $0

In God We Trust $0 $0

In God We Trust Super PAC $0 $0

In Our Mother's Name $0 $1

Inaction is Apathy $0 $0

Independence Virginia PAC $0 Conservative $9,416

Independent Leadership For New Hampshire PAC $0 $0

Independent Source $0 Liberal $0

Independent Voices PAC $0 $0

Independents for Williamson supports Williamson $0 $0

Indiana Horse Assn $0 $0

Indiana Republican Assembly Super PAC $0 Conservative $29,344

Integrity Matters PAC $0 $0

Intl Alliance Theatrical Stage Employees $0 Liberal $185,220

Iowa Horse Assn $0 $0

Ipso Facto $0 $0

It's Now or Never $0 Conservative $0

JAN PAC $0 Conservative $274,837

Javelin PAC $0 $0

Jewish Council for Education & Research $0 Liberal $1,327

Jobs for America's Future PAC $0 $0

Joe Six PAC $0 $0

Bolton for America Super PAC $0 Conservative $1,300,535

Just Drink the Koolaid $0 $0

Just the Facts PAC $0 $0

Kansas Horse Assn $0 $0

Keeping USA Strong $0 $0

Kentucky Horse Assn $0 $0

KIMPAC $0 $0

King of IL $0 $0

KTADA PAC $0 $0

LA Forward $0 $5,000

Ladies First Super PAC $0 $0

Lantern Project $0 Liberal $0

Larry & Charmaine's Excellent Best Ever Super PAC $0 $0

Latino Alliance Network $0 $0

Latino American Super PAC $0 $0

Latino District Defense Fund $0 $0

Latino Empowerment PAC $0 $0

Latino Values $0 $0

Latinos For 2020 $0 $0

Leader of the PAC $0 $0

Leaders for Families $0 Conservative $0

Leadership America PAC/Louisiana $0 Liberal $0

Leadership America PAC/North Carolina $0 Liberal $0

Leadership Matters $0 $0

Leadership Oregon Can Trust supports Wehby $0 Conservative $0

Legalize Marijuana Super PAC.org $0 $0

LetOurPresidentLead.com $0 Liberal $0

LGBT Super PAC $0 $0

Libertarian Action Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

Libertas Institute $0 $0

Liberty & Action Fund $0 $857

Liberty Action PAC $0 Conservative $72,957

Liberty for Everyone Super PAC $0 $0

Liberty in Pink $0 $0

Liberty or Death $0 $0

Liberty Principles PAC $0 Conservative $1,787,478

Liberty Through Grassroots Efforts $0 $0

Liberty4Florida $0 Conservative $300,000

LIFE CAUSE $0 $0

Life PAC $0 $0

Lincoln Club of Orange County IE Cmte $0 Conservative $0

Live & Let Love $0 $0

Live Free or Die PAC $0 $0

Local Voices $0 Liberal $13,139

Loud PAC $0 $0

Louisiana Horse Assn $0 $0

Louisiana Prosperity Fund $0 Liberal $0

Louisiana Truth PAC $0 Liberal $29,665

Lunch Pail Republicans $0 Conservative $8,000

M-Pack Super PAC $0 Liberal $7,600

Madam Hillary 2016 $0 Liberal $0

Madison PAC $0 Conservative $0

Madison Tea Party $0 $0

Maine Horse Assn $0 $0

Majority Action $0 Liberal $100

Majority Project $0 $0

Make America Strong & Secure $0 $0

Make Education Affordable $0 $0

Make Us Great Again $0 Conservative $0

MarijuanaIsMedicine $0 $0

Maryland Horse Assn $0 $0

Marylanders for Better Americans in Maryland $0 $0

Massachusetts Horse Assn $0 $0

Matthew 25 Network $0 Liberal $0

Mayday PAC $0 $0

MCBlackPAC $0 $0

Media for America PAC $0 $0

Media Fund $0 $0

Medicinal Cannabis Super PAC $0 $57,690

Men Against Prostitution & Trafficking $0 $0

MI 2014 $0 $0

Michigan Horse Assn $0 $0

Michigan Pipe Trade Assn $0 $107,425

Middle Class Super PAC $0 $0

Middle of the PAC $0 $0

Middle Resolution $0 Conservative $4,615

Millenials for America $0 $0

Millennials for Freedom $0 $0

Millennials in Action $0 $0

Millennials Rising $0 $0

Milwaukeeans For A Better Tomorrow Tomorrow $0 $0

Minnesota Horse Assn $0 $0

Mission: Equality & Democracy $0 $0

Mississippi Horse Assn $0 $0

Missouri Horse Assn $0 $0

Moderately Speaking $0 $0

Monstah PAC $0 $50

Montana Growth Foundation $0 Conservative $2,696

Montana Horse Assn $0 $0

Montana Solutions $0 Conservative $23,000

More Women in Congress Super PAC $0 $0

Morning in America PAC $0 Conservative $0

Morningstar Coalition $0 $0

Moving Americans Forward $0 $0

Moving Arizona Forward $0 Liberal $0

Moving Ohio Forward Action Fund $0 Liberal $12,843

Munoz Group $0 $5,770

Music PAC $0 $0

Muslim American Vote $0 $0

My America $0 Liberal $8,314

My Cat Xavier for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow $0 $0

National Draft Ben Carson for President Cmte $0 $3,875,863

National Hispanic American Alliance $0 Conservative $0

National Horizon $0 Conservative $0

National Nurses United $0 Liberal $55,300

National Republican Victory Fund $0 Conservative $4,957

National Security for America $0 $0

Nebraska Horse Assn $0 $0

NEO Common Sense $0 $0

Nevada Horse Assn $0 $0

New America Cmte $0 $0

New Democracy PAC $0 $0

New Directions for America $0 Liberal $0

New Hampshire Horse Assn $0 $0

New Independent Party $0 $0

New Jersey Agenda PAC $0 $0

New Jersey Horse Assn $0 $0

New Jersey Republican Pro-Life Coalition $0 Conservative $3,078

New Majority for Massachusetts $0 $0

New Mexico Horse Assn $0 $0

New Opportunities PAC $0 $0

New Power PAC $0 Liberal $668

New Virginia PAC $0 Conservative $0

New Voice New Vision NoVa $0 $0

New York Horse Assn $0 $0

New York Progress $0 $0

No 2 Sides PAC $0 $0

No Fools Allowed Super PAC $0 $0

No More Timeline Pages $0 $0

No More Wimpouts $0 $0

No Negotiations PAC $0 Conservative $0

NonConformists United $0 $0

North Carolina Horse Assn $0 $0

North Carolina Women Vote! supports Hagan $0 Liberal $10,000

North Central WV Tea Party $0 Conservative $0

North Dakota Horse Assn $0 $0

Northeast for Workers & Economic Development $0 $0

Occupy Obamacare $0 Conservative $0

Occupy Politics $0 Liberal $0

Ohio Families United $0 Liberal $38,014

Ohio Horse Assn $0 $0

Ohio State Tea Party $0 Conservative $0

Ohioans for Opportunity $0 Conservative $0

Oil Field Union Local 5150 $0 $0

Oklahoma Forward $0 Liberal $0

Oklahoma Horse Assn $0 $0

OKPAC $0 $0

One America Fund $0 Conservative $0

One Tax Initiative $0 $0

One Voice of Many Independent Expenditure PAC $0 $200

Opportunity for All $0 $0

Oregon Horse Assn $0 $0

Organizing for Progress $0 $2,020

Our Country Our Voice $0 $0

Our Destiny PAC $0 Conservative $0

Our Washington First PAC $0 $0

PA Victory Fund $0 $0

PAC Your Bong $0 $0

Painters & Allied Trades District Council 50 $0 Liberal $0

Palmetto Conservatives Fund $0 Conservative $0

Parents for a Brighter Future $0 $0

Pass the Torch $0 $455

Patriot Majority $0 Liberal $65,250

Patriot Next Super PAC $0 $0

Patriots Against Tax Tyrants $0 Conservative $0

Patriots for a Better America $0 $690

Patriots for Freedom $0 Conservative $0

Patriots Fund $0 Conservative $80

Peaceful Americans Against War Violence $0 $0

Penn Staters for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow $0 $0

Pennsylvania Horse Assn $0 $0

Pennsylvania Prosperity $0 $0

People's Majority $0 Conservative $75,270

People's Super PAC $0 $0

Pep Rally $0 $0

Playoff PAC $0 $0

Pledge 26 - Americans for Safe Schools $0 $0

Polish American Leadership PAC $0 $141,290

Political Action Cartoons $0 $0

Political Progress $0 $0

Political Super PAC $0 $0

Politics Reimagined $0 $50,617

Positive Volition $0 $0

Preserve America's Future $0 $25,168

Pride of America $0 $0

Principled Leadership Fund $0 $51,300

Priorities USA Action $0 Liberal $360,199

Pro-Jobs Pro-Kentucky $0 $0

Progress Connecticut $0 Liberal $220

Progress for American Indians Blacks & Hispanics $0 $0

Progress for Washington $0 Liberal $0

Progress Kentucky $0 $14,718

Progressing Our Liberties $0 $116

Prog Ctzns United Changing Am's Marijuana Policies $0 $100

Progressive Colorado PAC $0 Liberal $0

Progressive Independent Cmte $0 Liberal $0

Progressives for Prosperity $0 Liberal $0

ProgressOhio $0 Liberal $0

Project 51 $0 $10,100

ProjectXXAct $0 $450

Proper Role of Government Action Fund $0 Conservative $2,353

Prosperity First $0 Conservative $612

Prosperity for Michigan $0 Conservative $0

Prosperity USA $0 $0

Protect Alaska's Future $0 $0

Protect America Today $0 Conservative $10,623

Protect Our Schools Fund $0 Conservative $2,000

Protect the Harvest PAC $0 $0

Protecting America's Retirees $0 Liberal $0

Protecting Choice in California $0 Liberal $7,084

Protecting Our Vote $0 Liberal $0

Public Interest PAC $0 Conservative $0

Puppet PAC $0 $0

Purple PAC $0 $576,145

Putting America First $0 Conservative $0

Racine Tea Party $0 Conservative $304

Racism Hurts $0 $0

Rahway Moves Forward $0 $1,000

Raising Red $0 Conservative $2,906

Rand PAC 2016 $0 $1,328

Raptors for Jesus $0 $0

Rauhmel Fox is for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow $0 $0

Reach Liberty $0 $0

Reaching Stars - Securing Our Future $0 $0

Ready for Christie PAC $0 Conservative $334

Real Conservatives National Cmte $0 $55,553

Real Conservatives US $0 $1,504

Rebuild Ohio $0 Liberal $160,000

Reclaiming Freedom PAC $0 Conservative $18,075

Red States Victory Super PAC $0 $0

Refresh America PAC $0 Conservative $0

Regular Folks of the Range $0 $0

Renew Delaware $0 Conservative $0

Renew Our Hope $0 $0

Renew USA PAC $0 $0

Representative America $0 $0

Representing Reality $0 $0

Republican Attorneys General Assn $0 Conservative $0

Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund $0 Conservative $0

Republican Truth Squad $0 Conservative $0

Republican Union PAC $0 Conservative $0

Republican Women Alliance $0 Conservative $0

Republican Youth for a Conservative Tomorrow $0 $0

Republicans for Immigration Reform $0 $307,545

Rescue the Senate $0 $16,238

Resounding Books PAC $0 $5,581

Restart Congress $0 Conservative $495

Restore America's Voice $0 Conservative $2,269,392

Restore American Labor Force $0 $0

Restore Bankng Rules $0 $0

Restore New England $0 $150

Restore Our America $0 Conservative $0

Restore Our Country Super PAC $0 $0

Restore Our Future $0 Conservative $700,645

Restore Our Hope $0 $0

Restore Our Republic $0 $136,358

Restore Trust in City Hall $0 $0

Restoring America $0 Conservative $65,653

Restoring Arizona's Integrity $0 Conservative $0

Rethink PAC $0 Liberal $0

Revitalize America $0 $0

RGA Right Direction $0 Conservative $2,077,109

Rhode Island Horse Assn $0 $0

Right Focus $0 Conservative $185

Right Tax Inc $0 $0

Rock the Red PAC $0 Conservative $0

Friends of Bartlett $0 Conservative $0

Romney's Dog House $0 $0

Ron Paul Volunteers $0 Conservative $0

Russia Watch $0 $0

Saberpac.org $0 $1,445

Safe Nation PAC $0 Conservative $0

San Diegans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow $0 $0

Santa Rita Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

Saving Florida's Future $0 Liberal $0

Science! $0 $0

Scientific Advancement for America $0 $0

Secretive Politics $0 $0

Secure America's Borders $0 $0

Securing Our Schools $0 $0

Select Our America $0 $0

SenatePAC $0 $11,337

SHH PAC $0 $150

Sierra Club Independent Action $0 Liberal $21,318

Silicon Valley Super PAC $0 $0

Single Subject Amendment $0 $6,330

Singularity $0 $0

Slam Dunks, Fireworks & Eagles $0 $0

Small Business - Backbone of America $0 $0

Small Business Political Alliance $0 Conservative $900

Small Business Super PAC $0 $0

SmallBizAdvocates.org $0 $0

Smart Cannabis Reform $0 $0

Softer Voices $0 Conservative $0

Soldier PAC $0 $0

Solutions 2012 $0 Conservative $0

Sons of Liberty for this Generation $0 Conservative $0

SOS for Democracy $0 Liberal $0

SOS4SOS PAC $0 Conservative $1,100

Sound from the Ground $0 $425

South Carolina Horse Assn $0 $0

South Dakota Horse Assn $0 $0

Sovereignty Matters $0 $0

Soy Americano $0 $0

Space PAC $0 $0

Speak Out For America $0 Conservative $0

Special Corp for Ethics & Justice in America $0 $0

Special Corporation for Ethics/Justice in America $0 $0

SpeechNow.org $0 Conservative $0

Spend Smart America $0 $0

Spirit of America Solutions $0 Conservative $0

Stand with America $0 Conservative $0

Standing for Liberty $0 $0

Standing for Wisconsin Families $0 $75

StandLouder.com PAC $0 $0

Start Up America Super PAC $0 $0

Steadman Group $0 $0

Stem Super PAC $0 $0

Stop Iran $0 Conservative $0

Stop North Korea $0 $0

Stop Public Unions Now $0 Conservative $542

Strategy for America's Future $0 $0

Strong America Now $0 Conservative $40

Strong Economy for Massachusetts $0 Conservative $21

Strong Philippines Movement $0 $0

Strong Utah $0 Conservative $0

Stronger Together $0 Liberal $0

Student Network for Action & Progress $0 Liberal $354

Student Super PAC $0 $0

Student Voice Project $0 $0

Students for Progress $0 $80

Students, Mothers & Concerned Citizens $0 $0

Suburban Voters for Choice $0 Liberal $0

Sunny Isles PAC $0 $0

Super 6 PAC $0 $0

Super Ninja PAC $0 $0

Super PAC for America $0 Conservative $60,897

Super PAC for Change $0 $0

Super PAC for the of America $0 $0

Super PAC for Women $0 $0

Super PAC Parties $0 $1,000

Super Women PAC $0 Liberal $0

Takeover Super PAC $0 Conservative $14,983

Talkin' Smack PAC $0 $0

TEA PAC $0 Conservative $0

Tea Party Army $0 Conservative $9,128

Teamsters Education & Mobilization $0 $57,538

Tennessee Horse Assn $0 $0

Texans for America's Future $0 Liberal $23,681

Texans Restoring Ethical Governance $0 $0

Texas Aggies for Perry 2012 $0 Conservative $0

Texas America 21st Century PAC $0 Liberal $25

Texas Bow Tie PAC $0 $0

Texas Conservatives Fund $0 Conservative $0

Texas for All $0 $0

Texas Frontier PAC $0 Conservative $0

Texas Horse Assn $0 $0

Texas Tea Party Patriots PAC $0 Conservative $87,918

Thank You Citizens United! $0 $0

The American Worker $0 Liberal $60,000

The Edvengers $0 $0

The People's Agenda $0 $0

The People's Voice Super PAC $0 $0

Tipping Point $0 Conservative $0

Today & Our Future $0 $0

Together We Thrive $0 $0

Towards a Greener America $0 $0

Transparency Now $0 $0

Treasure Coast Jobs Coalition $0 Conservative $51,555

Trinity PAC $0 Conservative $0

Triple Crown Project $0 Conservative $0

True Conservatives Fund $0 Conservative $0

Trust In Small Business $0 Conservative $1,600

Truth for Citizens $0 $0

TTBO Super PAC $0 $0

Turn Georgia Blue $0 Liberal $0

Turn Right USA $0 Conservative $0

Turn Texas Blue PAC $0 $0

Twelve Is Enough Super PAC $0 $8,467

UAW Education Fund $0 Liberal $50,000

United Food & Commercial Workers Advcy $0 Liberal $8,073

United Interest Group $0 $0

United We Stand Super PAC $0 $0

United Workers PAC $0 $2,271

Unity Convention 2012 $0 Liberal $0

Unlimited Funding for America $0 $0

Unlocking Potential PAC $0 Conservative $0

Urban Progress PAC $0 $0

Urban Works USA $0 $0

US Airline Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Automotice Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Banking Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Capitalism Preservation Fund $0 $0

US Congress Victory Fund $0 $0

US Congressional Majority Fund $0 $0

US Crossroads Super PAC $0 $0

US Entertainment Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Film Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Financial Services Industry $0 $0

US Food Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US for Everyone $0 Conservative $0

US for Liberty $0 $0

US Healthcare Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Hedge Fund Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Hotel Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Insurance Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Investment Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Israel Friendship PAC $0 Liberal $1

US Lobbying Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Maritime Undustry Super PAC $0 $0

US Music Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Political Strategies Fund $0 $0

US Private Equity Undustry Super PAC $0 $0

US Real Estate Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Retail Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Senate Majority Fund $0 $0

US Senate Victory Fund $0 $0

US Sports Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US States Venture Capital Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Telecommunications Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Tourism Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Transportation Technology & Energy $0 $0

US Wealth Management Industry Super PAC $0 $0

USA China Friendship $0 $0

USA Moving Forward $0 $0

USA PAC $0 Conservative $4,900

USA Progress $0 $0

USA Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

USW Works $0 $2,034,350

Utah Horse Assn $0 $0

UTE PAC $0 Liberal $0

Utility Workers Union of America $0 Liberal $5,000

Vermont Horse Assn $0 $0

Veterans & Law Enforcement For Ethical Leadership $0 $0

Veterans for a Strong America Action $0 Conservative $0

Veterans for America $0 $1,500

Veterans for Congress $0 $0

Veterans for Liberty Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

VFA PAC $0 $8,000

Virginia Family Values PAC $0 Liberal $2,495

Virginia Horse Assn $0 $0

Virginia Vision Action PAC $0 $0

Voice of Freedom Super PAC $0 Conservative $380

Voices for Our Generation $0 $0

Vote for the Other Guy $0 $0

Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy $0 Conservative $358

Vote Them Out 2014 $0 $0

Vote Your Values $0 Liberal $554

Voteblue $0 Liberal $0

VOTECLIMATE.US PAC $0 $16,240

Voter Information Network Super PAC $0 $20,003

Voters for Common Sense $0 $0

Vril Society Global Reach $0 $0

Washington 180 $0 $0

Washington Horse Assn $0 $0

We Are Change $0 $0

We Are Kentucky supports Grimes $0 Liberal $293,000

We Are the 99% Movement $0 Liberal $0

We Believe USA $0 $0

We Can Change America Super PAC $0 $0

We Can Do Better $0 $0

We Can Do Better PAC $0 $50,000

We Can Together $0 $0

We Just Want Colbert to Come to Our College $0 $44

We Served America $0 Liberal $815

We the PAC $0 $0

We the People $0 Liberal $200

We the People for a Constitutional America $0 $0

We Vote - Nosotros Votamos $0 Liberal $7,525

We Will Be Heard $0 $0

We're Not Going Back $0 Liberal $0

West Hollywood/Bev Hills Stonewall Dems $0 Liberal $0

West Virginia Horse Assn $0 $0

Vest Virginians for Common Sense $0 $0

Why Not ZoidPAC? $0 $6

Why Vote $0 $0

Win Minnesota Federal PAC $0 $581,500

Win Wisconsin $0 $0

Winning Freedom $0 Conservative $0

Winning Our Future $0 Conservative $2,570

Winning Our Liberty & Future $0 $0

Winning Women $0 $5,602

Wisconsin Horse Assn $0 $0

Wisdom Justice Moderation Fund $0 $0

WOLF PAC $0 Liberal $196,047

Women on the Move PAC $0 $0

Women United $0 $0

Women's Leadership Conference $0 $0

Workers Issues Network $0 $0

Working Class Georgia $0 Liberal $0

WRAG PAC $0 Conservative $0

Wyoming Horse Assn $0 $0

Wyoming's Own supports Enzi $0 Conservative $59,000

X-Fund $0 $0

Yesterday's Optimism Unto the Next Generation PAC $0 $981

YG Action Fund $0 Conservative $344,160

Young Americans for Rational Politics $0 $0

Young Voters $0 Conservative $0

Zombies of Tomorrow $0 $0

Florida Freedom PAC $-750 Liberal $89,761

Based on data released by the FEC on Tuesday, June 24, 2014.Senate Majority PAC $18,043,601 Liberal $28,316,315

Club for Growth Action $5,394,277 Conservative $6,211,925

House Majority PAC $4,077,440 Liberal $15,194,581

American Crossroads $3,861,365 Conservative $11,068,972

Independence USA PAC $2,970,014 Liberal $6,197,700

Ending Spending Fund $2,796,483 Conservative $3,696,929

Kentuckians for Strong Leadership supports McConnell $2,448,318 Conservative $3,329,645

Put Alaska First PAC supports Begich $2,293,811 Liberal $790,500

Values Are Vital opposes Radel $2,138,031 Conservative $2,112,000

Senate Conservatives Action $2,108,298 Conservative $2,366,182

Mississippi Conservatives supports Cochran $1,812,148 Conservative $2,162,143

Service Employees International Union $1,727,059 Liberal $2,598,861

Women Vote! $1,544,809 Liberal $2,623,741

Freedomworks for America $1,364,265 Conservative $2,582,922

National Assn of Realtors $1,355,950 $4,157,787

Americans For Common Sense supports Zeldin $1,330,496 Conservative $867,025

Americans for Progressive Action supports Gomez $1,326,826 Conservative $1,701,311

Liberty & Leadership Fund supports Benacquisto $1,117,981 Conservative $549,569

Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund $1,097,470 Conservative $9,857,176

CE Action Cmte $1,077,013 Liberal $1,972,892

Government Integrity Fund Action Network $1,047,880 Conservative $1,055,000

Citizens for a Working America PAC $1,031,000 Conservative $1,035,000

League of Conservation Voters $799,744 Liberal $1,844,867

American Unity PAC $714,208 Conservative $3,429,015

American Principles Fund $634,983 Conservative $968,824

Defending Main Street $606,818 Conservative $876,773

Mobilization Project supports Booker $532,445 Liberal $577,564

New Republican PAC $507,078 Conservative $1,146,099

Southern Conservatives Fund supports Kingston $492,000 Conservative $0

American Dental Assn $465,679 $153,500

Americas PAC $406,898 Conservative $450,000

Special Operations for America $373,738 Conservative $1,951,594

New York 2014 $372,266 Conservative $410,000

Freedom Pioneers Action Network $345,293 Conservative $60,216

Building a Better PA $342,500 Liberal $0

Now or Never PAC $293,326 Conservative $5,621

American Heartland PAC supports Ernst $246,503 Conservative $205,000

New Hampshire Priorities supports Innis $226,475 Conservative $174,025

US Jobs Council $215,500 Conservative $210,000

Grow NC Strong supports Tillis $199,410 Conservative $224,010

American Commitment Action Fund $191,087 Conservative $205,227

West Main Street Values supports Graham $178,107 Conservative $422,471

Patriot Prosperity PAC $176,987 Conservative $28

Keep Conservatives United $173,071 Conservative $153,750

Spirit of Democracy America $152,392 Conservative $181,375

Pure PAC opposes Peters $151,503 Conservative $155,000

Alaska's Energy / America's Values supports Sullivan $151,482 Conservative $155,100

Ninety Nine Percent supports Lynch $149,855 Liberal $255,250

NextGen Climate Action Cmte $145,684 Liberal $16,882,175

Planned Parenthood Votes $144,420 Liberal $2,632,745

Madison Action Fund $134,807 Conservative $175,450

Working for Us PAC $123,358 Liberal $0

Democracy Values Fund supports Turner $121,836 Conservative $135,000

Faith Family Freedom Fund $107,387 Conservative $19,268

A Bright Future $106,750 $109,980

Responsible Leadership For America supports Jorgensen $106,634 Conservative $195,575

America's Next Generation $106,132 Conservative $740,003

Progressive Kick $105,210 Liberal $277,439

Hometown Freedom Action Network $90,000 Conservative $0

Cmte for a Better Massachusetts supports Gomez $83,326 Conservative $95,700

Big Sky Freedom Fund supports Stapleton $83,090 Conservative $90,000

Freedom Frontier Action Network supports Mooney $82,253 Conservative $90,065

Women Speak Out PAC $80,681 Conservative $450,015

American Jobs Council $76,623 Conservative $85,100

Ensuring a Conservative Nebraska supports Osborn $70,900 Conservative $100,000

Empower Nebraska $67,080 Conservative $106,225

Kansans for Responsible Government $63,367 $0

Our Voice PAC $62,559 Conservative $186,149

New Prosperity Foundation $53,000 Conservative $189,026

Women Lead PAC $50,784 $208,469

Committee to Elect a Progressive Congress supports Sciortino $49,473 Liberal $57,500

Civic Innovation USA $48,944 $116,373

Principled Conservatives of Colorado $48,511 Conservative $0

CREDO Mobile Super PAC $44,318 Liberal $386,748

Leadership America PAC $43,823 Liberal $68,795

New Hampshire PAC to Save America $41,366 Conservative $0

Working for Working Americans $40,819 Liberal $4,580,208

Vote to Reduce Debt $40,000 Conservative $0

LetsAllVote.org $39,860 Conservative $0

AFL-CIO Workers' Voices PAC $37,591 Liberal $5,241,249

Concerned American Voters $35,024 Conservative $1,000

Conservatives Acting Together PAC $33,254 Conservative $22,950

Blue America PAC IE Cmte $32,547 Liberal $12,020

Progressive USA $32,381 Liberal $46,572

America's Liberty PAC $32,091 Conservative $275,089

Campaign for American Values $28,517 Conservative $167,787

Republican Super PAC $20,736 Conservative $31,000

Antelope Valley Taxpayers Assn $20,622 $0

National Right to Life Victory Fund $16,020 Conservative $399,645

South Forward IE PAC $16,003 Liberal $53,612

Opportunity Alliance PAC $15,000 $0

Conservative Strikeforce Super PAC supports Smith $12,294 Conservative $16,407

Coastal Conservative Fund $11,925 Conservative $30,000

Carolina Patriot Alliance $11,500 Conservative $20,000

Environmental Majority $9,121 Liberal $70,931

NEA Advocacy Fund $8,874 Liberal $5,319,546

Gem State Prosperity Fund supports Simpson $8,700 Conservative $108,000

Human Action Super PAC supports Paul $8,388 Conservative $15,148

Citizens for Responsible Leadership supports Matheny $8,182 Conservative $0

18-29 PAC $7,000 Conservative $15,022

If He Votes Like That in Salem opposes Conger $6,860 Conservative $106,000

New House Independent Expenditure Cmte $6,771 Liberal $34,628

Prescription for America's Future $6,425 Conservative $5,000

CatholicVote.org $5,836 Conservative $70,845

Revive America PAC $5,300 Conservative $148,134

America 360 Cmte $5,000 Conservative $0

We Deserve Better $3,900 Conservative $0

FedUp PAC $3,900 Conservative $0

Cowboy PAC supports Cheney $3,590 Conservative $38,500

Our America Inc $715 Conservative $3,000

United Mine Workers of America Power PAC $374 Liberal $0

Courage Campaign Super PAC $120 Liberal $22,745

Human Rights Campaign Equality Votes $50 Liberal $5,280

Coalition for Kentucky Job Creation $0 $0

Preserve the Constitution PAC $0 $0

Time for Hillary $0 Liberal $0

Campaigning For Justice $0 $0

Game Changer PAC $0 $0

A Kinda Sorta Better America Soon $0 $0

Wolfheel PAC supports Hagan $0 Liberal $0

Term Limits March $0 $0

DGA Action Individual $0 Liberal $0

Bitcoin Voters PAC $0 $0

Christians for $0 Conservative $0

Free Market Victory Fund $0 $0

Prokids PAC $0 $0

Right Turn Hawaii $0 Conservative $0

Cmte to Elect 51 $0 Conservative $0

Americans in Action $0 $0

Victory California $0 $0

Go Mississippi $0 Conservative $0

Gulf Coast Conservatives $0 Conservative $0

Carolinians for Common Sense Solutions $0 $0

We Vote Project $0 $0

Mallot-One Alaska PAC $0 $0

Voices for Our Generation $0 $0

Heartland Campaign Fund opposes Franken $0 Liberal $0

America for Technocratic Action $0 $0

Worker's Voice (OPEIU) $0 Liberal $0

Georgia Women Vote! supports Nunn $0 Liberal $0

Fund for Economic Prosperity Action $0 Conservative $0

Impact America Fund $0 Conservative $0

Unitas Inc $0 $0

For Our America PAC $0 Conservative $0

Ocean Majority PAC $0 $0

North Carolina Golden Crescent Fund $0 $0

Young Conservatives of America $0 Conservative $0

Enough is Enough PAC $0 $0

Jayhawk - Wildcat Fund- Action Network $0 $0

Montanans for Limited Government $0 Conservative $35,000

Detroit Forward-Federal $0 $0

American Opportunity PAC $0 Liberal $0

Urban Prosperity $0 $0

Climate Hawks Vote $0 $0

Jobs for Harlem $0 $100

Just Say No To Hillary PAC $0 Conservative $0

Dick Morris' Just Say no to Hillary PAC $0 Conservative $0

West Virginians for Results $0 $0

True Louisiana Leadership PAC $0 $0

Capitalist PAC $0 $0

Majority Rules PAC $0 $0

Women for a Strong America $0 $0

R2BNation Super PAC $0 $0

Big Data PAC $0 $0

Empower Central Valley $0 Conservative $0

Families for Liberty $0 $0

10 ^ 9+ $0 $0

1911 United $0 Liberal $20,808

420PAC.ORG $0 $0

50 State Strategy $0 Liberal $6,757

77 Million Republicans Fund $0 $441

9-9-9 FUND $0 Conservative $0

A Cantor Out of Tune $0 $0

A Promise to Our Children $0 Conservative $0

A Responsible Future $0 $0

A Super PAC for Hire $0 $40

Abamcis Securing the Second Amendment for America $0 $0

Abbey Road $0 $0

Abolish Recalls $0 $0

Accomplish Our Mission $0 Conservative $0

Accountability 2010 $0 Liberal $0

Accountability Coalition $0 $0

Accountability Project $0 $0

Action4Liberty $0 Conservative $13,691

Adelante Boricua $0 $0

Advancing Freedom Action Network $0 $25,000

Advancing International Relations $0 $0

Affordable Health Care for America $0 $0

African American Super PAC $0 $0

Agnst Americans/do not Recycle/Misspell Bengazi $0 $0

Akyumen Society $0 $0

Alabama Democratic Majority $0 $18,599

Alabama Horse Assn $0 $0

Alaska Horse Assn $0 $0

Alaska SalmonPAC $0 $0

Alaskans Standing Together $0 Conservative $0

All Citizens for Mississippi supports Cochran $0 Conservative $0

Allete Inc $0 $38,834

Alliance for A Better Minnesota $0 Liberal $0

Alliance for the Next Generation $0 $7,500

America 365 $0 $0

America Forever $0 $0

America Friendship $0 $0

America Matters $0 $0

America on the Move $0 Conservative $0

America Shining $0 Liberal $10

America Unleashed Super PAC $0 Conservative $50,000

America Votes Action Fund $0 Liberal $420,725

America's Families First Action Fund $0 Liberal $0

America's Road Ahead Fund $0 Conservative $21,940

America's Shared Values $0 $2,560

America's Super PAC/Eliminatn/America's Super PACs $0 $0

American Alliance for Africa $0 $0

American Bridge 21st Century $0 Liberal $8,547,456

American Citizens of Modest Means $0 $0

American Civil Rights Protection Super PAC $0 $0

American Conservative Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

American Conservative Union Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

American Crosswords $0 $0

American Dreams for Economic Development Super PAC $0 $0

American Electoral College Super PAC $0 $0

American Federation of Govt Employees $0 Liberal $496,093

American Foundations Cmte $0 Conservative $82,500

American Freedom Super PAC $0 $0

American Horse Assn $0 $0

American Human Rights Defense Super PAC $0 $0

American Jobs & Growth Alliance $0 Conservative $0

American Latino Alliance $0 $0

American LeadHERship PAC $0 $117,991

American League of Charitable Organizations $0 $0

American Legacy Alliance $0 Conservative $0

American Liberty PAC $0 $87,820

American Middle Class Causes Super PAC $0 $0

American Nurses Assn $0 Liberal $0

American People Today $0 $0

American Principles Super PAC $0 Conservative $25

American Priorities Joint Fundraising Committee $0 Liberal $0

American Priorities Super PAC $0 $0

American Sunrise $0 Liberal $1,177

American Tiger PAC $0 $0

American Tomorrow $0 $0

American Values $0 Liberal $0

American Values Coalition $0 Liberal $500

American Veto $0 $0

American Way Foundation Cmte $0 $0

American Wild Horse & Burro Assn $0 $0

American Working Families $0 Liberal $1,237,988

Americans for a Greater Voice $0 $0

Americans for a Better Future $0 Liberal $330,100

Americans for a Better Prosperity Super PAC $0 $0

Americans for a Better Tomorrow Period $0 $0

Americans for a Better Tomorrow Today $0 Liberal $0

Americans for a Good Presidential Choice Super PAC $0 $0

Americans for a Strong National Defense $0 $0

Americans for a Stronger Economy PAC $0 $0

Americans for Accountability in Leadership $0 Conservative $2,146

Americans for Affordable Housing $0 $0

Americans for America $0 $0

Americans for America PAC $0 $750

Americans for Cannabis Reform $0 $0

Americans for Conservative Leadership $0 $0

Americans for Excellence in Public Education $0 $0

Americans for Fairness & Security PAC $0 $4,355

Americans for Flat & Fair Tax Equality $0 $0

Americans for Freedom & Progress $0 $0

Americans for Gary Johnson $0 $0

Americans for Growth, Opportunity & Prosperity $0 Conservative $21,500

Americans for Liberty $0 $1,137

Americans for Logic $0 $0

Americans for Marco Rubio Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

Americans for More Rhombus $0 $0

Americans for New Leadership $0 Conservative $0

Americans for New Leadership in America Super PAC $0 $0

Americans for Posterity $0 $0

Americans for Prison Reform $0 $0

Americans for Real Change $0 $0

Americans for Responsible Solutions $0 $15,042,992

Americans for Rick Perry $0 Conservative $380

Americans for Solutions $0 $0

Americans for Tax Reform PAC $0 Conservative $87,950

Americans for the Conservation of Liberty $0 $0

Americans for the Protection of Life $0 Conservative $100

Americans for the Win Tomorrow $0 $0

Americans United for a Stronger Economy $0 $0

Americans Wanting Truth in Politics $0 Conservative $0

AmericaRisingPAC.org $0 $820,114

Amigos PAC $0 $0

AntiSuperPAC $0 $0

Arguemax.com $0 Conservative $0

Arizona Grassroots Action PAC $0 Conservative $50,000

Arizona Horse Assn $0 $0

Arizonans for Jobs $0 Conservative $240

Arkansas Horizon supports Cotton $0 Conservative $98,000

Arkansas Horse Assn $0 $0

Article II Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

Asian American Super PAC $0 $0

Asian Americans for Peace & Prosperity $0 $0

Autism Super PAC $0 $0

Battleground Texas $0 $3,114,151

Bearded Entrepreneurs for Advacement/Resp Democ $0 $52

Bears for a Bearable Tomorrow $0 $0

Because We Can PAC $0 $0

Believe in America $0 $0

Benghazi Truth PAC $0 Conservative $0

Better Tomorrow $0 $0

Bipartisanship is Good PAC $0 $0

Bitcoin Super PAC $0 $100

Black Men Vote $0 Liberal $0

Blue Pelican PAC supports Landrieu $0 Liberal $10,010

Blue South $0 Liberal $55

Blue South Project Super PAC $0 Liberal $0

Blue States Victory Super PAC $0 $0

Bluegrass Rural PAC $0 Liberal $5,240

Bluegrass Votes $0 $0

Blyth America $0 $0

Brady Bunch PAC $0 Liberal $0

BRAT PAC $0 $0

Brighter Future Fund $0 Conservative $100

Bringin' Sexy PAC $0 $0

Bucket Tea Party $0 Liberal $0

Build the Keystone Pipeline $0 Conservative $0

Building a Better Bluegrass $0 $0

Business Owners for Obama $0 $30

CADET $0 $0

Cain Connections PAC $0 Conservative $89,219

Cal Voters for Honest Government supports Baca $0 Liberal $5,100

California Assn of Physician Groups $0 $1,802

California Conservative PAC $0 Conservative $0

California for Liberty $0 $20

California Horse Assn $0 $0

California Republican Assembly $0 Conservative $0

Californians for a Stronger America $0 Conservative $0

Californians for Water Conservation $0 $0

Californians/Fiscally Conservative Ldshp $0 Conservative $1

Cambodian-Americans PAC $0 $0

Campaign for Primary Accountability $0 $41,166

Carmen's List $0 Liberal $0

Carolina Conservatives United $0 Conservative $0

Cascadia PAC $0 $0

Catholics for Common Sense $0 $0

Cats For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow $0 $0

CAUSE PAC $0 Liberal $0

Central Valley Independent PAC $0 Conservative $1,000

Central Valley PAC $0 $500

ChallengeDC $0 Conservative $0

Champions for Change $0 Conservative $7,575

Character Counts $0 Conservative $0

China Watch $0 $0

Choose Your Movement $0 $0

Christian Super PAC $0 $0

Christianity in Action $0 $0

Christians for a Change $0 Liberal $500

Christine PAC $0 Conservative $89,351

Citizen Legislature Act $0 $0

Citizens Advancing Oklahoma $0 $0

Citizens Against Super PACs $0 $0

Citizens Alliance for Better Candidates $0 $0

Citizens Benighted $0 $0

Citizens for America's Future $0 $20

Citizens for Better Cities $0 $23,458

Citizens for Conservative Leadership $0 Conservative $255,000

Citizens for Economic & National Security $0 Conservative $0

Citizens for Ethics in Government $0 Liberal $277

Citizens for Good Government $0 $540

Citizens for Immigration Justice $0 $0

Citizens for Prosperity & Good Government $0 Conservative $0

Citizens for Responsible Government $0 $0

Citizens for Strength & Security $0 Liberal $0

Citizens Protest Non Profit $0 Liberal $0

Citizens to Save America $0 $7,308

Citizens United for Educaiton $0 $3,950

Citizens United Super PAC $0 Conservative $1,500

Civil Liberties Assault Fund $0 $12,515

Civil Liberty United $0 $0

CleanSlateNow.org $0 $24,571

Clear the Way $0 $0

Cmte for a New Start in the Right Direction $0 $67

Committee for Economic Growth & Social Justice $0 $278,409

Cmte for Justice & Fairness $0 Liberal $0

Cmte for the Re-Election of the President $0 $0

Committee to Protect America's Allies $0 $0

Coalition for American Values $0 Conservative $1,720

Coalition for Women's Economic Development $0 $0

Coalition of Americans for Political Equality $0 Conservative $0

College Students for a Better America $0 $0

Colorado Future Fund $0 Conservative $0

Colorado Horse Assn $0 $0

Common Sense Conservative Cmte $0 Conservative $0

Common Sense For Americans PAC $0 $0

Communications Workers of America $0 Liberal $550,000

Community Coalition $0 $0

Concerned Taxpayers of America $0 Conservative $2,500

Concerned Voters for the Arts $0 $0

Congressional Leadership Fund $0 Conservative $1,319,028

Connecticut Horse Assn $0 $0

Connecticut Taxpayers Alliance $0 $0

Connecticut's Future PAC $0 Liberal $5,292

Conservative Action Cmte $0 Conservative $1,470

Conservative Action Network $0 Conservative $1,669

Conservative Media Action Cmte $0 Conservative $36

Conservative Renewal $0 Conservative $2,550

Conservative Solutions PAC $0 Conservative $10,100

Conservative Values Project $0 Conservative $4,199

Conservative Victory Project $0 Conservative $18,673

Conservative Warchest PAC $0 Conservative $7,050

Conservatives for Coal $0 Conservative $0

Conservatives for Freedom $0 Conservative $0

Constitutional PAC $0 $0

Cooperative of American Physicians $0 $2,005,348

Core Values PAC $0 $0

Crescent City Super PAC $0 $0

Crossroads Generation $0 Conservative $52,836

Crush Graham Cracker PAC $0 Liberal $2,694

CT Black Republicans & Conservatives $0 Conservative $0

Damian Palmer & Jack Pilgrim for a Better America $0 $0

Davis Advisory Group $0 $0

Defeat Hillary Super PAC $0 $0

Defend Our Homes $0 Liberal $0

Defenders of the Republic $0 $1,243

Defenders of Wildlife Action Cmte $0 Liberal $350

Defending Our Values $0 $0

Delaware Horse Assn $0 $0

Delta Diamond PAC supports Pryor $0 Liberal $3,000

Democracy Demands $0 $0

Democracy Stewards $0 $0

Democrats Against the Re-Election of Barack Obama $0 $0

Democrats Unlimited $0 $0

Detroiters Vote $0 $150

DGA Action $0 Liberal $10,028,192

Direct Selling Empowers Americans $0 $0

Disabled Citizens United $0 $0

Disassembly Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

DogPAC $0 Liberal $1,496

Don't Drink the Tea Party $0 $0

Downtown for Democracy $0 Liberal $0

Draft Bernie $0 Liberal $3,538

Draft Ted Cruz for President $0 Conservative $27,656

Dread Scott Super PAC $0 $0

Eastgate Victory $0 $36,949

Economic Innovation Action Fund $0 Liberal $0

Economic Strategy Group $0 $0

Elect a New Congress $0 $19,200

Emergency Cmte for Israel $0 Conservative $0

Emerges.Com PAC $0 $1,600

Empower Citizens Network $0 Conservative $50,900

Empower Iowa $0 Conservative $0

EmpowerMN.org $0 Conservative $18,136

EmpowerWI.org $0 Conservative $5,010

End Gridlock PAC $0 $675,005

End the Gridlock $0 Liberal $9,058

Endorse Liberty $0 Conservative $25

Energize PAC $0 $0

Engage Nevada Action $0 $25,000

Environment America Action Fund $0 Liberal $35,500

Environment Colorado Action Cmte $0 Liberal $0

Environmental Action PAC $0 $134,329

Equality for All $0 $0

Excellence in Government PAC $0 $520

Export USA Now $0 $0

Exposing Marxists PAC $0 $0

Extremely R Republicans $0 $0

Fair Share Action $0 Liberal $11,088

Farm Bureau PAC $0 Conservative $450

Fat Old Man PAC $0 $0

Faux News Super PAC $0 $0

Fight for the Dream $0 Conservative $0

Fight for Tomorrow $0 $376,013

FightBigotry.com $0 $0

Fightin' 9th PAC $0 $0

First in Science PAC $0 $0

FirstPAC for Political Freedom $0 $1,837

Fiscal Advocacy Fund $0 $100

Fix America Super PAC $0 $0

Florida Horse Assn $0 $0

Flyover Super PAC $0 $0

Forest Landowners Super PAC $0 $0

Forward Massachusetts $0 $0

Forward United Campaign Cmte $0 $0

Foundation for a Greater America $0 $23,159

Fraternity for All Super PAC $0 $0

Free Enterprise Leadership Initiative $0 $199

Freedom & Liberty PAC $0 Conservative $0

Freedom & Opportunity PAC $0 Conservative $4,089

Freedom Born Fund $0 Conservative $317

Freedom Fund for America's Future $0 Conservative $0

Freedom Fund of North America $0 $5,908

Freedom of Web $0 $0

Freedom PAC $0 Conservative $0

Freedom Partners Action Fund $0 Conservative $0

Freedom Path Action Network $0 Conservative $106

Freedom Plains Action Network $0 Conservative $0

Freedom Trail Action Network $0 Conservative $65

Freedom's Frontier supports Treadwell $0 Conservative $800

Friends for a Democratic White House $0 Liberal $0

Friends for Democracy in Libya $0 $0

Friends of the Majority $0 Conservative $0

Friends of Traditional Banking $0 $70,390

Friends United $0 Liberal $0

Full Time America $0 $0

Fund for Louisiana's Future supports Vitter $0 Conservative $1,667,073

Fund for Positive Liberty $0 $10

Garden State Liberty $0 $3,133

Gates of Learning $0 $0

Geaux PAC $0 $130

General Elector $0 $0

Genesis 1213 $0 $0

Georgia Freedom PAC $0 Conservative $0

Georgia Horse Assn $0 $0

Georgians Together supports Nunn $0 Liberal $40,000

Get Out The Vote PAC - (GOTV PAC) $0 $0

Global Democratic PAC $0 Liberal $0

Global Grand Challenges $0 $0

Go Forward America Super PAC $0 $0

Goal WestPAC $0 $70,944

Grand Old Principles $0 $0

Grassroots Action PAC $0 $0

Grassroots for Liberty $0 Conservative $0

Great American Super PAC $0 $0

Great Lakes Super PAC $0 $0

Green Home Relief $0 $0

Grow PAC $0 Conservative $2,891

Grow WV $0 $0

Guardians of Democracy $0 $0

Gulfstream America Super PAC $0 $0

Hall & Oates Fans for America $0 $0

Haphak America $0 $795

HappyPAC $0 $39

Hardworking Americans Cmte $0 Conservative $0

Harrison County WV Victory Fund $0 $0

Hawaii Horse Assn $0 $0

Heart of America PAC $0 Liberal $5,013

Heartland Project $0 $0

Heartland Resurgence $0 $0

Hillary 2016 $0 Liberal $2,000

Hillary Project $0 $0

HillaryClintonSuperPAC $0 $0

HillaryFTW $0 $0

HillaryPAC $0 Liberal $3,692

Hispanic Leadership Fund Action $0 Conservative $0

Hispanic Vote $0 Conservative $0

Hitch a Wang Bang Noodle 911 Night Long $0 $0

Homeowners Super PAC $0 $0

Humane United Group Super PAC $0 $0

Humans for Earth's Rights $0 $0

HungerPAC $0 $0

Hunter Defense Fund $0 $543,091

I'm a Good Dog PAC $0 $0

icPurple $0 $797

Idaho Horse Assn $0 $0

Idaho's Youth $0 $0

Illinois Horse Assn $0 $0

Immigration911 $0 Conservative $25,200

Impact Super PAC $0 $0

Improving Life in the Americas & Caribbean $0 $0

In God We Trust $0 $0

In God We Trust Super PAC $0 $0

In Our Mother's Name $0 $1

Inaction is Apathy $0 $0

Independence Virginia PAC $0 Conservative $9,416

Independent Leadership For New Hampshire PAC $0 $0

Independent Source $0 Liberal $0

Independent Voices PAC $0 $0

Independents for Williamson supports Williamson $0 $0

Indiana Horse Assn $0 $0

Indiana Republican Assembly Super PAC $0 Conservative $29,344

Integrity Matters PAC $0 $0

Intl Alliance Theatrical Stage Employees $0 Liberal $185,220

Iowa Horse Assn $0 $0

Ipso Facto $0 $0

It's Now or Never $0 Conservative $0

JAN PAC $0 Conservative $274,837

Javelin PAC $0 $0

Jewish Council for Education & Research $0 Liberal $1,327

Jobs for America's Future PAC $0 $0

Joe Six PAC $0 $0

Bolton for America Super PAC $0 Conservative $1,300,535

Just Drink the Koolaid $0 $0

Just the Facts PAC $0 $0

Kansas Horse Assn $0 $0

Keeping USA Strong $0 $0

Kentucky Horse Assn $0 $0

KIMPAC $0 $0

King of IL $0 $0

KTADA PAC $0 $0

LA Forward $0 $5,000

Ladies First Super PAC $0 $0

Lantern Project $0 Liberal $0

Larry & Charmaine's Excellent Best Ever Super PAC $0 $0

Latino Alliance Network $0 $0

Latino American Super PAC $0 $0

Latino District Defense Fund $0 $0

Latino Empowerment PAC $0 $0

Latino Values $0 $0

Latinos For 2020 $0 $0

Leader of the PAC $0 $0

Leaders for Families $0 Conservative $0

Leadership America PAC/Louisiana $0 Liberal $0

Leadership America PAC/North Carolina $0 Liberal $0

Leadership Matters $0 $0

Leadership Oregon Can Trust supports Wehby $0 Conservative $0

Legalize Marijuana Super PAC.org $0 $0

LetOurPresidentLead.com $0 Liberal $0

LGBT Super PAC $0 $0

Libertarian Action Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

Libertas Institute $0 $0

Liberty & Action Fund $0 $857

Liberty Action PAC $0 Conservative $72,957

Liberty for Everyone Super PAC $0 $0

Liberty in Pink $0 $0

Liberty or Death $0 $0

Liberty Principles PAC $0 Conservative $1,787,478

Liberty Through Grassroots Efforts $0 $0

Liberty4Florida $0 Conservative $300,000

LIFE CAUSE $0 $0

Life PAC $0 $0

Lincoln Club of Orange County IE Cmte $0 Conservative $0

Live & Let Love $0 $0

Live Free or Die PAC $0 $0

Local Voices $0 Liberal $13,139

Loud PAC $0 $0

Louisiana Horse Assn $0 $0

Louisiana Prosperity Fund $0 Liberal $0

Louisiana Truth PAC $0 Liberal $29,665

Lunch Pail Republicans $0 Conservative $8,000

M-Pack Super PAC $0 Liberal $7,600

Madam Hillary 2016 $0 Liberal $0

Madison PAC $0 Conservative $0

Madison Tea Party $0 $0

Maine Horse Assn $0 $0

Majority Action $0 Liberal $100

Majority Project $0 $0

Make America Strong & Secure $0 $0

Make Education Affordable $0 $0

Make Us Great Again $0 Conservative $0

MarijuanaIsMedicine $0 $0

Maryland Horse Assn $0 $0

Marylanders for Better Americans in Maryland $0 $0

Massachusetts Horse Assn $0 $0

Matthew 25 Network $0 Liberal $0

Mayday PAC $0 $0

MCBlackPAC $0 $0

Media for America PAC $0 $0

Media Fund $0 $0

Medicinal Cannabis Super PAC $0 $57,690

Men Against Prostitution & Trafficking $0 $0

MI 2014 $0 $0

Michigan Horse Assn $0 $0

Michigan Pipe Trade Assn $0 $107,425

Middle Class Super PAC $0 $0

Middle of the PAC $0 $0

Middle Resolution $0 Conservative $4,615

Millenials for America $0 $0

Millennials for Freedom $0 $0

Millennials in Action $0 $0

Millennials Rising $0 $0

Milwaukeeans For A Better Tomorrow Tomorrow $0 $0

Minnesota Horse Assn $0 $0

Mission: Equality & Democracy $0 $0

Mississippi Horse Assn $0 $0

Missouri Horse Assn $0 $0

Moderately Speaking $0 $0

Monstah PAC $0 $50

Montana Growth Foundation $0 Conservative $2,696

Montana Horse Assn $0 $0

Montana Solutions $0 Conservative $23,000

More Women in Congress Super PAC $0 $0

Morning in America PAC $0 Conservative $0

Morningstar Coalition $0 $0

Moving Americans Forward $0 $0

Moving Arizona Forward $0 Liberal $0

Moving Ohio Forward Action Fund $0 Liberal $12,843

Munoz Group $0 $5,770

Music PAC $0 $0

Muslim American Vote $0 $0

My America $0 Liberal $8,314

My Cat Xavier for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow $0 $0

National Draft Ben Carson for President Cmte $0 $3,875,863

National Hispanic American Alliance $0 Conservative $0

National Horizon $0 Conservative $0

National Nurses United $0 Liberal $55,300

National Republican Victory Fund $0 Conservative $4,957

National Security for America $0 $0

Nebraska Horse Assn $0 $0

NEO Common Sense $0 $0

Nevada Horse Assn $0 $0

New America Cmte $0 $0

New Democracy PAC $0 $0

New Directions for America $0 Liberal $0

New Hampshire Horse Assn $0 $0

New Independent Party $0 $0

New Jersey Agenda PAC $0 $0

New Jersey Horse Assn $0 $0

New Jersey Republican Pro-Life Coalition $0 Conservative $3,078

New Majority for Massachusetts $0 $0

New Mexico Horse Assn $0 $0

New Opportunities PAC $0 $0

New Power PAC $0 Liberal $668

New Virginia PAC $0 Conservative $0

New Voice New Vision NoVa $0 $0

New York Horse Assn $0 $0

New York Progress $0 $0

No 2 Sides PAC $0 $0

No Fools Allowed Super PAC $0 $0

No More Timeline Pages $0 $0

No More Wimpouts $0 $0

No Negotiations PAC $0 Conservative $0

NonConformists United $0 $0

North Carolina Horse Assn $0 $0

North Carolina Women Vote! supports Hagan $0 Liberal $10,000

North Central WV Tea Party $0 Conservative $0

North Dakota Horse Assn $0 $0

Northeast for Workers & Economic Development $0 $0

Occupy Obamacare $0 Conservative $0

Occupy Politics $0 Liberal $0

Ohio Families United $0 Liberal $38,014

Ohio Horse Assn $0 $0

Ohio State Tea Party $0 Conservative $0

Ohioans for Opportunity $0 Conservative $0

Oil Field Union Local 5150 $0 $0

Oklahoma Forward $0 Liberal $0

Oklahoma Horse Assn $0 $0

OKPAC $0 $0

One America Fund $0 Conservative $0

One Tax Initiative $0 $0

One Voice of Many Independent Expenditure PAC $0 $200

Opportunity for All $0 $0

Oregon Horse Assn $0 $0

Organizing for Progress $0 $2,020

Our Country Our Voice $0 $0

Our Destiny PAC $0 Conservative $0

Our Washington First PAC $0 $0

PA Victory Fund $0 $0

PAC Your Bong $0 $0

Painters & Allied Trades District Council 50 $0 Liberal $0

Palmetto Conservatives Fund $0 Conservative $0

Parents for a Brighter Future $0 $0

Pass the Torch $0 $455

Patriot Majority $0 Liberal $65,250

Patriot Next Super PAC $0 $0

Patriots Against Tax Tyrants $0 Conservative $0

Patriots for a Better America $0 $690

Patriots for Freedom $0 Conservative $0

Patriots Fund $0 Conservative $80

Peaceful Americans Against War Violence $0 $0

Penn Staters for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow $0 $0

Pennsylvania Horse Assn $0 $0

Pennsylvania Prosperity $0 $0

People's Majority $0 Conservative $75,270

People's Super PAC $0 $0

Pep Rally $0 $0

Playoff PAC $0 $0

Pledge 26 - Americans for Safe Schools $0 $0

Polish American Leadership PAC $0 $141,290

Political Action Cartoons $0 $0

Political Progress $0 $0

Political Super PAC $0 $0

Politics Reimagined $0 $50,617

Positive Volition $0 $0

Preserve America's Future $0 $25,168

Pride of America $0 $0

Principled Leadership Fund $0 $51,300

Priorities USA Action $0 Liberal $360,199

Pro-Jobs Pro-Kentucky $0 $0

Progress Connecticut $0 Liberal $220

Progress for American Indians Blacks & Hispanics $0 $0

Progress for Washington $0 Liberal $0

Progress Kentucky $0 $14,718

Progressing Our Liberties $0 $116

Prog Ctzns United Changing Am's Marijuana Policies $0 $100

Progressive Colorado PAC $0 Liberal $0

Progressive Independent Cmte $0 Liberal $0

Progressives for Prosperity $0 Liberal $0

ProgressOhio $0 Liberal $0

Project 51 $0 $10,100

ProjectXXAct $0 $450

Proper Role of Government Action Fund $0 Conservative $2,353

Prosperity First $0 Conservative $612

Prosperity for Michigan $0 Conservative $0

Prosperity USA $0 $0

Protect Alaska's Future $0 $0

Protect America Today $0 Conservative $10,623

Protect Our Schools Fund $0 Conservative $2,000

Protect the Harvest PAC $0 $0

Protecting America's Retirees $0 Liberal $0

Protecting Choice in California $0 Liberal $7,084

Protecting Our Vote $0 Liberal $0

Public Interest PAC $0 Conservative $0

Puppet PAC $0 $0

Purple PAC $0 $576,145

Putting America First $0 Conservative $0

Racine Tea Party $0 Conservative $304

Racism Hurts $0 $0

Rahway Moves Forward $0 $1,000

Raising Red $0 Conservative $2,906

Rand PAC 2016 $0 $1,328

Raptors for Jesus $0 $0

Rauhmel Fox is for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow $0 $0

Reach Liberty $0 $0

Reaching Stars - Securing Our Future $0 $0

Ready for Christie PAC $0 Conservative $334

Real Conservatives National Cmte $0 $55,553

Real Conservatives US $0 $1,504

Rebuild Ohio $0 Liberal $160,000

Reclaiming Freedom PAC $0 Conservative $18,075

Red States Victory Super PAC $0 $0

Refresh America PAC $0 Conservative $0

Regular Folks of the Range $0 $0

Renew Delaware $0 Conservative $0

Renew Our Hope $0 $0

Renew USA PAC $0 $0

Representative America $0 $0

Representing Reality $0 $0

Republican Attorneys General Assn $0 Conservative $0

Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund $0 Conservative $0

Republican Truth Squad $0 Conservative $0

Republican Union PAC $0 Conservative $0

Republican Women Alliance $0 Conservative $0

Republican Youth for a Conservative Tomorrow $0 $0

Republicans for Immigration Reform $0 $307,545

Rescue the Senate $0 $16,238

Resounding Books PAC $0 $5,581

Restart Congress $0 Conservative $495

Restore America's Voice $0 Conservative $2,269,392

Restore American Labor Force $0 $0

Restore Bankng Rules $0 $0

Restore New England $0 $150

Restore Our America $0 Conservative $0

Restore Our Country Super PAC $0 $0

Restore Our Future $0 Conservative $700,645

Restore Our Hope $0 $0

Restore Our Republic $0 $136,358

Restore Trust in City Hall $0 $0

Restoring America $0 Conservative $65,653

Restoring Arizona's Integrity $0 Conservative $0

Rethink PAC $0 Liberal $0

Revitalize America $0 $0

RGA Right Direction $0 Conservative $2,077,109

Rhode Island Horse Assn $0 $0

Right Focus $0 Conservative $185

Right Tax Inc $0 $0

Rock the Red PAC $0 Conservative $0

Friends of Bartlett $0 Conservative $0

Romney's Dog House $0 $0

Ron Paul Volunteers $0 Conservative $0

Russia Watch $0 $0

Saberpac.org $0 $1,445

Safe Nation PAC $0 Conservative $0

San Diegans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow $0 $0

Santa Rita Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

Saving Florida's Future $0 Liberal $0

Science! $0 $0

Scientific Advancement for America $0 $0

Secretive Politics $0 $0

Secure America's Borders $0 $0

Securing Our Schools $0 $0

Select Our America $0 $0

SenatePAC $0 $11,337

SHH PAC $0 $150

Sierra Club Independent Action $0 Liberal $21,318

Silicon Valley Super PAC $0 $0

Single Subject Amendment $0 $6,330

Singularity $0 $0

Slam Dunks, Fireworks & Eagles $0 $0

Small Business - Backbone of America $0 $0

Small Business Political Alliance $0 Conservative $900

Small Business Super PAC $0 $0

SmallBizAdvocates.org $0 $0

Smart Cannabis Reform $0 $0

Softer Voices $0 Conservative $0

Soldier PAC $0 $0

Solutions 2012 $0 Conservative $0

Sons of Liberty for this Generation $0 Conservative $0

SOS for Democracy $0 Liberal $0

SOS4SOS PAC $0 Conservative $1,100

Sound from the Ground $0 $425

South Carolina Horse Assn $0 $0

South Dakota Horse Assn $0 $0

Sovereignty Matters $0 $0

Soy Americano $0 $0

Space PAC $0 $0

Speak Out For America $0 Conservative $0

Special Corp for Ethics & Justice in America $0 $0

Special Corporation for Ethics/Justice in America $0 $0

SpeechNow.org $0 Conservative $0

Spend Smart America $0 $0

Spirit of America Solutions $0 Conservative $0

Stand with America $0 Conservative $0

Standing for Liberty $0 $0

Standing for Wisconsin Families $0 $75

StandLouder.com PAC $0 $0

Start Up America Super PAC $0 $0

Steadman Group $0 $0

Stem Super PAC $0 $0

Stop Iran $0 Conservative $0

Stop North Korea $0 $0

Stop Public Unions Now $0 Conservative $542

Strategy for America's Future $0 $0

Strong America Now $0 Conservative $40

Strong Economy for Massachusetts $0 Conservative $21

Strong Philippines Movement $0 $0

Strong Utah $0 Conservative $0

Stronger Together $0 Liberal $0

Student Network for Action & Progress $0 Liberal $354

Student Super PAC $0 $0

Student Voice Project $0 $0

Students for Progress $0 $80

Students, Mothers & Concerned Citizens $0 $0

Suburban Voters for Choice $0 Liberal $0

Sunny Isles PAC $0 $0

Super 6 PAC $0 $0

Super Ninja PAC $0 $0

Super PAC for America $0 Conservative $60,897

Super PAC for Change $0 $0

Super PAC for the of America $0 $0

Super PAC for Women $0 $0

Super PAC Parties $0 $1,000

Super Women PAC $0 Liberal $0

Takeover Super PAC $0 Conservative $14,983

Talkin' Smack PAC $0 $0

TEA PAC $0 Conservative $0

Tea Party Army $0 Conservative $9,128

Teamsters Education & Mobilization $0 $57,538

Tennessee Horse Assn $0 $0

Texans for America's Future $0 Liberal $23,681

Texans Restoring Ethical Governance $0 $0

Texas Aggies for Perry 2012 $0 Conservative $0

Texas America 21st Century PAC $0 Liberal $25

Texas Bow Tie PAC $0 $0

Texas Conservatives Fund $0 Conservative $0

Texas for All $0 $0

Texas Frontier PAC $0 Conservative $0

Texas Horse Assn $0 $0

Texas Tea Party Patriots PAC $0 Conservative $87,918

Thank You Citizens United! $0 $0

The American Worker $0 Liberal $60,000

The Edvengers $0 $0

The People's Agenda $0 $0

The People's Voice Super PAC $0 $0

Tipping Point $0 Conservative $0

Today & Our Future $0 $0

Together We Thrive $0 $0

Towards a Greener America $0 $0

Transparency Now $0 $0

Treasure Coast Jobs Coalition $0 Conservative $51,555

Trinity PAC $0 Conservative $0

Triple Crown Project $0 Conservative $0

True Conservatives Fund $0 Conservative $0

Trust In Small Business $0 Conservative $1,600

Truth for Citizens $0 $0

TTBO Super PAC $0 $0

Turn Georgia Blue $0 Liberal $0

Turn Right USA $0 Conservative $0

Turn Texas Blue PAC $0 $0

Twelve Is Enough Super PAC $0 $8,467

UAW Education Fund $0 Liberal $50,000

United Food & Commercial Workers Advcy $0 Liberal $8,073

United Interest Group $0 $0

United We Stand Super PAC $0 $0

United Workers PAC $0 $2,271

Unity Convention 2012 $0 Liberal $0

Unlimited Funding for America $0 $0

Unlocking Potential PAC $0 Conservative $0

Urban Progress PAC $0 $0

Urban Works USA $0 $0

US Airline Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Automotice Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Banking Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Capitalism Preservation Fund $0 $0

US Congress Victory Fund $0 $0

US Congressional Majority Fund $0 $0

US Crossroads Super PAC $0 $0

US Entertainment Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Film Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Financial Services Industry $0 $0

US Food Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US for Everyone $0 Conservative $0

US for Liberty $0 $0

US Healthcare Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Hedge Fund Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Hotel Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Insurance Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Investment Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Israel Friendship PAC $0 Liberal $1

US Lobbying Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Maritime Undustry Super PAC $0 $0

US Music Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Political Strategies Fund $0 $0

US Private Equity Undustry Super PAC $0 $0

US Real Estate Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Retail Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Senate Majority Fund $0 $0

US Senate Victory Fund $0 $0

US Sports Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US States Venture Capital Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Telecommunications Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Tourism Industry Super PAC $0 $0

US Transportation Technology & Energy $0 $0

US Wealth Management Industry Super PAC $0 $0

USA China Friendship $0 $0

USA Moving Forward $0 $0

USA PAC $0 Conservative $4,900

USA Progress $0 $0

USA Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

USW Works $0 $2,034,350

Utah Horse Assn $0 $0

UTE PAC $0 Liberal $0

Utility Workers Union of America $0 Liberal $5,000

Vermont Horse Assn $0 $0

Veterans & Law Enforcement For Ethical Leadership $0 $0

Veterans for a Strong America Action $0 Conservative $0

Veterans for America $0 $1,500

Veterans for Congress $0 $0

Veterans for Liberty Super PAC $0 Conservative $0

VFA PAC $0 $8,000

Virginia Family Values PAC $0 Liberal $2,495

Virginia Horse Assn $0 $0

Virginia Vision Action PAC $0 $0

Voice of Freedom Super PAC $0 Conservative $380

Voices for Our Generation $0 $0

Vote for the Other Guy $0 $0

Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy $0 Conservative $358

Vote Them Out 2014 $0 $0

Vote Your Values $0 Liberal $554

Voteblue $0 Liberal $0

VOTECLIMATE.US PAC $0 $16,240

Voter Information Network Super PAC $0 $20,003

Voters for Common Sense $0 $0

Vril Society Global Reach $0 $0

Washington 180 $0 $0

Washington Horse Assn $0 $0

We Are Change $0 $0

We Are Kentucky supports Grimes $0 Liberal $293,000

We Are the 99% Movement $0 Liberal $0

We Believe USA $0 $0

We Can Change America Super PAC $0 $0

We Can Do Better $0 $0

We Can Do Better PAC $0 $50,000

We Can Together $0 $0

We Just Want Colbert to Come to Our College $0 $44

We Served America $0 Liberal $815

We the PAC $0 $0

We the People $0 Liberal $200

We the People for a Constitutional America $0 $0

We Vote - Nosotros Votamos $0 Liberal $7,525

We Will Be Heard $0 $0

We're Not Going Back $0 Liberal $0

West Hollywood/Bev Hills Stonewall Dems $0 Liberal $0

West Virginia Horse Assn $0 $0

Vest Virginians for Common Sense $0 $0

Why Not ZoidPAC? $0 $6

Why Vote $0 $0

Win Minnesota Federal PAC $0 $581,500

Win Wisconsin $0 $0

Winning Freedom $0 Conservative $0

Winning Our Future $0 Conservative $2,570

Winning Our Liberty & Future $0 $0

Winning Women $0 $5,602

Wisconsin Horse Assn $0 $0

Wisdom Justice Moderation Fund $0 $0

WOLF PAC $0 Liberal $196,047

Women on the Move PAC $0 $0

Women United $0 $0

Women's Leadership Conference $0 $0

Workers Issues Network $0 $0

Working Class Georgia $0 Liberal $0

WRAG PAC $0 Conservative $0

Wyoming Horse Assn $0 $0

Wyoming's Own supports Enzi $0 Conservative $59,000

X-Fund $0 $0

Yesterday's Optimism Unto the Next Generation PAC $0 $981

YG Action Fund $0 Conservative $344,160

Young Americans for Rational Politics $0 $0

Young Voters $0 Conservative $0

Zombies of Tomorrow $0 $0

Florida Freedom PAC $-750 Liberal $89,761

Based on data released by the FEC on Tuesday, June 24, 2014.

===

anomaly tracker:

TOP TEN SENATE CANDIDATE RECIPIENTS OF OUT-OF-STATE CASH

Name Amount Percentage

Claire McCaskill (D - Mo.) $7,479,333 60.3%

Robert Menendez (D - N.J.) $7,366,999 54.6%

Jon Tester (D-Mont.) $6,057,952 77.6%

Orrin G. Hatch (R -Utah) $5,360,274 88.5%

Tammy Baldwin (D -Wisc.) $4,564,389 72.7%

Shelley Berkley (D - Nev.) $4,383,123 68.4%

Denny Rehberg (R - Mont.) $4,288,512 78.6%

Maria Cantwell (D - Wash.) $3,768,144 54.9%

Debbie Stabenow (D - Mich.) $3,399,022 54.8%

Jeff Flake (R - Ariz.) $3,105,010 52.3%

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), who wasn't vying for a crucial Senate seat but is a tea party hero, was a magnet for out-of-state contributions in 2012. At least $4.2 million (or 59.6 percent) of the individual donations to his campaign were from donors who do not live in Florida.

Dennis Kucinich, as much a hero to the far left as West was to the far right, only received $294,000 from out-of-state donors, but that accounted for 85.2 percent of his donations above $200.

Honeywell International

$1,768,562

National Beer Wholesalers Assn

$1,491,500

AT&T Inc

$1,360,000

American Assn for Justice

$1,298,500

Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

$1,293,150

Lockheed Martin

$1,271,500

American Bankers Assn

$1,182,750

Credit Union National Assn

$1,168,000

Every Republican is Crucial PAC

$1,101,000

Boeing Co

$1,069,000

New York Life Insurance

$1,051,500

American Crystal Sugar

$1,041,500

American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees

$990,140

Comcast Corp

$980,000

Carpenters & Joiners Union

$961,500

United Parcel Service

$947,240

Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union

$944,500

Freedom Project

$890,000

PricewaterhouseCoopers

$889,750

Deloitte & Touche

$880,000

===

...

Forget super PACs, their much-hyped cousins, which can take unlimited contributions but must name their donors. More money is being spent on TV advertising in the presidential race by social welfare nonprofits, known as 501(c)(4)s for their section of the tax code, than by any other type of independent group.

As of Aug. 8, they had spent more than $71 million on ads mentioning a candidate for president, according to estimates by Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group, or CMAG. Super PACs have spent an estimated $56 million.

Congress created the legal framework for 501(c)(4) nonprofits nearly a century ago. To receive the tax exemption, groups were supposed to be "operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare." The IRS later opened the door to some forms of political activity by interpreting the statute to mean groups had to be "primarily" engaged in enhancing social welfare. But neither the tax code nor regulators set out how this would be measured.

In recent years, Democrats and Republicans alike have seized on that seemingly innocuous wording to create the darkest corner of American political fundraising.

An investigation by ProPublica, drawing on documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission, offers the most detailed picture to date of how 501(c)(4) groups have used their tax status for purposes likely never intended.

Our examination shows that dozens of these groups do little or nothing to justify the subsidies they receive from taxpayers. Instead, they are pouring much of their resources, directly or indirectly, into political races at the local, state and federal level.

The 2010 election functioned, effectively, as a dry run, providing a blueprint for what social welfare groups are doing on a larger scale today. Records on what is happening in the 2012 campaign will not be available until well after the election.

For this story, ProPublica reviewed thousands of pages of filings for 107 nonprofits active during the 2010 election cycle, tracking what portion of their funds went into politics. We watched TV ads bought by these groups, looked at documents from other nonprofits that gave them money, and interviewed dozens of campaign finance experts and political strategists.

« Expand

We found that some groups said they would not engage in politics when they applied for IRS recognition of their tax-exempt status. But later filings showed they spent millions on just such activities.

On the very day in 2008 that the American Future Fund mailed its application to the IRS, checking the box for "no" on whether it planned to participate in politics, it uploaded an ad to YouTube praising a Republican senator. The group reported more than $8 million in political spending in 2010.

We also found that social welfare groups used a range of tactics to underreport their political activities to the IRS, a critical measure in determining whether they are entitled to remain tax-exempt.

Many groups told the IRS they spent far less on politics than they reported to federal election officials. Some classified expenditures that clearly praised or criticized candidates for office as "lobbying," "education" or "issue advocacy" on their tax returns.

« Expand

One group, the Center for Individual Freedom, told election officials that it spent $2.5 million on ads in 2010, when it paid for commercials criticizing Democrats in 10 districts. But it reported to the IRS that it spent nothing to directly or indirectly influence elections, calling those same ads "education" or "legislative activities."

In several instances, nonprofits funneled much of their money to other 501(c)(4)s , which experts say is a way to meet, or appear to meet, IRS requirements for promoting social welfare. Yet records show the recipients of those grants spent much of their money on political activities, whether ads or voter-registration drives.

For example, almost 70 percent of America's Families First's 2010 expenditures went to grants to five social welfare nonprofits. Four spent money on ads supporting Democrats or criticizing Republicans, including one group that put almost half of its expenditures into political ads.

« Expand

No one from the Center for Individual Freedom or the American Future Fund responded to phone calls and emails from ProPublica asking for comment. In a written statement, America's Families First said its primary purpose was "issue advocacy" but did not answer specific questions about grants.

Campaign-finance watchdogs say the IRS has not clarified rules for social welfare groups or enforced them vigorously.....

http://www.propublica.org/article/how-nonprofits-spend-millions-on-elections-and-call-it-public-welfare

http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/donor_stats.php

Thus far super PACs have raised a total of $828,224,700

Portion of Money Delivered by Top 100 Donors

top 1oo gave 57% of $

2012

Portion of Money Delivered by Top 1% of Donors: 68%

OUTSIDE 2012

1 Adelson, Sheldon G. & Miriam O.

Las Vegas, NV Las Vegas Sands/Adelson Drug Clinic $92,796,625 C

2 Simmons, Harold C. & Annette

Dallas, TX Contran Corp $26,865,000 C

3 Perry, Robert J.

Houston, TX Perry Homes $23,450,000 C

4 Eychaner, Fred

Chicago, IL Newsweb Corp $14,050,000 L

5 Bloomberg, Michael R.

New York, NY City of New York, NY $13,672,973 L

6 Ricketts, John Joe

Omaha, NE Hugo Enterprises $13,050,000 C

7 Simons, James H. & Marilyn

New York, NY Renaissance Technologies/Simons Fdtn $9,575,000 L

8 Mercer, Robert L.

East Setauket, NY Renaissance Technologies $5,409,354 C

9 Thiel, Peter A.

San Francisco, CA Clarium Capital Management $4,735,000 C

10 Mostyn, J. Steve & Anderson, Amber

Houston, TX Mostyn Law Firm $4,253,850 L

11 Childs, John W.

Vero Beach, FL JW Childs Assoc $4,225,000 C

12 Perenchio, A. Jerrold

Los Angeles, CA Chartwell Partners $4,100,000 C

13 Rowling, Robert B.

Irving, TX TRT Holdings $3,635,000 C

14 Goldman, Amy

New York, NY Solil Management $3,400,000 L

15 McNair, Robert

HOUSTON, TX Houston Texans $3,175,000 C

16 Ramsey, John

AUSTIN, TX Student $3,155,933 C

17 Katzenberg, Jeffrey

Los Angeles, CA DreamWorks Animation SKG $3,150,000 L

18 Ellison, Lawrence

Woodside, CA Oracle Corp $3,000,000 C

19 Singer, Paul E.

New York, NY Elliott Management $2,815,316 C

20 Soros, George

New York, NY Soros Fund Management $2,775,000 L

21 Griffin, Kenneth C. & Anne Dias

Chicago, IL Citadel Invest Group/Aragon Global Mgt $2,580,000 C

22 Friess, Foster

Jackson, WY Friess Assoc $2,561,744 C

23 Dore, William

Lake Charles, LA Dore Energy $2,545,000 C

24 Stryker, Jon

New York, NY Arcus Foundation $2,500,000 L

25 Jacobs, Irwin M.

La Jolla, CA Qualcomm Inc $2,300,000 L

26 Craft, Joseph W. III

Tulsa, OK Alliance Resource Partners $2,250,000 C

26 Julian H. Robertson

Locust Valley, NY Tiger Management $2,250,000 C

28 Huntsman, Jon M. Sr.

Salt Lake City, UT Huntsman Corp $2,222,039 C

29 Cox Chambers, Anne

Atlanta, GA Cox Enterprises $2,100,000 L

30 Roberts, Richard H.

Lakewood, NJ Mutual Pharmaceutical $2,045,000 C

31 Haney, Franklin L.

Washington, DC Franklin L Haney Co $2,000,000 L

32 Uihlein, Richard

Lake Forest, IL Uline Inc $1,885,000 C

33 Hiatt, Arnold S

Boston, MA Stride Rite Foundation $1,850,000 L

34 Shaw, David E. & Beth K.

NEW YORK, NY DE Shaw Research biotech $1,825,000 L

35 Ragon, Phillip T.

Boston, MA InterSystems Corp $1,750,000 L

35 Earhart, Anne G.

Corona Del Mar, CA Investor $1,750,000 L

35 Kovner, Bruce & Suzie

New York, NY Caxton Assoc $1,750,000 C

38 Hayden, Jerry L. & Marilyn J.

Barrington, IL Retired $1,735,000 C

39 Abraham, S. Daniel

West Palm Beach, FL Slim Fast $1,700,000 L

40 Laufer, Henry B. & Marsha Z.

Lantana, FL Renaissance Technologies $1,670,000 L

41 Stiefel, Barbara

Coral Gables, FL Retired $1,600,000 L

41 Angelos, Peter G.

Baltimore, MD Angelos Law Offices/Baltimore Orioles $1,600,000 L

43 Sprecher, Jeff & Loeffler, Kelly

Atlanta, GA IntercontinentalExchange Inc $1,530,000 C

44 Linbeck, Leo III

Houston, TX Aquinas Companies $1,515,042 L

45 Wyckoff, Ann

Seattle, WA Self-Employed $1,500,000 L

45 Herzog, Stanley & Teresa

ST. JOSEPH, MO Herzog Contracting $1,500,000 C

45 Eshelman, Fred

Wilmington, NC Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc $1,500,000 C

48 James, Virginia

Lambertville, NJ Retired $1,410,000 C

49 McCormack, Win

Portland, OR McCormack Communications $1,400,000 L

The 2012 Election: Our Price Tag (Finally) for the Whole Ball of Wax

By Russ Choma on March 13, 2013 4:04 PM

| More

With the final 2012 campaign finance reports, and their amendments, all in (well, mostly), the Center for Responsive Politics calculates that the elections cost at least $6.3 billion -- more than we previously estimated.

The final figure cements 2012's status as the most expensive election cycle ever.

In late October, we estimated that the election would cost about $6 billion. Even that figure was a revision of a $5.8 billion calculus made earlier in the year. Skyrocketing outside spending continually exceeded estimates, causing us to revise up.

The cost of the presidential election alone remains at roughly the figure we calculated in late October, about $2.6 billion. Spending on congressional races by candidates and other committees and groups topped $3.6 billion in 2012.

On the presidential level, President Barack Obama's re-election campaign outspent the campaigns of all his Republican rivals put together. Obama's campaign spent about $737.9 million, compared to the combined Republican total of $624.8 million. Spending by other committees in the presidential race, however, heavily favored Republicans and helped make up the deficit.

The Republican National Committee, for instance, laid out $333.9 million for the presidential contest, far more than the Democratic National Committee's $197.8 million. Outside spending by super PACs and politically active nonprofits on the presidential race also came out heavily in favor of Republicans. Conservative outside groups spent $454.5 million to get a Republican elected president, while liberal outside groups spent a relatively paltry $124.5 million.

election_totals2.png

(click to expand)

Spending by all House and Senate candidates topped $1.7 billion, with House candidates alone responsible for almost exactly $1 billion of the total. House Republican candidates held the edge in spending, accounting for about $532 million, while Democrats accounted for $447 million. In the Senate, Democratic candidates were also outspent -- $331.4 million to $408.5 million by the GOP Senate candidates.

Outside spending on congressional races also heavily favored Republicans over Democrats. Conservative outside spending groups spent $103.5 million on House races, compared to $81.6 million by liberal groups. Similarly, conservative outside groups spent $171.3 million on Senate races, while liberal outside groups spent $98.5 million.

One calculation by which Democrats led Republicans was in non-presidential party spending. Both parties together spent a total of $1 billion this election, of which $583 million was spent by the Democratic party committees and Republican party committees spent $444.7 million.

An important note: We have modified the methodology by which we calculate total cost, and thus a precise comparison between the costs of the 2012 election and the 2008 election is not possible. Previously, we calculated party spending by relying on press releases provided by the FEC. Now, we are able to use more detailed and newly provided summary data to calculate these totals. Furthermore, we used to be unable to include a calculation for spending by PACs on overhead expenses such as salary and office rent, but the new data allows us to include these totals. We have recalculated the final cost of the 2010 election, but can't do so for earlier cycles because the more detailed data is not available from the Federal Election Commission.

A full breakout of our analysis is below:

Category PresMoney TotalSpent DemsSpent RepubsSpent ThirdParty DemPct RepubPct

Candidates - President Y $1,368,206,593 $737,922,197 $624,852,550 $5,431,846 54% 46%

Candidates - Delegates N $4,044,581 $3,806,319 $215,250 $23,013 94% 5%

Candidates - House N $990,520,291 $447,445,724 $532,904,194 $10,241,744 45% 54%

Candidates - Senate N $754,674,391 $331,407,202 $408,596,395 $14,669,794 44% 54%

Party Cmtes - DNC & RNC Y $531,728,184 $197,806,594 $333,921,590 $0 37% 63%

Party Cmtes - Other N $1,033,655,168 $583,687,734 $444,801,054 $5,166,379 56% 43%

527 federal Cmtes N $153,737,286 $90,058,019 $48,728,875 $12,275,571 59% 32%

Outside Money House N $205,309,245 $81,645,668 $103,564,965 $20,098,612 40% 50%

Outside Money Senate N $275,311,581 $98,536,705 $171,366,087 $5,408,789 36% 62%

Outside Money Pres Y $579,701,415 $124,556,324 $454,475,843 $669,248 21% 78%

PAC Overhead N $246,888,887 $17,993,144 $52,330,994 $249,586 7% 21%

FEC funding of conventions Y $35,379,600 $17,689,800 $17,689,800 $0 50% 50%

Host Committee Fund Raising Y $106,400,000 $54,000,000 $52,400,000 $0 51% 49%

Grand Total

$6,285,557,223 $2,786,555,430 $3,245,847,596 $74,234,582 44% 52%

Grand Total Pres Only

$2,621,415,792 $1,131,974,915 $1,483,339,783 $6,101,094 43% 57%

Congress (by default)

$3,664,141,430 $1,654,580,515 $1,762,507,814 $68,133,488 45% 48%

Category PresMoney TotalSpent DemsSpent RepubsSpent ThirdParty DemPct?? RepubPct

Researcher Doug Weber contributed to this article. ??

Categories:

Congress,

Congressional Elections,

Election Overview,

Politicians & Elections,

Presidential Election

Tags:

$6.3 billion,

2012,

barack obama,

Democratic National Committee,

DNC,

GOP,

presidential race,

Republican National Committee,

RNC,

russ choma,

total cost of election

The final figure cements 2012's status as the most expensive election cycle ever.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/03/the-2012-election-our-price-tag-fin.html

http://www.publicintegrity.org/politics/consider-source/super-donors

===

tracker: http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/outside-spending/

Totals for 2011-2012 Cycle

Independent Expenditures: $627,527,837.88

Total Receipts: $839,949,112.36

Negative spending (opposes a candidate): 76%

Positive spending (supports a candidate): 24%

===

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to campaign finance laws limiting how much an individual can give to political campaigns.

The justices on Tuesday decided to hear an appeal from Shaun McCutcheon of Alabama and the Republican National Committee. They are arguing that it's unconstitutional to stop a donor from giving more than $46,200 to political candidates and $70,800 to political committees and PACs.

McCutcheon says he accepts that he can only give $2,500 to a single candidate but says he should be able to give that amount to as many GOP candidates as he wants.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the limits, but the high court decided to review that decision. huffpo

The corrosive influence of money in politics was amplified in 2012 by the fact that in many cases we don't know which individuals or which corporations actually provided much of the funding to affect election results. "Dark money" -- election spending where we don't know the source of the funds -- played a bigger role in 2012 than in any other presidential election since Richard Nixon's.

Mystery donors poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the 2012 elections via nonprofits and shell corporations, despite widespread public support for disclosure and decades of legal precedent supporting the public’s right to know the sources of election-related spending. A new report from the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and the Center for Media and Democracy found that contributions from phony for-profit corporations accounted for nearly 17 percent of all business donations to Super PACs.

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http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/superpacs.php

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2012 totals Open secrets:

We've just witnessed the most expensive election in U.S. history! Over $6 billion was spent by federal campaigns, super PACs, political nonprofits and the party committees.

Have you taken a close look at the projected spending associated with November's election? It's truly eye opening:

Presidential candidates....$1,377,000,000

House Candidates.............$1,010,000,000

Senate Candidates............$720,000,000

Party Committees...............$1,800,000,000

Outside Groups...................$1,210,000,000

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2012 6B $ spent http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/11/08/1164961/what-right-wing-attack-groups-got-for-228646000/

What Right-Wing Attack Groups Got For $228,646,000

adelson PO'd 0 for 8?

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profiles http://www.npr.org/2012/02/13/146836082/the-superpac-super-donors

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The amount spent by super PACs, political non profit groups and other non-political party entities on the presidential and congressional races, about $306.2 million as of Sept. 5, is already more than such groups spent during the entirety of the last presidential election cycle, about $301.6 million. 9/7/12

Top Individuals Funding Super PACs

Rank Donor Organization/Occupation Total Viewpoint*

1 Adelson, Sheldon G. & Miriam O.

Las Vegas, NV Las Vegas Sands/Adelson Drug Clinic $36,250,000 C

2 Simmons, Harold C.

Dallas, TX Contran Corp $15,740,000 C

3 Perry, Robert J.

Houston, TX Perry Homes $13,900,000 C

4 Thiel, Peter A.

San Francisco, CA Clarium Capital Management $4,735,000 C

5 Mercer, Robert L.

East Setauket, NY Renaissance Technologies $3,300,000 C

6 Eychaner, Fred

Chicago, IL Newsweb Corp $3,250,000 L

7 Childs, John W.

Vero Beach, FL JW Childs Assoc $2,625,000 C

8 Perenchio, A. Jerrold & Margaret

Los Angeles, CA Chartwell Partners $2,600,000 C

9 Ramsey, John

Austin, TX Student $2,452,083 C

10 Friess, Foster

Jackson, WY Friess Assoc $2,425,000 C

11 Goldman, Amy

New York, NY Writer $2,250,000 L

11 Dore, William J.

Lake Charles, LA Dore Energy $2,250,000 C

13 Huntsman, Jon M. Sr.

Salt Lake City, UT Huntsman Corp $2,222,039 C

14 Rowling, Robert B.

Dallas, TX TRT Holdings $2,135,000 C

15 Katzenberg, Jeffrey

Los Angeles, CA DreamWorks SKG $2,125,000 L

16 Singer, Paul E.

New York, NY Elliott Management $2,123,931 C

17 Jacobs, Irwin M. & Joan K.

La Jolla, CA Qualcomm Inc $2,100,000 L

18 Griffin, Kenneth C.

Chicago, IL Citadel Invest Group/Aragon Global Mgt $2,080,000 C

19 Simons, James H. & Marilyn H.

New York, NY Renaissance Technologies/Simons Fdtn $2,000,000 L

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Rank Organization Total Viewpoint*

1 National Education Assn $5,639,150 L

2 Service Employees International Union $4,192,019 L

3 Contran Corp $3,030,000 C

4 Oxbow Corp $2,750,000 C

5 Crow Holdings $2,505,000 C

6 AFL-CIO $2,410,057 L

7 American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees $2,035,000 L

8 FreedomWorks $2,023,823 C

9 TRT Holdings $2,000,000 C

10 American Federation of Teachers $1,950,000 L

11 National Air Traffic Controllers Assn $1,600,000 L

12 Republican Governors Assn $1,518,605 C

13 Weaver Popcorn $1,400,000 C

14 Carpenters & Joiners Union $1,375,000 L

15 Laborers Union $1,255,000 L

16 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $1,248,411 L

17 Teamsters Union $1,120,000 L

18 Eli Publishing $1,000,000 C

18 F8 LLC $1,000,000 C

18 Melaleuca Inc $1,000,000 C

18 National Assn of Letter Carriers $1,000,000 L

18 Renco Group $1,000,000 C

18 Rooney Holdings $1,000,000 C

18 STEPHENS INC $1,000,000 C

18 UNITE HERE $1,000,000 L

18 Whiteco Industries $1,000,000 C

27 Larry H Miller Group $987,000 C

28 Mercury Trust $925,000 C

29 Alliance Resource Partners $850,000 C

30 Team DeMint $700,000 C

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[update: morphing http://www.prwatch.org/node/11722 ] gps CoC shift to indep expend after ct ruling to disclose

A social-welfare nonprofit is a 501c4 — primarily supposed to be serving a social welfare purpose, but allowed to do lobbying and some campaign intervention. A union is a 501c5, and a trade association like the Chamber of Commerce is a 501c6. Both categories are allowed to do a certain level of campaign intervention.

A 527 is the IRS definition of a political committee, which has to report its donors to the IRS. The IRS makes those donors public. The other nonprofits have to report their donors to the IRS. But the IRS doesn't make those donors public…

So: A super PAC with the Federal Election Commission is a 527 with the IRS. A 501c4 with the IRS is simply an outside spending group with the FEC....After McCain Feingold, it was 527s in 2004, and then 527s and 501c4s in 2008, and now, post-Citizens United and Speech Now (fun reading for you court buffs), we're in a world where it seems like anything goes. Super PACs! 501c4s! There are different ways to spend money on politics, and also to hide donors.

So is it different than before? The level of money is much higher now. The ability of 501c4s to spend seems much greater…

So that raises the question: Should we know who's giving that money? That's an issue I think people can push on. The Supreme Court, even in Citizens United, was adamant that disclosure was paramount,[except CTh?] and that disclosure would help voters make decisions. Well, we have a system now with unlimited money, but with very little disclosure.

http://www.propublica.org/article/top-13-questions-from-our-qa-on-dark-money-in-the-2012-campaign

http://www.propublica.org/article/from-citizens-united-to-super-pacs-a-campaign-finance-reading-guide

As of today, spending reported to the Federal Election Commission by groups that aren't required to disclose the sources of their funding has nearly tripled over where it stood at the same point in the 2010 election cycle, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics.

By Aug. 6, 2010, groups registered as social welfare organizations, or 501(c)(4)s, as well as super PACs funded entirely by them, had reported spending $8.5 million. That figure has soared to $24.9 million in this cycle.

In 2008, nondisclosing groups reported spending $8.3 million at this point in the campaign season.

In addition, the numbers show a clear break from those of previous cycles in that

independent expenditures (ads explicitly calling for the election or defeat of a particular candidate) make up the vast majority of the spending reported by nondisclosing groups. Spending for electioneering communications -- "issue ads" that name a federal candidate and are run within a 60-day window before a general election, or 30 days before a primary or a national party nominating convention -- has fallen as a share of the total.

outsidetotals.JPG That trend is due in part to a U.S. District Court decision March 30 in the case Van Hollen v. FEC, which requires tax-exempt organizations making electioneering communications to disclose "each donor who donated an amount aggregating $1,000 or more to the person making the disbursement." After the decision, some big spenders like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which had previously produced only issue ads, changed tack and began running ads that explicitly advocate for or against candidates. As a result, the group can continue to avoid disclosing its donors.

In fact, no group has reported making a single electioneering communication since the beginning of April, just after the court decision.

Any group claiming 501(c)(4) status under the Internal Revenue Code is supposed to spend less than half its budget on political activity, such as independent expenditures. However, as OpenSecrets Blog has described, some groups spend much of their money on issue ads, and also fund other tax-exempt groups with similar political philosophies that in turn spend their money on advertising.

The increase in the overall reported spending by nondisclosing groups this cycle is likely attributable in great part to the fact that this is a presidential election year. An additional factor may be that this is the first full election cycle since the January 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC and other legal developments freed up fundraising and spending by outside groups.

The numbers reported to the FEC don't include the bulk of what the groups have spent. It excludes any money spent on electioneering communications that fell outside the 30-day pre-primary window. Most estimates put that amount at more than $100 million so far this cycle.

Still, the reported numbers are one barometer of the increase in spending by outside entities in this cycle over 2010.

Our figures don't include spending by super PACs that are "partial" disclosers that receive a large part of their funding -- but not the entirety -- from non-disclosing groups. Groups like FreedomWorks for America and Women Vote!, for example, do not factor into our totals, though they are funded heavily by nondisclosing groups.

Much more spending is yet to come, if 2012 is anything like 2010. Nondisclosing groups reported to the FEC that they spent $130 million for the whole 2010 election cycle, and 93 percent of it was unleashed after Aug. 6.

If that pattern holds true, more than $300 million in political spending will be reported to the FEC by groups that do not have to disclose their donors and are not supposed to have politics as their primary function. Much more money will never be reported, except in vague summaries months -- or even years -- from now, when these groups file their tax forms with the IRS. http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/08/spending-reported-by-nondisclosing-groups-well-ahead-of-2010.html

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infographic http://projects.propublica.org/pactrack/contributions/tree

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July 31, 2012

In 2013 Races, New York Prepares for ‘Super PAC??? Effect

By DAVID W. CHEN

New York City campaign regulators are girding for a wave of independent spending in local campaigns next year, saying that moneyed interest groups and wealthy individuals are watching the “super PAC” phenomenon in the presidential campaign this year and preparing to adapt it for local use.

The city will, for the first time, require disclosure of independent expenditures — spending that is not coordinated with a campaign. It said its tracking of the finances of such groups, which it plans to post on the Web, would be among the most detailed anywhere, including not only contributions and spending, but also an archive of advertisements run by the groups and information about their backers.

City campaign finance officials said, however, that the Citizens United case and a related Supreme Court decision on Montana — both of which struck down limits on campaign spending by corporations and unions — made it clear that the city could only document, and not limit, independent spending on elections.

“The Citizens United decision started a sea change in the culture of money in politics that will ultimately affect every level of government all across the country,” said Amy M. Loprest, executive director of the New York City Campaign Finance Board. “Outside spending in city elections was increasing even before Citizens United, and we expect the trend will only accelerate in the 2013 elections.”...http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/nyregion/new-york-city-regulators-prepare-for-super-pacs-effect-on-local-elections.html?src=recg&pagewanted=print

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By Stephen Lacey on Jun 27, 2012 at 1:54 pm

With spending from interest groups up 1,100 percent since the last presidential campaign, the emerging fact checking industry has been busy.

Fact checkers have gotten so exasperated by all the ads, Glenn Kessler at the Washington Post recently lamented that “watching these ads is a depressing duty for The Fact Checker…. The erroneous assertions emerge … without any shame, labeled as ‘the truth’ or ‘fact.’”

And there’s a reason for all that exasperation. According to a new analysis from the Annenberg Public Policy Center, 85 percent of spending on presidential ads by the top spending conservative 501(c)(4) organizations went toward spots labeled “deceptive” by fact checkers. Third-party 501(c)(4) groups, commonly referred to as political action committees, do not have to disclose their donors.

As of June 1st, no Democratic 501(c)(4) organizations had spent any money on the presidential race.

The Annenberg analysis outlines the top four conservative interest groups funneling money into deceptive ads:

American Energy Alliance, which champions free market energy policies and spent an estimated $3.3 million ($3,269,000) on deceptive presidential ads.

Americans for Prosperity, founded by billionaire businessman and conservative activist David Koch to support lower taxes and limited government spending, spent an estimated $5 million ($5,018,000) on presidential ads containing deceptions.

American Future Fund, a Republican-leaning group founded by longtime Iowa political operative Nick Ryan and headed by state Senator Sandra Greiner, spent an estimated $6.4 million ($6,365,930) on deceptive presidential ads.

Crossroads GPS, a conservative public policy advocacy group advised by former Bush lieutenant Karl Rove and former RNC director Ed Gillespie, spent an estimated $10.3 million ($10,263,760) on deceptive presidential ads. The group is a companion organization to the super PAC American Crossroads.

A large share of those ads have been focused on energy — particularly on the solar company Solyndra. A Bloomberg analysis found that 81 percent attack ads against President Obama were related to energy in the first quarter of this year. Overall, negative ads are up 70 percent since the 2008 presidential election.

Behold the legacy of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision: A whole lot of lies and very little accountability.

Below is a video put together by FlackCheck.org documenting the extraordinary increase in deceptive ads:

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Sheldon Adelson, Other Super PAC Donors Have Corporate Bribery Issues

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/18/sheldon-adelson-bribery-super-pac-donors-fcpa_n_1602694.html

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http://billmoyers.com/content/five-best-tools-for-following-the-money/

Tips for Tracking Dark Money

Unlike super PACs, tax-exempt nonprofits like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS or Americans for Prosperity don’t have to reveal their donors. These “social welfare” organizations are not considered PACs, so disclosure rules don’t apply to them. But that doesn’t mean journalists are just leaving them be. For continuous news and insight, we recommend following these reporters and watchdog organizations on Twitter: @MotherJones, @AndrewKroll, @iWatch, @FredWertheimer and @sunfoundation.

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http://maplight.org/

Click to view interactive viz.

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Expenditures by super PACs were expected to hit the $100 million mark today, further proof that outside spending will far outstrip anything seen in previous election cycles.

Here's one way to look at how much more is being spent in the 2012 cycle: A single super PAC, the pro-Mitt Romney Restore Our Future, has already spent more -- $44.5 million -- than all outside groups combined had spent by this point in 2008. That 2008 number, about $30.9 million, is roughly one-quarter of this cycle's overall outside spending total of $122.7 million.

And the $100 million spent just by super PACs this cycle is already $30 million more than the entire sum of all outside spending in the 2004 election, the year that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 527 organization made a splash with its attacks on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

OpenSecrets.org created the graphic below to help visualize what it all means.

nice graph missing: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2012/05/super-pac-spending-teeters-at-100-million-mark.html

The hard-fought Republican primary, which dragged out longer than many expected, attracted the bulk of the super PAC money. The five top outside spenders, all of them super PACs formed to support one of the GOP candidates, account for $86 million of this first $100 million spent.

The (almost) settling of the GOP nominating contest doesn't mean outside spending has crested; in fact, the evidence indicates that many groups haven't even begun to fight. Of the 26 party-affiliated groups, only 11 have started spending in any races. And of the 158 other, non-super PAC outside groups, 135 have started spending.

But of the 534 super PACs, only 78 have spent a dime on this election so far.

A number of these so-far dormant super PACs appear to be spoofs -- Cats For A Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, for instance -- but data collected by OpenSecrets.org shows that quite a few are sitting on hoards of cash, apparently waiting for the right moment to jump into the action.

For instance, American Crossroads, the group associated with Karl Rove, has spent about $1 million so far, but still had another $24.3 million remaining as of the end of March. Other examples include the Congressional Leadership Fund, which has raised over $5 million, or the NEA Advocacy Fund, operated by the National Education Association, which has a stash of nearly $3 million.

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millionaires:

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/13/146836082/the-superpac-super-donors

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Most independent political ads for the 2012 election fueled by secret donors

According to a new analysis by the Washington Post’s Dan Eggen, about 90% of the $31.2 million spent on outside political ads aimed at the 2012 general election so far came from groups that don’t have to disclose their donors. The graphic above gives a breakdown of the biggest spenders.

As we reported last week, Karl Rove’s Crossroads political machine raised $76.8 million of the $123 million it brought in through the end of last year via its non-disclosing nonprofit arm. We also took a look at how conservative super PAC FreedomWorks for America has received more than half of its $3.5 million from its 501(c)(4), which also doesn’t have to reveal its donors.

All this suggests that we’ll be seeing a lot more political spending from these deep-pocketed nonprofits as we draw closer to election day.

??===

primer and tauzin

Buying Legislators Can Be Expensive

Today’s system of buying legislators is effective but somewhat expensive. This system involves investing in the purchase of numerous legislators through campaign contributions and/or offers of lucrative post-government-service jobs to legislators and staffers. This system generates tremendous returns—a few million spread around can yield billions.

The poster-child of this old system, of course, remains Representative Billy Tauzin (R-LA), who was chairman of the committee in the House that regulates the pharmaceutical industry. Tauzin ushered through the Medicare prescription drug program that was so beneficial to the pharmaceutical industry. He retired very soon after it passed to take a job as head of the pharmaceutical lobbying group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. According to Bloomberg News Tauzin received lobbying income of $11.6 million in 2010.

...

Threatening Legislators with Destruction Is Much More Cost-Effective

A new banker super-PAC is pioneering a more cost-effective method of dealing with legislators who stand in their way. Instead of long-term investment in the purchase of a lawmaker, this new method is much more direct and immediate. The super-PAC lets it be known that it has gathered a large sum of money. If a lawmaker dares to side with the public (the 99%) against the banks (the 1%), the super-PAC can threaten to unleash unlimited funds to destroy that candidate, run millions of dollars of smear ads on local TV stations, spread rumors on right-wing internet sites, sic Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck on them, etc.

The key to the cost-effectiveness of this approach is that they will rarely have to actually follow through on the threat, and spend the money. Just the threat is sufficient. Few elected officials will be able to stand up to a threat of unlimited millions spent destroying him or her. If anyone actually does resist, making an example by publicly destroying that lawmaker will serve as sufficient warning to the rest.

http://www.alternet.org/story/154900/new_super-pac_threatens_to_destroy_candidates_who_side_with_the_people_over_wall_street?page=entire

The 19 donors’ contributions accounted for about 53 percent of the $88.2 million combined receipts for those committees. Here are the 19:

Donor Donations Sector

Harold Simmons/Contran Corp. $14.1M Chemicals

Sheldon Adelson $5M Casinos and hotels

Miriam Adelson $5M Casinos and hotels

Bob Perry $3.5M Real Estate/Construction

Peter Thiel $2.6M Finance/Investment

Jon Huntsman Sr. $2.2M Chemicals

Jerry Perenchio Living Trust $2M Media

Julian Robertson $1.25M Finance/Investment

Robert B. Rowling $1.1M Energy

Edward Conard $1M Finance/Investment

Robert Mercer $1M Finance/Investment

John Paulson $1M Finance/Investment

Paul Singer $1M Finance/Investment

Foster Friess $1M Finance/Investment

Rooney Holdings Inc. $1M Real Estate/Construction

William Dore $1M Energy

Whiteco Industries $1M Real Estate/Construction

F8 LLC (Jeremy Blickenstaff) $1M Finance/Investment

Eli Publishing (Steve Lund) $1M Cosmetics

===

The Metaphysics of Citizens United and Campaign Finance Law

By Kevin Drum

| Sun Feb. 26, 2012 11:09 AM PST

Did the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United produce the recent explosion of Super PACs and their flood of independent money from rich donors into the 2012 campaign? There's been a bit of a cottage industry lately claiming that this is a myth, followed by a bit of a counter-cottage industry insisting that it's true after all. In a nutshell, the mythbusters claim (correctly) that Citizens United affected only the ability of corporations and unions to make independent campaign expenditures, but most of the money flowing into Super PACs has comes from private individuals, who have been able to spend unlimited sums for years. The counterclaim is that Citizens United really did unleash expenditures from individuals, but did it indirectly. Legally, the chain goes from Citizens United to SpeechNow, which was the case that removed all previous limitations on private expenditures. Andrew Sprung has a pretty good summary of the arguments here.

So which is it? In the end, I think the argument is inherently a little metaphysical. Remember 527s? Prior to Citizens United, rich people who wanted to spend lots of money on campaign ads either did it themselves or contributed to 527 groups. That's how the Swift Boat folks were organized, for example. But here's the thing: legally, 527s were allowed to raise money for "issue advocacy," but not to explicitly advocate for or against a federal candidate. This was, needless to say, a crock: 527s routinely ran ads that viciously attacked and supported candidates. They just stopped (barely) short of expressly saying, "On Tuesday, vote for John Doe."

So what impact have Super PACs had? On the one hand, you can argue that they really haven't changed anything on the ground. They run pretty much the same kinds of attack ads as the 527s used to, and the only change is that they don't have to worry about legal challenges anymore. On the other hand, you can argue that the added freedom is genuinely important. Being able to explicitly raise money for candidates, instead of pretending to be an issue advocacy group, makes a real difference.

So which is it? Obviously there's a bit of truth to both sides, and which argument you give the most weight to is mainly a matter of temperament and attitude. For myself, I think it's fair to say that Citizens United really did have an impact on individual expenditures, but probably didn't empower rich people quite as much as popular legend has it.

That said, there are also a couple of other points to make. First, Citizens United obviously did unleash spending by corporations and unions. In the 2010 election it seemed as though the impact of Citizens United on corporate spending had turned out to be a bit of a dud, but this year it looks as though it's finally taking off. Second, one of the commonest complaints about Super PACs is that they're allowed to hide the sources of their contributions. But this has nothing to do with Citizens United. It has to do with the legal requirements of 501(c)(4) groups, which have become major funding sources for Super PACs. The FEC has declined to force 501(c)(4)s to disclose their donors, and the IRS has declined to enforce the law that says they can't have electoral politics as their primary purpose. Both of these problems could be fixed tomorrow by legislative means if Congress wanted to. Rick Hasen has a pretty good summary of the current state of play here.

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/02/metaphysics-icitizens-unitedi-and-campaign-finance-law

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rr:

According to January's Federal Election Commission report, William Dore and Foster Friess supplied more than three-fourths of the $2.1 million raked in by Rick Santorum's super PAC in January. Dore, president of the Dore Energy Corporation in Lake Charles, Louisiana, gave $1 million; Freis, a fund manager based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, gave $669,000 (he had given the Santorum super PAC $331,000 last year, bringing Freis's total to $1 million).

Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam provided $10 million of the $11 million that went into Gingrich's super PAC in January. Adelson is chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Texas billionaire Harold Simmons donated $500,000.

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, provided $1.7 million of the $2.4 million raised by Ron Paul's super PAC in January.

Mitt Romney's super PAC raised $6.6 million last month -- almost all from just forty donors. Bruce Kovner, co-founder of the New York-based hedge fund Caxton Associates, gave $500,000, as did two others. David Tepper of Appaloosa Management gave $375,000. J.W. Marriott and Richard Marriott gave a total of $500,000. Julian Robertson, co-founder of hedge fund Tiger Management, gave $250,0000. Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman gave $100,000.

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Simmons' personal financial support extends well beyond Perry: He also gave $500,000 to Winning Our Future, a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich, and most notably, Simmons is the top donor to both Restore Our Future (a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney) and American Crossroads. Simmons' donations to the latter two groups further solidify an already established trend of overlap between the two groups, who share not only top funders like Bob Perry and Simmons, but top officials like Carl Forti.

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As of January 27, 2012, 296 groups organized as Super PACs have reported total receipts of $32,008,813 and total expenditures of $42,049,656 in the 2012 cycle. See more on Outside Spending.

http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/superpacs.php?cycle=2012&utm_source=CRP+Mail+List&utm_campaign=39e1ef1d32-Newsletter01_26_121_26_2012&utm_medium=email

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Who's been funding the presidential super PACs since last June is largely a mystery, and will remain so until next week. But how the groups have been spending their money is a different story, thanks to legal requirements that expenditures over a certain threshhold be disclosed quickly.

And the super PACs, just like the candidates they support or oppose, have shown deep differences in how they're allocating their money to get their messages across, according to a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of the expenditures.

The pro-Mitt Romney committee Restore Our Future, for example, reported that the vast majority of its $11.4 million in total spending through Jan. 24 -- 85 percent, in fact, or $9.65 million -- went to production of television and radio ads and buying the air time to run them. The rest mostly was split between direct mail and phone banks.

Almost all of Restore Our Future's ads have attacked other Republicans in the field, chiefly Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.

Endorse Liberty, the super PAC that backs Ron Paul, has an entirely different bent. Roughly 92 percent of the $3.11 million it reported laying out in the same time frame was spent on Internet advertising -- the vast majority ($2.36 million) for Google ads, the rest mainly for ads on Facebook and StumbleUpon.

The different approaches reflect different target audiences. Romney "is sort of a mainstream Republican, and I think you reach his followers best by television," said Tobe Berkovitz, an expert on political advertising and communications at Boston University. "Ron Paul has an energized base of younger followers. They live on the net, they live on their phones, so you want to get them where they are."

"It's also much more cost-efficient" to go the Internet route, Berkovitz told OpenSecrets Blog.

The candidates' own campaign committees are becoming relatively sophisticated about their e-advertising -- Romney was at the front of the line when Twitter began running political ads last fall, for instance, and mobile advertising that appears on voters' phones depending on where they are geographically, has been used by Romney, Michele Bachmann and probably others.

It's not apparent, though, that such methods have been a priority for most super PACs. Winning Our Future was the only other one to even break $30,000 in e-advertising. The pro-Gingrich group spent between $490,373 and $987,452 on "email and internet advertising" and the like, although it didn't specify exactly where those dollars went, unlike Endorse Liberty. Those amounts range from 12 to 24 percent of the $4.17 million the PAC had reported spending as of Jan. 24. (We calculated the number as a range because some of Winning Our Future's expenditures are listed as "radio and email advertising" and there is no way to tell how much went for each purpose).