Top Money in Politics News
Democratic, GOP super PACs quadruple fundraising as big-money groups' influence grows (Politico) Out-raised. “Super PACs aligned with House and Senate Democrats and Republicans more than quadrupled their total fundraising in the 2018 midterms compared to four years ago, a sign that campaign money and power is amassing at big outside groups that face fewer transparency rules and can be difficult for party leaders to oversee.
Meanwhile, fundraising at party committees such as the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was roughly stagnant from the 2014 midterms to 2018, and three of the four congressional committees were outraised by their corresponding super PACs, disclosures with the Federal Election Commission showed Thursday.”
Also see: ‘Pop-up’ super PACs spent millions on the 2018 election without disclosing donors, FEC filings show (The Washington Post)
Documents Point to Illegal Campaign Coordination Between Trump and the NRA (Mother Jones) Two peas in a pod. “Trump and the gun group used the same consultants to spearhead TV ad blitzes at the height of the 2016 election, likely in violation of federal law.”
How Donald Trump Shifted $1.1M Of Campaign-Donor Money Into His Business (Forbes) A sweet setup. “On the day Donald Trump became president of the United States, while inauguration festivities were still in full swing, he officially launched his 2020 reelection campaign. Donations poured in from more than 50,000 people across the country. But according to the latest federal filings, Trump still has not donated a penny of his own, while his businesses continued to charge the campaign for hotels, food, rent and legal consulting. That means the richest president in American history has turned $1.1 million from donors across the country into revenue for himself.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib blast bipartisan ‘corporate lobbyist group’ event for new Congress (ThinkProgress) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) note the lack of non-corporate voices at a Congressional orientation event.
Why We Left Congress: How the Legislative Branch is Broken and What We Can Do About It (Issue One) A hint: the pressure to fundraise had something to do with it.
America’s Biggest Wildfire Profiteer Is Major Donor to Republicans Whose Policies Benefit His Business (Sludge) A vicious cycle. “Because of misguided state and federal policy, a billionaire logging family in California, the Emmerson family, is profiting from catastrophic forest fires on the West Coast as it funds politicians whose policies help its business. Recipients of campaign donations from the family push for measures that intensify climate change, a cause of increasingly intense fires, and weaken forest protections, allowing logging companies more access to post-fire sites.”
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ON SUPER PACS
RT Meredith McGehee "Democratic, GOP super PACs quadruple fundraising as big-money groups' influence grows" https://politi.co/2Ei2B4X
RT POLITICO Democratic, GOP super PACs quadruple fundraising as big-money groups' influence grows https://politi.co/2Ei2B4X
ON COORDINATION
RT Mark Follman EXCLUSIVE: Documents point to illegal campaign coordination between Trump and the NRA https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/12/nra-trump-2016-campaign-coordination-political-advertising
RT Ashley Balcerzak Incredible work:
“This is very strong evidence, if not proof, of illegal coordination” -Larry Noble, former @FEC general counsel.
@teamtrace showed the @NRA & @realDonaldTrump campaign employed the same operation—at times, the same people—to craft & execute their ad strategies.
ON TRUMP 2020
RT Adam Smith How Donald Trump Shifted $1.1M Of Campaign-Donor Money Into His Business https://t.co/aLJ4Unr24p
RT Citizens for Ethics The richest president in American history has turned $1.1 million from donors across the country into revenue for himself. https://t.co/aLJ4Unr24p
ON CORPORATIONS
RT Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Right now Freshman members of Congress are at a “Bipartisan” orientation w/ briefings on issues.
Invited panelists offer insights to inform new Congressmembers‘ views as they prepare to legislate.
# of Corporate CEOs we’ve listened to here: 4
# of Labor leaders: 0
RT Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Our “bipartisan” Congressional orientation is cohosted by a corporate lobbyist group. Other members have quietly expressed to me their concern that this wasn’t told to us in advance.
Lobbyists are here. Goldman Sachs is here. Where‘s labor? Activists?Frontline community leaders?
ON CONGRESS
RT Issue One Fundraising demands have relegated members of Congress to the role of telemarketers, diverting their attention from doing the people’s work. Learn more about why members are fed up—and leaving: https://www.issueone.org/why-we-left/ via @IssueOneReform and @RSI
RT Issue One In all, 52 House members chose not to run for re-election in 2018, well above the historic average. Read why, in their own words, many of them are leaving in @IssueOne's new joint report with @RSI https://www.issueone.org/why-we-left/
ON CALIFORNIA FIRES
RT Alex Kotch NEW @readsludge: The billionaire Emmerson family in CA, who own huge logging company, is cashing in on the forest fires there & donating to federal pols whose policies help out their business directly—and also indirectly, by exacerbating climate change. https://readsludge.com/2018/12/06/americas-biggest-wildfire-profiteer-is-major-donor-to-republicans-whose-policies-benefit-his-business/
RT Sludge SCOOP: A billionaire family in California is making huge profits from post-fire salvage logging while donating heavily to mostly Republican lawmakers whose policies help out its business—over $1 million since 2015. https://readsludge.com/2018/12/06/americas-biggest-wildfire-profiteer-is-major-donor-to-republicans-whose-policies-benefit-his-business/
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