Dark Money

New report highlights shell company loophole that could be abused by foreigners who want to interfere in U.S. elections

Dark Money, Don't Mess With US

Shell companies that give money to super PACs could be conduits for foreign money in the 2020 election, warns a new report published today by Issue One. Under current law, super PACs are permitted to collect contributions of unlimited amounts, but must disclose their donors. In some cases, their campaign finance disclosures list opaque shell companies as contributors. As a

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Issue One and Campaign Legal Center send letter to FEC chair: Get to work on dark money

Dark Money, Federal Election Commission

Campaign Legal Center and Issue One today sent a letter to recently confirmed FEC Chair Trey Trainor urging him to take action on the flood of secret or “dark” money flooding U.S. elections, drowning out the voices of everyday Americans. The letter is a response to a recent interview with Trainor where he dismissed the threat posed by “dark money”

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IRS rules change allowing groups to keep donors’ names hidden is both disappointing and troubling

Dark Money, Disclosure

In the wake of the news that the Treasury Department and IRS this week implemented a rules change that allows many 501(c) organizations — including politically active dark money groups organized under Secs. 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) of the tax code — to keep their donors secret, Issue One Executive Director Meredith McGehee issued the following statement: “It is both disappointing

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Outside money plays major role in hotly contested North Carolina special election: Here are 7 numbers to know about the money in the NC-09 race

Congress, Dark Money, Election analysis

According to a new Issue One analysis of campaign finance data, roughly $20 million has poured into the special election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, which voters will decide on Tuesday. Outside groups — including super PACs and dark money groups — have been major players in the race, spending nearly as much money in the race as the

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Event: Dark Money 2020

Events

The 2018 midterms are wrapping up, and political players have already begun gearing up for the 2020 presidential election. President Trump has already raised $100 million in preparation.  But there are still dozens of questions about the top dark money groups in 2018 — groups who will continue to be active in elections to come. In 2020, dark money spending

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Issue One and Campaign Legal Center file IRS complaint against major “dark money” group

Dark Money, Federal

Today, Issue One and the Campaign Legal Center called on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to enforce penalties against Americans for Job Security — one of the top spenders of political “dark money” in recent years — for failing to file three years’ worth of mandatory tax returns. For this, Americans for Job Security could be punished with the loss

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How corporations are still playing politics more than a century after President Theodore Roosevelt and the Tillman Act

Disclosure

Today marks the day that Theodore Roosevelt would have turned 159 years old. If he were still alive, the Republican from New York who served as our 26th president would likely be dismayed at the role corporations are playing in elections today. 110 years ago, in 1907, Roosevelt signed into law an anti-corruption measure known as the Tillman Act. This

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Watchdogs File FCC Complaints Regarding Lack of Disclosure in Most Expensive House Race in History

Accountability, Disclosure

MEDIA CONTACTS: William Gray, Issue One, wgray@issueone.org; O: 202-204-8553 Corey Goldstone, Campaign Legal Center, cgoldstone@campaignlegalcenter.org, O: 202-856-7912 *** Today, Issue One and Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed six complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against two Atlanta-based television stations in the aftermath of the special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, which was the most expensive U.S. House election

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How to tell the difference between super PACs and dark money groups

Disclosure

America First Policies, the nonprofit run by former Trump staffers and dedicated to supporting the president’s policies, has attracted a lot of news coverage over the past few weeks, between its avid participation in the Georgia special election and its ads targeting Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) for not supporting the Senate health care bill. But even veteran reporters have been

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Georgians kept in the dark about many ad sponsors

In the News, States

Co-authored by Daniel Hensel This year, residents of Georgia’s 6th Congressional District were bombarded with a seemingly never-ending cascade of political advertisements. But figuring out who was really behind this $60 million spending spree is nothing short of a Herculean task. Our disclosure laws are outdated. While the sponsors of ads must be disclosed, the names of politically active groups

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