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Articles by Andrew Mayersohn
OpenSecrets predicts record $12 billion in midterm election spending
(Illustration by DNY59/Getty Images) Continuing a trend that has defined federal elections since the Supreme Court upended campaign finance law in 2010, OpenSecrets’ analysis of Federal Election Commission disclosure data shows that when all the reporting is in, we will have another record midterm election, with total spending reaching $11.9 billion. In 2022 the midterms cost $8.9 billion, or $10.2 in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Chart of the Week: Outside spending in the general election has been concentrated in key Senate races
During the primaries, outside groups operating independently of candidates’ campaigns spent $330 million to support or oppose their preferred candidates. But since the primaries, outside spending has exploded. As of Oct. 20, outside groups have spent $1.3 billion on the midterms, with a heavy focus on the most competitive Senate races. A pair of Democrats – James Talarico in Texas and Sherrod Brown in Ohio – have each drawn more than $115 million in oppositional spending by outside groups.
Outside groups have spent $330M so far to oppose these 3 Democratic Senate candidates
Outside groups have spent $92.4 million opposing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate candidacy in Michigan. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Roughly $1 of every $7 that super PACs and other outside groups have spent on federal races so far this election cycle has gone toward opposing just three Democrats running for battleground Senate seats. With less than three weeks until the Nov.
As midterms near, outside groups are pouring millions into these tight House races
(Photo by Douglas Rissing/Getty Images) Two competitive House races in Florida combined to attract more than $15 million in new outside spending since Sept. 21 – more than any other House contests in the country during that span, and a sign of where outside groups may believe their money will go furthest. Total outside spending – money spent by super PACs and other groups independently of candidates’ campaigns – on federal races this cycle has now surpassed $2 billion. Between Sept. 21 and Oct.
Outside spending nears $2 billion – and the biggest groups pull further ahead
Outside groups have poured nearly $2 billion into this election cycle with weeks of spending still to come, and a small cluster of groups is responsible for a growing share of that money. The top six outside groups – the Senate Leadership Fund, Texas PAC, No Going Back PAC, WinSenate PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund and Americans for Prosperity Action – spent more than $60 million apiece as of Oct. 5, according to federal disclosure reports analyzed by OpenSecrets.
Outside Groups Have Spent Nearly $2 Billion on Campaigns This Election Cycle
Support justice-driven, accurate and transparent news — make a quick donation to Truthout today! Outside groups have poured nearly $2 billion into this election cycle with weeks of spending still to come, and a small cluster of groups is responsible for a growing share of that money.
Outside spending nears $2 billion – and the biggest groups pull further ahead
We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it's free under our republication policy. (Photo by Douglas Rissing/Getty Images) Outside groups have poured nearly $2 billion into this election cycle with weeks of spending still to come, and a small cluster of groups is responsible for a growing share of that money.
Open Secrets: By the Numbers with 15 Years of Citizens United that Made a Corporation a "Person"
By Indy Scholtens President Donald Trump nominated Elise Stefanik to be the ambassador to the United Nations on Nov. 11, 2024. Stefanik, 40, has represented New York in the House of Representatives since 2014. While she does not have extensive foreign policy experience, Stefanik is a prominent pro-Israel voice and serves on the Armed Services and Intelligence committees. And she holds a senior leadership position in the House. Who is she?
By the numbers: 15 years of Citizens United
Open Secrets Fifteen years ago, the role of money in politics changed dramatically. On Jan. 21, 2010, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Since then, election spending has reached unprecedented heights and, meanwhile, the public has less and less insight into the sources of that money. On this 15th anniversary of Citizens United, we wanted to take a look at the last decade and a half — and the numbers that tell a story.
Why are super PACs and other outside groups spending so little this cycle?
(Allef Vinicius on Unsplash) Fewer competitive special elections and an aversion to super PACs in the Democratic presidential primary are tamping down outside spending so far in the 2020 campaign cycle. The $27.5 million in outside spending through Oct. 7 is less than half of what it was at this point in the 2018 cycle ($63.9 million) and substantially lower than 2016 ($49.1 million).
National Republican Congressional Committee the biggest loser among 2018 outside groups
House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks at the National Republican Congressional Committee March Dinner (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) Every election cycle, a handful of super PACs and party committees swing and miss, spending most of their millions in support of ultimately unsuccessful candidates. The honor of “biggest loser” this general election cycle goes to the National Republican Congressional Committee, which spent just 25 percent of its money backing winning candidates or opposing losing ones.
Most expensive midterms in history set several spending records
Rep. Beto O’Rourke (R-Texas) lost his bid for U.S. Senate in 2018, but he shattered fundraising records in the process. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) From start to finish, and at every level of the ballot, the 2018 election cycle set campaign finance records — often by huge margins. First, the topline numbers: 2018 will prove to be by far the most expensive midterm on record. CRP estimates the final cost at $5.2 billion, a 35 percent increase over 2014 in nominal dollars.
Why some campaign contributions get returned
It’s been a big week for politicians refunding tainted campaign donations.
Which states will break spending records this cycle?
Tomorrow’s special Senate election in Alabama has already been the target of more outside spending than any congressional race in the state’s history. By the time the final FEC reports are filed, it will likely be the state’s record-holder in candidate spending, too. In 2016, nine states saw their most expensive congressional election ever. With no presidential election to distract donors from down-ballot races, which states can look forward to record-setting races in 2018?
Why no more than a dribble of outside spending in Kansas?
Last week, Kansas’ 4th Congressional District nearly produced the first shocking election result of the Trump era. The underfunded and unheralded campaign of Democrat James Thompson came within 8,195 votes of defeating Republican Ron Estes in a district that Trump won by 27 percentage points. The recriminations began almost immediately on both sides, with Democrats — including Bernie Sanders and Thompson himself — asking why the party did so little to help their candidate.
Those prized small donors? They may not be as small as you think
Democrat Jon Ossoff, running for the Georgia House seat vacated by now-HHS Secretary Tom Price, has attracted a swarm of small contributions from Dems wanting to send a message to Trump. The first round of the special election is April 18. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) Politicians rarely like to talk about the money that fuels their campaigns, and for good reason.
Best new artist: Some celebrities wrote their first checks to candidates in 2016
The Hollywood liberal has been a stock figure in American politics for decades. Conservative politicians have long denounced or mocked the alleged political influence of musicians, TV stars, and Golden Globe recipients. While the entertainment industry does indeed lean well to the left, though, most of that money comes from producers and media magnates, not the people you see on screen.
Giving by Americans abroad tilts distinctly leftward
Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill famously claimed that “all politics is local.” True, but it’s increasingly global as well — especially for the roughly 5.7 million U.S. citizens living outside the nation’s borders. Whatever the reason for their travels, Americans abroad can and do participate in politics and give to campaigns. The Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) estimates that 2.6 million of the American citizens living overseas are eligible to vote.
Did Clinton’s state-by-state fundraising mirror the election results?
The 2016 presidential election was decided in flyover country. Though Democrat Hillary Clinton currently leads the popular vote count by more than 900,000, Donald Trump’s surprising strength in the swing states of the Midwest proved decisive in the electoral college. As pollsters puzzle out why they missed the Rust Belt’s right turn, commentators have speculated that everything from yard signs to Twitter polls should have hinted at Clinton’s weakness there.
Many Candidates - Political Opposites Included - Share Common Donors
Campaign finance is a small world. Through the first year of this election cycle, just 0.16% of American adults made campaign contributions of $200 or more, but that select group accounts for 63.9% of all contributions to federal candidates, PACs, and party committees. Consequently, the same donor names show up again and again on FEC reports. Why so much overlap?
Will Money Fix the GOP’s Ground Game in 2014?
According to conventional wisdom, Barack Obama sealed his 2012 victory with superior voter contact efforts. The Obama team’s microtargeted ground game set the standard for campaigns everywhere, whereas ORCA, the Romney campaign’s GOTV application, famously crashed on election day. Obama’s edge in voter contact actually may not have been substantial, but it figured heavily in the GOP’s 2012 post-mortem, and the party promised a concerted effort on that front.
Donor demographics: old white guys edition, part III
In the first two posts in this series, we found that the biggest campaign contributors mostly fit the stereotype of being old and male. Time to tackle the last descriptor in our characterization of mega-donors: their overwhelming whiteness. Race, of course, can be a fraught topic, and in this case we have the added disadvantage of not knowing how all of 2014’s top 500 donors would identify their ethnic backgrounds.
Donor demographics: old white guys edition, part I
Money-in-politics is not a young person’s game. While 2016’s presidential hopefuls may try to recreate Barack Obama’s successful appeal to young voters, they’ll spend much of their time hitting up the country’s wealthiest senior citizens for cash.
“Campaign donor” is not a job - but occupation can predict party preference
In the world of money in politics, many interest groups behave predictably. Election after election, contributions from oil and gas companies, for instance, flow overwhelmingly to Republicans, while those who work in education favor Democrats. What about when contributions break down differently within industries? The CFO and the janitor, for instance, may have opposing political views, though realistically the CFO will be the one making most of the campaign contributions.
Candidates on the Fly Travel Far and Wide for Donations
If you’re hoping to run for federal office in 2016, prepare for a lot of travel and long-distance phone calls: Top-tier political fundraisers take in much, or even most, of their haul from other states. Every year, candidates from middle America make the trek to coastal cities and return with the resources they need to compete. Even politicians who profess to hate Washington, D.C., spend plenty of time there schmoozing with lobbyists, activists, and other reliable sources of donations.
An Anatomy of Outrage
In December, Slate magazine put together a tour of the “Year of Outrage,” highlighting an event that set off an uproar on social media for each day of 2014. The items range from the year’s biggest news stories (ISIS, Ebola, policing) to offhand remarks by celebrities to virtually everything that President Obama said or did. Whatever your political persuasion, you can probably find something in the calendar that makes you roll your eyes and something that upsets you.
OpenSecrets.org Unveils New Section on Expenditures
We have no idea how many jobs are generated by federal elections, but we do know that some individuals and firms make a very good living from modern political campaigns. In fact, we can tell you just how well certain media companies, consultants, pollsters and others in the “election-industrial complex” are doing. In the 2014 elections, for instance, the Democratic media firm Waterfront Strategies took in over $136 million from campaigns and committees — easily the biggest haul for any vendor.
State by State: Where 2014’s Campaign Cash Came From, and Where It Went
It’s no secret that our political process lavishes more attention on some states than others. Witness the long list of presidential contenders making pilgrimages to New Hampshire and Iowa, for example. At other points in the process, different states take center stage: Wealthy coastal locales are magnets for politicians seeking to build their war chests long before Election Day.
North Carolina Senate Race Now No. 1 All-Time in Outside Spending
Thursday evening, the Koch-affiliated Freedom Partners Action Fund reported making a seven-figure ad buy attacking Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.). With that buy, the North Carolina race passed 2012’s Virginia Senate election to claim the dubious honor of attracting the most-ever outside spending. The $55.7 million spent on the showdown between Hagan and Republican Thom Tillis is even more remarkable in context. By this date in 2012, the Virginia race between now-Sen. Tim Kaine and former Sen.
2014 Outside Spending Hits the $100 Million Mark
Late last week, the 2014 election cycle passed a quiet milestone: $100 million in outside spending since January 1, 2013. While hundreds more millions are sure to follow, we now have enough data to take a look at some of this cycle’s trends in outside spending — who’s spending, on which races, and how the money is being put to use. Who is doing the spending?
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