David Moore
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Articles by David Moore
Prop 4 Would Let California Cities Curb Big Money With Small Donations
Summary The California ballot measure would let cities, counties, and the state match small donations with public funds. Backers led by the League of Women Voters say it’s a counterweight to wealthy donors. Enter your email to keep reading It’s free. You’ll also get emails about our latest reporting. Unsubscribe anytime. Already have an account? Sign in
Democratic Pollsters Are Working for AIPAC’s Super PAC
“Democrat-aligned firms have been paid more than $7 million by AIPAC's super PAC and its ally DMFI since 2021.” That’s the scoop from SLUDGE, co-founded by investigative journalist David Moore, who joins The Left Hook for the first time to discuss the unethical and problematic financial and ideological affiliations of highly paid Democratic consultants who are actively attacking fellow Democrats.
How Congress is cashing in on the AI boom
Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice. Congress has so far failed to regulate artificial intelligence, despite the increasingly dire warnings about the threats it poses. At the same time, lawmakers are profiting from the AI boom.
How Congress Is Cashing In on the AI Boom
Follow How Congress Is Cashing In on the AI Boom Thu, October 15, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT Congress has so far failed to regulate artificial intelligence, despite the increasingly dire warnings about the threats it poses. At the same time, lawmakers are profiting from the AI boom. Roughly one in five members of Congress has household investments in companies developing AI models or supplying the infrastructure behind it, according to our analysis of recent congressional financial disclosures.
How Congress Is Cashing In on the AI Boom
Comment / October 13, 2026 How Congress Is Cashing In on the AI Boom Roughly one in five members of Congress has household investments in the industry. Ad Policy Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer participates in the Competing and Setting the Standards in the AI Era panel during The Hill & Valley Forum 2026 at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on March 24, 2026 in Washington, DC.
The DNC Fight to Ban Dark Money in Presidential Primaries
Politics / October 13, 2026 The DNC Fight to Ban Dark Money in Presidential Primaries Ad Policy Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed speaks during a primary election night watch party in Detroit, Michigan, early on August 5, 2026.
The Democratic Party’s Pollsters Are Also Working for AIPAC’s Super PAC
First! We have a new deal for you: subscribe to Sludge and The Lever in a bundle, and get two muckraking newsrooms for the price of one. 🎉 We're both independent and reader-supported—now you can get full access to both, $100 for a whole year, and help keep us following the money. You'll get The Lever’s premium podcast episodes, plus every new story in full the moment it's published.
Trump's CFTC Is Suing States for Kalshi and Polymarket, Backed by Trump Jr.
Summary The prediction market companies have been loading up on revolving-door lobbyists from both the Democratic and Republican sides, while ramping up their influence spending amid legal battles with state gambling regulators. Read This Post With a Free Trial Unlock this post plus get our investigative reports with a two-week free trial subscription. Cancel anytime. Already have an account? Sign in
Here Are the Members of Congress Invested in the AI Industry
📈 Share this on X and Bluesky! As Congress faces growing pressure to regulate artificial intelligence, roughly one in five lawmakers’ households has investments in companies developing AI and supplying the infrastructure behind it, according to a Sludge analysis of congressional financial disclosures.
AI Money Floods State Fights Over Data Centers
💡 Share this on Bluesky and X As AI data centers face local resistance, a group tied to billionaire AI investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, as well as OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his wife Anna, is planning to drop millions of dollars in states—starting in Kansas, Ohio, and Wisconsin—where data center construction has become a flashpoint in the midterm elections. Build American AI, a dark money group tied to the deep-pocketed super PAC Leading the Future, announced on Aug.
Lonsdale Nonprofit Lobbies on Defense Policy Tied to His Investments
👀 Share this post on Bluesky and X The Cicero Institute, started by Palantir co-founder and billionaire venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, has emerged as one of the most influential forces in the Trump administration’s push to criminalize homelessness.
Here Is How Much AIPAC Has Given to Every Member of Congress This Cycle
👀 Share this on Bluesky and The PAC of pro-Israel group AIPAC has funneled $45.9 million to members of Congress, their caucus PACs, and federal candidates this election cycle, according to a Sludge review of its most recent FEC filing, covering activity through July 31. AIPAC is on pace to surpass its PAC giving from the 2024 cycle and is, by far, the top-contributing conduit PAC among groups that endorse federal candidates.
Trump Convenes White House Crypto Meeting With His Own Business Partners
💸 Share this on Bluesky and President Trump gathered cryptocurrency executives, crypto lobbyists, and their federal regulators at the White House on Wednesday to advance policies benefiting an industry that has become a major source of income for his family—including companies that directly do business with his crypto ventures.
Health Insurers Are Paying Third Way as It Targets the Left
👀 Share this on Bluesky and X Third Way, the centrist group that is launching a $15 million campaign to fight the left wing of the Democratic Party, is being funded by health care industry interests that have long opposed one of the left’s primary goals: Medicare for All.
AIPAC Tops $100 Million in Election Spending for Second Straight Cycle
💥 Share this on Bluesky and X For the second cycle in a row, AIPAC has surpassed $100 million in federal election spending, according to a Sludge review of campaign finance records. As recently as 2021, AIPAC had never directly donated to a federal candidate—its PAC made its first donations in January 2022, and that same month it formed its own super PAC.
Carville's War on the Democratic Left Is Funded by Centrist Billionaires
👀 Share this on X and James Carville has spent the last month calling for the Democrats to expel what he sees as the left wing of the party, attacking recent primary winners who are progressives and democratic socialists. “These people are so f—-ing stupid, I don’t know what to say about it,” he said of the wave of leftist Democratic nominees in a podcast video. Viewers of his diatribes are likely unaware of his financial interests in promoting centrist candidates and slamming progressives.
Crypto, AI, and AIPAC Super PACs Are Spending in Lockstep Against Progressives
Unprecedented sums are being spent on Democratic primaries, reshaping races while keeping their policy agendas largely out of public view. By David Moore, The Nation In Democratic primaries across the country, three special interests have been shelling out tens of millions to defeat progressives and help elect centrists who they think will back their policy agendas in Congress.
Crypto, AI, and AIPAC Super PACs Are Spending in Lockstep Against Progressives
Politics / July 21, 2026 Crypto, AI, and AIPAC Super PACs Are Spending in Lockstep Against Progressives Unprecedented sums are being spent on Democratic primaries, reshaping races while keeping their policy agendas largely out of public view.
AI Companies Are Funding the AGs Investigating Them
💸 Share this on X and Bluesky Tech giants developing AI models—including OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Amazon—have donated more than $2 million combined to the national Democratic and Republican attorneys general campaign committees since the start of 2025, as AGs in both parties are suing AI companies over harms to children and deceptive safety claims. More than half of that arrived in the past few months.
The Internet Bubble And AI
Without shifting perception, today's AI companies might suffer the same fate as companies of the dot-com bubble era. getty Many a talking head has gone on TV or published an article about how similar the dot-com bubble is to the current state of things with AI. This makes sense on a number of levels.
The Billionaire Money Behind New Centrist Pledge
💡 Share this on X and Bluesky! A new centrist Democratic group called Promise to America that is pushing back against progressives will not say who is funding its effort—but is closely tied to the Welcome Party, a group whose PAC has received more than half of its individual contributions from billionaires.
Trump's $88B Iran War Supplemental Would Reward the Contractors Funding His Fourth of July Bash
💥 Share this post on Bluesky and X President Trump sent an awaited-for-months supplemental funding request for the Iran War to Congress on Wednesday, seeking $87.6 billion in a package that is headlined by $67.1 billion for the Department of Defense’s “urgent needs” in “Operation Epic Fury.” Of that amount, a proposed $21 billion would replenish munitions spent in the Iran attacks, most of which are made by a pair of giant weapons contractors: Lockheed Martin, which has been showering...
Sludge: Relentlessly Uncovering Corruption
Sludge produces investigative journalism on lobbying and money in politics. We look beyond public records and disclosures to reveal the hidden networks and conflicts of interest that drive systemic corruption. Sludge reports on the ways industries launder their agendas through independent groups, the power maps of corporate networks that extend deep into government, how concentrated economic powers dictate public policy, and more.
Wes Moore Won't Say If He Took a Citigroup Bonus After the Bailout
💸 Share this on Bluesky and X Maryland Gov. Wes Moore won’t say whether he received a bonus while working as an investment banker at Citigroup after the company was saved by a government bailout during the 2008 financial crisis that the bank helped precipitate. Asked by Sludge whether he received a bonus payment, Gov. Moore’s spokespeople declined to address the question.
Crypto and AI-Funded Super PACs Are Metastasizing
May 21, 2026 Crypto and AI-Funded Super PACs Are Metastasizing They’ve amassed more than $322 million in 2026—with much more to come.
Netflix Raised Prices After Pocketing a $2.8 Billion Windfall
🍿 Share this on Bluesky and X Netflix spent months earlier this year telling regulators and lawmakers that it was not a monopoly. The streaming giant was seeking approval for a planned $72 billion acquisition of parts of Warner Bros. Discovery, and executives like co-CEO Ted Sarandos testified that Netflix was a peer of free video services like YouTube and TikTok, part of a sprawling online video market.
GOP's Outside-Money Edge Is Being Built by Billionaires, Oil, and Crypto
💰 Share this on Bluesky and X The two giant super PACs closely tied to Republican leaders in the House and Senate are relying on billionaire donors, the fossil fuel industry, cryptocurrency firms, and Big Tobacco to bankroll their defense of Congress.
Spouse of Intel Committee Member Makes Timely Quantum Stock Purchase
📈 Share this on Bluesky and X The spouse of a House Intelligence Committee member bought stock in the quantum computing firm IonQ just weeks before the company announced it was awarded a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). IonQ’s stock has spiked by a third since the announcement on Tuesday. Rep.
These State Pension Funds Invest in Palantir
👀 Share this on Bluesky and X Public pension funds in nearly half of U.S. states collectively hold billions of dollars in Palantir stock, bankrolling the data-mining company that powers the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s mass-deportation machine. Those investments have drawn protest from public employees in states like California, Maine, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon, whose retirement savings are tied to the company’s growing role supporting ICE’s immigration enforcement.
AI Lobbyists Are Flying Congressional Staffers Around the Country on Luxury Trips
✈️ Share this on Bluesky and X A little-known group stacked with lobbyists for the artificial intelligence industry has been sending congressional staffers on upscale trips over the past year to tour AI companies in San Francisco, London, New York City, and Los Angeles, according to House and Senate gift travel disclosures.
Defense Contractor-Funded Think Tank Warns of Weapons Shortage After Iran Strikes
💡 Share this on X and Bluesky A top expert from the Center for Strategic and International Studies warned National Public Radio listeners over the weekend that U.S. munitions stockpiles could soon run short after the Trump administration’s strikes on Iran. The interview did not disclose that CSIS receives millions of dollars from major defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman, that stand to profit from the push to replenish those weapons.
Here Is How Much AIPAC Has Funneled to Every Member of Congress
💸 Share this on Bluesky and The pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, which has opposed efforts at diplomacy with Iran and is applauding the U.S.-led strikes, has delivered $28 million to the campaigns of members of Congress in the 2025–2026 election cycle, according to a Sludge analysis of FEC data, including earmarked PAC contributions. The money AIPAC PAC contributes is overwhelmingly provided by U.S.-based individual donors who use the group’s website to select which candidates to support.
AIPAC Donor-Tied Group Drops Six Figures for Foushee
🔎 Share this on Bluesky and X A mysterious super PAC tied to a billionaire AIPAC donor has popped up in the high-profile House Democratic primary in North Carolina’s Fourth District to support Rep. Valerie Foushee, a past beneficiary of millions of dollars in AIPAC spending. The PAC, called Article One PAC, has only disclosed one donor—an obscure nonprofit named the Guzman Foundation that gave its address as a nonprofit tax firm in Virginia.
AI Boom on K Street: One in Four Lobbyists Now Work on AI
💡 Share this on Bluesky and X More than one in four federal lobbyists are now pushing AI-related agendas, according to a new report from Public Citizen—and they are overwhelmingly working for corporate interests seeking to influence federal AI policy, or block state rules over the industry. According to the report, titled Generative Influence, 3,570 federal lobbyists—comprising 26% of all registered lobbyists in 2025—reported lobbying on artificial intelligence issues last year.
Minneapolis Renter First Housing Policy
The implicit message in the policy is that landlords are bad, tenants are good, and that the average landlord is somehow, someway, taking advantage of the tenant. This is a narrative, that most often is not true. Regardless of any new "policy" the fact is 9/10 evictions are for non-payment of rent: tenants did not pay rent as required under contract.
K Street’s Trump Boom
💸 Share this on Bluesky and X Lobbying firms allied with President Trump saw a bonanza in revenue last year, as many of their highest-paying clients signed up after Trump’s 2024 win to influence the new administration.
These Cities and States Hold Contracts With ICE
🖋️ Share this on Bluesky and X More than a dozen city and state governments have active contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement—even though many of the jurisdictions have adopted, or are advancing, policies that limit coordination with ICE. The contracts range from vehicle parking to firing range rentals and data system access, according to a Sludge review of data from USASpending.gov.
Foreign Interests Are Paying Millions to a Trump-Linked Lobbying Firm
💵 Share this story on Bluesky and X Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with close ties to President Trump, has drawn a surge of high-paying clients with foreign interests seeking access to the administration and federal agencies. Led by top Trump fundraiser Brian Ballard, the firm raked in more than 200 new clients in the wake of Trump’s election win, setting a new record for lobbying revenue last year, topping $88.1 million.
Foreign Interests Are Paying Millions to a Trump-Linked Lobbying Firm
Green deputy leader criticised over ‘conspiratorial’ claims about the ‘wealthy Israeli lobby’ The Green Party’s deputy leader has been criticised for suggesting that the “Israeli lobby” is successful in exerting influence over British politics …
Crypto, AI, and AIPAC Set up to Smash Super PAC Spending Records
💰 Share this on Bluesky and X Super PACs backed by the cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence industries, as well as the pro-Israel lobby, have stockpiled hundreds of millions in cash to drop in 2026 midterms, setting themselves up to smash midterm spending records by outside groups. The crypto industry-funded Fairshake super PAC ended the year with a whopping $191 million in cash on hand, while AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project (UDP), ended the year with $96 million.
Hudson River Park Trust to End Longstanding ICE Contract Following Sludge Report
💥 Share this on Bluesky and X! The Hudson River Park Trust—a New York State and City partnership that manages land on Manhattan’s West Side—says it will not be renewing its contract to provide parking facilities to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), after a Sludge report drew public attention to the arrangement.
The Companies Behind ICE
💡 Share this on Bluesky, Facebook, and X U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has grown its network of private industry partners since the start of the second Trump administration to support its agents as they storm into cities and detain people they suspect of being undocumented immigrants. Last year, the ICE agency obligated more money than ever to private contractors, and this year it’s on pace to easily top last year’s record.
GOP Stock Trading Bill Leaves Glaring Conflicts Untouched
🤑 Share this on X and Bluesky! House Republicans are finally coalescing around a long-promised ban on stock trading by members of Congress. On Monday, they introduced the Stop Insider Trading Act, a leadership-backed bill from Rep. Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) that would ban members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependents from making new purchases of individual stocks. It would also require a seven-day public notification before making any stock sales.
Right-Wing Group Trains State Lawmakers to Cut the Safety Net
🖋️ Share this on Bluesky and X The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” signed into law by President Trump last year is putting pressure on state budgets by shifting costs from federal safety net programs like SNAP and Medicaid to the states while reducing state revenue through federal tax changes. A right-wing nonprofit that pushes for reduced spending on anti-poverty programs sees this as a prime opportunity to advance their agenda in state capitals.
House Dems Gave Millions in ‘Dark Money’ to AIPAC-Linked 314 Action
A nonprofit controlled by House Democratic leaders gave $2.5 million last year to a group that was funded by AIPAC as it unleashed spending in Democratic primaries, according to a recently released tax return. The 2024 donation from House Majority Forward (HMF) to the nonprofit 314 Action was the first time it made a donation to the advocacy group, according to a review of tax filings.
Dem Governors Gathered With AI Lobbyists Ahead of Trump Preemption EO
🤖 Share this on Bluesky and X Last weekend, Democratic governors gathered with lobbyists for major tech and artificial intelligence companies at a luxury resort in Phoenix, according to an attendee list for the Democratic Governors Association’s annual meeting that was obtained by Sludge.
The Democrats’ New AI Panel Is Led by Big Tech Allies
💽 Share this on Bluesky and X As President Trump is preparing this week to release an executive order that aims to block states from regulating artificial intelligence, congressional Democrats are countering with a new commission to deepen their engagement with the industry. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) today announced the new “House Democratic Commission on AI and the Innovation Economy,” which will be co-chaired by Reps.
House GOP Advances Clean Energy Rollbacks
💡 Share this on X and Bluesky The House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday passed a series of bills that roll back energy efficiency standards and preempt localities that want to restrict gas hookups in new construction. While the bills might mostly be “red meat” for the Republican voter base, the House GOP’s major energy industry donors like Chevron and Energy Transfer would likely see benefits if they became law.
Jeffries Misleads on AIPAC PAC Money
👀 Share this on Bluesky and X Yesterday on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) was asked about accepting PAC donations from the lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). His answer was an attempt to obfuscate how AIPAC’s PAC has become, by a huge margin, the largest source of earmarked PAC contributions to members of Congress.
Fact Check: Musk Repeats Social Security Conspiracy on Joe Rogan Podcast
🔎 Share this on Bluesky or X On Halloween, Elon Musk appeared again on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where he repeated false claims about rampant fraud in the Social Security program, among other inflammatory stories about immigrants. Musk’s claims of fraud wrong, according to figures contained in a November 2021 report from the Social Security Administration (SSA), the independent agency that runs the program.
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