Super PACs Tied to Cuomo Buoyed by Million-Dollar Donations
From The New York Times: Just a couple weeks before New York City’s mayoral election, Super PACs supporting former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo got several large donations from billionaire supporters. Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani, has been the largest beneficiary of Super PAC spending in the race, with the PAC Fix The City having spent more than $20 million on ads in the primary. Fix The City received another $1 million from Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of Airbnb, and $250,000 from Bill Ackman, a billionaire investor who has been a vocal critic of Mamdani online.
Meta appeals $35M campaign finance fine at WA Supreme Court
From the Washington State Standard: Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is asking the Washington State Supreme Court to overturn a $35 million campaign finance fine.Washington law requires advertisers to keep and make available records of campaign ads they run, and judges found that Meta did not keep all of the required records. Meta was issued a $35 million fine for failure to comply with the law. Now, Meta is suing to have the fine overturned, arguing that the requirements imposed by Washington’s record-keeping law violate the first amendment by suppressing political speech.
Why tracking spending in this year’s critical Pa. Supreme Court retention races is so difficult
From Spotlight PA: Pennsylvania has seen a significant amount of campaign spending this year on 3 judicial retention races, in which voters decide whether Supreme Court judges should be removed from office. Determining exactly how much spending is difficult, because of the structure of PA campaign finance law. Most of the spending has been through independent expenditures, often funded by nonprofits that don’t have to disclose their donors. Even the required disclosures are very lax, as committees are only fined 10 dollars per day for late filings, and when they do file they can do so via paper, which takes even longer to move through the mail and be processed by the Secretary of State’s office.
Most Americans see unlimited election spending as a threat to democracy: poll
From OpenSecrets: A new poll by YouGov (commissioned by Issue One), found that nearly 80% of Americans believe that “Large independent expenditures by wealthy donors and corporations in elections give rise to corruption, or the appearance of corruption,” and a similar number of respondents agreed that if those wealthy donors or corporations gain influence or access to a politician, then they are corrupt. Nearly 80% of those polled also agreed that “anti-corruption rules strengthen our democracy and constitutional rights,” showing that Americans are eager for a solution to the problem of money in politics.