Anti-Mamdani PAC Made End Run Around Campaign Spending Rules
From The City: A PAC named Put NYC First funneled more than $8 million to independent expenditure committees supporting Andrew Cuomo’s unsuccessful campaign for mayor of NYC in the last few days of the election. The PAC solicited major donations from wealthy donors, then funneled that money to independent expenditure groups, who are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money so long as they do not coordinate with a candidate or campaign. Those independent expenditure groups used the funds raised to place ads attacking Zohran Mamdani and promoting Cuomo, at one point using the Cuomo campaign’s official logo.
Michigan’s new political transparency portal delayed by months, company isn’t meeting state goals
By Michigan Public: Michigan’s new online campaign finance and lobbying portal, which was supposed to be successfully launched months ago, has encountered severe delays. The new system’s search function returns less information than the old system, and training on how to use the new program was cancelled due to the number of bugs. Frustration with both the vendor and the Secretary of State’s office led lawmakers to instruct the Secretary’s office to transfer all its IT systems to the state’s Department of Technology, Management and Budget – but it has not done so, claiming the directive “codifies [their] existing practices and policies.”
Candidate challenging Eleanor Holmes Norton violated ethics law with late financial disclosure report
From OpenSecrets: Washington D.C. City Councilmember Robert White, a Democrat who is running to be D.C.’s delegate to Congress, a role currently held by Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, has failed to submit his personal financial disclosure by the required deadline. A violation of the disclosure requirement of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 comes with a $200 fine for the first violation. Norton’s campaign has almost no cash on hand for a potential re-election bid, with less than $6,500 on hand and $90,000 in debt from a personal loan by Norton.
Complaint argues DTE-tied group aimed to funnel $100k into Unlock Michigan campaign
From Michigan Advance: A complaint filed by a former general counsel for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and a former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party alleges that a nonprofit tied to a major energy company was part of a scheme to funnel dark money into a state ballot initiative campaign. The complaint alleges that Michigan Energy First, a nonprofit group connected to DTE Energy, gave $100,000 to Michigan Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, which in turn supported Unlock Michigan, a 2020 campaign to overturn the governor’s COVID-19. The complaint alleges that MEF violated the Michigan Campaign Finance Act by funneling the contribution through MCFR.
