#dark-money

#dark-money

A super PAC dedicated to reelecting Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine recently put nearly $2 million behind television and YouTube ads attacking likely Democratic candidate Graham Platner. The spots, which began airing more than a month before the June 9 Democratic primary, focus exclusively on decade-old personal social-media posts and a tattoo Platner got as a young man and has since covered up. There is no discussion of policy, voting records, or Platner's platform as a Marine veteran running as a working-class populist. Instead, the ads-focused on the theme "Who Is The Real Graham Platner?"-center entirely on personal attacks, financed largely by out-of-state billionaires and Republican-aligned "dark money" groups seeking to preserve Collins's seat and the GOP Senate majority.

The first time Highland Park resident Paul Zappia received a mailer criticizing Eunisses Hernandez, his representative on the Los Angeles City Council, he tossed it in the trash. Then another arrived in his mailbox. And another, and another after that. Each came from a group called Neighbors First, which has been attacking Hernandez, a democratic socialist, over her votes against police hiring and her opposition to a law barring homeless encampments near schools. Zappia, who supports Hernandez in the June 2 primary, said he looked up Neighbors First on its website but couldn't find any information - not a staff directory, a phone number or even an email address - about the group.

Tan, the CEO of the vaunted startup incubator Y Combinator, announced Wednesday he had spun up a dark-money group called "Garry's List" that he described as a "voter education group" that is "dedicated to civic engagement, voter education and support for common-sense policies and candidates" in a press release. Such groups give donors a way to anonymously support causes without giving directly to a candidate or a measure.

He had a large portfolio at the White House that included oversight of the offices of communications, public liaison, cabinet affairs and speechwriting. Zoom out: Budowich joined Trump's small inner circle in 2021, after the president's first term, and was a key player in plotting Trump's 2024 comeback. He founded and led the MAGA Inc. super PAC and Securing American Greatness, a nonprofit group that collects "dark money," so named because it doesn't have to reveal its donors.

The World Health Organization Foundation took an increasing amount of dark money from corporate donors during the three years since its 2020 inception, research has shown, raising concerns among some experts and campaigners that big business is playing a larger role shaping the institution's policies. Through the end of 2023, the last year for which records were available, the foundation had taken about $83m in corporate donations,

"There are some real great advantages to ... housing this program in a nonprofit," a lawyer working with Chorus said to creators on a Zoom call reviewed by WIRED. "It gives us the ability to raise money from donors. It also, with this structure, it avoids a lot of the public disclosure or public disclaimers-you know, 'Paid for by blah blah blah blah'-that you see on political ads. We don't need to deal with any of that. Your names aren't showing up on, like, reports filed with the FEC."