After a grueling year marked by Democratic infighting, New York State lawmakers are expected to conclude the 2023 legislative session this weekend with few marquee policy wins and a notable failure to address the state’s critical housing needs. Despite last-ditch efforts, Democrats in control of the State Capitol failed to introduce or pass legislation to […]
Read MoreTag: Campaign Finance
George Santos Says His Family Helped Bail Him Out
Representative George Santos on Friday appealed a federal magistrate judge’s decision ordering the release of the names of the people who helped bail him out of federal custody, suggesting that the individuals were family members. The identities of Mr. Santos’s guarantors have been the subject of intense interest to both the news media and the […]
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New York Lawmakers Try to Sabotage Campaign Reform
But if a donor gives more than $250, then no part of the contribution is matched. That was the key element of the agreement reached in 2019. Lawmakers said they would provide an incentive for candidates to hunt for small contributions and to discourage big ones. All of that would be undone by the bill […]
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DeSantis Relied Heavily on Big Donors In Initial Money Haul
Why It Matters: Small donors help sustain a campaign and show grass-roots support. How a campaign raises money matters. Because of strict campaign contribution limits of $3,300 per person for the primary, campaigns that raise money chiefly from bigger contributors cannot return to those same donors again and again for support. Small contributors are particularly […]
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The Supreme Court Has Earned a Little Contempt
Although the Supreme Court has been deciding cases at a glacial pace this term — and that with an almost comically small docket of only 59 merits cases — the justices have found other ways to keep busy. They have been spinning their ethical lapses (Justice Clarence Thomas), blowing off congressional oversight (Chief Justice John […]
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Prosecutors Scrutinize Political Nonprofit Groups for Fund-Raising Fraud
Federal prosecutors are scrutinizing at least 10 political nonprofit groups — including five recently profiled in The New York Times — seeking to determine if the groups defrauded donors, according to two recent subpoenas. The subpoenas, both signed by the same Manhattan-based federal prosecutor, sought recordings of the fund-raising calls made by two separate networks […]
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DeSantis’s Administration Solicits Endorsements and Money for His Campaign
As Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida begins his presidential bid, officials in his administration have solicited donations from lobbyists and endorsements from lawmakers in the state, blurring the line between his taxpayer-funded office and his political campaign. The outreach by the governor’s office, which would normally fall to Mr. DeSantis’s campaign staff, was described by […]
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DeSantis Campaign Says It Raised $8.2 Million in First 24 Hours
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida raised $8.2 million in his first 24 hours as a presidential candidate, his campaign said on Thursday, a huge sum that cements his standing as the leading rival to Donald J. Trump. Mr. DeSantis’s campaign began on Wednesday evening with a glitch-filled kickoff on Twitter, but that apparently did not […]
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Millions of Dollars, Thousands of Robocalls and 1 Legal Loophole
David A. Fahrenthold contributed reporting. Special thanks to Charlie Smart. The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, […]
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Is Trump’s Nomination Now Inevitable?
Astead W. Herndon contributed reporting. The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Liz […]
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Ron DeSantis’s Use of Private Jets From Wealthy, Sometimes Secret Donors
For Ron DeSantis, Sunday, Feb. 19, was the start of another busy week of not officially running for president. That night, he left Tallahassee on a Florida hotelier’s private jet, heading to Newark before a meet-and-greet with police officers on Staten Island on Monday morning. Next, he boarded a twin-jet Bombardier to get to a […]
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Why the Supreme Court Is Blind to Its Own Corruption
The scandal surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas has further eroded the already record-low public confidence in the Supreme Court. If Chief Justice John Roberts wonders how such a thing could have happened, he might start looking for answers within the cloistered walls of his own courtroom. Over more than two decades, the Supreme Court has gutted […]
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Group Tied to Influential Conservative Activist Spent $183 Million in a Year
A deep-pocketed nonprofit organization founded by the conservative activist Leonard A. Leo gave away $182.7 million in a year’s time, a new tax filing shows, demonstrating how aggressively it has worked behind the scenes to prop up other groups and causes on the right. The organization, Marble Freedom Trust, was formed in 2020 and was funded […]
Read MoreGeorge Santos Is Charged With Fraud and Lying in 13-Count Indictment
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — For months, Representative George Santos seemed to possess a Teflon-like resistance to repercussions, even as questions mounted over his income, campaign finances and rags-to-riches life story. Mr. Santos, a first-term Republican representing Long Island and Queens, gave numerous speeches on the House floor and appeared to relish his growing notoriety. Just […]
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George Santos Pushed Campaign Finance Abuse Past the Usual Line
There’s one immediate gratification in the details of the indictment against Representative George Santos issued on Wednesday: seeing the Department of Justice actually bring charges against a demonstrably untruthful public official for campaign finance violations. It doesn’t happen often enough in an era of widespread abuses, because so many abuses are either technically legal or […]
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Here’s What George Santos Was Charged With
Federal prosecutors have charged Representative George Santos of New York with 13 counts of money laundering, stealing public money, wire fraud and making false statements to Congress. Prosecutors said the charges resulted from “fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations” designed to enrich Mr. Santos, mislead donors and win a seat in Congress as a Republican from […]
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Biden Campaign, Barely in Gear, Inches Toward 2024
Two weeks after President Biden unveiled his re-election bid, his campaign manager has yet to start the job, his seven co-chairs have not had a group discussion and his team has made little outreach to allies in Congress. For all the attention on Mr. Biden’s gauzy announcement video and the symbolism his campaign attributed to […]
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George Santos Is Charged by Federal Prosecutors in New York
Representative George Santos, the New York Republican who fell under numerous investigations over his personal and campaign finances after his biography was found to be a web of lies and exaggerations, has been charged by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, two people familiar with the investigation said. The charges, which were reported earlier by CNN, come […]
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In Trump Case, Bragg Pursues a Common Charge With a Rarely Used Strategy
A lawyer was accused of stealing $1.2 million from his law firm and covering it up. An insurance broker was accused of taking $350,000 from a client and covering it up. And a former president was accused of orchestrating a $130,000 hush-money payment to a porn star and covering it up. All three men were […]
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Top Republicans Balk at WinRed’s Plan to Charge More for Online Donations
A battle over a threatened price increase has exposed growing tensions between top Republican Party officials and the company with a virtual monopoly on processing Republican campaign contributions online. Party leaders have risen up in opposition to the plan to raise prices, which would siphon millions of dollars from G.O.P. campaigns less than 20 months after […]
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F.B.I. Searches Home of Top FTX Executive
The F.B.I. carried out a search on Thursday morning at the Potomac, Md., home of Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive who was a major campaign contributor to Republican political candidates, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Mr. Salame, who ran FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, was part of the close circle of advisers around […]
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Major G.O.P. Donor’s Commitment to DeSantis Is Murkier Than Thought
Nearly six months ago, Kenneth Griffin, the Republican megadonor and hedge fund executive, seemed poised to be a powerful financial backer of Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida in his anticipated run for president. Mr. Griffin had given $5 million to Mr. DeSantis’s re-election effort, and he told Politico that while Mr. DeSantis was not yet […]
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Trump Endorsed by Senator Daines of Montana, a Key Republican Fund-Raiser
Former President Donald J. Trump has secured one of his most important Capitol Hill endorsements for a 2024 presidential bid: Senator Steve Daines of Montana, the chairman of the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm. While top Republicans in the Senate have been lukewarm about the prospects of another election cycle dominated by Mr. Trump, the endorsement […]
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The Obscure GOP Bookkeeper at the Center of the George Santos Mess
When George Santos was a political neophyte struggling to launch his first bid for Congress in the suburbs of New York City, he made a consequential early hire. He brought on Nancy Marks, a fixture in Long Island Republican circles, to serve as campaign treasurer. Over the next three years, she used her deep ties […]
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A Super PAC Targets Greene, Gaetz, Boebert and Others on the Far Right
A bipartisan group of political operatives — spanning the ideological spectrum from former members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus to a Democrat who challenged Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — has started a political action committee aimed at “stopping MAGA” and eradicating what the operatives call an authoritarian streak among some Republican lawmakers. […]
Read More A Super PAC Targets Greene, Gaetz, Boebert and Others on the Far Right
A bipartisan group of political operatives — spanning the ideological spectrum from former members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus to a Democrat who challenged Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — has started a political action committee aimed at “stopping MAGA” and eradicating what the operatives call an authoritarian streak among some Republican lawmakers. […]
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Biden Summons Big Donors to Washington as 2024 Campaign Nears
Top donors to President Biden have received a last-minute invitation to travel to Washington at the end of next week to see Mr. Biden as he gears up for a 2024 campaign, according to more than a half-dozen people who have been invited to or briefed on the event. Invitations are going out to some […]
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How Nikki Haley’s Campaign Inflated Her Fund-Raising Haul
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, has staked her presidential run on an image as a straight shooter, with experience and drama-free competence. This weekend, though, it became clear that the impressive early fund-raising numbers her campaign promoted this month had been inflated, apparently because of double-counted money. The campaign […]
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Trump’s Fund-Raising: From Sluggish to Surging After Indictment
Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign took in $14.4 million in the first three months of 2023, part of an $18.8 million haul across his two campaign committees this quarter — a modest sum that captures only the beginning of a fund-raising bonanza set off by his indictment in late March. In the weeks since then, […]
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George Santos Received $5,300 in Donations. He Refunded Far More.
During George Santos’s run for Congress, he told prospective voters that he hoped one day to be able to “serve and give back to our community.” In his most recent financial disclosures, Mr. Santos, now a first-term Republican congressman representing parts of Queens and Long Island, reported doing just that: He has returned nearly $8,400 […]
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For Ron DeSantis, Overflowing War Chest Obscures the Challenges Ahead
As Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida prepares to take a widely anticipated leap into the 2024 presidential campaign, one of his chief strengths is his ability to raise huge sums from deep-pocketed donors. But his formidable war chest — at least $110 million in state and federal committees aligned with him — is no guarantee […]
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