Strategies that let super PACs delay revealing their donors until after the election are gaining popularity among both Democrats and Republicans.

Allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell used a blind spot in campaign finance laws to undercut a candidate from their own party this year — and their fingerprints remained hidden until the primary was already over.

Super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money in elections, are supposed to regularly disclose their funders. But in the case of Mountain Families PAC, Republicans managed to spend $1.3 million against Don Blankenship, a mustachioed former coal baron who was a wild-card candidate for a must-win West Virginia Senate seat, in May without revealing who was supplying the cash.


The move worked like this: Start a new super PAC after a deadline for reporting donors and expenses, then raise and spend money before the next report is due. Timed right, a super PAC might get a month or more undercover before being required to reveal its donors. And if a super PAC launches right before the election, voters won’t know who’s funding it until after they go to the polls.

The strategy — which is legal — is proving increasingly popular among Democrats and Republicans. The amount of super PAC spending during the 2016 congressional primaries in which the first donor disclosure occurred after the primary election totaled $9 million. That figure increased to more than $15 million during the 2018 congressional primaries and special elections.

Backers of Mountain Families PAC didn’t respond to a request for comment. It is one of 69 super PACs this election cycle that have managed to spend money to influence races and postpone telling voters who funded them, according to an analysis by POLITICO and ProPublica of Federal Election Commission data.

Voters bear much of the cost when they head to the polls without information on who funded a PAC that tried to sway their votes, said Meredith McGehee, executive director at the nonpartisan watchdog group Issue One.

“The whole idea behind disclosure is that one of the factors that voters can, and understandably should, take into account in judging the message is who the messenger is,” McGehee said.

Spending with postponed donor disclosure $21.9 million $11.7 million was spent by Democratic-aligned committees $10.2 million by GOP-aligned committees In total, super PACs have spent at least $21.9 million this cycle in 78 congressional races before disclosing who donated that money — $15.7 million of it during primary races. In many cases, that disclosure came after voters had gone to the polls.

Super PACs were created after the Supreme Court in the Citizens United decision ruled that people and corporations had the right to spend unlimited amounts of money on independent expenditures such as funding ads or mailers, but that they couldn’t hide that spending from the public.

But while they can’t keep donors secret forever, super PACs are increasingly figuring out methods of temporarily masking donor identities that are either legal or fall into gray areas that rarely attract regulators’ attention.

One tactic is the one Mountain Families PAC used. A new super PAC that started between Oct. 18 and Nov. 6 could spend money right before Election Day without having to disclose its donors until after the midterm results were tallied. (Among the 11 super PACs that together have spent at least $5.8 million since the primaries, all but one disclosed their donors on Oct. 15, when third-quarter FEC filings were due.)


Another involves going into debt to pay for advertising and other campaign-related activities, and fundraising later to pay off those debts. A super PAC that does this would not have to disclose donors until well after the money is spent.

In the case of Mountain Families PAC, Blankenship was increasingly popular among the state’s anti-Washington set. So D.C. Republicans behind the PAC avoided disclosing they were behind ads attacking Blankenship — “Isn’t there enough toxic sludge in Washington?” asked one of them — until after the primary.

Then they revealed their identity and dissolved the super PAC entirely.

Here are more examples of PACs that have delayed disclosing their donors this cycle — and how they did it:

Arizona Senate Primary Red and Gold $1.7 Million Funds reported three weeks after the primary As Republican Martha McSally battled two opponents in the Arizona Senate primary, a super PAC called Red and Gold spent $1.7 million attacking McSally, airing television ads that said McSally had supported an “age tax” on older people’s health insurance. But shortly after filing its initial paperwork with the FEC, Red and Gold notified the commission it was going to file on a monthly basis, which meant its first disclosure wasn’t due until Sept. 20, three weeks after the primary election. When Red and Gold finally disclosed its funders, it was revealed that Senate Majority PAC, which is aligned with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, was the main funder of Red and Gold and had meddled in the primary in an attempt to hurt McSally’s chances of victory and boost a weaker Republican. Chris Hayden, spokesman for Senate Majority PAC, said that “Senate Majority PAC and Red and Gold have followed the FEC reporting schedule and follow the law governing super PACs.”

Illinois House Democratic Primary SunshinePac $130,000 Funds reported nearly a month after the election During the week leading up to a seven-way Democratic primary in Illinois in March, a super PAC called SunshinePAC blitzed the battleground 6th Congressional District with $130,000 in mailers and phone calls. Because it started spending money so late in the race, SunshinePAC didn’t have to reveal its donors before the primary.

Ohio Senate Race Me Too Ohio $300,504 Majority of funds disclosed after the general election A super PAC called Me Too Ohio, which was registered on Sept. 8, disclosed $27,004 as debt and no donors in its first filing with the FEC on Oct. 15. Me Too Ohio is registered to an address in Arlington, Virginia. It has spent money on ads and a website that resurfaced allegations against Sen. Sherrod Brown stemming from his divorce in the 1980s. The committee filed a report disclosing $220,000 in contributions on Oct. 24 and another reporting the remaining $425,000 it raised on Dec. 6.

Explore the PACs that delayed their reporting More than $21.9 million was reported late. See detailed filing information for each PAC here. SuperPac First Independent Expenditure First Donor Disclosure Total Before Donor Disclosure Political Party Stars And Stripes Forever PAC 4/6/17 6/8/17 $52,114 Republican Take Back 2018 4/11/17 7/5/17 $9,000 Democratic Brighter Future Coalition 4/11/17 7/10/17 $44,325 Republican Engage Georgia 6/8/17 7/21/17 $68,431 Democratic Georgia Life Alliance Action Fund 6/9/17 7/23/17 $17,500 Republican Fund For A Working Congress 4/14/17 7/25/17 $82,000 Republican Massachusetts First 6/10/17 7/31/17 $153,039 Republican National Send Them Packing Committee 6/15/17 7/31/17 $27,130 Republican Conservative Utah 7/28/17 8/3/17 $146,726 Republican Solution Fund PAC 8/13/17 9/15/17 $29,044 Republican Citizens Against Carpetbaggers 9/21/17 10/12/17 $21,997 Republican Highway 31 11/10/17 1/19/18 $5,387,410 Democratic America Speaks PAC 12/8/17 1/29/18 $10,000 Republican CFG Action Tennessee 12/19/17 1/30/18 $16,103 Republican Flip The 49th! Neighbors In Action 12/28/17 1/31/18 $10,129 Democratic Drain the DC Swamp PAC 12/6/17 1/31/18 $10,000 Republican Conservative Leadership For Arizona 1/31/18 2/15/18 $27,775 Republican Mountain City PAC 2/2/18 2/20/18 $180,930 Republican Citizens for a Better Illinois 2/16/18 3/20/18 $1,126,898 Democratic Our Conservative Texas Future 2/21/18 3/20/18 $90,000 Republican Make America Like Texas 2/21/18 3/20/18 $46,750 Republican Pennsylvanians for Conservative Policies 4/9/18 4/11/18 $24,365 Republican Americans for Patriotic Values 3/6/18 4/12/18 $17,602 Republican We Stand for Better 3/20/18 4/13/18 $25,000 Republican SunshinePAC 3/13/18 4/14/18 $129,700 Democratic American Patriots PAC 3/2/18 4/15/18 $100,000 Republican Lone Star Values PAC 3/3/18 4/15/18 $39,000 Republican Chicago Latino Public Affairs Committee 3/17/18 4/17/18 $3,438 Democratic Conservatives for Pa 4/20/18 5/3/18 $173,648 Republican Progress in PA 05 4/24/18 5/3/18 $37,122 Democratic Conservative Results Matter 5/2/18 5/17/18 $400,000 Republican Mountain Families PAC 4/13/18 5/20/18 $1,328,756 Republican New Leadership For 2018 5/21/18 5/23/18 $1,349 Democratic New OC Future PAC 4/21/18 5/24/18 $187,129 Republican Our Values Political Action Committee 4/27/18 5/24/18 $133,070 Republican 7 Gen Leaders 5/16/18 5/25/18 $211,091 Democratic New Yorkers For Excellent Health Care Inc 5/20/18 6/14/18 $290,183 Republican Stronger Foundations Inc. 5/18/18 6/20/18 $100,610 Democratic Conservative Voices PAC 5/18/18 6/20/18 $59,090 Republican Clean Up Congress PAC 6/11/18 7/10/18 $56,000 Democratic Ohioans For Our Future PAC 5/3/18 7/11/18 $37,000 Republican Democracy First 6/6/18 7/12/18 $67,500 Democratic Defeat Slavery 5/31/18 7/13/18 $162,422 Democratic Ohio First PAC* 6/29/18 7/15/18 $182,750 Republican CLA Pac 5/12/18 7/15/18 $93,200 Republican Upstate Conservative Victory PAC, Inc 6/21/18 7/15/18 $25,000 Republican A Stronger Texas Fund 5/17/18 7/16/18 $55,559 Republican New Mexico Strong Fund 5/30/18 7/16/18 $25,178 Republican Change Now 9/6/18 9/20/18 $1,875,502 Democratic Red and Gold 8/4/18 9/20/18 $1,679,710 Democratic Arizonans For Life 8/7/18 9/20/18 $49,750 Republican America Fighting Back PAC 9/6/18 9/20/18 $41,500 Republican Senate Reform Fund 7/12/18 10/12/2018 $1,144,017 Republican Reinvesting In America 7/26/18 10/15/2018 $124,153 Democratic Americans for Prosperity Action 9/24/2018 10/15/2018 $4,336,048 Republican Kansas Farmers Fund 9/17/18 10/9/2018 $65,000 Democratic Committee for a Better Tomorrow Sponsored by Los Angeles County Federation of Labor 9/12/18 10/15/2018 $94,017 Democratic A New Promise 8/15/18 10/15/2018 $65,000 Democratic American Healthcare Coalition 8/10/18 10/15/2018 $25,000 Republican Citizens for Common Sense USA 8/24/18 10/15/2018 $20,750 Republican California Moderate Voices 9/10/18 10/15/2018 $175,035 Democratic Junto Podemos/Together We Can 9/18/18 10/16/2018 $16,570 Democratic Paction 11/2/18 12/6/2018 $28,428 Democratic New Jersey Citizens Alliance PAC 10/29/2018 12/6/2018 $32,337 Republican Citizen Ciudadano PAC 10/25/2018 12/6/2018 $96,670 Democratic American Potential Fund 11/1/2018 12/3/2018 $186,050 Republican Central Valley’s Future 10/31/2018 11/28/2018 $58,486 Republican Casa In Action PAC 10/25/2018 10/27/2018 $14,894 Democratic Me Too Ohio 9/23/18 10/24/2018 $300,504 Republican