‘Dark money’ overshadows 2020 election political ad spending | More than half of political ad spending in 2020 congressional races has come from unknown sources. Read more...

Democratic ‘dark money’ groups and super PACs target Trump with multi-million dollar coronavirus ad campaign | Fueled by “dark money,” cash-flush liberal groups with ties to the Democratic Party are mobilizing to unleash millions of dollars worth of ads attacking President Donald Trump’s response to coronavirus ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Read more...

Ukrainian foreign influence operation bankrolled by secret donors in coordinated effort | A controversial Ukrainian politician's U.S. foreign influence operations were a coordinated effort bankrolled through shell companies and offshore entities. Read more...

Ukrainian election shakes up foreign influence operations targeting the US | Ukraine’s presidential election has ushered in a new era of secretive Ukrainian foreign influence and lobbying operations targeting the U.S. Read more...

Lobbying numbers down again — but poised to shoot up with new administration | Note: Since some lobbyists file after the quarterly deadline, visit our lobbying summary for the most current data. We started to spot the decline when Barack Obama took office: Fewer people registered to lobby, and less money was being spent to influence Washington. And that trend continued last year: By the end of 2016, companies spent $3.1 billion… Read more...

Holiday reading list: OpenSecrets Blog’s best of 2016 | Boy, has 2016 been a whirlwind adventure. If you’re like us, you have tabs and tabs of unread stories that caught your eye during the workday, but haven’t had time to dive into yet. Now that the holiday break is upon us, we’ll finally have the time to sink into that comfy chair by the… Read more...

Group that backed Tom Cotton in ’14 got a big boost from Club for Growth | Mitch McConnell may have been grateful to many for his party’s gains in the 2014 midterms — victories that saw him sworn in as the new majority leader of a GOP-controlled Senate. But somewhere near the top of his “thank you” list should have been those who were running a handful of shadowy groups in North Carolina, Kentucky… Read more...

New tax forms show strong ties between pro-Rubio group and campaign | With the 2016 election cycle bringing previously unmatched amounts of “dark money” spending by politically active nonprofits, one group stands out for blazing its own trail: Conservative Solutions Project, the 501(c)(4) social welfare organization supporting Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) aborted presidential campaign. In an election cycle that saw an influx of single-candidate dark money groups, most… Read more...

Another Link in Ohio Dark Money Network | A mysterious Ohio nonprofit that attacked GOP opponents of Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner last year has been linked to a network of political operatives with close ties to Rauner’s own campaign. This is not the first time a shadowy outside group targeting Rauner’s opponents has been shown to have ties to the actual campaign,… Read more...

Why Should We Win a Webby? | We're proud to be considered for a Webby Award. However, we need your votes to win the People's Voice portion of the prize. Need to be persuaded? Here's a quick look at the new, groundbreaking, or just plain cool additions we've made to OpenSecrets.org this year. Now vote, please! Read more...

OpenSecrets Blog Receives Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award | We are excited and grateful to have won a 2013 Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Read more...

New Filings Shed Light on Hundreds of Millions in Dark Money Spending | Dark money groups are only now filing the tax forms that give us a fuller glimpse of their operations during the 2012 elections. OpenSecrets.org has posts on the most significant findings, and a new dynamic visualization illustrating the flow of funds to and from some of the most active groups. In addition, we're manually entering data from the new tax filings as they come in, providing an up-to-the-minute resource not found anywhere else. Read more...

Koch-Connected Group Revealed as Major Funder of CPPR, Other Dark Money Groups | A group that's been newly revealed as a major donor of conservative nonprofits who were active in the 2012 elections sent more to the Center to Protect Patient Rights last year than CPPR's combined budget for the previous three years. We put the Politico story in context. Read more...

Exclusive: Largest Dark Money Donor Groups Share Funds, Hide Links | OpenSecrets Blog has learned that the Center to Protect Patient Rights, the biggest shadow money group that does nothing but give grants to conservative politically active nonprofits, has received tens of millions of dollars from a similar group, TC4. But that's been hidden from the public: TC4 was sending the money to wholly-owned units of CPPR operating under different names. Other groups, too, have used this subterfuge, the latest trick in the (c)(4)s' grab-bag of nondisclosure tricks. Read more...

OpenSecrets.org’s New Dark Money Data Measures Groups’ Politicization | Building on our previous work on "dark money" nonprofits, the Center for Responsive Politics is rolling out new information on the activities of these groups that are playing an increasing role in U.S. elections. Read more...

Dark Money Data Added to OpenSecrets.org | For the past year and half, the Center for Responsive Politics has been putting together the largest publicly available set of IRS data on politically active nonprofits. Today, we're releasing it in a new section of the OpenSecrets.org website. Read more...

Rove’s Shadowy Defense | Karl Rove complains that his Crossroads GPS 501(c)(4) gets more scrutiny than liberal groups. But it's in a league of its own when it comes to spending on politics. Read more...

Shape-Shifting by Liberal Dark Money Groups Seems Meant to Confuse | Two liberal tax-exempt groups, Citizens for Strength and Security and Patriot Majority, have killed themselves off and re-established multiple times, and sprouted various offshoots that play by different sets of rules. It makes them virtually impossible to track for the average citizen -- and maybe for the IRS, too. Read more...

OpenSecrets.org’s Resources on Politically Active Tax-Exempt Groups | OpenSecrets.org's resources on politically active 501(c) groups, which we've been digging into for more than a year. Read more...

American Commitment’s Missing Millions | American Commitment is an aggressive advocate for Republican causes, but its history and funding are murky. Other groups with its name have appeared and disappeared. And millions of dollars designated for one or another of the groups operating under the name seem to have vanished. Read more...

REPLAY: Watch CRP’S Shadow Money Magic Webchat | Tune in today at 2 p.m. for a webchat on "shadow money" -- $300 million of which was poured into the 2012 elections with no identifying donor information. Read more...

White House Proposes E-filing for Nonprofits’ IRS Reports | Language in the president's budget proposal a provision could aid those who keep an eye on shadow money groups: E-filing requirements for nonprofits' 990 tax forms. In addition, the IRS would create a searchable database of the data contained in the documents, accessible to the public. Read more...

Capital Eye Opener, Jan. 17: Shadow Money Group Slammed in Montana Courts, the Latest in Waldron v. Bachmann, and More | Shadow money groups take another hit at the state level as a Montana judge rules Western Tradition Partnership used "subterfuge" to avoid disclosing its donors and posting required disclaimers. And former Michele Bachmann presidential campaign staffer Peter Waldron sticks another needle in his voodoo doll with a complaint to the FEC about how Bachmann paid a consultant. Read more...

Capital Eye Opener, Jan. 15: Automakers Rev Up Political Spending, the Power of the Hospital Lobby and More | The auto industry may be showing off at the big show in Detroit this week, but many candidates have already seen the industry's best side. Also, the hospital industry fends off important cuts in the fiscal cliff legislation. Read more...

Obama’s Shadow Money Allies File First Report | The tax return of the nonprofit linked to the main pro-Obama super PAC shows links to other liberal groups and more payments to Paul Begala. What it doesn't show is donors' names. Read more...

Exclusive: Nonprofit Funneled Money to Kochs’ Voter Database Effort, Other Conservative Groups | A previously unreported nonprofit network funneled millions of dollars to the Koch brothers' effort to catch up with Democrats' voter microtargeting. And beyond that, it sent money to a collection of other tax-exempt groups that worked to get Republicans elected in the last two campaign cycles. Read more...

Soft Cash Changes Hands Between Crossroads GPS and the NRA | In its shadow money investigation, the Center for Responsive Politics came across a $600,000 donation from Crossroads GPS going into the pockets of the National Rifle Association's 501(c)(4) group. Read more...

Exclusive: Center to Protect Patient Rights Gave Millions in 2011 to Outside Spenders in Election | A new filing by the Center to Protect Patient Rights shows the group, a secretive 501(c)(4) nonprofit, gave millions to other groups that spent heavily on ads in the 2012 election cycle. Read more...

CRP Receives Grant from Colbert, Names Conference Room for Super PAC | We at the Center for Responsive Politics are pleased to announce that our previously nameless gathering place for staff meetings, interviews with reporters and celebrations of all kinds now has an identity: the Colbert Super PAC Memorial Conference Room. The renaming was made possible by a generous, and unsolicited, grant of $136,000 from the Ham Rove Memorial Fund. Read more...

Capital Eye Opener, Dec. 3: Watts’ RNC Buzz, DaVita’s D.C. Footprint, and More | J.C. Watts, who's being mentioned as a possible RNC chair, has some strong ties to shadow money. A dialysis company that's accused of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid has invested heavily in Washington. And Bloomberg's pro-gun control super PAC likely had an impact. Read more...

Capital Eye Opener, Nov. 16: Whistleblowers, A Familiar Name in New Lobbying Registration Forms, and More | Whistleblower protections eaten away by the courts are back -- and yes, there was lobbying on the bill. Meanwhile, the Torch is back, showing up on federal lobbying registration forms for the first time. Read more...

Blue Team Aided by Small Donors, Big Bundlers; Huge Outside Spending Still Comes Up Short | President Barack Obama clinched a second term last night relying on many of the same campaign finance tools he used in his pre-Citizens United victory in 2008: party support and an in-house campaign finance operation that turned to individual donors and a web of elite bundlers to expand its reach. He received comparatively little help from outside spending groups. But that's not to say super PACs and secretive nonprofit groups had no influence on the election -- although they heavily favored conservative candidates, many of whom lost, they created an arms race that helped drive the cost of election to record levels. Read more...

2012 Election Spending Will Reach $6 Billion, Center for Responsive Politics Predicts | Earlier this year, the Center for Responsive Politics estimated that the 2012 election would cost $5.8 billion -- an estimate that already made it the most expensive in history -- but with less than a week to go before the election, CRP is revising the estimate upwards. According to CRP's new analysis of Federal Election Commission data, this election will likely cost $6 billion. Read more...

Shadow Money’s Top 10 Candidates | Never before has so much outside money been dispensed in an election cycle. Likewise, never before has so much spending been done by outside groups that don't disclose the identities of their donors: Their outlays broke $200 million this week. Here, we give you the top 10 candidates attracting shadow money attention. Read more...

Shadow Money Group Discloses Adelson Donation | The New American Energy Opportunity Foundation is running radio ads with money from Sheldon Adelson, it disclosed to the FEC last week. Read more...

Backed by Adelson, Republican Pro-Israel Group Targets Obama | With support from casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and a board laden with well-connected luminaries of GOP fundraising, the Republican Jewish Coalition is making a strong push to turn just enough Jews against Obama to deny him re-election. Read more...

Groups’ Funders Often Reported Long After Spending Has Occurred | Super PACs have spent as much since the close of their last disclosure period -- whether they report on a quarterly or monthly basis -- than in all the months leading up to that in the 2012 cycle. Read more...

Capital Eye Opener, Oct. 12: Romney’s 360 on Abortion, Strange Bedfellows in the 501(c) World, and More | Romney may have tried to tack to the center on abortion, but less than 48 hours later he was back to attacking Planned Parenthood -- which has shown its muscle as an outside spending group this cycle. Read more...

The October Surprise: Majority of Outside Spending Likely to Come in Final Month | Yep, the amount of cash laid out by outside groups has soared in this election cycle. And if history holds true, it's likely to double in the month before the election. A comparison of 2012's outside spending with previous cycles at the same point in the year. Read more...

What Citizens United (et al) Wrought: The Shadow Money Explosion | Visualizations by Newsweek & The Daily Beast in partnership with the Center for Responsive Politics show the explosive growth in spending by groups that don't disclose their donors. Read more...