How Democratic consultants, committees, and party leaders built a fundraising spam pipeline that funnels money from a captive pool of elderly donors into their own operations.
Thank you for documenting what we've all been experiencing. It's condescending, exploitative, and does NOT build the kind of political solidarity we need in these fraught times.
This is a terrific article. Democratic Party leaders need to step up to stop the extraordinary damage done to the party by the fundraising tactics Adam describes. In addition to the problem with Spam,,gross inefficiency, and taking advantage of seniors, there is a complete lack of accountability. PACs are only required to report to the FEC who is their treasurer, who is often someone from a compliance firm that only files the FEC reports. There is no requirement of disclosure of the people who started the PAC, or who is leading the PAC and making decisions about its fundraising and spending. So there is a complete lack of accountability, despite the legal concept that all federal political spending must be reported to the FEC. Legislation to require PAC initiators and decision-makers to be disclosed should be a Democratic Party priority. In addition, the DNC and candidates should adopt a strong fundraising Code of Conduct that vendors and consultants are required to follow as a condition of being hired. With the money that is currently being siphoned off by fundraisers and consultants, we could throw MAGA out of power for good.
Do Democrats in office even want to secure power and toss out MAGA, though? Seems to me that the Trump admin and tight majorities in the House and Senate increase the urgency of donor appeals, and thereby secure more for Democratic office holder allies and general selectorate.
EXCEPT, THE ENTIRE MEIDAS ENTERPRISE< REFUSES TO EVEN MENTION THE ELECTION RIGGING!!!! SO, PEOPLE BELIEVE THE EVIDENCE MUST BE FALSE!!!! HE WON'T DENY IT, OR EVEN MENTION IT!!! IT'S traitorous by omission!!
"HE" DID NOT WIN!! WE DID VOTE!! BEN JUST IGNORES IT!! I PERSONALLY BELIEVE HE WAS PAID TO SILENCE THE TRUTH!!! JUST MY PERSONAL OBSERVATION, ESPECIALLY AFTER HE DRAGGED ALMOST EVERY INDEPENDENT WRITER under his umbrella!!! AT THE VERY LEAST, questionable!!!!
HERE IS A MAINSTREAM STORY!!! DID HE EVEN MENTION THIS????
Elias objected to the implication that the PAC’s are maliciously targeting a vulnerable population, even though that was not the conclusion of the research. The story did leave the impression that the Dem fundraising is predatory. That is more complicated.
Splitting hairs is not a good look for a party that needs to shake the impression shared by too many that both parties are the same. The Dem fundraising practices have been a large part of this problem. The party should publicly commit to reforming them. And use someone besides Elias to attack what’s left of the free press.
Marc Elias "could shoot someone on 5th Ave" and id look the other way....this is war! He's winning and should be celebrated. He is the last guardrail in terms of litigating this murder of crows at 1600 PA
EXCEPT, THE ENTIRE MEIDAS ENTERPRISE< REFUSES TO EVEN MENTION THE ELECTION RIGGING!!!! SO, PEOPLE BELIEVE THE EVIDENCE MUST BE FALSE!!!! HE WON'T DENY IT, OR EVEN MENTION IT!!! IT'S traitorous by omission!!
"HE" DID NOT WIN!! WE DID VOTE!! BEN JUST IGNORES IT!! I PERSONALLY BELIEVE HE WAS PAID TO SILENCE THE TRUTH!!! JUST MY PERSONAL OBSERVATION, ESPECIALLY AFTER HE DRAGGED ALMOST EVERY INDEPENDENT WRITER under his umbrella!!! AT THE VERY LEAST, questionable!!!!
HERE IS A MAINSTREAM STORY!!! DID HE EVEN MENTION THIS????
It left that impression because it is. You can use NGPVan, which everybody using ActBlue does, to filter a list by age. I'm sure some of the scummier groups do.
me too. his law firm seemed heroic in their fight to protect our vote. I guess compromise is always part of the scenario everywhere you look and turn over the rocks to see what is underneath.
100% agree: "but I’m also a lifelong Democrat. I believe my party is doing itself a disservice by following Republicans down this dark path. Winning back the House this year on the back of Donald Trump’s unpopularity would not be enough. We need a party capable of sustaining a durable majority to force authoritarianism into permanent retreat, a party that commands genuine enthusiasm and broad public trust. This fundraising model is not the way to build it."
I have stopped donating because only 20 million going to candidates of 390 million raised is unacceptable for sustainability of any democracy. Shame on them.
I make up for it by going directly to the candidates web site and donate 'hard money' they don't have to split with anyone. The only regret I've had is donating to now Senator Fetterman...sometimes a 'Democrat, no-matter-who' is still a looser vote because of this terrible fundraising mentality. (Yes, I know the other person wouldn't have been any better--but at least we'd be able to get rid of him now, we already had lost the Senate).
Thank you for having the courage to publish this anyway. It's a shame that the same BROKEN system that facilitated Trump coming to power is insisting on dooming us all by it's refusal to change--all for the sake of a few fat cats lining their pockets.
I hope you post goes viral in a good way: My favorite candidates don't take PAC money. Look at NJ07 Congressional Race...it's a good template.
I too am a devoted, lifelong Democrat. I no longer make any donations to PACs unless I have a personal connection with them. Instead, I donate directly to candidates’ campaigns.
Could you please recommend specific actions we should take (including specific language we can use) to hold the party accountable for this and demand change?
- if you want to be certain your hard-earned money is going to the campaign or cause you value, go to oath.vote. The proprietary software that gives you an impact score. Oath.vote is for Democrats, not Republicans.
- donate directly to the candidate or campaign
- if you feel like you’ve been scammed, let us know at Scambusters.us. We will research it, write a profile and share it with the Attorney General of the state if it is deemed a scam.
Get visibly active in supporting Democratic candidates. Show them votes are more important than donor dollars. Go to their campaign appearances and demand change.
I suggest you respond to every single SpamPAC predatory email by looking up the candidates website, then sending them a direct email stating that you never will donate your money to someone who use a predatory organization for fundraising. I would still vote for the democrat no matter who/what - but leave my money to those who have a heart and conscience.
Really important and disturbing piece on consultants, candidates and national leaders burning the future for quick immediate gain. It’s good to know that DNC chair Ken Martin and act blue have been trying to stop it, but it’s going to take all of us pressuring other party leaders as well as to donating to these spam pacs. Also seems worth people pressuring the times and bulwark to run some version of the piece or cover the issue otherwise
Paul, you can restack this piece and add a note - "The Bulwark should run some version of this piece or cover the issue otherwise". Use the restack icon under the date at the top of this newsletter.
Excellent article, and shame on both publications that dropped it out of cowardice--there was no legitimate legal liability for them, so this looks like the worst kind of favor currying.
Speaking from my own experience as a young-ish (30s) Democratic small donor, emails and texts have become a completely useless signal when it comes to determining who I should donate to. Not only are they all full of the overwrought, schlocky language you describe, but there's also basically no correlation at all between the solicitations I get and the optimal recipients. I'm as likely to get these garbage emails and texts from candidates making pure vanity runs or in completely safe seats as I am to get them from candidates who are in close, important races.
Luckily for me I follow politics closely and know that donating to people like Jordan Wood is a fancy means of lighting your money on fire, but I've long felt that there must be some number of people who take seriously the content of these solicitations. What a shame that you need to be somewhat savvy to know people you're supposed to be able to trust are basically trying to scam you.
There's also the fact that the sheer number of these solicitations has rendered my primary personal email inbox nearly unusable, and the texts don't stop no matter how many times I reply "STOP."
It's sad, because you could imagine a world in which email lists are used for the purpose of actually helping people know which races are truly tight, where their dollar would go the furthest, etc. Instead everyone is just inundated with nonstop crap, such that they either tune it out entirely or are tricked into wasting boatloads of money. Both scenarios are bad.
I have an iPhone and I discovered that I can set my text message app to file “unknown senders“ into a separate inbox so they don’t clutter up your primary feed. Sometimes I miss an important text so I have to review them, and I haven’t figured out how to bulk delete, but it’s been a huge improvement. I agree with everything the author says and I am also disappointed in the Elias Law group’s successful attempt to stop the NYT from publishing this.
Charles Gaba regularly makes shortlists of races categorized similar to what you describe, with links to donate to all of the candidates at once via ActBlue, or you could also pick someone from a list and donate directly to their campaign.
EXCEPT, THE ENTIRE MEIDAS ENTERPRISE< REFUSES TO EVEN MENTION THE ELECTION RIGGING!!!! SO, PEOPLE BELIEVE THE EVIDENCE MUST BE FALSE!!!! HE WON'T DENY IT, OR EVEN MENTION IT!!! IT'S traitorous by omission!!
"HE" DID NOT WIN!! WE DID VOTE!! BEN JUST IGNORES IT!! I PERSONALLY BELIEVE HE WAS PAID TO SILENCE THE TRUTH!!! JUST MY PERSONAL OBSERVATION, ESPECIALLY AFTER HE DRAGGED ALMOST EVERY INDEPENDENT WRITER under his umbrella!!! AT THE VERY LEAST, questionable!!!!
HERE IS A MAINSTREAM STORY!!! DID HE EVEN MENTION THIS????
Since that's not going to happen anytime soon, I think we need to make accepting corporate money toxic in the primaries, so that candidates who accept any lose. SCOTUS can legalize buying the government, but it can't make us vote for the bought candidates.
If you look at the history, starting on the Republican side (and they have not stopped), this kind of Spam fundraising is directly connected to Citizen’s United.
The story told in this article is important, but horribly one-sided.
It only mentions Republican efforts twice.
I think it may also have some methodology issues. It is cited ‘one donor gave 10,000 times’…was there any effort to determine if each donation was a separate spam message, or if this donor chose to give ‘10/month’?
Money in politics is a huge issue, but it needs to be addressed across the board.
Ultra-rich on the Republican side routinely dump millions into PACs.
Failure to end those abuses at the same time as fighting these Spam PACs just handicaps one side.
“What respectable organization treats its supporters this way and expects to keep them? In the long run, these tactics are less a boon to the party’s finances than a siphon.” Folks should think long and hard about the answer to this one. The spam PAC grift is not only predatory, it’s suicidal for the Democrats’ survival as a political entity, and powerbrokers know it.
Ultimately, ActBlue is one of the main culprits here. They allow scam PACs on their platform and their credibility with the Dem donor base validates some operations that do nothing to help Democrats, even if they aren’t directly impersonating party organizations. There should be a much higher threshold to open an ActBlue account as an organization.
We could go back to the old fashioned way of sending candidate actual checks. Doing that eliminates any of the percentage that the fundraising firms get. All campaigns have their physical mailing address at the bottom of their webpage.
Thank you. I noticed this trend some time ago. And yes, the Democratic Party three fundraising arms lost me due to their inability to crack down on these scams. I’m infuriated that the elderly are once again top scam victims. I also left the Democrat party. They do not represent We the People. While they might not be outright criminal thugs like the Republican Party, they’ve enabled and emboldened R’s by their unwillingness to holds any of the criminals to account.
It's nauseating and further evidence that Democratic Party need to be torn down and built back up! Jordan Wood, the former head of End Citizen's United, ran for Senate, dropped out, then carpetbagged into the 2nd Congressional District this year in Maine to run. Luckily, he lost. He campaigned largely on ending the influence of money in politics!
Wood is married to Jake Lipsett, the co-founder of Mothership Strategies. They live in a $3 million house on the Maine coast, just a few miles from me. When people get angry about the establishment Dems, this is a perfect example. They're bought, sold and paid for.
Great reporting! I'm sorry you spent a year of unpaid labor on this piece. The NYT has established itself as a mouthpiece for the establishment. No surprise about the Bulwark - DC insiders are conditioned to chase the money. They're out here on Substack now. Buyer beware!
I am an 84 year-old who donated over $8000 in the 2024 election phase. This blight of fundraising, mostly by text, is completely counterproductive, intrusive and irritating , and it has led me to unsubscribe and block repeatedly. I no longer respond to any of these requests and will give directly to candidates when the cause grabs me.
I'm a long-time Bulwark subscriber. I want to know why they refused to publish. I'll restack this and ask that question. 100 other Bulwark subscribers follow me.
Thank you for documenting what we've all been experiencing. It's condescending, exploitative, and does NOT build the kind of political solidarity we need in these fraught times.
amen
This is a terrific article. Democratic Party leaders need to step up to stop the extraordinary damage done to the party by the fundraising tactics Adam describes. In addition to the problem with Spam,,gross inefficiency, and taking advantage of seniors, there is a complete lack of accountability. PACs are only required to report to the FEC who is their treasurer, who is often someone from a compliance firm that only files the FEC reports. There is no requirement of disclosure of the people who started the PAC, or who is leading the PAC and making decisions about its fundraising and spending. So there is a complete lack of accountability, despite the legal concept that all federal political spending must be reported to the FEC. Legislation to require PAC initiators and decision-makers to be disclosed should be a Democratic Party priority. In addition, the DNC and candidates should adopt a strong fundraising Code of Conduct that vendors and consultants are required to follow as a condition of being hired. With the money that is currently being siphoned off by fundraisers and consultants, we could throw MAGA out of power for good.
Do Democrats in office even want to secure power and toss out MAGA, though? Seems to me that the Trump admin and tight majorities in the House and Senate increase the urgency of donor appeals, and thereby secure more for Democratic office holder allies and general selectorate.
We need to show them the voters are more important than the donors in winning. That requires us Democrats to get active.
Actually, I’d argue that it simply requires that people vote for Democrats. Being active and being a donor are privileges. Voting is a right.
I'm saying Democrats need to get active in getting voters to vote.
> Democratic Party leaders need to step up
The only thing Democratic Party leaders should do is step down
EXCEPT, THE ENTIRE MEIDAS ENTERPRISE< REFUSES TO EVEN MENTION THE ELECTION RIGGING!!!! SO, PEOPLE BELIEVE THE EVIDENCE MUST BE FALSE!!!! HE WON'T DENY IT, OR EVEN MENTION IT!!! IT'S traitorous by omission!!
************************************************************************
"HE" DID NOT WIN!! WE DID VOTE!! BEN JUST IGNORES IT!! I PERSONALLY BELIEVE HE WAS PAID TO SILENCE THE TRUTH!!! JUST MY PERSONAL OBSERVATION, ESPECIALLY AFTER HE DRAGGED ALMOST EVERY INDEPENDENT WRITER under his umbrella!!! AT THE VERY LEAST, questionable!!!!
HERE IS A MAINSTREAM STORY!!! DID HE EVEN MENTION THIS????
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/musk-unmasked-the-bombshell-election?r=58ocfg&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
__________________________________________________________________
THE ENTIRE ELECTION, RIGGING, EVIDENCE, FOLDER!!!
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/archive
__________________________________________________________________
ONE MORE REPORT FROM THE FOLDER!!! BUT THERE IS PLENTY MORE!!!
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/the-2024-election-was-stolenbut-the?r=58ocfg&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
_________________________________________________________________
Agree agree agree
I am very disappointed to hear that Elias defends these practices
Same.
Elias objected to the implication that the PAC’s are maliciously targeting a vulnerable population, even though that was not the conclusion of the research. The story did leave the impression that the Dem fundraising is predatory. That is more complicated.
Splitting hairs is not a good look for a party that needs to shake the impression shared by too many that both parties are the same. The Dem fundraising practices have been a large part of this problem. The party should publicly commit to reforming them. And use someone besides Elias to attack what’s left of the free press.
Marc Elias "could shoot someone on 5th Ave" and id look the other way....this is war! He's winning and should be celebrated. He is the last guardrail in terms of litigating this murder of crows at 1600 PA
EXCEPT, THE ENTIRE MEIDAS ENTERPRISE< REFUSES TO EVEN MENTION THE ELECTION RIGGING!!!! SO, PEOPLE BELIEVE THE EVIDENCE MUST BE FALSE!!!! HE WON'T DENY IT, OR EVEN MENTION IT!!! IT'S traitorous by omission!!
************************************************************************
"HE" DID NOT WIN!! WE DID VOTE!! BEN JUST IGNORES IT!! I PERSONALLY BELIEVE HE WAS PAID TO SILENCE THE TRUTH!!! JUST MY PERSONAL OBSERVATION, ESPECIALLY AFTER HE DRAGGED ALMOST EVERY INDEPENDENT WRITER under his umbrella!!! AT THE VERY LEAST, questionable!!!!
HERE IS A MAINSTREAM STORY!!! DID HE EVEN MENTION THIS????
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/musk-unmasked-the-bombshell-election?r=58ocfg&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
__________________________________________________________________
THE ENTIRE ELECTION, RIGGING, EVIDENCE, FOLDER!!!
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/archive
__________________________________________________________________
ONE MORE REPORT FROM THE FOLDER!!! BUT THERE IS PLENTY MORE!!!
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/the-2024-election-was-stolenbut-the?r=58ocfg&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
_________________________________________________________________
He's a fraud
Same here.
It left that impression because it is. You can use NGPVan, which everybody using ActBlue does, to filter a list by age. I'm sure some of the scummier groups do.
They can argue that the tactic is just to go back to past donors. But the result of the tactic is skewing toward the elderly.
me too. his law firm seemed heroic in their fight to protect our vote. I guess compromise is always part of the scenario everywhere you look and turn over the rocks to see what is underneath.
He's the lawyer of the Democratic Party.
And who benefits? Everyone.
Marc Elias is not a good person. Very evil.
Me too.
100% agree: "but I’m also a lifelong Democrat. I believe my party is doing itself a disservice by following Republicans down this dark path. Winning back the House this year on the back of Donald Trump’s unpopularity would not be enough. We need a party capable of sustaining a durable majority to force authoritarianism into permanent retreat, a party that commands genuine enthusiasm and broad public trust. This fundraising model is not the way to build it."
I have stopped donating because only 20 million going to candidates of 390 million raised is unacceptable for sustainability of any democracy. Shame on them.
I make up for it by going directly to the candidates web site and donate 'hard money' they don't have to split with anyone. The only regret I've had is donating to now Senator Fetterman...sometimes a 'Democrat, no-matter-who' is still a looser vote because of this terrible fundraising mentality. (Yes, I know the other person wouldn't have been any better--but at least we'd be able to get rid of him now, we already had lost the Senate).
Thank you for having the courage to publish this anyway. It's a shame that the same BROKEN system that facilitated Trump coming to power is insisting on dooming us all by it's refusal to change--all for the sake of a few fat cats lining their pockets.
I hope you post goes viral in a good way: My favorite candidates don't take PAC money. Look at NJ07 Congressional Race...it's a good template.
Karen, you can help this piece go viral by clicking on the "restack" icon under the date at the top of the newsletter.
I did that!
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/the-2024-election-was-stolenbut-the?r=58ocfg&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
EVIDENCE "BEN" REFUSES TO POST OR EVEN MENTION!!!!!
I too am a devoted, lifelong Democrat. I no longer make any donations to PACs unless I have a personal connection with them. Instead, I donate directly to candidates’ campaigns.
Could you please recommend specific actions we should take (including specific language we can use) to hold the party accountable for this and demand change?
...because "STOP" and "END" are not getting the message across.
Hear, hear
- if you want to be certain your hard-earned money is going to the campaign or cause you value, go to oath.vote. The proprietary software that gives you an impact score. Oath.vote is for Democrats, not Republicans.
- donate directly to the candidate or campaign
- if you feel like you’ve been scammed, let us know at Scambusters.us. We will research it, write a profile and share it with the Attorney General of the state if it is deemed a scam.
https://scambusters.us
- Scambusters.US also offers a free 1-hour class titled, Political Fundraising: Legal or a Scam? Check it out here:
https://scambusters.us
- contact your representative - legislation has been proposed but not moved forward, so make some noise.
- contactor your state Attorney General. The more people that report it the more they can do about it as well.
If you want to be absolutely certain I can assure you right now:
It's all a scam
I disagree. There are good PACs out there
Get visibly active in supporting Democratic candidates. Show them votes are more important than donor dollars. Go to their campaign appearances and demand change.
YOU CAN WIN WITH LESS MONEY!!!!! YOU CANNOT WIN WITH LESS VOTES!!!!!
As Ben Wikler puts it, “The many can beat the money” - https://substack.com/home/post/p-214645356.
I suggest you respond to every single SpamPAC predatory email by looking up the candidates website, then sending them a direct email stating that you never will donate your money to someone who use a predatory organization for fundraising. I would still vote for the democrat no matter who/what - but leave my money to those who have a heart and conscience.
Really important and disturbing piece on consultants, candidates and national leaders burning the future for quick immediate gain. It’s good to know that DNC chair Ken Martin and act blue have been trying to stop it, but it’s going to take all of us pressuring other party leaders as well as to donating to these spam pacs. Also seems worth people pressuring the times and bulwark to run some version of the piece or cover the issue otherwise
Paul, you can restack this piece and add a note - "The Bulwark should run some version of this piece or cover the issue otherwise". Use the restack icon under the date at the top of this newsletter.
Excellent article, and shame on both publications that dropped it out of cowardice--there was no legitimate legal liability for them, so this looks like the worst kind of favor currying.
Speaking from my own experience as a young-ish (30s) Democratic small donor, emails and texts have become a completely useless signal when it comes to determining who I should donate to. Not only are they all full of the overwrought, schlocky language you describe, but there's also basically no correlation at all between the solicitations I get and the optimal recipients. I'm as likely to get these garbage emails and texts from candidates making pure vanity runs or in completely safe seats as I am to get them from candidates who are in close, important races.
Luckily for me I follow politics closely and know that donating to people like Jordan Wood is a fancy means of lighting your money on fire, but I've long felt that there must be some number of people who take seriously the content of these solicitations. What a shame that you need to be somewhat savvy to know people you're supposed to be able to trust are basically trying to scam you.
There's also the fact that the sheer number of these solicitations has rendered my primary personal email inbox nearly unusable, and the texts don't stop no matter how many times I reply "STOP."
It's sad, because you could imagine a world in which email lists are used for the purpose of actually helping people know which races are truly tight, where their dollar would go the furthest, etc. Instead everyone is just inundated with nonstop crap, such that they either tune it out entirely or are tricked into wasting boatloads of money. Both scenarios are bad.
I have an iPhone and I discovered that I can set my text message app to file “unknown senders“ into a separate inbox so they don’t clutter up your primary feed. Sometimes I miss an important text so I have to review them, and I haven’t figured out how to bulk delete, but it’s been a huge improvement. I agree with everything the author says and I am also disappointed in the Elias Law group’s successful attempt to stop the NYT from publishing this.
Charles Gaba regularly makes shortlists of races categorized similar to what you describe, with links to donate to all of the candidates at once via ActBlue, or you could also pick someone from a list and donate directly to their campaign.
EXCEPT, THE ENTIRE MEIDAS ENTERPRISE< REFUSES TO EVEN MENTION THE ELECTION RIGGING!!!! SO, PEOPLE BELIEVE THE EVIDENCE MUST BE FALSE!!!! HE WON'T DENY IT, OR EVEN MENTION IT!!! IT'S traitorous by omission!!
************************************************************************
"HE" DID NOT WIN!! WE DID VOTE!! BEN JUST IGNORES IT!! I PERSONALLY BELIEVE HE WAS PAID TO SILENCE THE TRUTH!!! JUST MY PERSONAL OBSERVATION, ESPECIALLY AFTER HE DRAGGED ALMOST EVERY INDEPENDENT WRITER under his umbrella!!! AT THE VERY LEAST, questionable!!!!
HERE IS A MAINSTREAM STORY!!! DID HE EVEN MENTION THIS????
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/musk-unmasked-the-bombshell-election?r=58ocfg&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
__________________________________________________________________
THE ENTIRE ELECTION, RIGGING, EVIDENCE, FOLDER!!!
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/archive
__________________________________________________________________
ONE MORE REPORT FROM THE FOLDER!!! BUT THERE IS PLENTY MORE!!!
https://thiswillhold.substack.com/p/the-2024-election-was-stolenbut-the?r=58ocfg&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
_________________________________________________________________
Very meaty read but why not make it longer???
Basically, Citizens United needs to be repealed and any reformulation of similar legislation prevented.
Since that's not going to happen anytime soon, I think we need to make accepting corporate money toxic in the primaries, so that candidates who accept any lose. SCOTUS can legalize buying the government, but it can't make us vote for the bought candidates.
How would repealing Citizens United affect this?
If corporations weren’t pouring money into elections there’d be less need to fundraise using spam.
See Pete B: https://youtu.be/N9GxuCH-aSY?si=ZHWeHLJHtlYhDJeC
But Citizens United has nothing to do with raising money from individuals, which is the issue here.
If you look at the history, starting on the Republican side (and they have not stopped), this kind of Spam fundraising is directly connected to Citizen’s United.
The story told in this article is important, but horribly one-sided.
It only mentions Republican efforts twice.
I think it may also have some methodology issues. It is cited ‘one donor gave 10,000 times’…was there any effort to determine if each donation was a separate spam message, or if this donor chose to give ‘10/month’?
Money in politics is a huge issue, but it needs to be addressed across the board.
Ultra-rich on the Republican side routinely dump millions into PACs.
Failure to end those abuses at the same time as fighting these Spam PACs just handicaps one side.
You're right. It's a separate issue of getting money out of politics.
“What respectable organization treats its supporters this way and expects to keep them? In the long run, these tactics are less a boon to the party’s finances than a siphon.” Folks should think long and hard about the answer to this one. The spam PAC grift is not only predatory, it’s suicidal for the Democrats’ survival as a political entity, and powerbrokers know it.
Great work!
Ultimately, ActBlue is one of the main culprits here. They allow scam PACs on their platform and their credibility with the Dem donor base validates some operations that do nothing to help Democrats, even if they aren’t directly impersonating party organizations. There should be a much higher threshold to open an ActBlue account as an organization.
And for folks who don't know, there's a great platform called Oath that is a competitor to ActBlue that doesn't lead to all the spam...
We might as well cut out the Act Blue middle man if we can. Unless the candidates' campaigns are on there to donate to, how does it help us?
We could go back to the old fashioned way of sending candidate actual checks. Doing that eliminates any of the percentage that the fundraising firms get. All campaigns have their physical mailing address at the bottom of their webpage.
Amazing work. We need a return to traditional strategies that depend on grassroots mobilization, in-person canvasing, and volunteer recruitment.
Agree. That IS happening. See swingleft.org.
Thank you. I noticed this trend some time ago. And yes, the Democratic Party three fundraising arms lost me due to their inability to crack down on these scams. I’m infuriated that the elderly are once again top scam victims. I also left the Democrat party. They do not represent We the People. While they might not be outright criminal thugs like the Republican Party, they’ve enabled and emboldened R’s by their unwillingness to holds any of the criminals to account.
It's nauseating and further evidence that Democratic Party need to be torn down and built back up! Jordan Wood, the former head of End Citizen's United, ran for Senate, dropped out, then carpetbagged into the 2nd Congressional District this year in Maine to run. Luckily, he lost. He campaigned largely on ending the influence of money in politics!
Wood is married to Jake Lipsett, the co-founder of Mothership Strategies. They live in a $3 million house on the Maine coast, just a few miles from me. When people get angry about the establishment Dems, this is a perfect example. They're bought, sold and paid for.
Great reporting! I'm sorry you spent a year of unpaid labor on this piece. The NYT has established itself as a mouthpiece for the establishment. No surprise about the Bulwark - DC insiders are conditioned to chase the money. They're out here on Substack now. Buyer beware!
I am an 84 year-old who donated over $8000 in the 2024 election phase. This blight of fundraising, mostly by text, is completely counterproductive, intrusive and irritating , and it has led me to unsubscribe and block repeatedly. I no longer respond to any of these requests and will give directly to candidates when the cause grabs me.
I'm a long-time Bulwark subscriber. I want to know why they refused to publish. I'll restack this and ask that question. 100 other Bulwark subscribers follow me.