Campaign Finance

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge to Seattle's "Democracy Voucher Program," leaving in place the city's public financing program for local elections. Though the justices offered no explanation for their decision not to... Read More

WASHINGTON - Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has abandoned plans to form a new super PAC dedicated to defeating President Donald Trump and is instead donating $18 million to the Democratic National Committee to achieve the same ends.... Read More

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — State ethics regulators have fined the campaign of former Gov. Eric Greitens $178,000 over campaign finance violations dating to his upstart, outsider bid to become Missouri’s chief executive. The Missouri Ethics Commission released its long-awaited probe... Read More

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Pete Buttigieg's campaign says he raised more than $24.7 million in the last three months and now has a campaign staff of 500 people nationwide, a show of financial and organizational strength heading into the... Read More

WASHINGTON — The late U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore left $1 million in unspent campaign funds, according to election records. That raised an unanswered question: What happens to all that money now? In Washington, the campaign accounts of deceased... Read More

When it comes to political fundraising, rich people are great. People who know a lot of rich people are even better. Individual donors may write the checks, but a lot of influence and power accrues to the intermediaries who collect... Read More

WASHINGTON - A year out from the 2020 general election, more U.S. companies are opting for transparency when it comes to what they're spending on politics, according to a nonpartisan scorecard.  The CPA-Zicklin Index is a joint project of the... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, is being investigated by federal prosecutors for possible campaign finance violations and a failure to register as a foreign agent as part of an active investigation into his financial dealings, according... Read More

WASHINGTON - The conventional wisdom this summer was that House Democrats who flipped red districts in 2018 would be particularly vulnerable if the chamber moved forward with an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. But an analysis by the Center... Read More

WASHINGTON  — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., raised $24.6 million over the past three months, relying largely on a massive small donor operation. The senator's haul, announced on Friday, is just less than the $25.3 million her chief liberal rival, Vermont... Read More

WASHINGTON - It was a typical day at the Iowa State Fair, just outside of Des Moines. The smell of just about anything you can imagine fried and served on a stick permeated the air, livestock mostly slumbered through being... Read More

WASHINGTON - Sen. Cory Booker's presidential campaign raised just over a half million dollars in two days after the candidate suggested his run for the White House could be over by the end of the month. Campaigning in Iowa over... Read More

WASHINGTON - Matt Petersen, a Republican appointment to the Federal Election Commission and most recently, its vice chairman, has resigned his seat, leaving the panel overseeing campaign laws without a quorum. Petersen's departure leaves the FEC with only three of... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Federal Elections Commission is seeking public comment on a proposal to include "valuable information" to the definition of a "contribution" used in its regulations. Currently commission regulations define a "contribution" as "any gift, subscription, loan ... advance,... Read More

A federal Judge in New York agreed to continue to seal search warrant materials related to an investigation of campaign finance violations by President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, Michael Cohen. The decision by U.S. District Judge William Pauley III... Read More

From the very beginning of the Republic, campaign finance has been a hard subject to discuss in polite company. In a capitalist society, things, including access to whatever serves as the public megaphone of the era, simply cost money. And... Read More