From Propublica... Super PACS and the hidden money.

 I've written about this at every election cycle. I know our readers are aware of this, but it helps to remind everyone, our democracy is being stolen from us by big money. We're all guilty in some ways, we give money to candidates that we think would be better than the other candidate, but in fact, there's really not that much that separates one from another when it comes to campaign donations. Each side will prostitute themselves for a few million or so. Leaving us peeon's in the fog not seeing who is behind the Super PACS.


https://www.propublica.org/article/the-hidden-money-funding-the-midterms

The Hidden Money Funding the Midterms

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

by Derek Willis, ProPublica, and Maggie Severns, Politico

This story was co-published with Politico.

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.

Find More Super PACs Hiding Money Before the Midterms

See the 63 super PACs this election cycle that have managed to spend money to influence races and postpone telling voters who funded them on FEC Itemizer.

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 $15.6 million during the 2018 congressional primaries and special elections.