In the News

"Some of the country's largest firms are scrambling to distance themselves from last week's insurrection at the US Capitol by freezing or reassessing their political donations -- sending tremors through a political system that has relied for decades on the predictable flow of corporate financial support...Even more important than halting contributions is the new message that corporate America delivered to Washington this week, said Michael Malbin, a political science professor at the University of Albany and an expert on campaign money. "The fact that major organizations are saying that they are disgusted matters," he said. "This is a public statement about what they believe is right and wrong."

"...Among the 16 senators in all who were part of the effort to overturn the presidential election, rank of lawyers and lobbyists among the top industry contributors to their campaigns, according to the latest data from FollowTheMoney.org: 1."

CNN - "Some of the country's largest firms are scrambling to distance themselves from last week's insurrection at the US Capitol by freezing or reassessing their political donations -- sending tremors through a political system that has relied for decades on the predictable flow of corporate financial support...Even more important than halting contributions is the new message that corporate America delivered to Washington this week, said Michael Malbin, a political science professor at the University of Albany and an expert on campaign money. "The fact that major organizations are saying that they are disgusted matters," he said. "This is a public statement about what they believe is right and wrong."

"...MONEY NEWS -- “Women are donating to campaigns in record numbers. The Georgia runoffs are no exception,” by Chelsea Cirruzzo: “Women didn’t just run for office and win seats in record numbers in 2020. They also donated to political campaigns in record numbers. That’s according to new research by the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in Politics, published on OpenSecrets.org. “[The analysis] found that in the 2020 races for both the U.S. House and Senate, female candidates outraised men on average, and nearly closed the gap in state-level contests. Additionally, women accounted for 33 percent of donations to congressional campaigns,” up from 28 percent in 2016. “[Grace Haley, gender and race researcher at the Center for Responsive Politics and the lead researcher behind the analysis] says much of these gains for female donors were driven by Democratic women, particularly wealthy Democratic women, supporting Democratic candidates, in line with a rush of political participation following the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Republican women also increased donations, Haley says, although it was nowhere near the levels of Democratic women.” The Lily

"Signed into law in early May, just days after being proposed, North Carolina’s protections went further than many states, precluding even claims that don’t involve COVID-19 treatment or that stem from staffing shortages that could otherwise be evidence of gross negligence....In a state that has cast itself as a friend to industry, the breadth of North Carolina’s protections spoke to the power of Republicans over the economic agenda and the influence of the health care lobby. The industry contributed more money to state legislative races than any other business sector over the past decade, according to the data collected by the nonprofit National Institute on Money in Politics."

"...Governor Newsom received a total of $755,198 in donations from agribusiness in 2018, based on the data from www.followthemoney.org. That figure includes $579,998 in the agriculture donations category, combined with another $116,800 from Beverly Hills agribusiness tycoons Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners of the Wonderful Company and the largest orchard fruit growers in the world, and $58,400 from E.J. Gallo. By fast-tracking the Delta Tunnel, supporting the voluntary water agreements, hiring grower William Lyons as a special “agriculture liaison” to the Governor’s Office, overseeing the issuing of a draft EIR that increases water exports for the state and federal projects rather than reducing them and releasing a controversial water portfolio that includes fast-tracking the Sites Reservoir, Newsom is apparently bending to the will of his agribusiness donors and sending Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead and other fish species to the scaffold."

OPINION - "...on a 5-2 vote, the Supreme Court chose Maylinn Smith, a University of Montana law associate professor, former tribal courts judge, and now a civil prosecutor for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Is this pick partisan? Yes, because like it or not, our elected Supreme Court is partisan, objectively to the left of Montana’s “center,” not far from being the last bastion of real power for Montana Democrats and “progressives.” Further, Ms. Smith is politically partisan, and not just in terms of her Montana political contributions, all to Democrats according to FollowTheMoney.org."

"In 2019, kids in Mississippi’s child support program got an average of about $900. The same year, Gov. Tate Reeves’ campaign received $25,000 from the wealthy private government contractor who runs the public service...In the 2019 Mississippi gubernatorial race, which took place the year YoungWilliams’ first statewide child support contract in Mississippi was set to expire, Wells dumped at least $130,000 into competing campaigns. He gave $75,000 to Republican Reeves over three years and $55,000 to his Democratic opponent, former Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, according to reports compiled by the National Institute on Money in Politics’ Follow The Money."

"...Brendan Glavin is an analyst with the Campaign Finance Institute. Brendan: “What you see is that the candidates will run ads, they are positive and talk themselves up. And outside groups tend to run more of the opposition, negative what people consider negative ads. So, it's easier for them. It's easier for the outside groups to run opposition ads. And here’s the thing, it’s hard to say who’s giving all that cash."

"Michael Malbin has been one of the most important and careful scholars tracking empirical developments in campaign finance as a professor at SUNY Albany and for 21 years as director of the influential Campaign Finance Institute. I rely on CFI analyses in my own work all the time. Michael has just retired as CFI director. CFI became a division of the National Institute on Money in Politics in 2018. Michael became a member of NIMP’s board on Friday. He will continue teaching at the University at Albany. Brendan Glavin will be staying on at CFI/NIMP. Congratulations Michael!"