Jonathan Zucker

Last updated

Jonathan Zucker (born December 23, 1971) is a political technology entrepreneur and campaign finance attorney best known as the founder of Democracy Engine, the first COO and second CEO of ActBlue and the founder of Every State Blue (founded as It Starts Today). [1] [2]

Contents

History

Zucker worked at the Democratic National Committee from 2003–2005, serving as the National Director of Operations for Finance, overseeing technology, legal, compliance, vetting, and data-management for the DNC's $100 million major-donor program. Prior to the DNC, Zucker worked with progressive and Democratic organizations as a fundraiser, legal counsel, and field organizer, including The Interfaith Alliance, Human Rights Campaign, GenderPAC, and the Democratic Leadership Council. Zucker was later the first employee of ActBlue, where he served as Senior Strategist & Counsel, COO & Counsel, and Executive Director (CEO) between 2005 and 2008. [3]

Political startups

Zucker is involved in two current organizations:

Past projects include:

Campaign finance law

Zucker has been involved with numerous advisory opinion requests to the Federal Election Commission in the area of technology and fundraising, including:

Education

Zucker holds a B.A. in Political Science from Yale and a J.D. from Georgetown University.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campaign finance reform in the United States</span> United States efforts to regulate fundraising for democratic election campaigns

Campaign finance laws in the United States have been a contentious political issue since the early days of the union. The most recent major federal law affecting campaign finance was the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, also known as "McCain-Feingold". Key provisions of the law prohibited unregulated contributions to national political parties and limited the use of corporate and union money to fund ads discussing political issues within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary election; However, provisions of BCRA limiting corporate and union expenditures for issue advertising were overturned by the Supreme Court in Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life.

In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The legal term PAC was created in pursuit of campaign finance reform in the United States. Democracies of other countries use different terms for the units of campaign spending or spending on political competition. At the U.S. federal level, an organization becomes a PAC when it receives or spends more than $1,000 for the purpose of influencing a federal election, and registers with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), according to the Federal Election Campaign Act as amended by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. At the state level, an organization becomes a PAC according to the state's election laws.

A 527 organization or 527 group is a type of U.S. tax-exempt organization organized under Section 527 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. A 527 group is created primarily to influence the selection, nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates to federal, state or local public office.

In the United States, a political party committee is an organization, officially affiliated with a political party and registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which raises and spends money for political campaigning. Political party committees are distinct from political action committees, which are formally independent of political parties and subject to different rules.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Independent expenditure</span> Type of political campaign communication in the US

An independent expenditure, in elections in the United States, is a political campaign communication that expressly advocates for the election or defeat of a clearly identified political candidate that is not made in cooperation, consultation or concert with – or at the request or suggestion of – a candidate, a candidate's authorized committee, or a political party. If a candidate's agent, authorized committee, party, or an "agent" for one of these groups becomes "materially involved", the expenditure is not independent.

A publicly funded election is an election funded with money collected through income tax donations or taxes as opposed to private or corporate funded campaigns. It is a policy initially instituted after Nixon for candidates to opt into publicly funded presidential campaigns via optional donations from tax returns. It is an attempt to move toward a one voice, one vote democracy, and remove undue corporate and private entity dominance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campaign finance in the United States</span> Contributions to American election campaign funds

The financing of electoral campaigns in the United States happens at the federal, state, and local levels by contributions from individuals, corporations, political action committees, and sometimes the government. Campaign spending has risen steadily at least since 1990. For example, a candidate who won an election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990 spent on average $407,600, while the winner in 2022 spent on average $2.79 million; in the Senate, average spending for winning candidates went from $3.87 million to $26.53 million.

ActBlue is an American Democratic Party political action committee (PAC) and fundraising platform founded in 2004. ActBlue is a major part of the Democratic Party's fundraising infrastructure. It is focused on mobilizing small-dollar donors and, as of June 2024, had raised $13.7 billion for Democratic candidates and causes since it was established. ActBlue is organized as a PAC, but it serves as a conduit for processing individual contributions made through the platform. Under federal law, these contributions are made by individuals and are not considered PAC donations.

The presidential election campaign fund checkoff appears on US income tax return forms as the question "Do you want $3 of your federal tax to go to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund?".

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States regarding campaign finance laws and free speech under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The court held 5–4 that the freedom of speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations including for-profits, nonprofit organizations, labor unions, and other kinds of associations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew S. Petersen</span> American attorney (born 1970)

Matthew Spencer Petersen is an American attorney who served as a member of the United States Federal Election Commission. In 2017, he was nominated by President Donald Trump to be a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Petersen withdrew his nomination following an exchange with Senator John Kennedy during his confirmation hearing. On August 26, 2019, Petersen announced his resignation from the FEC, effective August 31. In September 2019, Petersen joined the law firm Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky as a partner where he practices political law.

Independent expenditure-only political action committees, better known as super PACs, are a type of political action committee (PAC) in the United States. Unlike traditional PACs, super PACs are legally allowed to fundraise unlimited amounts of money from individuals or organisations for the purpose of campaign advertising; however, they are not permitted to either coordinate with or contribute directly to candidate campaigns or political parties. Super PACs are subject to the same organizational, reporting, and public disclosure requirements of traditional PACs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colbert Super PAC</span> American satirical political action committee

Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow was a United States political action committee (PAC) established by Stephen Colbert, who portrayed a character of the same name who was a mock-conservative political pundit on Comedy Central's satirical television series The Colbert Report. As a super PAC the organization could raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions and other groups, as well as wealthy individuals. Speaking in character, Colbert said the money would be raised not only for political ads, but also "normal administrative expenses, including but not limited to, luxury hotel stays, private jet travel, and PAC mementos from Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus."

The term corporate donation refers to any financial contribution made by a corporation to another organization that furthers the contributor's own objectives. Two major kinds of such donations deserve specific consideration, charitable as well as political donations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Anti-Corruption Act</span> American model legislation

The American Anti-Corruption Act (AACA), sometimes shortened to Anti-Corruption Act, is a piece of model legislation designed to limit the influence of money in American politics by overhauling lobbying, transparency, and campaign finance laws. It was crafted in 2011 "by former Federal Election Commission chairman Trevor Potter in consultation with dozens of strategists, democracy reform leaders and constitutional attorneys from across the political spectrum, and is supported by reform organizations such as Represent.Us, which advocate for the passage of local, state, and federal laws modeled after the AACA. It is designed to limit or outlaw practices perceived to be major contributors to political corruption.

Fundraising plays a central role in many presidential campaigns, and is a key factor in determining the viability of candidates. Money raised is applied for the salaries of non-volunteers in the campaign, transportation, campaign materials, media advertisements and other contingencies. Under United States law, officially declared candidates are required to file campaign finance details with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) at the end of every calendar month or quarter. Summaries of these reports are made available to the public shortly thereafter, revealing the relative financial situations of all the campaigns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillary Victory Fund</span>

The Hillary Victory Fund was a joint fundraising committee for Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and 33 state Democratic committees. As of May 2016, the Fund had raised $61 million in donations.

Shadow campaigns refers to spending meant to influence political outcomes where the source of the money is not publicly disclosed or is difficult to trace. United States campaign finance law has been regulated by the Federal Election Commission since its creation in the wake of the Watergate Scandal in 1975, and in the years following Citizens United v. FEC, there has been a rise in outside special interest groups spending money on political campaigns in the United States. Dark money leaves voters uninformed about important political information and it can obscure potential conflicts of interest for judges and legislators alike.

WinRed is an American fundraising platform for the Republican Party endorsed by the Republican National Committee (RNC). It was launched to compete with the Democratic Party's success in online grassroots fundraising with their platform ActBlue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean J. Cooksey</span> Member of the United States Federal Election Commission

Sean Joseph Cooksey is a former Commissioner and Chairman of the Federal Election Commission.

References

  1. ↑ "Small Dollars, Big Impact for D.C. Political Fundraising Guru". re/code. Retrieved 2015-07-20.
  2. ↑ "Maryland Attorneys List". Mdcourts.gov. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  3. ↑ "ZUCKER TAKES OVER ACTBLUE". Politico. Retrieved 2015-07-20.
  4. ↑ "The Future of Fundraising". Democracy Engine. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  5. ↑ "Online Fundraising | Personal Democracy Forum". Personaldemocracy.com. 2010-01-11. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  6. ↑ "Every State B;ue". Every State Blue. Retrieved 2017-01-20.
  7. ↑ "Now You Can Save the Democratic Party for the Low, Low Price of $4.68 a Month". WIRED.com. 2017-01-19. Retrieved 2017-01-20.
  8. ↑ "The best objective data on US political candidates". Crowdpac. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  9. ↑ "Reshaping Congress by empowering small dollar donors". if.then.fund. Retrieved 2015-03-28.
  10. ↑ "Campaign Finance Reform Turns to Reward and Punishment". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-03-28.
  11. ↑ "Next-Generation Political Crowdfunding Platforms Reimagine Small Dollar Giving". techPresident. Retrieved 2015-03-28.
  12. ↑ "How you (and a few thousand of your friends) can become the biggest donors in American politics". Washington Post. Retrieved 2015-03-28.
  13. ↑ "This Web site allows political donors to give money based on how lawmakers vote. Just don't call it bribery". Washington Post (Power Post). 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2015-06-18.
  14. ↑ "Washington Post: Second Ruck.us co-founder takes job outside of the start-up".
  15. ↑ "Candi-Date". 2013-08-27. Archived from the original on August 27, 2013. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  16. ↑ "ZUCKER TAKES OVER ACTBLUE". Politico. Retrieved 2015-07-20.
  17. ↑ "FEC Advisory Opinion 2006-30" (PDF). Saos.fec.gov. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  18. ↑ "Liberals eye new cash machine - Kenneth P. Vogel". Politico.Com. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  19. ↑ "FEC Advisory Opinion 2007-27" (PDF). Saos.fec.gov. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  20. ↑ "FEC Letter concerning Advisory Opinion Request 2007-35" (PDF). Saos.fec.gov. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  21. ↑ "FEC OGC Draft Advisory Opinion 2007-35" (PDF). Saos.fec.gov. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  22. ↑ "FEC Advisory Opinion 2008-08" (PDF). Saos.fec.gov. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  23. ↑ "FEC Letter concerning Advisory Opinion Request 2009-28" (PDF). Saos.fec.gov. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  24. ↑ "FEC Unable to Issue Opinion on Whether Corporate PAC May Solicit General Public For Contributions Earmarked For Candidates". Hvjlaw.com. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  25. ↑ "FEC OGC Advisory Opinion Draft Advisory Opinion 2009-28" (PDF). Saos.fec.gov. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  26. ↑ "FEC Advisory Opinion 2011-06" (PDF). Saos.fec.gov. Retrieved 2015-03-09.
  27. ↑ "FEC Advisory Opinion 2014-07" (PDF). Saos.fec.gov. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
  28. ↑ "FEC Advisory Opinion 2019-01" (PDF). Saos.fec.gov. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.