A straw donor is a person who illegally uses another person's money to make a political contribution in their own name. [1]
In the United States, making a political contribution in another person's name is illegal, as is agreeing to be the named donor with someone else's money. [2] For example, a straw donor may contribute to a political campaign before being reimbursed by another, who is using that person as a conduit to exceed the limits on campaign contributions under the laws of a jurisdiction.
In federal elections in the United States, straw donor schemes are illegal under 52 U.S.C. § 30122, which states:
No person shall make a contribution in the name of another person or knowingly permit his name to be used to effect such a contribution, and no person shall knowingly accept a contribution made by one person in the name of another person. [3]
This section was enacted as part of the Federal Election Campaign Act in 1971.
A Massachusetts law firm, Thornton Law, has been accused of funneling funds to the Democrats through a massive and illegal straw-donor scheme. In a 33-page report, lawyers at the Federal Election Commission found "extensive evidence" that Boston’s Thornton Law firm likely used a phony program to repay their law firm's partners for political donations, but the case was dismissed after commissioners deadlocked 2-vs-2 on whether to pursue it. [4]
The law firm's partners donated nearly $1.6 million to mostly Democratic candidates and committees between 2010 and 2014. They were reimbursed $1.4 million as "bonuses" ten days later, in many cases receiving bonuses that precisely matched their political donations.
“While our investigation did not find sufficient evidence to support a criminal charge, we are recommending enhancements to current state campaign finance laws to address the ambiguities in the law that gave rise to these allegations”, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said.
While the small firm made donations primarily to Democrats, their donations also included some Republicans. Most political campaigns quickly returned any donations upon being informed of the investigation. [5]
In 2014, Dinesh D'Souza a far-right political commentator, filmmaker, and conspiracy theorist, was charged with and convicted of reimbursing others $20,000 for donations to his friend, the 2012 Senate candidate Wendy Long, a New York Republican. [6] D'Souza was later pardoned by the 45th president Donald Trump on May 31, 2018. [7]
In 2016, Jeffrey E. Thompson was sentenced to three months in prison, three years of probation, and a $10,000 fine for the illegal funding through straw donors of several political candidates, including Hillary Clinton in her 2008 presidential bid and Vincent Gray in his 2010 run for mayor of Washington, D.C. [8]
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.
Dinesh Joseph D'Souza is an American right-wing political commentator, conspiracy theorist, author, filmmaker and convicted felon who received a Presidential pardon by Donald Trump for his crimes. He has made several financially successful films, and written over a dozen books, several of them New York Times best-sellers.
Katherine Harris is an American politician from Florida. A Republican, she served in the Florida Senate from 1994 to 1998, as Secretary of State of Florida from 1999 to 2002, and as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Florida's 13th congressional district from 2003 to 2007. Harris lost her 2006 campaign for a United States Senate seat from Florida.
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.
The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 is the primary United States federal law regulating political campaign fundraising and spending. The law originally focused on creating limits for campaign spending on communication media, adding additional penalties to the criminal code for election law violations, and imposing disclosure requirements for federal political campaigns. The Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on February 7, 1972.
Robert Ernest Andrews is an American politician who served as a U.S. representative for New Jersey's 1st congressional district from 1990 to 2014. The district included most of Camden County and parts of Burlington County and Gloucester County. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
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.
The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy, sometimes referred to as Chinagate, was an effort by the People's Republic of China to influence domestic American politics prior to and during the Clinton administration and also involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself.
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.
The monetary influence of Jack Abramoff ran deep in Washington, as Jack Abramoff spent millions of dollars to influence and entertain both Republican and Democratic politicians. Abramoff had a reputation for largesse considered exceptional even by Washington standards. In addition to offering many Republican members of Congress expensive free meals at his restaurant, Signatures, Abramoff maintained four skyboxes at major sports arenas for political entertaining at a cost of over $1 million a year. Abramoff hosted many fundraisers at these skyboxes including events for Republican politicians publicly opposed to gambling, such as John Doolittle. Abramoff gave over $260,000 in personal contributions to Republican candidates, politicians, and organizations, and funded numerous trips for politicians and staffers and gave none to Democrats.
ActBlue is a nonprofit American fundraising platform and political action committee (PAC) founded in 2004. ActBlue builds technology and infrastructure to be used by Democratic campaigns and has been described as “the center of a transformation in how political campaigns work.” It is focused on mobilizing small-dollar donors and, as of June 2024, has raised $13.7 billion for left-leaning and 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.
Norman Yung Yuen Hsu is a convicted pyramid investment promoter who associated himself with the apparel industry. His business activities were intertwined with his role as a major fundraiser for the Democratic Party, and he gained notoriety after suspicious patterns of bundled campaign contributions were reported in 2007. Subsequently he was discovered to have been a long-time fugitive in connection with a 1992 fraud conviction. After turning himself in to California authorities in 2007 he fled the state again and was quickly recaptured.
The PMA Group is a defunct lobbying firm based in Washington D.C. It was founded and owned by ex-House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense staffer Paul Magliocchetti.
Wendy Elizabeth Long is an American attorney from New Hampshire. A member of the Republican Party, Long was the Republican and Conservative parties’ nominee for U.S. Senate in New York in 2012 and 2016, losing in landslides to incumbent Democrats Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer, respectively. She was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in support of Donald Trump in 2016.
In politics, particularly the politics of the United States, dark money refers to spending to influence elections, public policy, and political discourse, where the source of the money is not disclosed to the public.
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.
Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party is a 2016 American political documentary film about 2016 American presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and a critique of the Democratic Party. The film is written and directed by conservative political commentator Dinesh D'Souza and Bruce Schooley. The film had a limited release on July 15, 2016, before a wide release on July 22, 2016, and accompanies a book by D'Souza by the same name.
A number of measures have been suggested to improvise and strengthen the existing electoral practices in India.
Death of a Nation: Can We Save America a Second Time? is a 2018 American political documentary film by Dinesh D'Souza, a US conservative provocateur. In the film D'Souza presents a revisionist history comparing the political climate surrounding the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump to that of the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln. The film argues that the Democratic Party from both eras was critical of the presidents of the time and that the Democrats have similarities to fascist regimes, including the Nazi Party. The film was written and directed by Dinesh D'Souza and Bruce Schooley, and produced by Gerald R. Molen. It was produced on a budget of $6 million.
2000 Mules is a 2022 American conspiracist political film from right-wing political commentator Dinesh D'Souza. The film falsely claims unnamed nonprofit organizations supposedly associated with the Democratic Party paid "mules" to illegally collect and deposit ballots into drop boxes in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election. D'Souza has a history of creating and spreading false conspiracy theories.