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This week, the Webby Awards announced the "best of the internet" and we are proud to share that we won both the Webby Award and the People's Voice Award for websites that provide information about government and civic action. Thank you for being part of our community and recognizing our work. If you think we can be even better, let us know how. In this newsletter: |
- A dark money network linked to conservative activist Leonard Leo is funding committees trying to overturn Maine's voter-approved limit on contributions to super PACs.
- The latest entry in The State of Disclosure, our video series exploring campaign finance at the state level, features Amanda Haines, executive director of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.
- The Chart of the Week digs into the California gubernatorial race to see which candidates are benefiting from billionaire backers. (Spoiler alert: One of them is billionaire himself.)
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How a dark money network linked to Leonard Leo factors into Maine’s super PAC lawsuit |
The money trail behind the lawsuit challenging Maine’s cap on super PAC contributions traces in part to a dark‑money network connected to Leonard Leo, a Maine resident and a driving force behind the Supreme Court’s decades-long shift to the right. Joedy McCreary followed the trail. In 2024, voters in Maine approved a ballot initiative that placed a $5,000 cap on contributions to super PACs, independent political committees that may raise and spend unlimited sums of money to support or oppose candidates and issues. Two conservative political action committees, Dinner Table Action and For Our Future, and Alex Titcomb, the Maine-based leader of both organizations, sued in December 2024, arguing the law is unconstitutional. A federal judge in 2025 sided with them and blocked the law. In October of last year, two appeals were filed in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an attempt to reverse the judge’s ruling. (Disclosure: OpenSecrets, while not a party to the lawsuit, provided data and other information via a report and deposition for the case analysis.) An OpenSecrets review of state and federal filings revealed a financial pipeline connecting the plaintiffs to an arm of the political network built by Leo – a lawyer, businessman, conservative activist and co-chairman of the board of directors of the Federalist Society. Leo, a key architect of the conservative shifts of the Supreme Court and the broader federal judiciary, has lived on Mount Desert Island since 2020. |
- Dinner Table Action has reported just over $1 million in contributions since registering with the Maine Ethics Commission in 2021. Of the more than 6,000 contributions it received between February 2021 and December 2025, more than 80% were under $200. The two largest contributions were made by For Our Future: $50,000 in both August and October 2024.
- Additionally, between July 2023 and March 2025, For Our Future provided $58,300 in in-kind support, almost entirely reported as personnel time.
- Dinner Table Action and For Our Future list the same phone number. Both identify Titcomb as principal officer and Mary Alioto as treasurer. And the email address For Our Future used when registering with the state Ethics Commission is hosted on Dinner Table Action’s domain.
- For Our Future raised more than $410,000. Its largest funder by far is the Concord Fund, which contributed $375,000 across three payments: $50,000 in May 2023, $100,000 that August and $225,000 in February 2024.
- The Concord Fund was formerly known as the Judicial Crisis Network, an organization closely tied to Leo and his political and judicial advocacy network. It also has long been associated with the Judicial Education Project, now known as The 85 Fund, and the two organizations share personnel. Leo associate Carrie Severino is listed as president of the Judicial Crisis Network and as director and secretary of The 85 Fund. Gary Marx, president of the Concord Fund, is The 85 Fund’s director and treasurer.
- The 85 Fund also shares a Fort Worth, Texas, mailing address with the Lexington Fund, an organization that in June 2025 donated $1 million to a super PAC supporting Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). A Maine campaign finance report filed in April 2024 listed the Concord Fund at the same address – but in a different suite.
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The Concord Fund did not identify any of its donors on its most recent publicly available IRS filing in April 2025, as permitted by law. As a 501(c)(4) “social welfare” group, it may spend on elections without disclosing its donors, allowing large sums to move through campaigns with little transparency. In January, Concord Fund officials filed articles of dissolution and termination with the Virginia Corporation Commission, a development first reported by NOTUS, in a move that could further obscure how money flows through the network. OpenSecrets reached out to Leo through the Federalist Society and to Marx but did not immediately receive responses. |
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A conversation with New Jersey’s executive director of campaign finance |
While the Federal Election Commission has responsibility for enforcing federal campaign finance laws, 50 different agencies handle those duties at the state level. This interview is part of a series – “The State of Disclosure: Campaign Finance Enforcement Across America” – examining how the officials responsible for transparency in each state handle those duties. Amanda Haines is executive director of the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission, the state agency charged with enforcing campaign finance and lobbying disclosure laws. “Our job, our creation, was to…allow the public to view transactions where the money’s coming from, where the money’s going to, what the money’s being used for,” Haines explains. “We make that information available to the public, and they can make whatever value judgment they feel is necessary.” |
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Money from billionaires dominates fundraising in California gubernatorial race |
While there is no clear frontrunner in the crowded race to be California’s next governor's, the cash-flush contest has one candidate with a heavy fundraising advantage. More than two-thirds of the contributions made to campaign committees have come from one of the candidates: Tom Steyer, a billionaire who has put in $133.8 million of his own money, according to Hien An Ngo's analysis of California’s campaign disclosure reports. Former Rep. Eric Swalwell had been the closest to becoming the Democratic frontrunner before he left the race and resigned from Congress amid accusations of sexual harassment and assault. But now three Democrats, including Steyer, have roughly similar support, between 10 percent and 13 percent, in the latest tracking poll from the Democratic Party. The same poll showed Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco in the lead with 16 percent and 14 percent support, respectively. |
Steyer’s campaign has received 10 times as much money as any other candidate, but only a marginal amount of his funds came from supporters other than himself. His campaign has spent lavishly on TV and mobile advertising, dwarfing the advertising budget of fellow campaigns. According to advertising tracker AdImpact, Steyer’s campaign has spent or booked over $115 million in ads on broadcast TV, cable and radio, more than 30 times the nearest Democratic competitor. Former Rep. Katie Porter (D) and Hilton, a conservative political commentator, are leading the race for individual contributions. Because committees are not required to identify donors who contribute under $100, it’s not possible to count every unique contributor to each campaign. Both Porter and Hilton disclose individual contributions below $100, which makes their total number of individual donations higher than that of candidates who don’t, but even when excluding sub-$100 donations, Porter still has the largest number of contributors. Despite only entering the race in January, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan (D) has been a formidable fundraiser, garnering support from the state’s wealthiest families. With his long list of billionaire donors, Mahan has raised $12.8 million in less than four months. Californians will vote in their “top-two” primary elections on June 2. Whichever two candidates receiving the most votes will advance to the general election, even if they stem from the same political party. |
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See our media citations from outlets around the nation this week: |
This festival mogul gave Trump $225. His scene revolted — and bolted (Los Angeles Times) Last year, Brandon Lewis, the founder of the Columbus, Ohio-based label Punkerton Records, was poking around on the donor database OpenSecrets. He was curious how his scene was donating, and he’d attended Brew Ha Ha events like the Ohio punk festival Camp Anarchy. He checked where Collins put his money and was appalled that it went to Trump. |
NFL takes heat from GOP, Trump DOJ on cost of watching games (NewsNation) It’s something the NFL has noticed, as it has stepped up its lobbying and public relations efforts in Washington significantly in recent years, spending more than $1 million in campaign contributions last year, according to OpenSecrets. |
You Could Have Filed Your Taxes for Free This Year… (Washington Monthly) The industry has long opposed efforts to simplify the tax code or to expand free filing services, and it launched a fierce campaign to end Direct File. In 2025, Intuit and H&R Block spent a record $7 million on lobbying costs, according to OpenSecrets. As a result, a group of Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Trump opposing Direct File, while Sen. Marsha Blackburn filed legislation to end the program. |
These colleges and big nonprofits likely made illegal campaign donations (Albany Times Union) "For an institution like a college to be making a political contribution, that is very surprising because they absolutely know they cannot do that," said Brendan Glavin, director of Insights at Open Secrets, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog. "There are auditors and multiple layers of people who should be flagging something like that." |
Meet the new power players raising massive money for the midterms (Politico) In the 2018 midterms, only five super PACs raised more than $50 million over the entire cycle, according to data from OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics, with four of the five being each party’s traditional caucus-aligned groups. Now, at least seven super PACs have already exceeded that threshold, according to a POLITICO tally, with the midterm election cycle only starting to heat up. |
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The OpenSecrets merch store is here! |
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We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the OpenSecrets Merch Store! Now, you can support our mission while looking good doing it. Every purchase helps us provide comprehensive and reliable data, analysis and tools for policymakers, storytellers and citizens. Our collection — initially featuring a hoodie, crewneck, t-shirt and hat — is designed to spread awareness and make a difference. Whether you're treating yourself or finding the perfect gift, every item you buy helps fuel our cause. And every item in our store was manufactured by a certified ethical and “sweat-free” company. Join us in wearing your support — transparency has never been more comfortable! |
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