Your weekly money in politics newsletter.

April 27, 2023

House party leaders bring in millions in the first quarter of 2023 amid heated debt ceiling proposal

Party leaders in Congress reported collectively raising $16 million for their campaigns during the first three months of the 2024 election cycle.

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Aerojet Rocketdyne lobbyists tackle L3Harris merger

After L3Harris Technologies announced plans to acquire the rocket and missile producer Aerojet Rocketdyne for $4.7 billion in December 2022, lobbyists for Aerojet set out to tackle issues with the proposed merger on Capitol Hill, an OpenSecrets analysis of new federal lobbying disclosures found.

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Democrats anticipate record-shattering 2024 presidential bid for Joe Biden

Biden kicks off his 2024 campaign with just over $2.2 million cash on hand between his campaign and joint fundraising committee, Biden Victory Fund. Total fundraising and pro-Biden outside spending could blow past $2 billion, some members of the Democratic party told the Washington Post, setting the 2024 presidential election on a course to be the most expensive in history.

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The Institute for Nonprofit News recognizes OpenSecrets staff member, Anna Massoglia

The Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) announced members of its 2023 Emerging Leaders Council. The program supports diverse news leaders who will innovate and grow the nonprofit news field.

We are pleased to share that our own Anna Massoglia will be joining this year’s cohort. Anna manages editorial content and investigations at OpenSecrets as well as dark money and foreign influence research.

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Welcoming new members to the OpenSecrets team!

OpenSecrets is pleased to welcome Erika Palacios as our new Individual Giving Manager.

Erika joins OpenSecrets after many years in the nonprofit
fundraising world. Donor cultivation and stewardship, as well as campaign development, are fundamentals of fundraising that Erika particularly enjoys. She helps manage donor relations, produces the annual cultivation calendar and works with other OpenSecrets departments to maximize new donor growth.

OpenSecrets is also pleased to welcome Olivia Buckley as a Researcher!

Olivia previously, she worked as the Data Associate at New Virginia Majority, a civic engagement and advocacy organization that organizes in historically marginalized communities across the state. Olivia earned a B.S. in sociology from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2021.

OpenSecrets in the News

See our media citations from outlets around the nation this week:

Exclusive: Peter Thiel, Republican megadonor, won’t fund candidates in 2024, sources say (Reuters)

Thiel has contributed around $50 million to state and federal political candidates and campaigns since 2000, and he was the 10th largest individual donor to either party in the 2022 midterm congressional elections, according to the non-profit OpenSecrets.

The conservative campaign to rewrite child labor laws (The Washington Post)

Since 2016, the FGA’s Opportunity Solutions Project has hired 115 lobbyists across the country with a presence in 22 states, according to the nonpartisan political watchdog group Open Secrets.

'Inside baseball': Critics say academia has 'troubling' influence with the Supreme Court (ABC News)

From 2004-2018, justices disclosed more than 1,300 trips where their travel and accommodations were reimbursed by third parties, according to the government accountability watchdog OpenSecrets -- including several paid for by university law schools.

CNBC

Pittsburg Post-Gazette

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