Your weekly money in politics newsletter.

November 16, 2023

Kentucky governor’s race breaks fundraising records, exceeds $44 million

The Kentucky governor’s race set a new state record with gubernatorial candidates raising over $44.6 million. State campaign finance regulators are investigating whether Gov. Andy Beshear and the Kentucky Democratic Party allegedly accepted contributions exceeding the legal limit.

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Sinema's fundraising continues to lag in contested Arizona Senate race

Polls show Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is the frontrunner ahead of a potential three-way Senate race against Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Kari Lake. Gallego raised nearly four times as much money as Sinema last quarter.

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OpenSecrets' Chart of the Week

Dive deeper into the data behind the headlines

As the 2024 elections begin to ramp up, we are already seeing record-breaking spending levels in state races like Kentucky and Virginia.

But massive political spending in state elections is not just limited to political campaigns for state offices. The 41 ballot measures across state elections this year also attracted a significant amount of spending. Ohio's "Issue 1: Right to Reproductive Freedom" that passed this month and enshrined abortion access in the constitution, was the most expensive ballot measure this year amounting to almost $54 million in total that was raised/spent on the measure.

In a Virginia ballot measure, casino developers poured a record-breaking $9.5 million into a referendum campaign to allow the construction of a resort casino in the state capital, far-and-away the highest sum for a local election in the commonwealth. Voters rejected the measure on Nov. 7.

With the 2024 election season around the corner, OpenSecrets is continuing to update our website with state-level data to ensure you can follow the money behind the 2024 federal elections and track the dollars in your state. Explore our Ballot Measure Tool or Get Local with our zip code finder tool to see who is making the biggest political contributions at the state level.

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OpenSecrets in the News

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

What’s Worse for the Climate: Joe Manchin or No Manchin? (New York Times)

Manchin was the largest Senate recipient of donations from oil and gas companies, according to OpenSecrets. An Exxon lobbyist singled out Manchin as a particularly valuable contact.

The NRA is Slowly Dying (Newsweek)

The $97 million it received from membership dues was down by more than 40 percent from its peak year, 2018, the BBC found. That same year, it was outspent by gun control groups for the first time in recent years, according to an analysis by from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit watchdog group.

Exclusive: 5 Senate Banking Dems demand more details on corporate lobbying strategy (The Hill)

Federal lobbying expenditures hit $4.1 billion in 2022, the highest level since 2010, according to disclosures analyzed by the money-in-politics research group OpenSecrets. This year is on track to outpace that spending: Registrants have disclosed more than $3.13 billion spent on federal lobbying in the first nine months of 2023, up from $3.07 billion spent through the same period in 2022, according to OpenSecrets data.

Axios

Milwuakee Journal Sentinel