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“Dirty money” to dirty politicians means dirty water. But what happens when the “dirty money” — campaign cash from polluters — goes instead to PACs, political action committees?
As part of our “Dirty Money Project” VoteWater has partnered with the Jacobs Public Interest Law Clinic for Democracy and the Environment at the Stetson University College of Law to dig into the details — and our partners have already found some very interesting tidbits.
Specifically, they looked at how much Big Sugar and other polluters have given to PACs over the last few election cycles — and would you believe that since Jan. 1, 2018, U.S. Sugar has given a whopping $13.7 million to PACs, and Florida Crystals $12.6 million?
Contributions to individual candidates are capped at $1,000 per donor per election; but there is no limit on how much a donor can give to a PAC. As such, many legislators have their own PACs to Hoover up the money, then dole it out as they see fit. Likewise, big PACs get funding from many different “dirty” sources, and spread that money around very efficiently to keep polluters and their favorite politicians in power.
That’s how “dirty money” works — and that’s why we’re tracking it. Read our latest blog post for more on our early results.
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