Also: New filings give us insight into fundraising ahead of 2020

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April 24th, 2020
This week in money-in-politics

Majority of lawmakers in 116th Congress are millionaires


Congress is an exclusive club. It’s also a wealthy one.

More than half of those in Congress are millionaires, data from lawmakers’ most recent personal financial disclosures shows. The median net worth of members of Congress who filed disclosures last year is just over $1 million.

Much of the wealth in Congress is concentrated at the top. The top 10 percent of wealthiest lawmakers have three times more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. While some lawmakers are still paying off student loans, others are paying off their third or fourth mortgage. The group of wealthiest members includes career politicians who boosted their portfolios over decades in Congress and recently elected lawmakers.
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** Party-tied super PACs amassing unprecedented sums for congressional elections
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Super PACs directly tied to congressional party leaders are amassing huge war chests in anticipation of a competitive and expensive November election. The “big four” super PACs focused on congressional elections have a combined $181 million cash on hand. They had less than $34 million banked at this point in the 2016 election, indicating that wealthy donors are heavily invested in this year’s congressional contests.
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** Undisclosed stock sales undermine freshman Democrat’s reelection bid
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Rep. Donna Shalala’s (D-Fla.) reelection campaign could be jeopardized as liberal and conservative groups call for her resignation from a coronavirus oversight commission for failing to disclose stock sales. The National Republican Congressional Committee, which marked Shalala as one of its Democratic targets in 2020, called on her to resign from a commission overseeing stimulus funds for businesses hit hard by COVID-19.
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** Airlines secure billions in government aid after spending millions on lobbying
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The Treasury Department has finalized terms to send billions in grants to major airlines hammered by the coronavirus pandemic. Following an extensive lobbying campaign, airlines were one of the few industries to receive carved-out funding in the bipartisan $2.2 trillion stimulus bill. Airlines for America, the top trade group for U.S. airlines, spent $1.9 million lobbying Congress and the federal government during the first three months of 2020, its highest ever first-quarter mark.
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Shell companies hide Trump campaign’s financial dealings as super PAC coordination rules kick in


President Donald Trump’s official super PAC, America First Action, recently unveiled its first independent expenditures in the 2020 presidential election attacking presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden on his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

But critical information about financial dealings of Trump’s re-election campaign remains hidden by shell companies, obscuring details critical to determine if Trump’s campaign is coordinating with his official super PAC.

Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited sums supporting a candidate so long as they do not coordinate with the candidate’s campaign on spending. The Federal Election Commission considers shared vendors when determining if communications constitute illegal coordination between a campaign and an outside group supporting it. The Trump campaign’s disclosure of payments through shell companies keeps the identities of sub-vendors it might share with its super PAC hidden.
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OpenSecrets in the News

See where we've been cited by media outlets around the nation this week:

* ** Pro wrestling? Beaches? Golf? Guns? In coronavirus-closed America, it’s all essential somewhere (The Washington Post) ([link removed])
Amid the economic fallout brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, furious lobbying campaigns and court fights will dictate whether industries and businesses live or die.

* ** Neal leads Morse in fundraising (Daily Hampshire Gazette) ([link removed])
Quarterly filings show Massachusetts Rep. Richard Neal now has $4.5 million cash on hand. That’s 32 times more money than the $139,718 his Democratic opponent, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, has.

* ** Joe Biden raises over $46 million in March as he faces pressure to attract more small-dollar donors (CNBC) ([link removed])
Joe Biden is facing pressure from his donor ranks to attract more small-dollar contributors even as he had his best monthly fundraising haul yet in March.

** The Wall Street Journal ([link removed])

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** NBC News ([link removed])

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** Crain's Chicago Business ([link removed])

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** The American Prospect ([link removed])

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