In this week's newsletter: A new national survey found that Americans overwhelmingly oppose unlimited spending on elections and fear it could lead to corruption. Plus: The metro areas that donated the most to candidates and parties in the 2024 cycle.

The vast majority of Americans — no matter their partisan identification — say unlimited political spending weakens democracy and wealthy donors have too much power in elections, a new national poll indicates.

And they’d like the government to do something about it.

Nearly eight in 10 respondents agreed with the statement that “anti-corruption rules strengthen our democracy and constitutional rights by ensuring everyone has equal political representation, regardless of money,” according to the YouGov poll commissioned by the political watchdog group Issue One, which advocates for stricter money-in-politics regulations.

Just one in 10 respondents agreed with the statement that “anti-corruption rules weaken our democracy and constitutional rights by infringing on free speech protected by the First Amendment.”

Nearly eight in 10 also said they either “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” that large independent expenditures by wealthy donors and corporations in elections give rise to corruption, or the appearance of corruption.” Just over one in 10 said they “somewhat disagree” or “strongly disagree” with the statement.

“These perceptions of corruption are corrosive to the foundation of our democracy. Our political system cannot function if the public assumes the government is for sale to the highest bidder,” said Michael Beckel, Issue One’s senior research director. (Beckel previously worked at OpenSecrets.)

The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allowed corporations, unions and political nonprofits to spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for and against political candidates, received relatively stronger support among those polled. 

Nevertheless, it remained unpopular overall: Almost two-thirds of Americans — including 73 percent of Democrats, 53 percent of Republicans and 61 percent of independents — said they disagree with the Citizens United decision, which gave rise to unlimited, difficult-to-trace “dark money” in politics and helped supercharge political vehicles such as super PACs.

Which of these is not like the others? We ran the numbers to see which metro areas provided the most campaign dollars in 2024. When we focus on money that goes directly to candidates, parties and leadership political action committees (leaving out contributions to super PACs), the results seem somewhat obvious at first.

The top nine cities are among the top 15 metro areas by population. But number 10 on our list, the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton area, is an outlier, falling much further down the population list.

When we next review donations by geography, we will include independent expenditure contributions. You can expect Austin, Texas, home of Elon Musk, to climb the ranks.

Want to know who’s funding the candidates and causes shaping our democracy? With our Donor Lookup tools, you can quickly and easily:

Whether you’re a concerned voter, journalist, researcher, or just a curious citizen, Donor Lookup puts transparency at your fingertips.

Oregon’s weak disclosure rules let lobbyists play both sides (Oregon Capital Chronicle)

Top universities ramp up lobbying amid Trump higher education crackdown (The Hill)

Who’s funding Michigan ballot campaigns? Dark money flows from out of state (Bridge Michigan)

National poll shows support for Montana-based solution to Citizens United (Daily Montanan)

MAGA lobbying firms are booming. This is where their money goes. (The Washington Post)

Ballard Partners, founded by GOP fundraiser and Trump ally Brian Ballard, more than quadrupled its revenue this year, representing such clients as Harvard University and TikTok. Lobbying expenditures overall have been up 21 percent this year compared with the same period in 2024, according to a Washington Post analysis of disclosure reports made public this week. If the pace continues through year’s end, it would be the largest annual increase since at least 1998, according to OpenSecrets data.  

Elon Musk’s moon mission divides MAGA loyalties (Salon)

Records on OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in politics, show Isaacman donated to Democrats as recently as the 2024 election cycle, although he had donated to Republicans in previous years.  

High-tech bandages prompt Medicare lobbying clash (Axios)

But bandage-makers say that could jeopardize patient access to the bioengineered grafts. They've enlisted the help of Ballard Partners, a firm with close ties to the Trump administration that's earned hundreds of thousands from firms connected to the issue this year, per OpenSecrets.

Timothy Mellon is Trump’s ‘friend’ who anonymously donated $130 million to pay troops: Report (Washington Examiner)

This would not be Mellon’s first major donation involving the president. Mellon, a wealthy banking heir and railroad magnate, donated $125 million to the super PAC Make America Great Again, Inc. in the 2024 election cycle. In total for the 2024 cycle, the longtime GOP donor donated $165 million, including both congressional candidates and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to OpenSecrets.

The Appeal of the Campus Right (The Atlantic)

Stanford overall is still very liberal: 96 percent of political donations from Stanford-affiliated individuals in the 2024 election cycle went to Democrats, according to a Stanford Daily analysis of OpenSecrets data. 

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