In this week's newsletter: It's not just sitting members of Congress who are subject to financial disclosure requirement. A leading challenger to longtime D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton was late filing his report but submitted it after inquires from OpenSecrets. Plus, the history of political giving by members of the armed forces.

A leading candidate to become Washington, D.C.’s first newly elected delegate to Congress since the early 1990s appears to have violated a federal transparency and conflicts-of-interest law by not revealing his personal finances on time, Dave Levinthal reports.

D.C. City Councilmember Robert White, a Democrat, exceeded a federal deadline for publicly detailing his personal income, debts and any of a variety of assets, from stock and bond holdings to cryptocurrency and rental property. Nor had White requested an extension from Congress in a timely fashion, according to a database maintained by the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Federal law and House ethics guidelines require congressional candidates to file a certified financial disclosure with Congress within 30 days of becoming a candidate and raising or spending $5,000 in campaign cash, according to House ethics guidelines and federal law.

White, who announced his bid in late summer, stands to become the first new D.C. delegate to Congress in 36 years, potentially replacing a fellow Democrat, Eleanor Holmes Norton — the House of Representatives’ oldest and one of its longest-serving members — at a moment of significant tumult and turmoil for the capital city.

Asked Friday about the missing documents, White campaign senior adviser Roger Limoges said White “is aware of the federal requirements” and he had “no further comment at this time.” Pressed for additional details, Limoges said White “does plan to file his personal financial disclosure and has requested an extension.” Asked to provide a copy of the filings, Limoges responded Friday that the document “should be available today.” He did not provide a copy when asked, and no documents appeared in the House database on Friday. 

But on Monday morning, White’s signed report appeared in the House’s disclosure database. Dated Nov. 7, it indicated that White holds up to $485,000 in mutual funds, retirement accounts and life insurance. He also disclosed that his wife carries up to $100,000 in student loan debt and up to $65,000 in credit card debt. White himself disclosed having between $10,000 and $15,000 worth of credit card debt. (Lawmakers and candidates are only required to disclose the value of assets and liabilities in broad ranges.)

White announced in mid-September that he’s challenging Norton because “we need our best fighters right now” and that he’s “ready to take this torch.” White officially filed campaign paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Oct. 1.

Norton, 88, has not formally declared she’s retiring from Congress, and Norton and her congressional office have offered mixed signals about the delegate’s political future ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Meanwhile, Norton has drawn Democratic primary challenges not only from White, but also last month from D.C. City Councilmember Brooke Pinto amid questions over whether Norton remains healthy enough to serve her constituency as the District’s nonvoting member of Congress.

Norton has often been absent from this year’s ongoing battle over D.C.’s self-rule and self-determination status, with the Trump administration in August declaring a “crime emergency” in the capital. The federal government took control of the city’s police force and deployed National Guard troops in the streets. 

And in October, Norton was scammed out of thousands of dollars by people posing as a home cleaning crew. A D.C. police report described Norton as being in the “early stages of dementia” — an assertion Norton’s office rejected.

Norton’s re-election campaign is also effectively broke: It raised less than $3,300 during the third quarter of 2025 and had just $6,477.50 cash on hand as of Sept. 30, according to FEC records. It also reported $90,000 worth of debt in the form of a personal loan from Norton to her campaign, NOTUS first reported.

This week, the United States celebrated both Veterans Day and the 250th birthday of the Marine Corps. OpenSecrets joins all Americans in honoring those who have served our nation and we celebrate their role in the political process.

We took a look at Marines' giving history.

And check out the other branches of the military:

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.

Mark Cuban Joins Legal Fight Against Dark Money and Super PACs (Sportico)

AG: Anti-dark-money ballot initiative doesn’t meet legal requirements (Daily Montanan)

The money spent on Newsom’s Proposition 50 was unlike any other California election in one way (CalMatters)

New Jersey’s governor race is projected to be the most expensive in state history (WHYY)

US Utility Lobbying Jumps 14% Amid AI Boom, Clean Energy Turmoil (Bloomberg)

US utilities are on track to spend $150 million on lobbying this year, reaching the highest level in more than a decade, according to fresh data from nonprofit OpenSecrets. The figure would be about 14% more than the $132 million spent last year and would be the most since 2010, according to the nonpartisan OpenSecrets, which tracks lobbying and political spending.

NRA furloughs staff as it prepares to rebuild ahead of 2026 (The Washington Post)

The NRA spent $11 million in the 2024 elections, according to campaign data tracker OpenSecrets — about one-third of its 2020 spending and less than one-fifth of what it spent in 2016, when the organization helped elect Donald Trump and other Republicans with a record-setting $55 million budget.

This Republican Mega-Donor Is Changing Local Elections In Pennsylvania (NOTUS)

“Most of these folks are pretty much strictly giving at the federal level,” said Brendan Glavin, the director of insights at OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan organization that tracks political spending. “For something that’s going on in a state, this is an incredibly large amount. It’s made him a very big player in what’s going on in Pennsylvania.” 

Election Day to start Nancy Pelosi’s countdown clock (San Francisco Examiner)

Pelosi is hardly a backbencher. By all accounts, she remains fully functional. Staffers half her age — some half a century her junior — marvel at her stamina and work ethic. Perhaps not the fundraising juggernaut she once was, Pelosi's campaign committee and political action committee combined to raise nearly $18 million in the last election cycle, according to OpenSecrets. She also appeared at events that raised tens of millions more. 

Crypto lobbying surges as industry gains political footing in Washington (Cointelegraph)

“We really saw, I’d say, in 2021 is where we really started to see really jump up,” said Brendan Glavin, director of insights at OpenSecrets. “Prior to that, the industry … hadn’t spent more than like $2.5 million in a year, then in 2021 jumped up to eight and a half.” Glavin said it’s been climbing exponentially since. 

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