Shining a light on money in politics across the nation

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March 17, 2022
Sunshine Week 2022:
Shining a light on money in politics across the nation


"Follow the money."

It's a simple enough notion but one that's difficult to do well in these complicated, hyper-connected times — especially during election season, when the public is bombarded by politicians' endless posturing and candidates asking for just one more donation or the sky will fall.

Where does one start? OpenSecrets — the outgrowth of two preeminent transparency organizations — is working to provide answers.

Read more from Executive Advisor Edwin Bender. ([link removed])
Help us do our part to uphold transparency and accountability. Please consider a donation ([link removed]) to keep shining a light on money in politics.

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Sunshine Week Stories
As part of ** Sunshine Week ([link removed])
, an annual celebration aimed at promoting transparency, OpenSecrets has published a series of special reports to help you "follow the money."
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A behind-the-scenes look at collecting state campaign finance data in 2022

The 2022 election cycle is already on track to set records, state and federal level campaign finance data show.

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Candidates poured over $100 million of their own cash into campaigns in 2021

House and Senate candidates poured over $100 million of their own money into congressional campaigns ahead of midterm elections.

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Federal and state lobbying spending soared to $10 billion during the 2020 election cycle

OpenSecrets tracked more than $10.3 billion in lobbying spending at the federal level and across the 19 states during the 2020 election cycle.

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California's representatives in Congress have raised millions of dollars for 2022 midterm elections

The top four representatives in California have raised millions of dollars for their 2022 reelection campaigns.

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OpenSecrets in the News

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



** Lobbying broke all-time mark in 2021 amid flurry of government spending (The Washington Post) ([link removed])

The revenue figures, compiled in recent weeks from government records by OpenSecrets, show that lobbying spending began steadily growing in 2017, President Donald Trump’s first year in office, before mostly flattening in 2020 as the pandemic began.

** Crypto's Preferred Currency for Political Donations Isn't Bitcoin. It's Dollars (Bloomberg) ([link removed])

“Donations made with cryptocurrency are very difficult to identify in campaign finance data,” said Sarah Bryner, director of research and strategy at OpenSecrets, which studies money in politics.

** US lobbyists made millions from Russian clients with Kremlin links (Financial Times) ([link removed])
Anna Massoglia, investigations manager at OpenSecrets, which tracks spending on lobbying in the US, said: “Foreign agents and lobbyists took millions of dollars from Russian clients before trying to distance themselves after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine despite mounting accusations of human rights abuses.”

** NPR ([link removed])
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