Tag: superpacs

REPORT: Plane That Carried Texas Democrats to Illinois Was Funded by Beto O’Rourke’s PAC

When Texas Democrats fled to Illinois a few days ago in an effort to stop the state legislature from moving forward with redistricting efforts, they traveled there by private plane. How did they afford such a thing? Beto O’Rourke’s PAC apparently paid for it.

This makes sense when you consider that O’Rourke has run for almost every possible office in Texas except dog catcher and has lost every time. Beto probably jumped at the chance to help these Democrats.

This news is certainly not going to help their cause with Texas voters.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Now We Know: Beto O’Rourke’s PAC Funded Texas Dems’ Private Jet to Illinois

State lawmakers in Texas make just $7,200 a year. A group of Democratic legislators spent roughly four times that amount to take a private jet to Illinois in an attempt to block their Republican counterparts from passing a new congressional map. But they didn’t have to worry about the price tag—because Beto O’Rourke’s PAC picked it up.

That’s according to a report in the Texas Tribune, which cited two people involved in the effort to raise funds for Texas Democrats’ walkout. O’Rourke’s PAC, Powered by People, is “armed with a $3.5 million war chest” and has covered most of the costs associated with the walkout so far, including “air transport, lodging, and logistical support,” the outlet reported. Every dollar the group receives going forward will go toward supporting the walkout.

O’Rourke’s emergence as the walkout’s financier could land him in legal trouble. Lawmakers who flee Texas to prevent the state legislature from having enough members to pass laws are subject to $500-a-day fines under Texas house rules, which also prevent walkout participants from soliciting political contributions to pay those fines. Republican governor Greg Abbott has said that “any other person who ‘offers, confers, or agrees to confer’” such contributions to the “fleeing Democrat House members” may be in violation of state bribery laws.

Is anyone surprised by this?

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‘Fearing Zionism Could Die Among Democrats,’ Party Leaders Stage Phony ‘Break’ With Israel

AIPAC-funded Democrats’ phony “break” with Israel is a stopgap measure to try and avoid turning opposition to the Jewish state into a litmus test for the midterms and the 2028 presidential primaries, CNN reports.

From CNN, “Pro-Israel Democrats try breaking with Netanyahu to stop party’s shift amid Gaza crisis”:

Fearing Zionism could die among Democrats, many party leaders are explicitly breaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to stop anti-Israel attitudes from becoming a litmus test for next year’s midterms and the 2028 presidential primaries.

But privately, several tell CNN, they worry it may be too late.

Last week’s failed resolution to block new arms sales to Israel, supported by a record number of Senate Democrats, was just the start. A new letter to recognize a Palestinian state is gaining signatures in the House. Devoted allies of Israel are speaking out against its government, brushing off whatever texts and phone calls they’ve been getting from the dwindling number of party voters or donors still standing steadfast behind Israeli actions in Gaza nearly two years after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack.

It’s no longer just the far left rejecting Netanyahu’s years of identifying more with Republicans. There is also a bitter backlash among many Democratic politicians, who have felt bullied by the Israeli government and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group, and there’s revulsion over the images of starvation and dying children.

“We can disagree about a lot of things in the foreign policy space, but there’s no room to tolerate mass starvation,” said Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, who is Jewish and widely seen as one of the party’s future leaders in the Senate. Schatz argues there’s a conflation of opposing the Israeli government and opposing Israel’s right to exist that he calls “ridiculous” and an “intentional strategy” meant to distract.

“I think there’s a recognition that Netanyahu is making Israel and Israelis and Jews unsafe all over the world,” Schatz said. “More and more of us are saying so and voting accordingly.”

[…] Leaders of multiple Jewish and pro-Israel groups told CNN privately that they have grimly determined their best and most practical approach is essentially to quietly wait out the trauma and hope the politics turns. There’s another Israeli election next year, and while Netanyahu is now in a minority coalition, he has been counted out before.

The same is of course true among “liberal Zionist” commentators like Jon Stewart and others, as I wrote about last week.

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Israel First Billionaires Dump Millions Into Super PAC to Oust Rep. Thomas Massie

Israel First Zionist billionaires Paul Singer, Miriam Adelson and John Paulson have dumped $2 million into ousting America First Kentucky Rep Thomas Massie from Congress, newly released FEC disclosures reveal.

“What a shock. The huge amounts of money being poured into the Super PAC to remove @RepThomasMassie from Congress are all coming from the big GOP donors for whom Israel is a top cause: Miriam Adelson, John Paulson, Paul Singer,” Glenn Greenwald noted on Thursday, citing reporting from Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman.

“The group attacking me, MAGA Kentucky, is funded entirely by three billionaires,” Rep. Massie commented on Friday. “One gave millions to trans activism & Soros-backed open borders group & even funded the Russia hoax. Another is in Epstein’s black book and did a fundraiser for Sen Schumer.”

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Whoops: David Hogg’s First PAC-Backed Primary Candidate Goes Down in Flames

Tuesday gave us a preview of ex-Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg’s plan to meddle in the party’s primaries to get more young, far-left activists involved.

TL;DR: If early returns are any indication, this wasn’t worth ruining his DNC gig over.

With 77 percent of the vote counted as of Wednesday morning, Adelita Grijalva — the daughter of the Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva, whose death sparked the special election — had 62 percent of the vote, according to Associated Press figures.

Deja Foxx, the Gen Z influencer that Hogg’s Leaders We Deserve PAC was backing, was a beyond-distant second with 21 percent of the vote.

Given that Arizona’s 7th Congressional District is as deep blue as they come, the September general election is merely a formality.

“This is a victory not for me, but for our community and the progressive movement my dad started in Southern Arizona more than 50 years ago,” Grijalva said in a statement after the victory.

However, the real takeaway could best be summed up by The Washington Post, which called it “the Mamdani sequel that wasn’t.”

“Foxx, who had appeared to gain a bit of momentum in recent weeks, left some Democrats wondering if she could pull off a surprise win like Mamdani,” the Post noted.

“But the antiestablishment message that Mamdani deployed in New York was harder for Grijalva’s opponents to replicate given her support from many of the same liberal groups and leaders who backed Mamdani, and the fact that she had not held prior federal office.”

Indeed, Foxx’s main qualification came from being a hashtag activist on Instagram, particularly when it came to the right to abort babies; she’d gone viral in her teens for confronting then-Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake and has never given up the spotlight on left-bubble social media.

This was enough to convince Hogg — whose plan to spend $20 million to primary older establishment Democrats in blue seats is suspected by many to be the reason why the DNC chose to oust him on procedural grounds — to back the 25-year-old Foxx in what seemed to be a pilot run.

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Trump Team Launches SuperPAC Focused Solely On Ousting Massie

Rapidly making good on President Trump’s promise to back a 2026 Republican primary challenger to libertarian-minded Rep. Thomas Massie, the Trump team has already launched a super PAC dedicated entirely to removing Massie from office next year. It promises to make for the strongest challenge Massie’s faced yet.

The new “Kentucky MAGA” super PAC will be run by top Trump political operatives Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita, with La Civita telling Axios the new entity will spend “whatever it takes” to replace Massie. Trump’s political circle has already had discussions with potential challengers. “Massie’s long-time opposition to…really anything to do with President Trump — is coming to an end,” LaCivita said. 

First elected to Congress in 2012 and consistently advocating for fiscal discipline, the right of armed self-defense, and a non-interventionist foreign policy, Massie has built a large and loyal national following among the libertarian right and other conservatives, with many regarding him as the congressional successor to the iconic Ron Paul. Massie issued a caution to would-be challengers: “Any serious person considering running should spend money on an independent poll before letting swampy consultants take them for an embarrassing ride.”

Massie, who has two degrees from MIT, has repeatedly triggered Trump’s wrath. In 2020, he opposed the $2 trillion, Trump-backed Covid-19 “relief package.” When Congressional leaders tried to usher it through without members present, Massie memorably stepped to the podium and declared, “Mr. Speaker, I came here to make sure our republic doesn’t die by unanimous consent in an empty chamber, and I request a recorded vote.” Last year, Massie told Tucker Carlson about his quest, which entailed a rushed, 8-hour drive to Washington and sleeping three nights in his wife’s SUV:.

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Bloomberg pours more cash into Cuomo super PAC, bringing his total contribution to $8.3M

Mike Bloomberg’s vast wealth is continuing to power Andrew Cuomo’s front-running mayoral bid.

The billionaire former mayor contributed $3.3 million to a super PAC supporting Cuomo’s attempted comeback in the nation’s largest city — a donation made public on Wednesday that comes just days after Bloomberg gave $5 million to the group.

With the latest gift, Bloomberg is now single-handedly responsible for one-third of the PAC’s total haul of $24 million since it launched in March, according to a POLITICO analysis. Other real estate and finance executives who make up New York’s monied elite, including billionaire Donald Trump supporter Bill Ackman, have poured cash into the group.

A spokesperson for the super PAC, which is called Fix the City, did not comment on Bloomberg’s latest contribution.

The money — and the flood of mailers and TV ads funded by it — indicate Cuomo supporters are nervous about the rise of his principal opponent, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. The state lawmaker has been running a strong second to the ex-governor in most polls; a Marist College survey on Wednesday found Cuomo would defeat Mamdani after seven rounds of ranked-choice voting, 55 percent to 45 percent. But early voting is high in some neighborhoods that would appear to benefit Mamdani, and temperatures are expected to hit 100 degrees next Tuesday, which could suppress turnout among older New Yorkers Cuomo is counting on.

Likely motivating Bloomberg, who had a rivalry with the former governor during their overlapping tenures, are Mamdani’s far-left politics and criticism of Israel. He wants to raise taxes on the rich to pay for services like free bus fare and as recently as this week, refused to criticize the phrase “globalize the Intifada,” calling it an expression of Palestinian rights.

The former mayor endorsed Cuomo last week, and called him the “one candidate whose management experience and government know-how stand above the others.” Cuomo is 67 and worked in and around government and politics his entire career; Mamdani is 33 and counters criticisms of his thin résumé with reminders of the scandals that drove Cuomo from office.

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ActBlue officials decline to testify, Congress threatens subpoenas in foreign donations probe

The chairmen of three powerful House committees on Thursday threatened to issue subpoenas after several current and former top officials of the Democrat online fund-raising platform ActBlue declined to testify in a probe into possible foreign and fraudulent political donations, according to correspondence obtained by Just the News.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., revealed in the letters that several of the witnesses initially agreed to voluntary, transcribed interviews, then pulled back through their lawyer earlier this month after President Donald Trump signed an order instructing the Justice Department to probe the platform.

“As we have explained, the Committees are examining allegations that ActBlue, a leading political fundraising organization, allowed bad actors, including foreign actors, to exploit the company’s online platform to make fraudulent political donations,” the chairmen wrote in letters to the witnesses, which were sent to a lawyer representing them, Danny Onorato. 

“Fraudulent political donations corrupt American elections could amount to interstate criminal conduct,” the letters also state.

The letters laid out the testimony flip-flops for each of the witnesses, including ActBlue’s former chief revenue officer, Peter Slutsky.

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Members Of Congress Want Federal Investigation Into Use Of Florida Medicaid Funds To Oppose Marijuana Legalization By Group Tied To DeSantis

Two Democratic members of Congress representing Florida are asking the federal government to investigate what they describe as “potentially unlawful diversion” of millions in state Medicaid funds via a group with ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The money was used to fight against a citizen ballot initiative, vehemently opposed by DeSantis, that would have legalized marijuana for adults.

Reps. Kathy Castor and Darren Soto sent a letter on Thursday to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general as well as Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, formally requesting they initiate a Medicaid fraud investigation.

“The diversion of Medicaid dollars requires immediate investigation,” the two lawmakers wrote. “These are proceeds that rightfully belong to state taxpayers to serve the citizens who rely on Medicaid, including children, pregnant women, neighbors with disabilities and those served by long-term care.”

The two lawmakers, members of a House committee with oversight of Medicaid, emphasized that Congress is “very focused on waste, fraud and abuse of Medicaid dollars.”

“Any unlawful diversion of Medicaid dollars in Florida,” they wrote, “means that the state is less able to provide services to our neighbors who rely on Medicaid and the providers who serve them.”

The letter follows allegations that a $10 million donation from a state legal settlement was improperly made to the Hope Florida Foundation, which later sent the money to two political nonprofits, which in turn sent $8.5 million to a campaign opposing the proposed marijuana legalization ballot measure, Amendment 3.

Notably, the Hope Florida Foundation was founded by Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, the governor’s wife.

“On October 17, Secure Florida’s Future donated $2 million to Keep Florida Clean Inc., a Political Action Committee (PAC) controlled by Governor DeSantis’s then-chief of staff James Uthmeier that was created to campaign against Amendment 3,” the lawmakers’ new letter says. “Governor DeSantis strongly opposed Amendment 3. Days later, Secure Florida’s Future sent Keep Florida Clean Inc. an additional $1.75 million.”

“On October 22, the Hope Florida Foundation wired $5 million to the 501(c)4 nonprofit Save Our Society from Drugs that proposed spending the ‘grant’ on ‘developing and implementing strategies that directly address the substance use crisis facing our communities,’” it continues, detailing the alleged impropriety. “On October 23, the next day, Save Our Society from Drugs donated $1.6 million to Keep Florida Clean Inc. Over the coming days, Save Our Society from Drugs donated an additional $3.15 million to Keep Florida Clean Inc.”

“While there are limited financial disclosure requirements associated with 501(c)4 organizations,” the lawmakers said, “records appear to show that a total of $8.5 million from the Centene settlement with AHCA went from the Hope Florida Foundation to the Amendment 3-focused Keep Florida Clean, Inc. PAC, the same PAC that also donated funding to the Republican Party of Florida and the Florida Freedom Fund. ”

“Hope Florida had raised only about $2 million during its three years of existence,” they pointed out, “but in one fell swoop, received $10 million from a Medicaid settlement, which was immediately funneled through other nonprofits to a PAC directed by the Governor’s Chief of Staff.”

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President Trump Now Demands ActBlue and Adam Schiff Be Thrown in Jail — ‘Crooked’ Adam Schiff Responds in Full Panic

President Donald Trump signed a powerful memorandum last week ordering a full federal crackdown on illegal campaign donation practices — specifically targeting the embattled Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue and calling for “crooked” Adam Schiff to be thrown behind bars.

The directive comes amid mounting investigations led by Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) and 19 state Attorneys General — including officials from Texas, Arkansas, Florida, and Missouri — exposing explosive evidence that ActBlue was complicit in laundering illegal donations, including potentially illicit foreign money, into Democrat campaigns across the country.

The memorandum, as highlighted by The Gateway Pundit, states:

“Federal law (52 U.S.C. 30121 and 30122) strictly prohibits making political contributions in the name of another person, as well as contributions by foreign nationals… Press reports and congressional investigations have uncovered deeply troubling evidence that online fundraising platforms have enabled schemes to launder excessive and prohibited contributions.”

[…]

“These activities undermine the integrity of our electoral process… I direct the Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, to use all lawful authority to investigate these allegations and take appropriate actions to enforce the law.”

Investigations have revealed staggering levels of fraud: ActBlue allegedly detected at least 22 significant fraud campaigns, many with a foreign nexus.

A House investigation uncovered 237 donations made using foreign IP addresses and prepaid gift cards during a single 30-day window in 2024 alone.

As The Gateway Pundit first reported, a team led by Peter Bernegger, Chris Gleason, Draza Smith, and supported by James O’Keefe, uncovered “voter mule” operations — with individuals often listed as making hundreds or even thousands of small-dollar donations, sometimes totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, to Democrat campaigns through ActBlue.

The funds fueled the campaigns of radical leftist candidates like Mark Kelly, Raphael Warnock, and Tammy Baldwin, among many others.

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The New York Times Downplays ActBlue’s Suspect Behavior To Run Cover For Democrats

When President Donald Trump directed the DOJ to investigate the Democrat cash machine ActBlue, The New York Times was quick to paint it as partisan — claiming it “steps up Republicans’ effort to cripple their opponents’ political infrastructure.” But Trump’s direction is based on evidence that suggests the platform could be breaking federal law.

Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 24 to “investigate and take appropriate action” regarding allegations of “‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions and … foreign contributions” to American elections through ActBlue and similar services. As The Federalist previously reported, concerns about loopholes and potentially illegal activity have led to multiple probes into the platform.

The Times interviewed Scott Walter, president of Capital Research Center, as one of the few voices defending Trump’s call for investigation in the recent article. He “suggested that the memorandum was about compliance with election law, and was not an effort to undermine Democrats’ electoral prospects,” according to the outlet, though it buried his statement near the end of the story and quickly dismissed his points.

Walter also told The Federalist he was “disappointed the New York Times, in … recent stories on ActBlue and other left-wing infrastructure groups, has failed to include crucial facts about ActBlue its own reporting put on the record.”

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