Bill Moyers: Four Surefire Tips for Following the Money in Your State

[Scuba]

http://billmoyers.com/2014/01/03/four-surefire-tips-for-following-the-money-in-your-state/

Not since the Gilded Age has money dominated American politics as it does today. Untold millions move through political action committees and their steroidal siblings, super PACs, through opaque nonprofit groups run out of PO boxes, much of it intended to keep average voters in the dark about who is influencing their elections. And as the 2014 election year begins, with control of the House of Representatives, the US Senate and 38 governorships at stake, you can expect ever more of this campaign cash — secret and not — flooding into local, state and federal races.

As the “dark money” reporter for Mother Jones, it’s my job to shine as much light on this cash bonanza as I can. I do this using every tool and trick at my disposal: databases, experts, plugged-in sources and good old-fashioned door knocking. Here are four easy-to-use tips for following the money in your state — and throwing some sunlight on the mega-donors trying to sway your elections.

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Warning: State campaign finance websites can be clunky and hard to navigate. (I’m looking at you, Iowa.) Worry not! In many states, there’s a watchdog organization or public interest group that can decipher your state’s campaign data and help you find what it is you’re looking for. In my own reporting, I’ve leaned heavily on experts such as Rich Robinson at the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, Mike McCabe at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and Andrew Wheat at Texans for Public Justice. These sherpas, as I like to call them, know your state’s campaign finance data forward and backward, and they’re an invaluable resource when trying to track down hard-to-find information in a hurry.



Your state’s campaign finance records stop being helpful when it comes to “dark money.” That’s the unlimited cash raised and spent by anonymously funded nonprofits. You know the ones, generically named American Crossroads or Priorities USA. Since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, nonprofits have pumped record sums of dark money into federal elections, more than $300 million of it during the 2012 campaign season alone. But there are still ways to figure out who’s siphoning secret money into your state. If there is a specific nonprofit you’re looking into, you can access its annual tax filings on the website of the National Center for Charitable Statistics. These tax forms lag significantly — nonprofits could wait until as late as November 2013 to release their 2012 filings — but they offer valuable information about a dark-money group’s past fundraising and spending and who is on its staff and board of directors.

[johnnyreb]

1. K&R

[Jim Lane]

2. To clarify, this is not written by Bill Moyers.

It's hosted on the Moyers & Company website, but it's written by Andy Kroll. He describes himself as "the 'dark money' reporter for Mother Jones".

[Berlum]

3. Occulted money (R)