Category Archives: Money in politics

Democratic Party campaign donors from outside Virginia. Source: Virginia Public Access Project

Contributions from Democratic Party out-of-state donors has reached a new peak in Virginia’s 2019 legislative elections — $3.4 million, or 15% of total donations — according to new data visualization graphic published by the Virginia Public Access Project.

A similar trend is visible among Republican donors, though not as pronounced.

Out-of-state Republican Party donations.

As out-of-state moneyed interests assume a bigger role in campaign financing, we can expect the preoccupations and proclivities of those donors to influence the tenor of Virginia politics. In other words, we can expect Virginia politics to become even more hyper-partisan and vicious.

–JAB

by James A. Bacon

Looks like my post of a few days ago arguing that the Democrats were the party of Big Money in Virginia requires an update. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Republican state Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper, will report a $500,000 campaign donation from top GOP contributor Richard Uihlein, an Illinois industrialist.

Taking this monster contribution into account, instead of out-raising Republicans in Big Money donations by a 3½-to-1 ratio, Dems are out-raising them by a mere 3-to-1 ratio. Any authoritative conclusions will have to await the final filings after the election.

by James A. Bacon

As a follow-up to yesterday’s “dark money” post comparing the resources available to the conservative Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy (TJI) and the liberal Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis (CI), it is only fair for me to note that CI did disclose its major donors in its 2016 990 form. In numerous posts, I have lamented the lack of full disclosure by nonprofits active in the public-policy arena. However, some groups have voluntarily provided that information. CI is one of them, and it deserves credit for its transparency.

An inspection of CI’s major contributors is revealing. I present the details here not out any sense of “exposing” the think tank but to provide a glimpse of the routine things occurring outside the public eye. As an old journalistic saying goes, “Follow the money.” Virginia journalists have shown little interest in following the money unless it leads to a deep-pocketed corporation. But there are billions of dollars sloshing around the nonprofit sector. If citizens have any interest in developing a full understanding of how public policy is made in Virginia, they should agitate for universal disclosure of the kind of information that CI provided voluntarily.

CI, which reported $1,295,000 in revenue in 2016, relied most heavily upon funding from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities — $265,000, to be exact. That Washington, D.C.-based research and policy institute describes its mission as analyzing state and federal budget proposals, “focusing especially on programs for low- and moderate-income families.” CI notes that it is one of 40 similar organizations in the State Priorities Partnership — coordinated by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities — which share “credible, independent and accessible information and analyses of fiscal and economic issues with particular attention to the impacts on low- and moderate-income persons.” Continue reading →

by James A. Bacon

When writing about the passing of Mike Thompson, founder of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy (TJI) (see previous post), I chanced to look at TJI’s 990 forms. It had been my impression that Mike ran the small-government think tank on a shoestring, and the IRS filing confirmed it. The vast majority of the money Mike raised went directly into programs.

Virginia has another think tank, the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis (CI), that occupies the same niche as TJI, publishing research reports on Virginia-specific issues. CI, a center-left group, does solid, credible work. But it also frames issues on education, immigration, health care and the budget the same way you would expect a center-left group to do.

Having written extensively about the role of dark money in Virginia — by “dark” money, I mean money that is not subject to public reporting requirements — I was curious to see how CI’s funding compared to TJI’s. No surprise: Year-in, year-out CI has generated significantly more revenue than TJI — by a margin of four- or five-to-one in recent years, as can be seen in the table above. That’s just one more example, as if another were needed, of how the political system is rigged in favor of the left. Continue reading →

by James A. Bacon

Mike Thompson, president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy (TJI), passed away this weekend after a battle with leukemia. Founder of Virginia’s only state/local think tank with a conservative bent, the Northern Virginian was a regular fixture in Richmond and a consistent voice for small government.

I had the pleasure to work with Mike on and off over many years. I will miss his cheerful, amiable presence and his “big tent” approach to getting things accomplished in the legislature. In a world dominated by left-leaning dark money (more on that in my next post), Mike and his friend-and-collaborator Chris Braunlich were remarkably successful at injecting conservative perspectives into the debates over taxes, budget reform, K-12 education, the environment, health care, and economic development.

In an email distributed yesterday, Chris told Mike’s story better than I can. Chris wrote:

Mike Thompson got his start in youth politics, as a leader in the “Youth for Goldwater” movement, later joining the National Board of Young Americans for Freedom and leading the Student Committee for Victory in Vietnam.  A passion for youth involvement continued throughout his life, especially as vice chairman of The Fund for American Studies which teaches the principles of limited government and free-market economics to students and young professionals in America and, indeed, throughout the world.

Continue reading →

by James A. Bacon

Left-leaning groups have done an amazingly effective job of highlighting the role of conservative and libertarian “dark money” in the public sphere. Newspapers like the Washington Post and New York Times have eagerly amplified the findings, for example, of a student group, Transparent GMU, that raised issues about the influence of the infamous Koch Brothers over faculty hiring at George Mason University.

While groups like Transparent GMU and UnKoch My Campus makes life miserable for the Koch family and institutions it sponsors such as GMU’s Mercatus Center and Scalia School of Law, it has no counterpart on the right. No nonprofit/media axis exists to expose the machinations of left-wing funders on college campuses.

The influence exercised by the Kochs through the Mercatus Center ($63 million a year in revenue, according to its 2016 990 form) is widely known. But who has heard of GMU’s Center for Climate Change ($58 million in revenue, according to its 2014 990)? The Center played an important role in U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s RICO investigation into alleged oil company collusion and stonewalling on climate change. Only thanks to the research of Chris Horner at the American Enterprise Institute into the political economy of climate change has the Center’s role come partially to light. However, Horner can’t seem to excite the interest of Washington Post and New York Times into who is pulling the strings behind left-wing causes, so almost no one knows of it. Continue reading →