INDIVISIBLE Lambertville NJ / New Hope PA

Category: Funding/Finance

  • Trump Banks on His Political Capital

    Contributed by Amara Willey.

    You may have noticed another Donald Trump-related drama unfolding earlier this month. When he presented the GOP with a cease and desist order not to use his name in fundraising efforts, the GOP flatly refused to follow it. This may have seemed like just another stunt of his, but let’s follow the money.

    Before we do that, though, there’s another related story. The Republicans have been actively blaming the mainstream media for trying to divide the party, an idea that CNN reporters vehemently refuted and pointed to many examples of how Republican congress members had criticized the former president.

    In a Washington Post opinion piece published at the end of November, columnist Jennifer Rubin declared that the Republican party had split in two, based not on policy differences, but rather on values and character.

    Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) explained that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and former President Trump differed very little on policy though since McConnell’s speech condemning Trump after the impeachment hearing, the enmity has been evident. “It’s not a policy debate. This is a personality issue.“

    Portman continued, “It has the potential to hurt the party. It’s already making it more divided. But let’s get back to the policies. That’s where we agree, that’s where the American people want us to focus.”

    Still a number of Republicans have attempted to discredit that idea. For example, former ambassador to the United Nations and current Director of the Save America PAC, Nikki Haley claimed in a Fox News interview that the wedge in the GOP was entirely in the imagination of the media. She said, “The liberal media… Wants to stoke a nonstop Republican Civil War.“

    Haley continued to dissemble, suggesting that perhaps the former president’s actions following the election “were not his finest.”

    This is where the money part comes in. After Donald Trump‘s cease and desist letter to the GOP, the party and the former president had an almost immediate rapprochement. Trump explained that his letter had to do with not wanting those people who had voted for his impeachment to be supported by GOP money connected with his name. Coincidentally, the Republican national committee announced several days later moving a large donor fundraising event to Trump’s Mar A Lago property.

    Trump has been encouraging his supporters to give directly to the Save America PAC, headed by the previously mentioned Nikki Haley, instead of donating to the GOP. He has made it clear that he intends to fund primary challenges for those Congress members who denounced him.

    Vox suggested that the former president may have more than political revenge in mind. And blaming the media for divisions in the GOP may be just another Trump diversionary tactic.

    Whether Trump chooses to follow a path of revenge or not, there is another potential benefit he could reap from funneling money away from the GOP. The Save America PAC is a type of political committee that has relatively few restrictions on what it can do with donations. We have already seen that much of the $31.5 million raised just after the election was not used to fund legal challenges or help with the Georgia runoff‘s, as had been purported, but instead was being funneled into other uses, like paying down campaign debt.

    “If you were going to direct a lot of money from a political committee to yourself, this is the way to do it,“ Jordan Libowitz, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told Vox in an interview earlier this month.

    Trump can use money from the PAC to hold events at his hotels, fund travel, or pay for “consulting fees.“

    “There aren’t a lot of restrictions on travel expenses, so he can rent his own plane for himself and pay himself to fly around the country,“ Lebowitz said. “He can pay Ivanka and the rest of his family very large amounts as consultants for the PAC. He can rent office space for himself.“ 

    Meanwhile, McConnell has made it clear that he will continue to back his fellow incumbent senators, despite Trump’s stated desire to punish some of them. McConnell still influences the use of the Senate Leadership Fund.

    Sources:

  • ILNH and Money

    ILNH and Money

    Contributed by Elycia Lerman.

    It’s hard to believe that ILNH is ending our fourth year as an organization – time flies when you’re trying to save democracy!  It seems like a good time to provide some insight into our financials.  Admittedly, it’s a bit of a boring topic, and even with my very witty personality it may not be an exciting read. However, for all those who help us keep the (virtual) lights on through donations and fundraising activities, we owe you our gratitude and an accounting.  

    Each year we forecast a budget based on what our goals are for the year. What types of programming we will support and provide and what kind of fundraisers we think we can execute. These discussions happen in the individual groups like Civil Rights, Environment, GOTV, etc and within the Leadership Team and the Board. There are overhead costs for our liability, our Board & Officers’ insurance and our technology infrastructure (Quickbooks, Zoom, Wix, etc).  We also budget for legal & accounting professional support, we had large payments here when we filed for our 501c4 status and when we transitioned from Excel to Quickbooks for our accounting. In addition to programming, other expenses include equipment (we own an overhead projector and portable sound system), facility rentals, and supplies. 

    Our revenue is split between donations and merchandise sales. You can see the split in the table below, and note that donations are the larger portion. Our 2019 Holiday Jam was not the merchandise sales event that we had hoped, and we still have a bunch of inventory that we would like to sell at a discount – stay tuned. In 2018 we partnered with two other groups, Rise Up Doylestown to do a musical holiday fundraiser and in 2019 we partnered with the ACME for the Raise Hell fundraiser, both were a big success.  

    In our first year of operation, we were able to create a cushion of finances that enabled us to survive 2020.  Sometimes luck plays to your advantage.  In 2018 and 2019 we pretty much broke even on our revenue and expenses. In 2020 however, our expenses are running about  $2,000 more than income.  We are still in an ‘okay’ position for 2021 with respect to our fixed costs for insurance and technology infrastructure, but we will have to think about different ways to raise funds.  

    Recently there was a survey to all ILNH Indivizzies to get input on what they see for the future of our organization. We will take this input into our budgeting conversations in the next month as we prepare for our 2021 budget. If anyone has questions on the financials or would like to work with the finance team,  please reach out to me, ElyciaLerman@yahoo.com.

    Figure 1

    ILNH 
    2017 2018 2019  2020* 2021
    Budgeted Total Revenue $17,000 $14,200 $17,000 $14,500 ??
    Expense $15,000 $19,700 $19,800 $16,600 ??
    Actual Total Revenue $16,049 $16,332 $11,454 $4,324
    Merch Sales $3,357 $6,971 $2,131 $1,430
    Expense $10,631 $16,895 $11,232 $6,238
    YTD Oct 2020

  • New Jersey Dark Money Veto Murky

    Contributed by Amara Willey.

    Citing loopholes and possible Constitutional challenges, Gov. Phil Murphy conditionally vetoed a campaign finance reform bill in May. Critics suggest that Murphy’s motivation is more political than altruistic.

    A conditional veto means that the governor objects to parts of a bill and proposes amendments that would make it acceptable.  It is now up to the legislature to decide if it will follow the governor’s recommendations and rewrite the bill or try to override the veto with a two-thirds vote. The danger is that the legislature may just let the bill, NJ-S1500, languish, thus killing the chance for substantial election reform. (more…)

  • The 28th Amendment: An American Promise

    Contributed by Deb Kline.

    Heather Santos from American Promise will lead the June 4 Springboard event on Dark MoneyJune 4 Springboard event on Dark Money. The organization is dedicated to achieving passage of the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, which affirms that We The People – not special interests, corporations or unions – govern the United States of America. The proposed bill has more than 100 sponsors. The 28th Amendment has been proposed to the House of Representatives (HJ Res. 2) and reads as follows: (more…)

  • Dark Money Impact: Winning PA-01 in 2018

    Contributed by Kierstyn Pietrowski Zolfo.

    The next SpringBoard event will focus on the role of dark money in our political system. While people may have different conceptions of what dark money means, for the purposes of this exploration it refers to any political donations that are made to groups – political action committees (PACs and SuperPACs) and so-called, “social welfare organizations,” also known as 501(c)(4) group, who are allowed to engage in political lobbying and political campaign activities.

    Of particular concern to our area is the part that dark money played in the 2018 election in PA-01 and the re-election of Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick. The PA-01 congressional race was among the top 5 most expensive House races in the country for 2018, and while some of that can be attributed to direct spending by Democratic candidate, even more of that came from dark money on the GOP side.

    Many politicians have their own PACs that are affiliated with their name and candidacy. Such groups raise money by holding events with the politicians present and giving speeches about their political goals… but then they step out of the room while the money folks gather up the donations.  One such event was held on Washington Crossing Road in October 2018, with then-House Speaker Paul Ryan present to fundraise for his PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF). The CLF opened their district office in Bucks County in September 2017 to prepare for the 2018 race. By the end of the campaign cycle, the CLF had spent over $4.4 million – that we know of – to support Brian Fitzpatrick.

    While Paul Ryan’s PAC was the largest of the candidate-affiliated groups to pour money into PA-01, it certainly was not the only one spending money in Bucks County. The Great America Committee (VP Mike Pence), Majority Committee (then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy), Eye of the Tiger PAC (then Majority Whip Steve Scalise) and Citizens for Prosperity (Sen. Pat Toomey) were among nearly a dozen groups to spend on this race in 2018.

    Another way that dark money was funnelled into this race was from millionaire backers. Two individuals in particular played outsize roles in bringing dark money into PA-01: Elliott Broidy and Sheldon Adelson.  Both of these men used the intricacies of campaign finance law to pour outside money into our area to help Brian Fitzpatrick, but each did so in different ways.

    Sheldon Adelson concentrated his efforts on giving directly to PACs.  A review of his expenditures during the 2018 cycle show a shocking amount of money changed hands. This is just a sampling of his donations as reported on Open Secrets, some of which found its way here.

    Recipient Date Amount
    Congressional Leadership Fund 05/03/18 $15,000,000
    Congressional Leadership Fund 09/12/18 $10,000,000
    National Republican Congressional Committee 06/30/18 $237,300
    Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) 10/16/18 $125,000

    Adelson also gave directly to Fitzpatrick’s campaign, and a number of smaller donations to many of the politician-affiliated PACs, who in turn gave to Fitzpatrick.

    Elliott Broidy has a name that may be familiar to those of you who closely follow Trump news.  He is the third client of Michael Cohen (the other two being President Trump and Fox News host Sean Hannity). This former Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee paid a Playboy Playmate mistress to have an abortion, has major financial ties to Manafort-aide Rick Gates, and most recently had his house raided by the FBI in an investigation about conspiracy, money laundering, and covert lobbying on behalf of foreign officials.

    Broidy orchestrated the first round of attacks on Democratic candidate Scott Wallace in June 2018.  Wallace was ‘welcomed’ into the general race with over a half million dollars in RJC advertisements smearing Wallace unjustly as an anti-Semite. That set the tone for the race, but since it was done by an outside expenditure group on behalf of Fitzpatrick, instead of from Fitzpatrick himself, the candidate was able to claim plausible deniability from this awfulness. It should also be noted that Broidy donated to many of the same PACs that received funding from Adelson, who in turn spent money in PA-01.

    With PA-01 as one of the most contentious swing districts in the country, and with our location in an expensive media market, we are going to see more and more dark money and outside money coming in to affect our local races. We need to stay on top of this issue, and develop effective messaging strategies to counteract the effect of all this outside money, or else we will be overpowered in future races.

    Call to Action: Mark your calendars for the next Springboard event on Dark Money and be sure to attend! June 3, 2019 – Location TBD