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    • Where do US election campaign donations and funds actually go?
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    Where do US election campaign donations and funds actually go?

    Umito Posted on

    We are in the last days of the most costly election in historyfrom the presidency to the ballot. Once voting is complete and votes are counted, recounted, challenged, challenged and disallowed, the amount could exceed $16 billion. This is equivalent to the GDP of more than 50 small countries.

    Anyone with an email account, mailbox, phone or front door was continually encouraged to get money. Just send $3 to show your support, they beg.

    What do you get for your $3? More than you will ever want. You have just made a friend for life – in fact many, many friends – who will knock on your door for eternity.

    This will not stop when the polls close. Like the proverbial bad penny, it will keep repeating itself and repeating itself – and repeating itself. You will quickly learn that the next election begins before all the votes are even counted for this one.

    You will never feel neglected. Your contribution was just a deposit. It’s a gift that will keep on giving. Your name and all the information about you – some of which you didn’t even realize you were sharing – will be sliced, diced and sorted into pieces to be exchanged endlessly. Mailing lists are a valuable commodity in the political world.

    Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump raises his fist during a “Fighting Anti-Semitism in America” event with Dr. Miriam Adelson and Jewish leaders in Washington, US, September 19, 2024. ( credit: REUTERS/PIROSCHKA VAN DE WOUW)

    I’m not saying don’t contribute to candidates or causes you want to help, just be wary, remain anonymous if you want, and be prepared. You may want to volunteer instead. Just protect your information. Watch out for the takeaway.

    If you want to test this, change the spelling of your first name or add a middle name or something unique when filling out the submission and identify spam as it comes in.

    Candidates like small contributions because they offer a useful measure of popular support and because they don’t come with strings attached. But they covet the big money.

    Billion dollar campaigns don’t rely on $3 donations. The Supreme Court opened the floodgates in 2010 with the disastrous 5-4 Citizens United decision, which removed long-standing campaign finance restrictions and allowed corporations and other outside groups to inject funds unlimited in elections.

    Democrats and Republicans spend big

    Both parties are equally abusing this bad decision. OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group that tracks political spending, estimates that total spending on this year’s presidential, congressional and other functions will be $15.9 billion. That doesn’t include money spent on challenges, recounts, lawsuits and aftermaths — if 2020 is anything to go by. About $5 billion comes from super PACs, the group reports. This is outside money with no limit on the amount that can be raised and spent with this caveat: PACs cannot coordinate with candidates. This is dark money, which means anonymity for contributors.

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    Where does the money go? Whether it’s your $3 or That of Elon Musk $75 million or $100 million from Miriam Adelson?

    Most of this money is intended for these incessant and obnoxious advertisements from which we have suffered so much in recent months. AdImpact, which tracks political advertising, estimates that about $10.1 billion will be spent on advertising across cable, radio, satellite, digital and CTV, with about half going to local TV stations in during this election cycle. About $1.7 billion will be spent on the presidential race, it is estimated.

    Democrats have outspent their Republican counterparts in Senate races this cycle, OpenSecrets reports, but Republicans are ahead in House races. Four super PACs aligned with congressional leaders have raised nearly $72 million from dark money interests, the group noted.

    IF YOUR $3 gets you a friend for life and endless calls, what do the big cats get?

    Adelson and her late husband, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, have long been the biggest contributors to Trump and the Republican Party. Just this year, she contributed $100 million to help re-elect the former president. (That’s about half of what the couple had given to other Republicans.) She reportedly wants Trump to support Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, a goal of Netanyahu’s right-wing government. Her husband played a leading role in convincing Trump to move the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognize the city as Israel’s official capital, as well as the state’s annexation of the Golan Heights. She also has major interests in the gaming industry.

    The Adelson-backed Republican Jewish Coalition is spending $15 million on ads to support Trump and Republicans, while on the left, J Street, the pro-peace lobby, has raised $6 million for the Harris campaign.

    Musk’s $75 million contribution is pocket change for the world’s richest man. But perhaps he has bigger ambitions. He holds rallies for Trump, and X, his social media platform, looks like an arm of the Trump campaign. “Musk’s money funded ads employing blatant anti-Semitism,” according to Haaretz.

    Trump said that if elected, he would appoint Musk to head a government efficiency commission that would conduct a “comprehensive financial and performance audit” of the federal government and recommend reforms. It’s a job with a lot of influence, little accountability, enormous potential for abuse, and one that won’t need Senate confirmation. Musk has already received more than $15 billion in federal contracts for Space X since 2003 and billions more for other projects.

    Great contributions often come with great expectations and great rewards: ambassadorial positions, ministerial posts, prestigious jobs, and favorable policies.

    Former President Barack Obama named 31 major donors to his reelection campaign to serve as ambassadors, and Trump surpassed that number with 44, according to Newsweek. Vice President Kamala Harris may not have as many billionaires as Trump, but she has raised twice as much as the former president despite entering the race late, according to media reports.

    There are greater rewards than a glamorous embassy.

    Trump told oil and gas executives over dinner at his Mar-a-Lago golf club last spring that if they could raise $1 billion for his campaign, he would dismantle and repeal the rules climate change from the Biden administration, reported the Washington Post.

    All campaigns sell merchandise – hats, T-shirts, buttons and banners – because they are both great advertising and great revenue. Trump added his own twist. It sells Bibles, wristwatches, trading cards, sneakers, cologne, picture books, cryptocurrencies and other trinkets. Customers may think they’re helping his campaign, but most, if not all, of the revenue actually goes into his pocket.

    The campaign finance system is deeply flawed. It can’t be fixed until officials in the three branches of government that did it — and benefited from it — decide it’s time to clean it up, and they don’t seem very interested.

    A final word on this election. Half the country will be happy and jubilant, and the other half will be disappointed. If you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain or complain for the next four years.

    The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist and former legislative director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.



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