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Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democratic member of the Senate Finance Committee, stressed the need to work quickly to pass the next round of coronavirus relief, adding that Congress needs ‘to work together.’ <\/p>\n
For years, Democrats have railed against anonymous campaign contributions as a uniquely corrupting political force \u2014 even as President Biden benefited from a record-shattering amount of “dark money” donations during the 2020 election. <\/p>\n
A report published by Bloomberg News shows that Biden raked in about $145 million in donations from anonymous donors to outside groups backing him, far outstripping the $28.4 million spent on behalf of his rival, former President Donald Trump. It also tops the previous record of $113 million in dark money donations spent on behalf of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012. <\/p>\n
For instance, Priorities USA Action Fund, one of the most prominent Democratic super PACs supporting Biden, used $26 million in funds originally donated to its nonprofit arm, called Priorities USA, to back the then-candidate, according to Bloomberg. The donors of that money do not need to be disclosed.<\/p>\n
HOUSE DEMS REVIVE BILL AIMED AT STOPPING VOTER SUPPRESSION, DARK MONEY DONATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n Critics of dark money, which obscures the source of the funds, argue that voters should know who’s funding political advertisements and campaigns. The Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan group, has called it a “serious threat to our democracy,” and Issue One, another nonpartisan group that aims to reduce the influence of money in politics, has called it “the most toxic force in politics.”<\/p>\n Although Democrats have previously introduced legislation to crack down on dark money donations, it did not stop them from accepting anonymous donations themselves as they fought to defeat Trump.<\/p>\n “We weren\u2019t going to unilaterally disarm against Trump and the right-wing forces that enabled him,” Guy Cecil, the chairman of Priorities USA, told Bloomberg.<\/p>\n The White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News’ request for comment.<\/p>\n One of the first bills before the new Senate will be the “For the People Act,” introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. The legislation is the Senate counterpart to the House’s For the People Act, spearheaded by Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., and passed in 2019. In addition to implementing automatic voter registration and expanding same-day voter registration, the bill would require all political organizations to disclose their donors as part of a crackdown on dark money.<\/p>\n “The 2020 election underscored the need for comprehensive, structural democracy reform,” Sarbanes said in a statement on his website. “Americans across the country were forced to overcome rampant voter suppression, gerrymandering and a torrent of special-interest dark money just to exercise their vote and their voice in our democracy.”<\/p>\n As part of his government reform plan, Biden called for banning certain types of nonprofits from spending money in elections and requiring that any group that spends more than $10,000 on federal elections to require with the Federal Election Committee and publicly disclose its donors. Under such a proposal, Priorities USA would have been forced to name its donors.<\/p>\n Biden raised $1.5 billion \u2014 a record \u2014 for his campaign, which can accept donations of no more than $2,800 from individual donors under FEC laws. That figure includes $318.6 million from donors who gave less than $200 each; the rest stemmed from donors who gave at least $825,000, with that money split between Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n Overall, Democrats received about $326 million in dark money during this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, more than double the $148 million collected by Republicans.<\/p>\n