OpenSecrets News

Money talks. We translate.

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A comparison of this year’s congressional retirement rate to other recent years. https://goo.gl/nfGZ3E

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New Trump Transition picks Linda McMahon (SBA) & Andrew Puzder (Labor) both gave big money to Pro-Trump SuperPAC Rebuilding America Now.    

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Total donation breakdown for the DeVos and Prince families - relatives of Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick to lead the Education Department.

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Overall Spending Inches Up in 2014: Megadonors Equip Outside Groups to Capture a Bigger Share of the Pie

We've looked over our math and vetted the numbers. Although this election will still be the most expensive midterm ever, the real story comes from how prominent a role outside spending, largely bankrolled by megadonors, now plays.

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In a collaborative report with the Wesleyan Media Project, CRP helped tabulate and analyze the costs of television advertisement spending for this election season. 

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State Parties Flooded With National Funds

With only a little over a week left on the campaign trail, national party organizations have continued to donate heavily to state parties.

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Most Expensive Midterm Ever

We suspected spending this midterm election season would be high, but it has now made the 2014 elections the most expensive midterms in history. From our estimates, this election cycle will price in at a whopping $4 billion, handily beating out previous campaign finance levels from earlier midterm races. 

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Dark money threatens democracy

Dark money is not a small thing -- it's big and getting bigger every day. Our outside money investigator Robert Maguire corrected the record on dark money spending in a post today for The Hill newspaper

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Dark Money Hits $100 Million With Help from Single-Candidate Groups

$100 million in dark money has already been spent this election cycle, and if previous cycles are any indication, that's not even half the dark money that will eventually be dropped.

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Gun Groups Locked and Loaded for Nov. 4

Guns may not be a huge issue for voters in this election, but the gun groups -- both those favoring gun rights and those who want more gun restrictions -- aren't sitting idly by. The NRA began spending in earnest last month, and the organizations on the other side are expected to unleash millions in the coming weeks as well.

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IMAGE: National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference in March. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

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Wealthiest Places, Maybe. Biggest Contributors, Not So Much.

Recently a list of the 50 wealthiest communities in every state was released, and we decided to cross-reference those towns and cities with our database of political donors -- see how the richest community in your state donates.

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American Future Fund Goes To The Islands

What has got secretive politically active nonprofit American Future Fund suddenly so interested in Puerto Rico's dispute with a bank? Communications director Viveca Novak investigates.

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IMAGE: Alejandro Garcia Padilla, governor of Puerto Rico, is under attack by American Future Fund. (GDA via AP Images)

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Both Mr. McConnell and Ms. Grimes Go to Washington

You go to Washington to raise money! No, you do! Turns out both Mitch McConnell and his Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes have raised big money in Washington and zip codes from from their hom estate of Kentucky.

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IMAGE: Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell has raised 81 percent of his campaign’s cash from outside his state. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)