A nice illustration of how PACs are a legal form of grift comes this month from Brianna Wu's RebellionPAC, a "Clean PAC fighting for progressive, working class values across the country." Like everyone else, RebellionPAC cleaned up in Q3, bringing in over $150K in donations
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In that period, the PAC spent $94,140, but only $11,200 of this went to candidates. The rest was spent on media production, bank and legal fees ($9,165), email lists ($5,125), entertainment ($1,111) and $17,806 that Wu paid herself out of PAC funds for "strategic consulting"
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Scratch any progressive PAC and this is the pattern you'll find. They are limited by law in what they can give to candidates, but limited only by a sense of decorum and shame in what they can pay themselves. Please give directly to campaigns! (source: https://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/093/202010159295161093/202010159295161093.pdf …)
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Share any progressive PAC you've given to in the thread and I can try to help you figure out how the money is being spent. My frustration stems from having to compete against these people to get small-dollar donations into the hands of actual candidates who need to win
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Replying to @jackowayed
They made $5.3 million in Q3, spent $945,611, and of that spending, it looks like $132,961 went to candidates. https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00492520/1451699/ …
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Replying to @Pinboard @jackowayed
geez you should blog this one (with all the examples) so we can all point to the blog entry and say "give directly to candidates, or don't bother"
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Replying to @codinghorror @Pinboard
For what it’s worth, my expectation was not that my money was going to candidates, but to their own operations to drive turnout. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the plan was always to raise more than they spent in Q3 so they could spend a ton in October
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Yeah, my beef right now is with the PACs that say "we support great working candidates" or whatever. If the stated goal is outside ad spending, or turnout, or whatever it is, then they should be judged on those criteria instead. The picture will be clearer after the election.
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