A non-partisan, independent news outlet exposing the moneyed interests that control U.S. politics.
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NEW: two members of DNC rules committees are simultaneously working on Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign.
One was just nominated by DNC Chair Tom Perez to be a vice-chair of the Convention Rules Committee. readsludge.com/2020/02/05/bl…
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NEW Quick Hit:
Trump donor Joseph Pizza, whose wife was serenaded by President Trump at Mar-a-Lago, runs a pharmaceutical company that sells hydroxychloroquine sulfate, the primary active ingredient of Plaquenil. readsludge.com/2020/04/09/di…
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NEW: Joe Kennedy, the third-largest recipient of hedge fund money in the House, has declined to back a bill to close a tax loophole for hedge fund managers and private equity firms. His primary opponent, Ed Markey, has backed the bill since 2015. readsludge.com/2020/07/16/jo…
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NEW: Joe Kennedy's campaign told Sludge it would refund fossil fuel lobbyist donations to stay in compliance with the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge, but a new FEC filing shows it never did. readsludge.com/2020/08/21/ke…
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NEW: In break with Sanders and many other Dems, Joe Biden has not embraced an executive authority known as march-in rights that could be important for controlling the cost of a coronavirus vaccine. readsludge.com/2020/03/17/bi…
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New — we put together a list of how much AIPAC donated to every members of Congress and federal candidate in 2024, plus their super PAC support.
Here is the first-ever list of AIPAC's Top 10 beneficiaries...
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BREAKING: AIPAC has officially surpassed the $100 million spending mark on 2024 U.S. elections.
readsludge.com/2024/08/27/ai…
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NEW: Twitter declined to explain why it has accepted nearly $1 million in ad revenue from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the nation's most powerful anti-immigrant hate group.
FAIR clearly violates Twitter's anti-hate policies.
readsludge.com/2019/10/04/tw…
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NEW: Executives at MSNBC's parent company, Comcast, have given 94% of their Democratic primary contributions to Joe Biden. readsludge.com/2020/01/29/ms…
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NEW: Ritchie Torres Invested in Weapons Makers as He Backed Billions in Arms for Israel readsludge.com/2025/08/25/to…
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BREAKING: As he attacked Medicare for All in 2019's third quarter, @PeteButtigieg took campaign cash from donors in leadership, legal, consulting, or financing roles in the health care sector.
Donations include maximum allowed amounts from pharma execs. readsludge.com/2019/10/18/as…
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Joe Biden's campaign co-chair, Rep. Cedric Richmond, has taken more oil and gas money than almost any other Democrat and often votes with the GOP on bills boosting fossil fuels. #DemDebate readsludge.com/2019/12/16/jo…
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NEW: The DCCC has taken $776,000 in bundled contributions from health insurance lobbyists this cycle. Now House Democrats want to bail out the insurance industry by expanding COBRA rather than Medicaid. readsludge.com/2020/04/15/de…
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NEW: Paul Pelosi exercised call options on $4.8 million worth of Alphabet stock days before the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance Big Tech antitrust bills. @brickhousecoop thebrick.house/paul-pelosi-i…
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🚨SCOOP: America's largest charity, Fidelity Investments-linked @FidelityChrtbl, has given at least $100,000 to the nonprofit behind major white nationalist publication American Renaissance since 2015. readsludge.com/2019/11/22/na…
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NEW: as @PeteButtigieg stops releasing his campaign bundlers' names and blocks press from high-dollar fundraising events, meet the lobbyists and executives gathering big checks for Mayor Pete: readsludge.com/2019/12/09/he…
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NEW: Joe Biden didn't support net neutrality when he was a senator. Now, his first act as a declared candidate for president is going to be attending a fundraiser held by Comcast's top lobbyist. readsludge.com/2019/04/23/ne…
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Amy Klobuchar is being considered by Joe Biden for attorney general, according to reports.
In 2018, Klobuchar introduced legislation to dramatically increase the budget for a key cop-hiring program created by Biden’s 1994 crime bill. readsludge.com/2020/06/11/kl…
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NEW: As the Sackler family misled the public about OxyContin & profited handsomely from the growing crisis, Richard Sackler funded a network of anti-Muslim groups through his family foundation. readsludge.com/2019/03/25/as…
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Bakari Sellers, a Democratic consultant who called @briebriejoy "part of the problem" for criticizing Kamala Harris' health care positions, was scheduled give a paid keynote address at an American Bankers Association summit last week. readsludge.com/2020/02/20/th…
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NEW: The DNC, which Tom Perez packed with fossil fuel lobbyists, has removed language from the party platform calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks. readsludge.com/2020/08/18/dn…
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In November, Mike Bloomberg gave $320,000 to the DNC and $800,000 to a DNC joint committee, in his first Democratic party donations since 1998.
Last week, DNC Chair Tom Perez dropped the individual-donor threshold as a requirement for the Feb. 19 debate.
readsludge.com/2020/02/05/bl…
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BREAKING: Texas Rep. @BetoORourke has been removed from the "No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge" following Sludge's report that he received more than two dozen large campaign donations from oil & gas executives. readsludge.com/2018/12/18/be…
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NEW: The DCCC raised $2.5 million in January from the top lobbying firm for Palantir and SpaceX. readsludge.com/2025/02/24/dc…
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Louis DeJoy, Trump's new postmaster general, donated $122,500 to the RNC's legal fund for fighting states' vote-by-mail policies. Dozens of billionaires have also donated to the fund.
readsludge.com/2020/07/31/he…
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The House passed the infrastructure bill last night, to which Manchin added $11.3 billion in grants that could remove piles of waste coal to burn in power plants—precisely the niche business of his family-held company.
readsludge.com/2021/10/09/fo…
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NEW: Mitch McConnell is taking campaign contributions from lobbyists for voting machine vendors as he blocks election security bills that would subject the companies to new regulations and security requirements. readsludge.com/2019/06/10/as…
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NEW: Joe Biden's 2020 climate adviser Heather Zichal was on the board of liquified natural gas company Cheniere Energy, where she earned over $1 million.
Now she's working on a "middle ground" approach to climate policy. readsludge.com/2019/05/10/bi…
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Trump has chosen Susie Wiles to be his chief of staff, according to a release.
Wiles is a partner at lobbying firm Mercury Public Affairs, where she has lobbied for tobacco company Swisher. Mercury's lobbying clients include Alibaba, BlueCross Blue Shield, Kellog's, and more.
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NEW: More than 50 members of Congress are personally invested in defense companies whose stocks surged after President Trump's Iran actions.
readsludge.com/2020/01/13/th…
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NEW: We analyzed the record-shattering amount of money given by AIPAC to the members of the new Congress. readsludge.com/2025/01/07/th…
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NEW: Facebook took money this year from white nationalist House candidate Paul Nehlen to promote his posts, including one linking to the website of prominent neo-Nazi Christopher Cantwell. readsludge.com/2018/12/19/fa…
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NEW: A Biden admin spokesperson who spent his time defending Israel against charges of genocide and crimes against humanity has landed a new job at a Democratic PR firm being paid by Israel to do media outreach. readsludge.com/2025/06/03/de…
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NEW: Two-thirds of DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee members are corporate lobbyists or consultants.
Most are at-large DNC members who were appointed by Chair Tom Perez, not individually elected.
readsludge.com/2020/02/28/co…
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JUST IN: Bernie Sanders is challenging Joe Biden by asking all candidates to reject donations from pharma & health insurance executives & lobbyists.
Biden got large donations from at least 15 top execs of companies such as UnitedHealth in Q2 of 2019. readsludge.com/2019/07/18/be…
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Medicare-for-All opponent John Delaney has as much as $3.2 million invested in health care companies and funds with health industry holdings. #DemDebate readsludge.com/2019/06/04/pr…
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NEW: After taking more than $1 million from AIPAC, Sen. Jacky Rosen is pushing the government to apply a definition of antisemitism that human rights groups say could be used to silence legitimate criticism of Israel. readsludge.com/2024/04/19/ai…
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NEW: Kyrsten Sinema raised $631,800, nearly half her joint fundraising committee's Q1 funds, from executives and employees of three private equity giants: Blackstone, KKR, and The Carlyle Group. readsludge.com/2023/04/17/pr…
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NEW: Hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, who is facing scrutiny from Senate Dems for treating Samuel Alito an undisclosed private flight, made his largest ever donation, $10 million, to a Senate GOP super PAC. readsludge.com/2024/07/19/fa…
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The chair of the Senate Energy Committee makes about half a million dollars on the side each year from the waste coal business. Here is how Joe Manchin has used his public positions over the decades to become a coal multi-millionaire.
readsludge.com/2021/08/06/ma…
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The DCCC has taken nearly three-quarters of a million dollars from health insurance lobbyists this cycle. readsludge.com/2020/04/15/de…
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The DNC is trying to hide its Members.
We got our hands on the list of names, but we need your help to create the first-ever report on all 359 of them.
igg.me/at/Sludge-DNC-Members
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SCOOP: America's largest Christian charity has been sending tens of millions of dollars from anonymous donors to numerous anti-LGBT and anti-Muslim hate groups each year.
Sludge identified $56 million from 2015-17. readsludge.com/2019/03/19/am…
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NEW: An IP address search reveals that Delta's odd anti-union propaganda comes from FTI Consulting, a D.C. firm that provides astroturf services to major U.S. corporations. readsludge.com/2019/05/09/de…
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NEW: AIPAC and the cryptocurrency industry are spending millions to back incumbent Rep. Jimmy Gomez in a two-Democrat race in Los Angeles, facing challenger David Kim.
readsludge.com/2024/10/29/ai…
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Biden's campaign and the outside groups backing him have taken $1.34 million from the pharmaceuticals and health products industry, far more than Trump, Sanders, and others who ran for president this cycle. readsludge.com/2020/03/17/bi…
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NEW: More than 50 members of Congress own stock in defense contractors whose profits are soaring from giant Pentagon budgets and supplemental weapons packages.
readsludge.com/2024/09/12/he…
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# 1: Rep. George Latimer (@LatimerforNY) took his House seat with $17.4 million in AIPAC spending:
- $2.8 million in AIPAC PAC contributions
- $14.6 million in super PAC spending by the United Democracy Project
Latimer unseated progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman in #NY16.
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New — Sen. Chuck Schumer's brother, Robert B. Schumer, is a partner at the powerhouse law firm Paul Weiss that agreed to $40 million in pro bono legal services to Trump.
Bob Schumer chaired the firm's corporate department from 2008-2020.
readsludge.com/2025/03/21/co…
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# 2: Rep. Wesley Bell (@WesleyBell4MO) won his House race with $11.8 million in AIPAC spending:
- $3.2 million in PAC contributions
- $8.6 million in super PAC spending
Bell unseated progressive Cori Bush in #MO01. Around two-thirds of Bell's campaign cash came via AIPAC PAC.
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NEW: The DNC, which voted yesterday against holding a climate debate, has taken at least $60,750 from fossil fuel executives since the beginning of the year. readsludge.com/2019/08/23/th…
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Here's a sample of who's funding Hakeem Jeffries' new anti-progressives PAC:
-UnitedHealth PAC ($5k)
-Comcast PAC ($5k)
-Charter School Action PAC ($5k)
-Amazon and BP lobbyist Steve Elmendorf ($1k)
-Walmart lobbyist Christina Antelo ($1k)
readsludge.com/2022/02/01/ho…
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NEW: House Democrats who voted with the GOP against a 10% cut to the Pentagon budget have received far more defense industry money than the Democrats who supported the proposal. readsludge.com/2020/07/22/de…
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NEW: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is detaining immigrants in squalid conditions.
Who is profiting from CBP in your state?
We've mapped out the headquarters of all CBP vendors from 2010-the present. Use our interactive map: readsludge.com/2019/06/27/wh…
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Beto O'Rourke pledged not to take contributions from fossil fuel executives during his Senate campaign, but a Sludge analysis found at 24 instances where Beto violated that pledge. readsludge.com/2018/12/10/be…
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# 3: Rep. Sarah Elfreth (@RepSarahElfreth) won her House seat with more than $4.2 million in AIPAC spending.
While its PAC contributed a small amount, its super PAC spent that much backing her in the crowded #MD03 primary over Harry Dunn, former US Capitol officer, and others.
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NEW: Antony Blinken quietly joined the board of the Center for American Progress. Last year, Blinken rejected two government bodies and certified to Congress that Israel was not blocking humanitarian aid, enabling billions of dollars in weapons to flow.
readsludge.com/2025/08/12/bl…
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Joe Kennedy, the third-largest recipient of hedge fund cash in the House, declined to back a bill to close a tax loophole for hedge fund managers and private equity firms. His #MASen primary opponent, Ed Markey, has backed the bill since 2015. readsludge.com/2020/07/16/jo…
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NEW: The DCCC is refusing to work with vendors that also work with progressive challengers, but it continues employing vendors whose corporate clients lobby against Democratic policies like net neutrality and Medicare for All. readsludge.com/2019/05/21/dc…
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Defense contractor stocks are surging today on the news of Iran launching missiles at Israel.
Among those profiting? The dozens of members of Congress who own stocks in defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman. readsludge.com/2024/09/12/he…
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Nancy and Paul Pelosi's fortune grew at an accelerated rate during the pandemic, hitting an estimated $190.9 million in 2020. readsludge.com/2021/08/16/pe…
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Hakeem Jeffries, on a news show, attempted to tie Zohran Mamdani to a phrase Mamdani has not used, saying, "He's going to have to clarify his position..."
Jeffries received over $1 million from AIPAC's PAC last cycle, according to FEC data.
readsludge.com/2025/06/20/ai…
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Longtime Nancy Pelosi staffer Jorge Aguilar has taken a job with corporate lobbying firm theGROUP, according to Politico. The firm lobbies in D.C. for Pfizer, UnitedHealth, Lockheed Martin, JPMorgan Chase, BP, Lyft, Facebook, Altria, and many more.
politico.com/newsletters/pol…
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NEW: Here are the 3,231 ICE contractors since 2010.
Vendors include private prison giant GEO Group ($2.2 billion), consulting firm Deloitte ($249 million) & Sprint ($43 million).
Use our interactive map to see which companies are based in your state:
readsludge.com/2019/07/30/ic…
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NEW: Hickenlooper, who owns up to $500k of Facebook stock, asked the whistleblower how changing the algorithm would affect the company's bottom line.
readsludge.com/2021/10/05/wh…
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👋 This is the only place you can look up the full combined totals for AIPAC's political spending in the past election cycle. The searchable data table is available here ⬇️ for subscribers to our investigative newsletter on all things money in politics:
readsludge.com/2025/01/24/he…
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Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), net worth $43 million, received over $526,000 in PPP loans for three companies where he holds positions. More than $530,000 in loans were forgiven, counting interest.
It's no more complicated than this:
The government took your money and lent it to other people. Now Biden is saying they don't have to pay it back.
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Stark contrast in funding for #NY14 Dem primary candidates:
• @RepJoeCrowley: $1.1 million from more than 250 corporate PACs
• @Ocasio2018: $0 from corporate PACs
readsludge.com/2018/06/23/fa…
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# 4: Rep. Jimmy Gomez (@RepJimmyGomez) was re-elected with $2.5 million in AIPAC spending:
- $174,000 in PAC donations
- $2.3 million in super PAC spending
The #CA34 rep was facing a primary challenge from attorney David Kim, who called for measures leveraging aid to Israel.
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Harlan Crow, the Republican megadonor behind Justice Clarence Thomas' luxury vacations, made his first donations to Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin as they blocked the Democrats' major budget bill.
readsludge.com/2021/11/16/re…
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Josh Gottheimer sponsored the bill forcing TikTok to be sold, then bought millions of dollars worth of stock options in the company trying to buy it. readsludge.com/2025/03/11/go…
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NEW: Senate Democrats sent a letter calling for urgent aid delivery in Gaza—then more than a dozen voted for the sale of more weapons to Israel, which is blocking humanitarian NGOs. Some of the lawmakers are getting an influx of AIPAC campaign donations.
readsludge.com/2025/08/04/se…
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# 7: GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales (@RepTonyGonzales) received $1.4 million in AIPAC support in his #TX23 elections in the 2024 cycle:
- $308,000 in AIPAC PAC donations
- Over $1 million in spending by AIPAC's super PAC @UnitedDemocProj
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NEW: An heiress to the Qualcomm fortune is being boosted by a super PAC that is funded by her billionaire grandparents in her #CA53 primary race against a progressive endorsed by @BernieSanders and @justicedems. readsludge.com/2020/02/26/a-…
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NEW: The Democrats who voted against a 10% cut to the $768,100,000,000 military budget yesterday have received 3.7x more campaign money from the defense industry, on average. readsludge.com/2021/09/24/ho…
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NEW: Joe Kennedy took the legal maximum from prominent fossil fuel lobbyist Tonio Burgos, a violation of the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge, which Kennedy signed. The campaign told Sludge it will return the money. readsludge.com/2020/08/06/ke…
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# 6: Sen. Jacky Rosen was re-elected in the #NVSen race with more than $1.8 million in earmarked contributions from AIPAC's PAC.
Last year, Rosen introduce legislation that endorses a definition of anti-Semitism that has been promoted by AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League.
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SCOOP: As billionaire libertarian Charles Koch cultivates an anti-war image, his company, Koch Industries, is making millions from contracts with the Navy. readsludge.com/2019/07/24/as…
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Donna Shalala called a Florida state plan to allow importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada “the silliest thing I’ve ever heard of.” Her pharmaceutical industry donors agreed.
Shalala was defeated tonight by Republican Maria Elvira Salazar.
readsludge.com/2019/07/12/do…
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# 8 : Convicted ex-senator Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) received nearly $1.1 million in contributions from AIPAC PAC in 2023-24.
The former Foreign Relations chair ended his re-election campaign and was convicted of bribery and acting as a foreign agent in connection with Egypt.
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New: the health insurance industry accounts for nearly a third of all bundled lobbyist contributions to the House Democrats' campaign arm this cycle.
readsludge.com/2020/04/15/de…
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NEW: Who is making money from ICE in your state? Explore our interactive maps to find out which businesses & nonprofits are profiting from US immigration policy & where their operations take place. @J__Velasquez & @alexkotch: readsludge.com/2018/07/06/wh…
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NEW: DNC members rejected calls last year to hold a presidential debate on climate.
10 of the 17 members of the Resolutions Committee voting against it were "at-large," put forward by Tom Perez, including several corporate lobbyists with fossil fuel ties.
readsludge.com/2020/05/20/he…
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# 9: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) received $942,000 in contributions from AIPAC PAC in 2023-24.
Since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, the U.S. has spent at least $22.8 billion on Israel’s military operations, according to figures from @CostsOfWar.
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NEW: The Harris campaign says it does not take donations from registered federal lobbyists, but Sludge found 20 it has taken and the campaign declined to comment. readsludge.com/2024/09/13/ha…
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Joe Biden is supported by a super PAC funded by hedge fund executives and real estate moguls, while Bernie Sanders is backed by grassroots groups like @sunrisemvmt and @popdemoc. #DemDebate
Read our fact check: readsludge.com/2020/02/10/fa…
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# 5: Freshman Rep. Mark Messmer won the #IN08 Republican primary and election with $1.9 million in AIPAC spending:
- $303,000 in PAC contributions
- $1.6 million in super PAC spending
Messmer beat John Hostettler and others in the GOP primary.
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NEW: Joe Manchin pushed Senate Democrats to strip ethics provisions from their major reform bill, including banning House members from serving on corporate boards and preventing lawmakers from working on legislation for their financial self-interest.
thebrick.house/manchin-remov…
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# 10: Rep. Josh Gottheimer (@RepJoshG) received nearly $861,000 in AIPAC PAC contributions in 2023-2024. He sits on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
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NEW: Representatives who voted to block @RoKhanna's bill to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen took 75% more money from the defense industry than their colleagues, on average. readsludge.com/2018/11/23/it…
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NEW: Biden’s fundraiser today, co-hosted by natural gas company co-founder Andrew Goldman, brings into focus his several ties to the larger natural gas company Cheniere Energy.
readsludge.com/2019/09/05/jo…
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George Latimer, who is running a primary against Jamaal Bowman, has received more than $1.3 million from AIPAC’s PAC, according to its FEC filings. That’s more than one out of every three dollars he has raised so far.
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Democratic voters are reckoning over what went wrong, but will the the Democratic Party? The DNC is structured to preserve the status quo, protect the corporate figures at the top, and to satisfy its billionaire donors. We’ve been writing about it for years.
Quick thread...
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Update: 62% of individual contributions to Wesley Bell's campaign have come from AIPAC.
AIPAC's PAC has given Bell $2,526,337 out of $4,077,744 raised through June in the #MO01 Democratic primary against Rep. Cori Bush.
readsludge.com/2024/05/02/he…
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That's just the start—AIPAC's PAC donated to over 400 more lawmakers and groups in the 2024 elections.
🔎 Search the data table here to see how much AIPAC's PAC gave to members of Congress, leadership PACs, and party committees:
readsludge.com/2025/01/24/he…
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NEW: Democratic representative and 2020 hopeful @TulsiGabbard is an advisor at a Charles-Koch funded university center.
The center's director has ties to neo-Confederate figures. readsludge.com/2019/02/27/de…
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Andrew Yang's campaign is being run by former lobbyists for the city's largest police union. The NYPD is the third largest source of spending, with policing and corrections more than four times the amount spent on homelessness and housing development.
thebrick.house/how-michael-b…
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We just took a voyage through the worlds of Joseph Pizza, Mar-a-Lago neighbor and big Trump donor.
Our readers support our muckraking this election year—let's keep digging, join us as a $5-a-month member: readsludge.com/join
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NEW DATA: At least 100 members of the House are personally invested in the fossil fuel industry. Use this interactive map to see if your representative owns fossil fuel stocks and which companies they are invested in. readsludge.com/2020/01/23/is…
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Richard Blumenthal's spouse recently invested up to $2.25 million in a hedge fund whose holdings include Charter Communications, PayPal, Microsoft, and Google. The senator sits on a subcommittee overseeing the cable industry and internet policy.
thebrick.house/blumenthals-s…
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