Thread by @Cajsa

I always enjoyed the fact that much of Republican political giving goes to enrich con artists who grift off their hate, outrage, & racism. Since Richard Viguerie made millions, scam fundraising has been the usual practice on the right. With Viguerie, 10 to 15% went to candidates

Once Viguerie billed an organization 889K and raised 802K, but they got the word out, didn't they? "The Long Con" gives you an idea of the scope and longevity of conmen grifting off the rightwing.
thebaffler.com/salvos/the-lon…

This is a long read, but worth it for its exposure of how much the figures on the right enrich themselves by scaring people. They also found sham organizations that did nothing more than raise funds, pretending their letters were their work
chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-19…

New regulations about joint fundraising costs reduce the ability to label the entire cost of a fundraising letter as program, but with joint allocation of costs, all they have to do is add "call your legislator" and they can again call their fundraising program work.

There are a lot of PACs that scam donors, providing a good living and plenty of money for rightwing grifters and very little for candidates. Republicans for Choice, for example, only spent 5% on candidates
publicintegrity.org/federal-politi…

And certainly the right lamented the scams, but few openly denounced them. I always loved them since it meant candidates had less money, the money going to the conmen rather than the candidates
redstate.com/erick/2014/12/…

It costs nothing to get an FEIN, open a bank account and start a PAC - and then the scam pacs go to town
opensecrets.org/news/2018/04/s…

But now I think Democrats are being scammed, too.
medium.com/@investigator_…

I talked about this last year - when I went through and screenshot some of their FEC filing

https://twitter.com/Cajsa/status/1021178712144764928

So....I recommend giving to the DNC, the DCCC, the DSCC, or to candidates you support directly, not through some new PAC, except those you know have a history of really supporting candidates

Use ACTBlue that limits its fees, but if an organization or individual links you to a candidate to donate, make sure they have not set it up so they get a portion.
thedailybeast.com/political-mone…

And if you want your candidate to get more money, make one $5 dollar donation rather than 5 $1 donations. Bernie wants to game his donations to make them look smaller and so people donate 2.70 100 times, but...

for someone who hates banks, he sure is enriching them
politico.com/news/magazine/…