Thread by @kenvogel

Democrats complained for years about secretive political spending.

But in 2020, as they worked to beat Trump & take the Senate, they outpaced Republicans in “dark money,” @ShaneGoldmacher & I found in a @nytimes analysis.

Free link for non-subscribers: nytimes.com/2022/01/29/us/…

Our analysis found that 15 of the most politically active nonprofits that generally align with Democrats spent more than $1.5 BILLION in 2020, compared to roughly $900 million spent by a comparable sample of 15 of the most politically active groups aligned with Republicans.

So-called "dark money" is difficult to track & quantify.

We spent a lot of time honing our methodology, but we acknowledge it is imperfect for reasons I detail in the linked thread.

We welcome your thoughts on what we could have done differently.

https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/1487472901335011328

We anticipate disagreements about our methodology & application.

But strategists from both parties generally agreed in interviews with our conclusion that the left outpaced the right in secretive nonprofit spending & sophistication in 2020.

One of the main reasons: TRUMP.

Some Dem donors have cast secretive political spending as a corruption of democracy.

But they viewed a prospective 2nd Trump term as even more of a threat, so they embraced dark money as a means to an end.

Also: some welcomed anonymity as a way to avoid being targeted by Trump.

The left's dark money surge wasn't only from the usual suspects.

New donors & groups joined in.

A new nonprofit with ties to increasingly active tech billionaires, @futureforwardus, raised $150M in 2020.

@OpenSecretsDC examined the group & its super PAC opensecrets.org/news/2020/10/p…

As Rob Stein (founder of the DEMOCRACY ALLIANCE & one of the architects of today’s big-money left) told me:

“A range of donors — not just traditional progressive Democrats — had a wake-up call around 2019 where they realized that our constitutional republic was at risk…"

But Democrats’ success in harnessing secretive nonprofit spending in 2020 exposed the tension between their efforts to win elections & their commitment to curtail secretive political spending by the superrich.

Here's a nice look at that tension by @rmc031 prospect.org/power/democrat…

Another factor: leading GOP donors & operatives were conflicted over whether & how to support Trump.

Evidence: groups devoted to GOP congressional candidates were financially competitive with Dem counterparts, but groups devoted to Trump got trounced by those boosting Biden.

Both parties are aggressively raising dark money headed into the midterms.

Democrats are urging their donors not to give in to complacency.

And groups affiliated with GOP congressional leaders raised big sums in 2021 (per @PunchbowlNews & @foxnews). foxbusiness.com/politics/senat…

Meanwhile, watchdogs warn the continued growth of dark money could further undermine trust in our political system.

Dem legislation to require more disclosure was included in the voting & election overhaul legislation that failed in the Senate this month. nytimes.com/2022/01/19/us/…