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More from @Villgecrazylady

Mel

@Villgecrazylady

Mar 19

⚡️Campaign Finance🧵: Adam Kinzinger

Have you ever wondered what becomes of socially awkward politicians with no marketable skills, aside from crying on cue, when they are gerrymandered out of public office?

Better yet, do you ever wonder what happens to all the leftover campaign $$ they bilked out of pussy-hat wearing cat ladies in the name of saving our Democracy™?

If the answer is yes, this one’s for you!

Prior to finding fame in the J6 fallout, the most remarkable thing about Mr. Kinzinger was just how unremarkable his congressional career had been.

Despite representing the reddest district in IL Kinzinger prided himself on being a bipartisan stooge at every turn.

He co-authored a few pieces of legislation, notably the 2016 Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act, aimed at “stoping Russian interference into our elections” but that’s about it.

Read 28 tweets

Mel

@Villgecrazylady

Mar 12

⚡️Campaign Finance🧵: Campaign Committees

If you want to follow the money in politics you have to know all the places to look 👀

A crash course in campaign committees you probably didn’t even know existed 👇

One common misconception abt campaign finance is that the Citizens United ruling allows the rich to give as much💰as they want to politicians for their campaigns. This is false.

Campaign contribution limits are still firmly in place & are capped @ $6,600 total for the 2024 cycle

So how do our corrupt politicians get around that? You already know about ghost donors, but allow me to introduce you to the perfectly legal world of “Campaign Committes.”

First up: Joint Fundraising Committees aka JFC(s)

Read 18 tweets

Mel

@Villgecrazylady

Mar 6

You know what I find super impressive?! The fact that @AdamSchiff was able to raise over $31 million for his Senate campaign in just 13 months despite the fact that 65% of his donors report being unemployed.

This, after he just finished raising $23.6 million for his 2022 House race where, again, 64% of his donors reported being unemployed.

Serious question? Why does an 11 term Congressman in a D+23 district need to raise $23.6 million from mostly unemployed Americans… and then spend over $17 million to win reelection in a race where all the other candidates combined raised less than $200,000?

You’ll notice it says $18.2 million in disbursements but that number includes $175 k in refunds & another million in donations to other campaigns. Yes, that’s right, Schiff gave less than 5% of what he raised away to help other candidates.

With this kind of ludicrously wasteful campaign spending on himself, you’d be forgiven for mistaking him for a Republican!

https://twitter.com/truthninja316/status/1765412980739727677

Not according to his filings. His 2022 filings say his principle campaign only took in $504k in PAC $ and just 11% of his total raised came from donations >$2,000.

No, it appears our man Adam is a true man of the people… King of the “small dollar donor,” you could say! 😏

https://twitter.com/truthninja316/status/1765412980739727677

Read 4 tweets

Mel

@Villgecrazylady

Feb 27

⚡️Campaign Finance 🧵: Letitia James

When I got asked to look into Letitia James’ financials last week, I really wasn’t expecting to find much. As you probably know, James is the Attorney General of New York who just secured a $454 million judgement against Donald Trump.

James was elected as the NY AG in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. Prior to that James was the NYC “public advocate” for 4 years and a NYC city council member for 8 years prior to that. Prior to elected office she was a public defender for Legal Aid.

IOW Letitia James is a lifelong public servant and other than a mishap in the 2010s where she neglected to list the Brooklyn brownstone she owns & rents out on her financial disclosure forms, she hasn’t had any public scandals.

Read 24 tweets

Mel

@Villgecrazylady

Feb 18

Y’all want to see what a ghost donor bot looks like?

Here’s the data from a 65 yo retired man living in a 962 sq ft house in Clawson, Michigan.

From 2019-2023 the FEC has recorded him making over 15,600 separate donations to political campaigns.

The list below shows the receiving campaign, the # of donations made and the total amount donated from 2019-2023

This list is just Presidential, Senate & House campaigns. It does not include the 5,000+ donations “he” made to Joint Fundraising Committees or the 1,000+ donations “he” made to leadership committees.

Now ask yourself this… who makes 517 different donations to Tim Scott’s presidential campaign and then turns around and makes 557 separate donations to Nikki Haley’s campaign?

Read 13 tweets

Mel

@Villgecrazylady

Dec 1, 2023

Dan Crenshaw spent over $2 million dollars on “events” and event related services, like event make-up and jet rentals, in the 2022 cycle.

He spent over $500,000 on travel. Including $47,000 on black car rentals.

Crenshaw spent $200,000 on promotional eyepatches and glassware.

He billed his campaign $36,000 for “petty cash”

He spent $166,000 on hotels, most of them luxury hotels, in vacation destinations like Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Coronado Beach, California.

All in all, Crenshaw spent over $14 million from his primary campaign fund to win reelection in his R+18 district. His Democrat opponent spent less than $200,000.

None of the numbers below include the expenses he billed for in his Joint Fundraising Committee (another $1.8 million) or his Leadership PAC ($75,000).

And I’m supposed to care about George Santos? At least George Santos did something impressive with his campaign funds: unseat a 3 term Dem incumbent in a D+2 district.

Richard Hudson spent $1.8 million to get re-elected in his R+9 district in 2022. His Democrat opponent spent $90,000. Since his re-election was a forgone conclusion, Hudson didn’t bother with silly things like renting a campaign office. Instead he spent his money “consulting.”

And travel. And a rental car. Somehow Hudson ran up $44,000 in rental car bills… almost like his campaign was paying for him to use a rental car full time🤔

Hudson also had a few luxury hotels billed to his account, and his campaign paid $1,200 for a ski lift in Telluride at one of these “campaign events.”

He billed his campaign $28,000 for challenge coins- whatever the fvck those are?

And of course, there’s the $25,839 he billed for his custom campaign apparel from Vineyard Vines.

Weird how I’m supposed to be mad that George Santos spent $6,000 at Ferragamo but totally cool with Dickie Hudson dropping $25,000 on Vineyard Vines?

Steve Scalise has already used his campaign funds to spend $1,141,819 on “travel/facility rentals/catering/food/beverages” in just the first 9 months of this year. A company called Strategic Advance Services bills Scalise’s Leadership campaign anywhere from $40,000 to $250,000 per month for these services. On what planet is it morally acceptable for a sitting member of Congress to bill his campaign an average of over $100,000/month for food and travel?

Steve Scalise’s 3 campaign funds spent over $27 million dollars in the 2022 cycle on crap like this 👇 but please, tell me more about George Santos’ one night in Vegas

Read 4 tweets

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