Joe Manchin announced today that he will not run for re-election, amplifying speculation that he could run for President in 2024 on a bipartisan No Labels ticket.

Here’s what we know about who’s running No Labels, who’s funding it, and more.🧵 A disclosure posted earlier this year showed the group has been fundraising for its presidential plans from corporate executives, many of whom sit atop private equity firms.
readsludge.com/2023/06/26/cor…

Facing pressure from regulators over its damaging environmental impacts, the Burning Man Project has paid $360,000 since 2019 for federal lobbying to a firm that works for oil companies like Occidental Petroleum and chemical companies like Dow.

Earlier today, activists who were urging Burning Man to ban single-use plastics and private jets at the festival had their blockade plowed down by police.

https://twitter.com/MichelleLhooq/status/1695952716915450301

Some donors in Kyrsten Sinema's $1.6 million haul in Q1:

- Billionaire Jeffery Hildebrand, cofounder of oil exploration company Hilcorp, and his wife Melinda donated $11,600.

Last election cycle, he gave over $1 million to GOP groups, including the Senate Leadership Fund. Last year, the Texas billionaire Jeffery Hildebrand made his first donations to a Democrat—Sen. Joe Manchin—after hundreds of donations to Republican candidates and party groups.

readsludge.com/2021/11/16/rep…

🚨 Joe Manchin's top donors in Q1 of this year were employees of utility company NextEra Energy, according to a review of his new FEC filing.

Nearly two dozen employees donated at least $52,000 to Manchin, after not contributing to his campaign in the previous two cycles. (1/x) Manchin dealt the decisive blow last year to the major Clean Energy Performance Program (CEPP) that aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. (2/x)

readsludge.com/2022/01/30/man…

NEW: Nearly a quarter of U.S. House members are invested in the fossil fuel industry. Several of the top oil and gas company stockholders in Congress purchased shares in pipeline companies before the infrastructure bill was signed into law.

readsludge.com/2021/12/29/at-… As the House was debating the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better Act, Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) was buying and selling stock in pipeline companies like Enable Midstream, NuStar Energy, and up to $1 million in midstream company MPLX.

readsludge.com/2021/12/29/at-…

Our two-person newsroom worked hard in 2021 to publish more than 240 money-in-politics investigations and news reports. Here's some of the work we're proud of.

First up, we revealed the lawmakers invested in the booming stocks of defense contractors. readsludge.com/2021/08/23/law… We examined DNC Chair Jaime Harrison’s slate of DNC nominees and found it included corporate lobbyists, consultants, and executives, including partners at firms that represent fossil fuel, pharmaceutical companies, and defense companies. readsludge.com/2021/10/08/har…

Manchin added $11.3 billion in funding for waste coal removal to the infrastructure bill, the niche of his family company's business, that he pushed to pass before striking down the Build Back Better Act.

readsludge.com/2021/10/09/fou… As governor in 2006, Manchin oversaw a bailout of the power plant that pays his family company Enersystems millions every year through a prime fuel servicing contract. The heavily-polluting plant is the only one in the state equipped to burn waste coal.

readsludge.com/2021/08/06/man…

Nancy Pelosi this week rejected the idea of banning members of Congress and their spouses from holding and trading corporate stocks.

The Pelosis are prolific stock traders with holdings of up to $25 million apiece in Apple, Amazon, and Visa. readsludge.com/2021/08/16/pel… Earlier this year, a committee Pelosi controls blocked the House from voting on amendments to ban members of Congress from trading stocks. readsludge.com/2021/03/04/pel…

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/man… Enersystems, the coal brokerage that Manchin founded in 1988, has held a fuel services agreement with the waste coal-fired Grant Town Power Plant for a number of years, providing him with over $4.5 million in income since he joined the Senate.

readsludge.com/2021/07/01/man…

You may have seen our finding going around that at least 15 members of Congress hold corporate board seats.

Here’s a thread on some of those members and what companies they are affiliated with.

The original article is here: readsludge.com/2021/02/10/rep… Rep. Bill Keating (D-Ma.) is a board member at Sharon Credit Union, which has about a dozen branches in eastern Massachusetts.

Keating has taken lobbying meetings with the credit union industry recently to discuss issues like the Bank Secrecy Act. ccua.org/dailyscan/arti…

At least five Republicans received approval for PPP loans from individuals who had given them campaign contributions or banks whose PACs gave.

Rep. Brett Guthrie's $4.37 million PPP loan was approved by Franklin Bank, whose director had donated to him.

readsludge.com/2020/12/24/mem… Rep. Kevin Hern received a $1.07 million loan for his food & beverage pass-through corporation. He has received $5400 in contributions since 2017 from the president and CEO at American Bank & Trust, which approved the loan. The corporation manages 15 McDonald's in the Tulsa area.

Our two-person newsroom worked hard in 2020 to publish hundreds of impactful stories on money in politics. Here's some of the work we're proud of.

First up, we scraped disclosures to create a comprehensive list of Congress' fossil fuel investments. readsludge.com/2020/01/03/mem… We analyzed defense PAC money and found that the Democrats who oppose modest cuts to the Pentagon budget rely more heavily on defense industry cash for their campaigns. readsludge.com/2020/07/22/dem…

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/her… @PeteButtigieg Alexandra Walsh and Beth Wilkinson, D.C. attorneys who represented Brett Kavanaugh in his Supreme Court confirmation hearings amidst accusations of sexual assault.

Walsh co-hosted a @PeteButtigieg fundraiser in July; the law partners' max donations were returned last month.

NEW: GOP Sen. Mike Braun is co-founding the bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus, but he's accepted $119,000 in donations from PACs of energy & natural resources companies including Alliance Coal, Koch Industries & ExxonMobil since 2017. readsludge.com/2019/10/25/cli… Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, the other co-founder, has received $63,000 in campaign & leadership PAC donations from energy & natural resources companies, including ExxonMobil this year. readsludge.com/2019/10/25/cli…

🚨SCOOP🚨 Facebook is making millions of dollars in ad revenue from @splcenter-designated hate groups.

Our investigation finds that at least 38 hate groups & hate leaders have paid Facebook $1.6 million since May 2018. readsludge.com/2019/09/25/fac… @splcenter Despite Facebook's anti-hate speech policy, numerous hate groups remain on the platform.

The reason appears to revolve around its contrasting definitions of hate speech and hate groups it uses for enforcement. readsludge.com/2019/09/25/fac…

JUST IN: As the Senate fails to act on catastrophic climate change, nearly one-third of its members are profiting from investments in oil, gas, and coal companies that are fueling the crisis. #CoveringClimateNow readsludge.com/2019/09/24/fac… Twenty-nine senators and their spouses own between $3.5 million and $13.9 million worth of stock in companies that extract, transport, or burn fossil fuels, or provide services to fossil fuel companies, according to a Sludge analysis of personal financial filings as of Aug. 16.

MEGATHREAD:

As the Trump admin detains immigrants and children in squalid conditions, hundreds of companies and nonprofits are making money by contracting with ICE, CPB, and HHS for detention, transportation, surveillance, and other services.

Sludge has the receipts. The government’s deportation force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), contracts with hundreds of for-profit and nonprofit corporations. Sludge mapped out the contractors so you can see which ones are near you. readsludge.com/2018/07/06/who…

🚨𝙎𝙇𝙐𝘿𝙂𝙀 𝙍𝙀𝙋𝙊𝙍𝙏🚨

Thread: This week's top 10 "sludgiest" people in politics! readsludge.com/2019/03/14/slu…

10. 𝗘𝗗 𝗥𝗢𝗬𝗖𝗘, former California GOP rep, has already joined a corporate lobbying firm after leaving Congress in January. 9. 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗢𝗕 𝗖𝗢𝗥𝗞𝗘𝗥, former Tennessee GOP senator

Five former Corker staffers have started a Tennessee-based lobbying firm.
readsludge.com/2019/03/14/slu…

REPORT: Four "donor-advised funds," including the largest charity in the country, are routing millions of dollars to dozens of @splcenter-designated hate groups each year from anonymous donors. readsludge.com/2019/02/19/ame… @splcenter Recipients of these donations include 12 anti-Muslim groups, 12 anti-LGBT groups, and even the white nationalist VDARE Foundation.

The funds don't appear to have effective policies, or none at all, on donations to hate groups. readsludge.com/2019/02/19/ame…