NEW: Leonard Leo’s Concord Fund’s $1 million contribution to the Republican Attorneys General Association in the first quarter of 2024 again makes it the top donor to the pay-to-play group. exposedbycmd.org/2024/04/16/leo… The $1 mil contribution from Leo's The Concord Fund (formerly registered as the Judicial Crisis Network) brings the total it has donated to the Republican Attorneys General Association to $17.8 million since it was first registered with the IRS in 2014, CMD has calculated.

NEW: GOP megadonor Richard Uihlein provided his Restoration PAC with $3.1 mil in the first quarter of 2024, according to the FEC filing released today.
exposedbycmd.org/2024/04/15/gop… The owner of ULINE, a shipping and packaging company, gave $2.4 mil to the PAC directly and funneled another $742,503 through his Restoration of America and Fair Courts America groups.

NEW LEO GROUP: Leonard Leo has registered a new fictitious name under his Concord Fund: American Parents Coalition Action. This was filed two days after Rolling Stone reported that Leo's network registered "American Parents Coalition."
rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
According to this press release, American Parents Coalition was founded to "put parents back in the driver's seat through public policy efforts," and its first campaign is to demonize TikTok through a seven figure "TikTok is poison" campaign.
prnewswire.com/news-releases/…

NEW: The Bradley Foundation and its “aligned” donor advised fund funneled a total of $86.4 mil to right-wing litigation outlets, national & state policy groups, media outlets, youth groups, & higher ed in 2022, according to new IRS filings obtained by CMD.
exposedbycmd.org/2023/12/13/bra… Bradley doled out a total of $32.5 mil in grants to right-wing litigation and legal groups in 2022, CMD calculated in analyzing the most recent filings. Of that, the largest grant of the year —  $27.1 mil — went to America First Legal.

PUBLISHED: The Center for Media and Democracy has published a copy of the State Financial Officers Foundation 2022 National Meeting agenda prepared for Louisiana Treasurer John Schroder that we obtained through a public records request with his office.
documentcloud.org/documents/2358… CMD first reported on the State Financial Officers Foundation's meeting agenda back in early November, but did not publish the full agenda at that time.
exposedbycmd.org/2022/11/03/rep…

BREAKING: The Christian Right Council for National Policy’s Conservative Action Project calls for new House leadership. Ken Blackwell, Cleta Mitchell, and Ginni Thomas among those that signed the letter. conservativeactionproject.com/conservatives-… In May 2021, Blackwell facilitated an “Action Session” at CNP’s 40th anniversary meeting on how to combat the national voting rights effort, featuring U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential electoral college results, and Mitchell.

American Juris Link, which its founder & president Carrie Ann Donnell describes as "basically like the SPN for litigators," disclosed $780K in revenue in 2021 on its latest IRS filing obtained by CMD.
documentcloud.org/documents/2346… CMD first exposed American Juris Link in February 2021 as actively working to track and support right-wing legal challenges to upend COVID-19 health restrictions, fight workers’ rights to unionize, and coordinate legal strategies and amici on the Right.
exposedbycmd.org/2021/02/15/new…

SCOOP: Center for Media and Democracy & @ClimateConnor have obtained the latest IRS filings of the Koch political network & we are publishing them today.1) The Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, which brought in $325.8 mil in 2021 up from $204 mil in 2020
documentcloud.org/documents/2345… Stand Together Chamber of Commerce distributed $106.2 million in grants in 2021 with the largest grant of $102 million going to the Koch's astroturf operation Americans for Prosperity.

SCOOP: Two ALEC panels comprised of industry lobbyists and GOP legislators, its task forces on Energy, Environment, and Agriculture & Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development, voted to adopt the model Eliminate Political Boycotts Act, CMD has learned.
exposedbycmd.org/2022/12/09/ale… While the agenda for the EEA Task Force meeting didn’t list a sponsor, Rep Dennis Paul (TX-R) introduced the model bill, according to an email Jason Isaac, director of Life:Powered at TPPF, sent to task force members encouraging them to vote in favor of it
documentcloud.org/documents/2340…

NEW: GOP megadonor and ULINE CEO Richard Uihlein injected his Restoration PAC with another $7.1 mil btw July & September to help elect right-wing Republicans, bringing his total funding for the super PAC this cycle to $20.8 mil, 97% of its total revenues.
exposedbycmd.org/2022/10/18/uli… The PAC is part of Restoration of America, an umbrella group run by Republican operative Doug Truax and funded by Uihlein. It also includes Restoration Action, Foundation for the Restoration of America, Voter Reference Foundation, and Fair Courts America.

NEW: The American Legislative Exchange Council held its third known voter suppression summit for state lawmakers on July 25 and 26 preceding its annual meeting in Atlanta, the Center for Media and Democracy has learned.
#ALECExposed
exposedbycmd.org/2022/10/14/ale… ALEC invited 15 legislators to participate in the 2 day event with “policy experts” to focus on “the biggest challenges for the next electoral year,” & to equip lawmakers “with the resources to combat unfair practices," an email obtained by CMD details.
documentcloud.org/documents/2313…

NEW: The right-wing State Policy Network & its state-based affiliates now collectively bring in $152 million annually in revenue. This represents a 27% increase over the $120 million CMD calculated the network brought in almost three years ago. exposedbycmd.org/2022/09/30/sta… State Policy Network groups play an integral role in making sure that legislation gets passed in state houses—by providing academic legitimacy when called upon to testify at hearings, producing “studies” or model legislation, and attracting media attention.

NEW: The ALEC faithful descend on Atlanta this week to take on "woke capitalism," women's right to abortion, voting rights, China, Big Tech, the administrative state, and more. Check out what's on the agenda.
#ALECExposed #AM2022
exposedbycmd.org/2022/07/27/aba… The meeting kicked off last night w/ a celebration of the SCOTUS’s recent ruling on Roe v. Wade over “late night dessert and coffee” w/the extremist anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which is now seeking a total ban on abortion in every state, w/no exceptions

NEW: ALEC has taken a clear position in favor of the #SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, & has teamed up with the political arm of the extremist anti-abortion movement to coach its legislative members on how to campaign on the issue.
#ALECExposed
exposedbycmd.org/2022/07/01/ale… Former WI Gov. Walker (R) joined Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, formerly known as Susan B. Anthony List, to train ALEC’s state leadership on how to talk about banning abortion in the upcoming elections, according to materials reviewed by the Center for Media and Democracy

BREAKING: The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) brought in $4.8 million in contributions in the first three months of 2022, an Internal Revenue Service filing examined by the Center for Media and Democracy details.
exposedbycmd.org/2022/04/20/rag… RAGA‘s 1st quarter filing raises questions about the “nearly $6 million” in funds it claimed to have raised over the period shared with Fox Business for an Apr. 7 report.
foxbusiness.com/politics/repub…

NEW: Gov. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) hosts the "Stop 30x30 Summit" in Lincoln, Nebraska on April 22. The 30x30 plan has a goal of protecting at least 30% of America's lands and waters by 2030. Yes, it’s really being held on #EarthDay2022.
#ClimateEmergency
exposedbycmd.org/2022/04/19/rep… American Stewards of Liberty, a Texas-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting private property rights, fighting the “radical environmental movement,” & delisting endangered species, has organized and promoted the Summit.

SCOOP: CMD has learned that the dark money group the Honest Elections Project and the Heritage Foundation will hold a Secretaries of State Conference in DC on April 12-13, 2022. CMD has obtained a “Save the Date” for the event.
documentcloud.org/documents/2156… In addition to pushing misinformation about voter fraud, Honest Elections Project has placed ads opposing mail-in balloting and advocated for purging voter rolls. It is also developing model voter suppression policies for the American Legislative Exchange Council.

SCOOP: The $1.5 billion Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, a major funder of rightwing groups promoting the Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election, distributed $3.7 million to 13 voter suppression groups between 2018 and 2020, CMD has found.
exposedbycmd.org/2022/03/28/rev… In addition, the Foundation’s IRS filings for those three years detail $24 million in contributions to DonorsTrust, the preferred donor conduit of the Koch political network. DonorsTrust pumped over $137 million into rightwing groups in 2020 alone.
exposedbycmd.org/2021/11/19/dar…

REVEALED: New leaders of CNP met in Feb. & laid out plans for influencing this year’s midterm elections, abolishing abortion rights, defunding the left, limiting China’s influence, and countering a topic of great concern to Republicans: “wokeness.”
exposedbycmd.org/2022/03/11/rev… The program for the February meeting offers the first glimpse of the secretive group’s high-level members and leaders since CMD published its September 2020 Membership Directory, provided by open source intelligence researcher @BrentAllpress.

SCOOP: Insurrectionist attorney and voter suppression advocate Cleta Mitchell is holding election integrity summits in Georgia (2/18-2/19); Florida (3/25-3/26), and Pennsylvania (3/31). Mark Meadows is the keynote speaker for the Georgia event.
whoscounting.us/event/georgia-… The events will focus on: "Forming State and Local Election Integrity Task Forces;” "Recruiting & Training Election Workers & Poll Watchers;” "Citizen Oversight of Voting Software, Equipment & Systems;” "Cleaning up voter rolls;” "Understanding absentee voting;” and more.

NEW: ALEC’s “Critical Energy Theory” bills are moving in Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, all with sponsors tied to ALEC.
#ALECExposed #ClimateEmergency
exposedbycmd.org/2022/02/08/ale… CMD has learned that model bill was introduced at an ALEC EEA Task Force subcommittee meeting by Michigan Rep. Phil Green (R) on Nov. 19. I reached out to his office for comment but haven’t received a response.
documentcloud.org/documents/2120…