Filing day. The most recent national fundraising numbers are in, covering the month of February. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new with the Trump and Biden campaigns and the national party committees—how much they raised and spent, and what they’ve got on hand. TL;DR: The Biden campaign has $71 million on hand, more than double the Trump campaign. (Yesterday, Reese Gorman and I reported that Trump’s “Save America” PAC/legal slush fund is now racking up legal costs at the rate of more than $230,000 per day.) The same partisan cash disparity also holds for the national parties—the Democratic National Committee has $26.5 million on hand, more than double the Republican National Committee’s $11.3 million. (More than $4 million of that RNC total was raised into accounts that cannot be used for political activity.) Biden campaign: Raised: $21.3 million Spent: $6.2 million Cash on hand: $71 million Trump campaign: Raised: $10.8 million Spent: $7.8 million COH: $33.5 million Democratic National Committee: Raised: $16.6 million Spent: $14.1 million COH: $26.5 million Republican National Committee: Raised: $10.6 million Spent: $8 million COH: $11.3 million National Republican Congressional Committee: Raised: $8.1 million Spent: $5.8 million COH: $45.2 million Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: Raised: $14.5 million Spent: $7.2 million COH: $59.2 million National Republican Senatorial Committee: Raised: $13.1 million Spent: $6.5 million COH: $24.8 million Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee: Raised: $9.5 million Spent: $4.6 million COH: $31.9 million Well done. Indicted Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) raised exactly zero dollars into his leadership PAC last month, according to a new FEC filing. However, the PAC did shell out $589.32 for a catering expense to upscale D.C. haunt Morton’s Steakhouse. The PAC also paid $3,000 for fundraising consulting services that appear to have yielded no results. Five days after that reporting period ended, Menendez and his wife were hit with yet another superseding indictment, the fourth set of charges in the case since September. (It’s the fifth total Menendez indictment if you include the one from 2015, where he was ultimately found not guilty.) Prosecutors added a dozen new charges, bringing the total facing the couple to 18—including bribery, wire fraud, extortion, and acting as a foreign agent. Menendez stepped down as chair of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee after charges were first announced in September, and on Thursday he announced that he would not seek re-election this year in the Democratic primary—though he left the door open for an independent bid. His trial is scheduled for May. iHeart money. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has argued that his podcast deal with corporate radio giant iHeart Media does not violate Senate ethics rules, with a campaign spokesperson telling Forbes in December 2022 that there’s “no difference” between running a personal podcast and other media appearances, like a cable news interview. But filings from a super PAC aligned with Cruz show at least one major difference—profit. A lot of it. On Wednesday, that super PAC—called “Truth and Courage”—reported a $215,000 payment from iHeart Media, described as “digital revenue.” That brings the super PAC’s total payments from iHeart up to more than $615,000 since the podcast partnership launched in early 2023. Because super PACs are supposed to be independent from candidates, Cruz’s deal raises serious ethical questions; the profits also essentially reflect the candidate providing the super PAC with a massive revenue stream. But, as real Pay Dirt heads already know, Cruz has always been remarkably synched up with Truth and Courage. They share a number of the same donors and consultants—even paying some of the same local restaurants—and partnered in a fundraising bus tour during the 2022 midterms. That same year, Truth and Courage paid more than $1.5 million for “media production” services to Reagan Investments, the entity that formerly produced the podcast, called “Verdict With Ted Cruz.” After inking the deal with iHeart in early 2023, those payments began flowing to a Houston-based media firm called “The Production Companies, Inc.” So far, Truth and Courage has paid that company around $270,000—less than half of the $615,000 that the podcast has earned the super PAC over that same period. In confirming the podcast partnership to Forbes in 2022, an iHeart Media spokesperson claimed that the Texas conservative was volunteering his time, without providing further detail about the agreement. No limit. The National Republican Senatorial Committee—the Senate GOP’s official campaign arm—is asking the courts to remove the limits on how much money it can spend in “coordinated party expenditures” with its Senate candidates. The NRSC—which can currently spend up to $1.1 million in coordinated party expenditures backing a GOP Senate nominee—sued the FEC to settle the question, and the case is currently in front of the Sixth Circuit of Appeals. Earlier this month, however, Ohio Attorney General David Yost (R) filed an amicus brief in the case, which was joined by other attorneys general from a dozen safely red states. Yost argued in part that the cap should be lifted because political parties have lost influence in modern elections, claiming that these entities are less prone to corruption than more lightly regulated groups like super PACs, which can raise and spend money in unlimited amounts.
In an ironic bit of timing, Yost filed that brief almost one year to the day after the former chair of the Ohio Republican Party was convicted on corruption charges related to a $60 million bribery scheme. Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was also convicted, and the two men were sentenced last year. After the convictions, Yost issued a statement applauding the verdicts and stating that his office’s work was far from over, vowing justice for other people involved in the scandal.
| 