The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for March 27, 2023
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
Open Secrets – Dark Money Basics
Brennan Center for Justice – Dark Money in the 2020 Election
Issue One – What is Dark Money?
Issue One – Dark Money & Super PACs
National Conference of State Legislatures – Campaign Contribution Limits: Overview
National Conference of State Legislatures- State Limits on Contributions to Candidates
Groups Taking Action
End Citizens United, Common Cause, Issue One, Public Citizen, Free Speech for People, People for the American Way
Today’s Script: (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time)
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
We continue our series on Dark Money today, focusing on Limited Liability corporations, or LLCs, commonly used for organizing small businesses. But LLCs can also be used to hide political donations from the public.
In most states, other than the original corporate registration, LLCs are not required to disclose their “member” shareholders. The IRS treats LLCs as a partnership, so for a FEDERAL candidate campaign donation, each shareholder of the LLC must account for it in their $3,300 dollar maximum contribution. Instead, in federal races, LLCs are more often used to funnel money to SuperPACs, where only the LLC’s name needs to be reported. There, the money gets bundled to buy negative ads or other activities in support of a campaign.
For STATE races in over half of the country, LLCs CAN make contributions DIRECTLY to candidates. In some states this means unlimited contributions, and others the individual limit, with no requirement to disclose shareholders. LLCs can also contribute to PACs, SuperPACs, and Dark Money groups like 501c(4)s.
Like other forms of Dark Money, LLCs are tools for political operatives to keep YOU from knowing who is influencing your government.
A few states, like Arizona and New York, are attempting to force LLCs to disclose their members’ donations, trying to close what’s called the “LLC Loophole.” More on that in our next report.
We have detailed explainers and resources at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.
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