A new Op-Ed by CLC Senior Researcher Roger Wieand, published by Newsday, examines tactics deployed in the special election to replace ousted Rep. George Santos that appear deliberately designed to undermine transparency.
Voters have a right to know which wealthy special interests are spending big money to secretly influence their vote and our government, but groups in recent years have taken increasingly brazen steps to deprive voters of that right and spend money in secret.
A recent analysis by Campaign Legal Center of the special election in New York's 3rd Congressional District - a race prompted by the expulsion of former Rep. George Santos - found that a super PAC called "Secure NYS PAC" found ways to undermine federal law and avoid disclosing the sources of its funding until after votes had been cast.
As Roger states in the recently-published Op-Ed, "By strategically timing its creation and funding around federal reporting deadlines, Secure NYS PAC was able to conceal from voters almost everyone who was giving it money to defeat Suozzi. When New Yorkers went to the polls on Feb. 13, just $125,000 of Secure NYS PAC’s donations had been made public. The names of other contributors, like billionaire political donors Ronald Lauder, Stephen Schwarzman, and Kenneth Langone, were effectively kept secret until after the election."
You can read the full Op-Ed here, and learn more about secret spending - sometimes called "dark money - here.
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