By Jason Hancock | Editor-in-Chief
Good morning,
Missouri has already seen what can happen when online political donations start running on autopilot.
Earlier this year, lawmakers tightened state campaign finance law after our reporting showed a 92-year-old Nebraska veteran had unknowingly become a repeat donor to former state Sen. Bill Eigel. Candidates here now have to get clear consent for recurring donations and stop them after an election.
Federal campaigns play by different rules.
In a new story this morning, Rudi Keller reports that U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt’s campaign has received three letters from the FEC raising questions about donations from 13 people whose names appear nearly 5,700 times in his reports.
One Texas woman alone appears more than 1,000 times.
None of that proves wrongdoing. But the sheer volume offers a remarkable look at how modern online fundraising works — and how difficult it can be to tell where aggressive fundraising ends and a problem begins.
(Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent)
by Rudi Keller
The records offer a window into the increasingly automated world of online political fundraising, where a small number of donors can generate thousands of transactions and campaigns must keep track of whether those contributions exceed federal limits.
(photo provided by STL From Above)
by Anna Spoerre
With a statewide vote on the line and national fights around mifepristone, the Missouri Abortion Fund has launched a campaign to remind Missourians they “always have options.”
(Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
COMMENTARY
by Doug Wojcieszak
A strengthened focus on financial literacy while re-thinking foreign language requirements should be also at the top of any reform list.
NATIONAL HEADLINES
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