No Labels introduced yesterday it was standing down from its plans to run a third-party presidential ticket after it couldn’t discover candidates to hold its banner.
For the reason that begin of final yr, Sludge has centered on digging into the group’s paperwork. In a collection of tales, we uncovered the intensive company ties of No Labels’ D.C. leaders, named extra of its billionaire funders, and revealed the businesses which have given it donations.
We do that work as a two-person muckraking newsroom. We web page via far-flung filings, analysis the folks and organizations affiliated with Large Cash pursuits, and ship out what we discover to newsreaders such as you.
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When No Labels claimed it didn’t settle for company funding, Sludge confirmed that they had, in reality, for over a decade, with donors together with utility corporations PG&E and Sempra, Fortune 500 corporations Coca-Cola and Qualcomm, and oil & gasoline exploration firm Pioneer Pure Sources. We found these data by scouring years of disclosures for particular person corporations.
Sludge was additionally first to report that No Labels quietly transferred $2.4 million in 2021 to a brand new group that may home its presidential plan. In subsequent tales, we surfaced new details about the secretive No Labels:
- Virtually all of a slice of disclosed donors have been company executives or their spouses.
- Two longtime board members quietly dropped off the board, together with one louder departure.
- One of many group’s “Downside Solvers” PACs funneled six-figure sums to U.S. Home members, a lot of it from non-public fairness and finance executives. Donors included billionaire hedge fund investor Howard Marks.
- Harlan Crow, Republican megadonor and billionaire benefactor of Clarence Thomas, donated to No Labels’ tremendous PAC.
It’s exhausting to get a response for information tales from the transparency-averse No Labels, however our work succeeded. After our story on its company donors got here out, No Labels broke its silence and emailed us to say it had stopped taking company donations in January 2023, the primary time it publicly acknowledged having taken company cash and when it determined to cease.
There are lots of extra political teams backed by giant companies, darkish cash nonprofits, and rich people which might be spending tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to affect the outcomes of the upcoming elections. By becoming a member of as a subscriber at simply $5 a month, or $50 for a yr, you’ll be able to assist us preserve doing our corruption-focused reporting. You’ll obtain entry to our full investigative tales because the 2024 election yr heats up and billionaires transfer cash to sway voters.
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—David and Donald, Sludge
