Campaign Finance

Democracy reform, driven by the people, is on the march in states and municipalities across the nation where scores of pro-democracy reforms have been enacted. But democracy reform remains stalled in the U.S. Senate where the Republican majority ignores the will of the people. Sunday will mark one year since the U.S. House of Representatives passed its sweeping and transformative package of pro-democracy reforms in the For the People Act, or H.R. 1.

“Bloomberg can keep his offices open and his staff employed--all to support Biden--with Bloomberg continuing to pay for it, but the work needs to be done independently of the Biden campaign,” Paul S. Ryan of nonpartisan watchdog group Common Cause told ABC News. “In other words, Bloomberg can run a pro-Biden super PAC, using his campaign office space and campaign staff. Bloomberg's pro-Biden effort staff couldn't coordinate it's spending with the Biden campaign.” “What Bloomberg can not do is simply merge his team and offices with the Biden campaign, with Bloomberg continuing to pay for the operations. That would be an illegally-large in-kind contribution,” he said.

We showed these tax records to Paul Seamus Ryan of the watchdog group Common Cause. "When casinos are giving money to one of these groups right before an election that the casino has a vested interest in, the governor's race, and then the DGA or the RGA spends the money in that race, that's a pretty clear connection."

“He had the wealth to give away money for years to build friends, to build political allies, to build relationships, in ways that the average American doesn’t have, can’t do. That’s a huge advantage,” said Paul S. Ryan, a vice president at Common Cause, a government watchdog group.

“They aren’t going to criticize him in his 2020 run because they don’t want to jeopardize receiving financial support from him in the future,” said Paul S. Ryan, vice president of policy and litigation at the good-government group Common Cause.

“We are clearly dealing with a very wealthy individual who has the ability to build goodwill among the public, among specific political actors, in a way that will benefit his campaign,” said Paul S. Ryan, the vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause, a government watchdog group. “Where things could get tricky or legally problematic is if he starts, or is in fact, using his foundation to build support and goodwill for his campaign. Trump seemingly ran afoul of those laws, hopefully Bloomberg will avoid those violations.”The fact that he is able to appeal to potential voters by spending his vast personal wealth on issues they care about, Ryan said, is “another example” of how billionaires have an advantage in elections.