There's an X factor at work in the November midterms, reports the New York Times: Secret money, and a lot of it. The paper's analysis of ad buys, FEC reports, and tax records estimates that at least $1 billion in "dark money" is coursing through this cycle—political spending where actual donors stay hidden. And that is almost surely a low-end estimate of the cash, which is benefiting both parties: The story details how Republicans in Texas quietly tried to boost a Democratic candidate viewed as weak, while in Kansas, an obscure Democratic Senate candidate found himself buoyed by secret spending that dwarfed his own war chest by a factor of 100. It's happening across the country, allowing special-interest groups and the uber-rich to hide their political involvement.
"We are on track to have the least transparent midterm at least since Citizens United," says Dan Weiner of the Brennan Center's Elections and Government Program, referring to the landmark Supreme Court ruling of 2010 that lifted restrictions on political donations. "We're almost at the point where anyone who doesn't want to be disclosed doesn't have to be disclosed." The Times details one common tactic: A "social welfare" group registers as a nonprofit, but shares office space with a super PAC, and the same political strategists run both groups. Read the full story by Shane Goldmacher and Theodore Schleifer, which notes that while secret money itself is not new, this "industrial scale" version of it is.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
