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Anonymous Money in Campaigns: Is Sunlight the Best Disinfectant?

  • Daniel E. Chand

    Daniel E. Chand is an Assistant Professor in the Government Department at New Mexico State University. He teaches for both the department’s Masters of Public Administration and Masters of Government programs. His research focuses are political activities of nonprofit organizations and policy implementation as applied to interior immigration enforcement.

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 22. August 2015
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Abstract

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), applications flooded the IRS to establish political 501(c) nonprofits. This increased popularity in creating 501(c)s is fueled by the fact that 501(c) nonprofits are not required to release their donor information, as opposed to PACs and super PACs that operate transparently. Consequently, those who are interested in keeping their political activities secret, including, presumably, for-profit businesses, have mostly contributed to political 501(c)s. This study seeks to better explain the dark-money phenomenon by examining all outside expenditures in the 2010 and 2012 congressional elections. It finds that dark-money groups are mostly conservative organizations utilizing 501(c)s and occasionally 501(c)s and super PACs simultaneously. It also provides a discussion of efforts to increase transparency in both federal and state elections, and provides some support to the theory that dark-money groups will avoid activity in strongly regulated races.


Corresponding author: Daniel E. Chand, Ph.D., Department of Government and Masters of Public Administration Program, New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 30001, Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001, USA, e-mail:

About the author

Daniel E. Chand

Daniel E. Chand is an Assistant Professor in the Government Department at New Mexico State University. He teaches for both the department’s Masters of Public Administration and Masters of Government programs. His research focuses are political activities of nonprofit organizations and policy implementation as applied to interior immigration enforcement.

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Published Online: 2015-8-22
Published in Print: 2015-7-1

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