The latest deadline for the presidential candidates and the major superPACs to disclose their finances was Sunday night. The public and the media can find out who has been giving to the candidates, and how that money was spent. But there’s a lot of political spending that isn’t being reported. Outside money groups are spending millions of dollars, and the donors remain anonymous. Two recent court rulings could force those groups to file public disclosures, but there already seems to be a way around that. Unlike superPACs, these big-spending groups don’t disclose their donors. They operate mostly as tax-exempt advocacy organizations under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code. It’s a status that lets them hide the sources of their money.
Allison Hayward, vice president of policy at the Center for Competitive Politics, says there may be good reasons donors would give to a superPAC in the primaries but think twice about doing so in the general election. “People wanted to be known for what they were doing, potentially, in the Republican battle,” Hayward says. “Maybe now they’re less excited that Obama knows what they’re doing for Romney, or something like that.”
Full Article: Secret Political Donors Find Ways To Stay Anonymous : NPR.