OpenSecrets
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Search complete. 21 mentions across 18 episodes found for "OpenSecrets".
Oct 18, 2026
Chris MullerHOST
Let's see here.
Chris MullerHOST
OpenSecrets.org. Searching donations by Celestine
Milton FriedmanSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Jeffries.
Chris MullerHOST
Okay, it didn't even take 30 seconds, folks.
Dagogo AltraideHOST
Federal records show that Boeing has spent millions of dollars on lobbying.
Dagogo AltraideHOST
In fact, according to opensecrets.org, Boeing ranks ninth in lobbying activity in Washington since 1998.
Dagogo AltraideHOST
Boeing is also the top exporter and defense contractor for the United States.
Dagogo AltraideHOST
In fact, in 2023, forty percent of revenue came from government sources, and the US government alone accounted for thirty-seven percent of all company revenue.
Hasan MinhajHOST
To chat about all this, I sat down with someone who's been following money and politics for almost 20 years, Michael Beckel.
Hasan MinhajHOST
He has been a reporter for the Center for Public Integrity and Open Secrets, and since 2017, he has been the director of Money and Politics Reform at Issue One, a pro-democracy nonprofit working to reduce the influence of money in politics.
Hasan MinhajHOST
We talked about how fundraising dominates the time of members of Congress.
Michael BeckelGUEST
If you are in one of the most competitive Senate districts, you might be raising more than $100,000 a day.
Jeff PoorHOST
A- and, and, you know, the media, you have to add, like, you, you increase the margin for error when you, you're so bubble mentality to, about it.
Jeff PoorHOST
And, and the other thing is, Joey, like, these prognostication houses, the, the, you know, RealClearPolitics polling average, or the, uh, Center for Responsive Politics, or Larry Sabato, or Decision Desk, and n- they all have institutional biases.
Joey ClarkGUEST
Yes.
Jeff PoorHOST
They, they don't like Trump.
Peter StarkGUEST
The percentage of US representatives returned to the House in 2022 was 93% and jumped to 96.6% in 2024.
Peter StarkGUEST
This is according to the nonpartisan Open Secrets, which tracks money in U.S. politics.
Peter StarkGUEST
So if anybody wants to look that up, go to Open Secrets.
Dennis BraggHOST
How does that compare with, say, 20 years ago? Well,
Peter StarkGUEST
that would be, yeah, that would be interesting.
Zak PaineHOST
Then they dispersed the funding to Waterfront Strategies in the form of nine point seven million dollars and another one-- two point zero nine million to another group called Alper Strategies.
Zak PaineHOST
Waterfront Strategies can be found in opensecrets.org, and they are known publicly as a liberal-leaning consulting firm from opensecrets.org. With more than a hundred and forty-nine million dollars given to the group by super PACs and hybrid PACs, liberal consultant Waterfront Strategies claims the top spot among outside spending vendors in two thousand eighteen.
Zak PaineHOST
Their dominant position isn't particularly surprising, as they are an arm of the massive DC firm GMMB Consulting.
Zak PaineHOST
Now, between GMMB and Waterfront, the two groups have combined to be the highest-paid consultant in each election cycle since twenty twelve.
Scott SchaeferHOST
Here's Hillary Bosworth.
Scott SchaeferHOST
She's executive director at Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics.
Hillary RosethSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
We often find that some of the highest drivers of traffic to our site are citizens who are curious about the net worth of any given member of Congress, and Nancy Pelosi, I think, in many ways, is one of the main profiles that we often see folks looking up, perhaps because she has quite high of a net worth.
Scott SchaeferHOST
Now, owning stocks can benefit anyone, but the richer you are and the more stocks you own, the more you make when the market goes up.
5 MINS LATER
Scott SchaeferHOST
But she also knows that appearances matter, and they can undercut trust in elected officials.
Nancy PelosiSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
We wanna do any- whatever it takes, and that means even this issue, to restore the confidence people have in the system.
Scott SchaeferHOST
system.Hillary Roseth of Open Secrets again.
Hillary RosethSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Earlier this year, there was a survey that roughly 75% of the country thinks that there's too much money in politics and does not like it.
Rick SmithHOST
First, find out where the money's coming from for your congressman.
Rick SmithHOST
You can go to opensecrets.org and find out where the big money's going, because for now, they still have to report who's giving them money, even though we've got all of this dark money into these super PACs and all that nonsense.
Rick SmithHOST
The second is we should be organizing into, well, strong labor unions and strong organizations that can pool some resources and, oh, by the way, some power.
Rick SmithHOST
And the third is we got to start voting on our kitchen table economic issues.
Maya CookHOST
And you make it accessible.
Maya CookHOST
Like, I've worked at OpenSecrets twice now, and for those listening who don't know what OpenSecrets is, it's a platform that aggregates FEC data, so it pulls all of the statistics on lobbying, direct donations, and then outside spending, which-
NicoGUEST
They bought Follow the Money.
DanielGUEST
They did.
Meghna ChakrabartiHOST
And he cites some numbers about who are the richest donors in elections.
Meghna ChakrabartiHOST
And so he has some numbers here that in the 2014 cycle – and this is according to Open Secrets, the group that tracks campaign finances – And he and they said and he says in 2014, the average age of about 500 age identifiable donors who were the most generous.
Meghna ChakrabartiHOST
OK, the most generous in federal elections.
Meghna ChakrabartiHOST
The average age was 65.6 years old.
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