Campaign finance reports through September 19 show Mayor Karen Bass with $1.5 million in direct contributions and $1 million in city matching funds, and Councilmember Nithya Raman with $1.1 million in contributions and $1.4 million in matching funds, totals of $2.51 million and $2.53 million. Raman reported about $1.9 million cash on hand versus nearly $1.2 million for Bass. The carpenters-sponsored Estamos Con Nithya committee has taken in $6 million, half from hedge fund manager Aaron Sosnick, while the Los Angeles Police Protective League has put nearly $2.8 million into pro-Bass efforts and Airbnb spent $1.75 million on a pro-Bass primary committee.
The city's matching fund program pays $6 in public funds for every $1 from local contributors, up to $257 per qualifying donor; the runoff is November 3.
Portland Mercury · on the Ditch Mitch, Go PDX and Fix MultCo PACs and their billboards
The Mercury reported that three PACs registered to activist Kyle Prosen — Ditch Mitch, Go PDX and Fix MultCo — filed statements of organization on September 14, seven days after the first "Ditch Mitch" billboard went up on Beaverton Hillsdale Highway, and that United for Portland Action Fund, whose treasurer is Portland Metro Chamber executive Jon Isaacs, is listed as the billboards' top funder. A second anti-Green billboard went up on St. Helens Road and a third in Foster/Powell; Lamar's public dashboard lists the Beaverton Hillsdale sign at $6,500 for four weeks and a Fix MultCo billboard for Julia Brim-Edwards at $10,000 for four weeks. Green told KPTV "I'm not surprised to see that the Portland Metro Chamber is funding these billboards and these attacks"; the Mercury reported he paid the $7,328 property tax bill cited on the billboard on June 29.
Oregon law requires a PAC to file a statement of organization within three days of receiving a contribution or making an expenditure.
The Detroit News (Bloomberg) · on America PAC's $3.4 million in the Michigan Senate race
Federal Election Commission filings showed Elon Musk's America PAC had spent $16.6 million in U.S. Senate contests, including $3.4 million in the Michigan race between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers, $6.3 million in Texas, and $3.1 million across more than 30 House districts, Bloomberg reported. Its door hangers in New York's lower Hudson Valley read "The Socialist Left is Destroying America" over images of Democrat Cait Conley, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders. A Democratic National Committee fundraising email for El-Sayed said, "If Elon buys every ad break between now and November, most Michiganders will only hear his version of me."
America PAC reported about $274,000 cash on hand at the end of June; its third-quarter FEC report is due October 15.
A downtown billboard reading "Politician Mitch Green voted to use your taxes. Didn't pay his own taxes" is funded by a political action committee called Ditch Mitch, registered this week with the Oregon Secretary of State. The PAC's website says its biggest funder so far is the United for Portland Action fund, a PAC created and funded by the Portland Metro Chamber. Willamette Week reported that no contributions or expenditures had yet appeared in the state database, which it attributed to the seven-day reporting window.
The billboard refers to a $7,328 property tax bill Green failed to pay until The Oregonian pointed it out to him this summer.
The Trump-affiliated No Going Back PAC reserved more than $74 million in ad time across 15 House races and Senate races in six battleground states — Alaska, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Ohio — according to ad research firm AdImpact. Reuters reported that Trump's political operation is supporting the new group, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The Senate Leadership Fund has announced over $45 million in ad reservations in Michigan this fall.
Incumbent state Rep. Marjorie Decker defeated Boston DSA-endorsed labor organizer Evan MacKay in the Democratic primary for the Cambridge-based 25th Middlesex District, 4,104 votes to 3,599; the AP called the race Wednesday morning and MacKay conceded. MacKay lost the same race by 41 votes in 2024. Outside groups put more than $100,000 into the district, including more than $140,000 spent by Progressive Cambridge, an independent expenditure committee formed in July to back Decker.
Boston DSA said its field program knocked almost 50,000 doors and made over 100,000 phone calls for MacKay.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz won the Democratic primary in Florida's redrawn 20th District with 50.5% of the vote with 67% counted, over Dale V.C. Holness at 21.1% and self-described democratic socialist Elijah Manley at 12.8%; the AP called the race at 7:24 p.m., minutes after polls closed. Manley had campaigned against her AIPAC support; JTA reported that FEC filings in the race link at least $250,000 to AIPAC.
Newsweek · on Florida's Aug. 18 Democratic primary challenges
Newsweek reported on three candidates it described as insurgents on Florida's Aug. 18 Democratic primary ballot: democratic socialist Oliver Larkin against Rep. Jared Moskowitz in the redrawn 25th District, Elijah Manley against Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the 20th, and state Rep. Angie Nixon against Alexander Vindman for the U.S. Senate special election. Vindman has reported raising $16.7 million to Nixon's roughly $625,000, and Manley said he has been outspent by $650,000 from two super PACs. Prediction markets priced Moskowitz at 88 to 90 percent to win his nomination and Vindman near 94 percent.
The Sun Sentinel reported Larkin is endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America; polls close Tuesday, Aug. 18.
Sanders sent an open letter Sunday to Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and DNC chair Ken Martin calling on the party to prohibit super PAC spending in its primaries, citing the $32 million AIPAC spent unsuccessfully against Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan's Senate primary and a reported $517 million in corporate PAC spending this cycle. AIPAC responded that Sanders "just wants to blacklist Americans who disagree with him."
Sanders cited reports that the pro-Israel lobby is weighing spending in support of Republican nominee Mike Rogers against El-Sayed in Michigan's November general election.