‘Dark money made darker’: funding labyrinth conceals donors to Republican campaigns

A Wisconsin bookkeeper named Thomas Datwyler sits at the center of a web of Republican-aligned committees and charities that shields who is paying for campaign spending ahead of the November midterms. Campaign finance specialists say the arrangement shows how "dark money" has become harder to trace, though what Datwyler does may not be illegal, according to The Guardian.

The Guardian reports that Datwyler, working from a rented address in Hudson, serves as treasurer for more than 350 federal political committees this cycle, among them 100 Super PACs and 115 congressional campaigns, and holds office in over two dozen non-profits. In 2024, a charity and a social welfare group he handles passed a $445,000 grant to a Super PAC that then spent against Representative Celeste Maloy of Utah and for her challenger, Colby Jenkins. The non-profit's tax return called the final $20,000 "educational." Donors linked to Leonard Leo, the Conservative Partnership Institute and the Thomas Klingenstein Fund fed such groups, but filings do not reveal whose money went where.

Saurav Ghosh of the Campaign Legal Center says people with Datwyler's expertise know how to exploit gaps in the rules. Datwyler told the Guardian his firm, AxCapital, maintains strict safeguards and complies fully with the law.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Guardian’s reporting. Read the full story at The Guardian →