Connect the Dollars Project

05/27/2026

Judging by more than 16,400 comments recently posted on a federal government website, you’d think there was a groundswell of older Americans demanding that federal officials hike payments to their Medicare Advantage health insurance plans.

Yet about 82% of the comments are identical to a letter that appeared on the website of a secretive advocacy group called Medicare Advantage Majority, a data analysis by KFF Health News has found.

The “dark money” group does not reveal its funders or much else — other than to say it is “dedicated to protecting and strengthening Medicare Advantage” and is “powered by hundreds of thousands of local advocates nationwide.”

https://ctnewsjunkie.com/2026/03/16/medicare-advantage-dark-money-group-attempts-to-win-higher-payments-for-insurance-companies/?

Medicare Advantage insurers say a proposal by the Trump administration to keep their payments nearly flat next year may lead to service cuts that harm seniors struggling to afford health care. A decision is due by early next month.

05/04/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1bTJefpep8/?mibextid=wwXIfr

04/23/2026

"I’m talking about basic betrayals of public office, trust, and confidence-in-leadership that are the table stakes of good government.​" Garrett Graff

Swirling scandals—from the Pentagon to DHS to the IRS to the Labor Department—that represent basic betrayals of public office, trust, and confidence-in-leadership that should be the table stakes of good government.

04/23/2026

"I’m talking about basic betrayals of public office, trust, and confidence-in-leadership that are the table stakes of good government." Garrett Graff

04/20/2026

Tom Swan, executive director and a lobbyist for the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, argued that two industries stand out in terms of influence.

“There’s absolutely no doubt that the utilities and the health care industries have way too much power at the State Capitol,” Swan said, asserting that Connecticut citizens pay higher health care costs and utility costs because of the sway those monopolistic industries hold.

Do the companies or groups that spend the most have an outsized influence in Hartford?

04/17/2026

https://ctmirror.org/2026/04/16/larson-bronin-in-a-tight-battle-for-campaign-donations/

Some of the biggest contributors to candidates for CT's 1st Congressional District were state legislators, PACs and Hollywood.

04/07/2026

Across America, there has been a remarkable shift in the type of people who fund politics.

The biggest thing is that they often aren’t people at all.

The 10 largest individual donations so far in the midterm elections? They total almost $300 million — and none of them came from a human being. Some of the origins can be deduced, but other checks came from a series of little-known nonprofits whose original donors will most likely never be known.

Using philanthropy for campaign donations is illegal. But an exception for some nonprofits has allowed Democratic billionaires like Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg to remain anonymous when they want to play politics.

04/07/2026

Money, money, money

Big campaign donations are nothing new in Texas. There are no limits on individual campaign contributions, and politicians have historically pulled in large donations from oil producers, real estate developers and utility companies. Abbott started the year with $105 million in his campaign account.

What makes AI developers different is their size — some of the companies are worth trillions of dollars.

Meta, the parent of Facebook, has so far spent $1.3 million on Texas’s primary elections. Elon Musk, who controls the artificial intelligence company xAI, gave $500,000 to a committee that supports Republican state senators. And Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of Airbnb and a board member of Tesla, donated $1 million to Abbott’s campaign last year.

Your guide to the political forces shaping the energy transformation

03/14/2026

Jared Kushner, one of the U.S. government’s chief negotiators in the Middle East, is trying to raise more money for his private equity firm from governments in the region. Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, has spoken with potential investors about raising $5 billion or more for his investment firm.

President Trump’s son-in-law is trying to raise $5 billion or more from foreign governments and others for his private equity firm.

03/10/2026

Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their debts, among other things.

Use this database to explore potential conflicts of interest for President Donald Trump and his team. The documents disclose positions officials have held outside government, their assets and their debts, among other things.