The Soros factor

In the Free Beacon, Joe Schoffstall reports,

Liberal billionaire George Soros has flooded Democratic PACs and campaigns with $50 million this election cycle, shattering his personal record by tens of millions with four months to go before the elections.

Soros ramped up his political spending this cycle through the Democracy PAC, which he created last year to pump large sums into the coffers of other left-wing groups. New filings to the Federal Election Commission show the PAC doled out nearly $17 million last quarter, bringing its total cash disbursements this cycle to $48 million. Soros gave another $4 million directly to Democratic campaigns and committees without first depositing the money into his PAC. The $52 million cash influx is more than double Soros’s previous high of $22 million, which came during the last presidential election.

…The liberal billionaire is taking steps to obscure his election spending this cycle. In the past, he made donations to groups directly in his own name. This cycle, he has operated primarily by transferring tens of millions from the Fund for Policy Reform, a $750 million nonprofit in his sprawling Open Society Foundation network, into Democracy PAC. The PAC then disburses it to other Democratic PACs and committees. This arrangement allows Soros to keep his name from the top of donor lists. His $50 million in contributions makes him the largest donor of the 2020 cycle, though only $8 million is coming directly from him.

…The liberal billionaire has also increased his lobbying expenditures. The Open Society Policy Center, his D.C.-based lobbying shop, spent $48 million in 2019—a personal record for Soros. This amount was more than corporate giants such as Amazon, Facebook, Boeing, and Google’s parent company, Alphabet spent. The group finished the year as the country’s second-largest lobbying spender.

Read more here.