ActBlue, the Democratic Fundraising Juggernaut, Facing Potential Collapse: New York Times

The New York Times, the official media organ for the Democratic National Committee and diehard Democratic voters, is sounding the alarm over internal chaos at ActBlue, the political fundraising juggernaut that has helped left-wing candidates and committees raise billions of dollars since its founding in 2004.

According to the bombshell report released Wednesday, the powerhouse fundraising platform, which is technically organized as a nonprofit political action committee, is facing internal chaos, with at least seven senior officials resigning amid increasing scrutiny from congressional Republicans.

Key Findings from the NYT Report:

• Mass Resignations: Seven senior officials left ActBlue in February, including top legal, customer service, and fundraising executives. Internal sources have raised concerns about “volatility and toxicity” within leadership.
• Whistleblower Allegations: The last remaining lawyer in ActBlue’s general counsel office, Zain Ahmad, accused the organization of internal retaliation after his access to internal platforms was cut off. This has fueled concerns about the platform’s leadership.
• Congressional Scrutiny: Republicans in Congress are investigating ActBlue over security, fraud prevention, and foreign donations. Some Democrats worry this is the first step in a larger effort to dismantle the party’s fundraising infrastructure.
• Unions Sound the Alarm: ActBlue’s worker unions sent a letter to leadership warning that instability at the organization could weaken its ability to support Democratic campaigns.
• Tensions with the Biden Campaign: The report also reveals past friction between ActBlue and major Democratic campaigns, including tense negotiations over the rates charged to candidates.

Much of the scrutiny has been prompted by independent journalistic investigations into alleged “smurfing” techniques, where small dollar donations are funneled under the names of individuals who may have no connection to the money or the transaction.

Systematic reviews of Federal Election Commission (FEC) data tied to ActBlue have shown highly suspicious transaction patterns. For example, the website ElectionWatch.Info has built a search tool that allows FEC data to be reviewed for suspiciously large numbers of transactions attributed to single individuals.

A review of Maine-based data shows that one Brunswick resident is recorded in FEC records as having made 11,380 donations totaling $145,726 via ActBlue over a period of six years — or roughly one donation every 1.5 days. Another Scarborough woman is recorded as having given $111,227 to ActBlue via 10,761 distinct transactions over a similar time frame. The unusual volume and frequency of small dollar transaction has led some to question whether the donations are authentic, or whether the named donors are the victims of a kind of identity fraud that has allowed money from an unknown source to enter into U.S. political campaigns.

The internal chaos at ActBlue suggests that independent journalists probing the suspicious transactions may be onto something, and that Republican congressional investigators could potentially find a broader pattern of campaign finance irregularities, perhaps even violations of federal law. If ActBlue were to cease operating as the primary financial conduit for Democratic campaigns, such a development would reverberate through American politics, including here in Maine, where many Democratic candidates have relied on ActBlue’s infrastructure to finance campaigns.