HEAD OF CRYPTO GROUP LOSES CONGRESSIONAL PRIMARY: The crypto industry’s checkered record in midterm primaries continued last night, but this time it was one of the industry’s own running for office backed by crypto’s deep pockets. Michelle Bond, who runs the Association for Digital Asset Markets , lost the Republican primary for New York’s 1st Congressional District, coming in second to Suffolk County official Nick LaLota. — The 20-point loss came in spite of a more than $600,000 fundraising gap between the two, and millions in outside spending boosting Bond and opposing LaLota. One super PAC, Crypto Innovation , reported almost $1.3 million in independent expenditures supporting Bond. The super PAC received $225,000 altogether from SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci and brothers Bart and Bradford Stephens, co-founders of Blockchain Capital. But more than $1.5 million of the PAC’s funding has come from GMI PAC, another super PAC funded by crypto executives, including FTX’s Ryan Salame, Bond’s boyfriend, who has given the group $1.5 million, and Sam Bankman-Fried, who's given GMI PAC $2 million. — The next biggest spender in Bond’s race was the Stand For New York Committee, a recently formed super PAC that spent $823,000 opposing LaLota and $24,000 supporting Bond. The committee’s only disclosed donor is Salame, who kicked in $500,000, FEC filings show. A third super PAC, called Crypto Freedom PAC, spent $287,000 opposing LaLota. The committee’s top donors are the conservative Club for Growth and GOP megadonor Jeff Yass , who filings show donated $1.9 million in bitcoin. ANNALS OF DARK MONEY: “Two ‘dark money’ groups, American Economic Freedom Alliance and American Prosperity Alliance, contributed $4 million to Conservative Americans PAC,” OpenSecrets’ Taylor Giorno found in an analysis of the super PAC’s August monthly filings. “ The ‘pop-up’ super PAC spent over $2.4 million in GOP primary races for U.S. House seats in Missouri, Tennessee and Arizona from July 19 to 29,” though the PAC saw mixed results. — “Because Conservative Americans PAC filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission on July 11, it was not required to disclose its donors until Saturday. But voters cast their ballots in the five GOP primaries during the first week of August, unaware of who was spending millions to influence the outcome of these races.” — “‘[D]edicated to electing true conservatives who will fight the radical left, socialists and woke mob,’ according to its bare-bones website, Conservative Americans PAC spent money opposing four candidates. In Missouri, state Sens. Rick Brattin in the 4th District and Mike Moon in the 7th District lost their GOP primaries. State Sen. Eric Burlison in Missouri’s 7th District and Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District won theirs. The only candidate supported by Conservative Americans PAC outside spending, former Navy Seal Eli Crane, won the GOP primary in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District.” — “A new dark money group, American Prosperity Alliance, contributed $4.8 million of the more than $5.7 million reported through July. Conservative Americans PAC refunded $1.6 million to American Prosperity Alliance one day after the dark money group’s last $1.6 million contribution in July, bringing that total down to $3.2 million.” IF YOU MISSED IT TUESDAY: “Republican Rep. Liz Cheney has amassed a group of political consultants with ties to former President Donald Trump and the expansive Koch network as she mulls a run for the White House after losing in the GOP primary for her Wyoming House seat,” CNBC’s Brian Schwartz reported. — “Cheney is using some of Trump’s own consultants and allies, including those from the powerful Koch network, to try to keep the former president from winning a second term in the White House. Some of them appear to have used limited liability companies that shroud their identity from the public.” — “‘These people are going to be persona non grata after the Cheney loss,’ a senior GOP strategist close to Trump said when asked if the president and his associates will work with the former Cheney advisors again.” Among the vendors used by Cheney backers is Charles Koch’s i360, “a data and technology company owned by his conglomerate, Koch Industries, according to financial database PitchBook and Federal Election Commission filings.” — “The filing shows two PACs, Conservatives for a Strong America and Wyomingites Defending Freedom and Democracy, paid i360 to help deploy pro-Cheney ads through text messages. Axios reported that the leader of Wyomingites Defending Freedom and Democracy is former Trump White House aide Julia Griswold Dailer , who didn’t return a request for comment.” A Koch Industries spokesperson “told CNBC in an email after publication of this story that i360 has over a thousand clients and that anyone using their product doesn’t connotate an endorsement or support.” — “FEC filings show that one of the Cheney campaign’s top vendors in the 2022 election cycle was a company called Red Right Media . That company was paid more than $1 million for advertising and media services by Cheney’s campaign during her 2022 primary run, including more than $300,000 in July, according to FEC disclosures.” — “Though it doesn’t appear to have a public website, Virginia business records say that Red Right Media is an alternative name for a company called X/Roads Communications. According to state business records, X/Roads Communications is run by Mike Dubke , a veteran Republican strategist who once worked in Trump’s White House as communications director.”
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