It's fun to play political pundit, but J.B. Poersch and Chuck Schumer get to play a special game, using their secret donor list of $260 million in Majority Forward dark money given to SMP.

Jennifer Poersch picked up a new FARA client, her first in years:

readsludge.com/2026/11/08/wif…

New: As Dems prepare to retake control of the Senate, foreign interests are shifting to get closer to Schumer.

Jennifer Poersch, the lobbyist and wife of the Schumer-picked J.B. Poersch who runs SMP, registered to be a foreign agent of the United Arab Emirates. By @donnydonny:

The UAE's ruler, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, put aside a cheeky $500 million to buy a stake in Trump family company World Liberty Financial just days before the inauguration, and deepened WLF ties in crypto deals. On UAE's latest moves:

readsludge.com/2026/11/08/wif…

The New Dem @NewDemCoalition member Jason Crow @RepJasonCrow will be shocked to hear that House Dems could have done those things in 2021, but Nancy Pelosi did *not* allow a ban on congressional stock trading into the For the People Act.

Links to bills:

readsludge.com/2021/03/04/pel…

Be sure to let New Democrat Coalition chair Rep. Brad Schneider @RepSchneider that you think your caucus should not be taking corporate PAC donations!

It's what the New Dems are known for, that and voting against drug pricing reform, tech antitrust, etc.

readsludge.com/2026/10/21/the…

NEW piece that I'm PROUD OF: I took a deep dive into what happened with AI and the midterms. Not only about this week, it traces the last 18 months of AI politics — and how an odd coalition found its way together to push Dems towards safety/regulation. W/the homie @AlecAHernandez : politico.com/news/magazine/…

Democrats ran and won on fighting corruption. So what should they do about it? Today in the @nytimes Brennan Center president @mawaldman offers one common-sense idea: enact a real ban on campaign donations from government contractors.
nytimes.com/interactive/20…

I'd encourage @barbarasprunt and All Things Considered to interview someone other than Matt Bennett of the dark-money centrist Third Way on the election results, for today's segment on high cost of living.

Private equity has ex-Schumer lobbyists placed:

readsludge.com/2026/11/06/the…

Ask the corporate-backed House Blue Dogs @HouseBlueDogs if they'll read this. They undermined 2021's BBB, which would have created universal preschool + affordable childcare, backing up donors in corporate lobbying groups. They made lives much tougher.

thenation.com/article/societ…

What's going to happen with bills to rein in private equity in the next Congress?

Well, a former senior adviser to the gigantic Schumer-aligned SMP super PAC is now a head of government relations for Blackstone. He'll probably have a good read. Will you?

readsludge.com/2026/11/06/the…

In the 2020, 2022, and 2024 cycles, the behemoth SMP raised $144 million from the securities & investment industry, making it the top donor, according to OpenSecrets.

Good reason to expect that Schumer's fundraisers are going to be hearing from Blackstone, Apollo, AIC lobbyists.

Antimonopoly groups have a full agenda of bills that will curb private equity's power when it extracts money from companies like hospitals and nursing homes.

Will they see movement under Schumer? His senior staffers are now lobbying for private equity:

readsludge.com/2026/11/06/the…

Gerrymandering, huh. Democrats could have banned it in 2009.

The House could have passed Lofgren's Redistricting Reform Act and sent it to the Senate. Unclear why, the bill was not active when Dems had 59–60 votes in the Senate to break a filibuster.

davidrussellmoore.net/democrats-coul…

The GOP had a roughly 16-seat advantage since.

Independent redistricting was included in the For the People Act of 2021, but Schumer did not start out the 117th Congress with a carve-out for ethics & elections bills, and as expected it was killed by GOP.

readsludge.com/2021/12/15/dem…

NY Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has repeatedly enjoyed prime sports tickets, booked as fundraising expenses for Assembly Democrats.

Packages included Knicks playoffs, Subway Series, and meet-and-greets with Yankees stars.

My story: nysfocus.com/2026/11/05/car…

Wonder what Erica Suares, former senior advisor to Mitch McConnell and board member of Recoding America Fund's c4 arm, thinks of the midterm results. McConnell voted for the Trump admin's ICE funding several times this year; seems like people of Minnesota took a courageous stand.

More than half of voters nationally said government corruption was crucial in vote for Congress, per AP.

House Dems could have passed the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act in 2021–22, and the Senate could have had a carve-out.

It has never moved.

readsludge.com/2025/04/15/con…

Meet the donors behind incoming speaker Hakeem Jeffries:

-Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf: $100,000
-Anduril COO Matthew Grimm: $44,300
-Palantir’s Mehdi Allhassani: $44,300
-Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong: $7,000
-Crypto trade group lobbyist Adrian Wall: $50,000
🧵

Incoming Speaker Hakeem Jeffries raked in contributions this cycle from:

- defense contractor executives
- lobbyists for MAGA-aligned defense companies
- AIPAC's PAC

So what's going to happen next year in House committees? Theater or strong legislation?

readsludge.com/2026/11/04/the…

Good government groups have long recommended that lawmakers reject donations from lobbyists—a 2018 bill to do that was endorsed by Greenpeace, Indivisible, AFL-CIO, etc. House Dems could have passed it.

It has never had a hearing in either chamber.

readsludge.com/2025/04/15/con…