DARK-MONEY

PAC, super PAC, and dark-money spending in U.S. federal elections from Citizens United (2010) through 2024. Outside spending rose from $1.25B in 2012 to $4.4B in 2024, with undisclosed-donor "dark money" hitting a record $1.9B. Rebased spending charts, a cost-of-election overlay, and a long-form report with full FEC and Brennan Center sourcing.

• > Outside-spending and dark-money series per election cycle, 2010–2024
• > Citizens United (2010) marked on every time series
• > Flags the OpenSecrets → Brennan Center methodology break in the dark-money figures
• > Research package (CSVs + report) is the source of truth, baked into the build

> what it does

DARK-MONEY tracks the money that flooded U.S. federal elections after Citizens United v. FEC (2010): PAC, super PAC, and undisclosed-donor “dark money” spending from 2010 through 2024. Same public-interest spirit as SPENDING and INFLATION — a long-form report wired to charts, backed by downloadable CSVs.

> how to read it

• >Outside spending rose from $1.25B in 2012 to $4.4B in 2024; disclosed-donor-free “dark money” hit a record $1.9B.
• >The Citizens United (2010) line is marked on every time series — it’s the inflection point.
• >The dark-money series shifts methodology mid-stream (OpenSecrets → Brennan Center); that break is flagged inline, not smoothed over.
• >Every figure traces to an FEC statistical summary or a cited Brennan Center / OpenSecrets report.

Live at https://cu.blackmesalabs.org.