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1 THE ISSUE
To curb the influence of moneyed interests in New York, the city, state and federal governments cap how much donors can give political campaigns. For example, an individual cannot give more than $18,000 to a state Senate candidate over the course of a primary and general election, $5,400 to a congressional or presidential candidate and $4,950 to a mayoral hopeful. Corporations are limited to $5,000 for state candidates and can't donate a dime to city or federal hopefuls. But there are ways to legally circumvent these limits and the laws that make political contributions public knowledge. Mayor Bill de Blasio (above) used the loopholes to raise millions of dollars over the past three years. Now investigations of those efforts have drawn attention to the techniques and prompted renewed calls to reform the system.
2 THE PLAYERS
Donors looking to get around those pesky state caps have choices. The state Board of Elections treats limited-liability companies, or LLCs, as individuals, so the corporate restrictions...