Daily disclosures

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A round up of what we’re seeing in online disclosures:

Tops: National Republican Congressional Committee ($13,979,025) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ($10,370,412) disclosed spending the most money on directly attempting to elect or defeat federal candidates (called independent expenditures) as of this morning. Labor union SEIU and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are next, with American Crossroads, a section 527 organization that top Republican political strategist Karl Rove advises, placing fifth. National Republican Senatorial Committee places tenth ($2,749,953) — significantly less than AFSCME, American Future Fund, the 60 Plus Association and Americans for Job Security. U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent the most on issue ads that mention federal candidates (called electioneering communications) with $8,838,680, followed by American Future Fund ($1,548,778).

Check out the latest on spending by outside groups on our Follow the Unlimited Money tracker.

Media: I was on Anderson Cooper 360 last night talking about outside groups influencing elections. Thanks to Cooper and CNN for having me on.

Friendly skies: Continental Airlines files new registration for its political action committee, noting that the United Airlines Political Action Committee is now an affiliated committee. Continental and United just got approval for their merger.

Granting extra credit: GAO finds that large for-profit schools and ones that specialize in healthcare get lots of their revenue from student aid programs; in the 2008 school year, for-profits got a total $24 billion in grants and loans. We looked at one specialty, chiropractors, a while back–and found a tale of lobbying, bad loans and defaults.

Bag men: Brian L. Wolff, lobbyist for Edison Election Institute, bundled $411,400 to DCCC, FEC disclosures show. Ben Barnes–profiled here–chipped in $116,000.

Shallow Pockets: South Korean Embassy hires Daniel J. Edelman to promote Korea Free Trade Agreement. Fees include $120K for “Strategic Counsel, Online Website Services” and $70K for “out of pocket expenses.”

Coming attractions: Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker will soon be updated with 2009 data.

Tech guru: General Services Administration seeks “evangelist” to promote data.gov, duties to include “extensive outreach and communications shill and experience to bring excite to the program.”

Rosty Revolver: Charles Mellody, former Dan Rostenkowski aide, registers to lobby for “largest provider of cosmetology education in North America”.

Gainful employment: Education Management Corporation hires Covington & Burlington revolver William Wichterman to lobby on “program integrity: gainful employment.”