Sunlight Foundation

Daily Disclosures

A roundup of what we're noticing in the Reporting Group as we dig into government data and disclosures:

Winding down? Biggest spender among outside groups in the last five days? The Republican Party of Michigan, at $1.26 million. Biggest spender among non-party committees? American Crossroads, at $766,000. Total spent? More than $443 million. Will independent expenditure reports shoot up as outside groups pay for last minute ads, fund get out the vote efforts and engage in other political activity? Stay tuned....

New Super PAC: Just five days before the election, the Let Freedom Ring PAC sends notice to the Federal Election Commission of its intent to accept unlimited funds from any source. They've already spent more than $187,000, most of it on television ads opposing Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Be sure to check out our Follow the Unlimited Money tool--updated hourly!--to get all the latest info on outside groups.

Update from Sunlight CAM: Americans United for Safer Streets runs ad against Keith Fimian, Republican candidate opposing Rep. Gerry Connolly in Virginia's 11th district. Diclosure information is here.

Lobby watch: Progressive Solutions LLC, in the herbicide brush clearing business, hires Alcade and Fay to lobby on a rulemaking by Dept. of Labor on methodology for determining wages for H-2B temporary non-agricultural workers.

Daily Poligraft: The New York Times looks at the Alaska Senate race. Original here.

Bonus Poligraft: National Enquirer's owner to declare bankruptcy.

Daily Disclosures

A roundup of what we're noticing in the Reporting Group as we dig into government data and disclosures:

By the numbers: Outside groups have disclosed spending some $347 million, of which $302 million directly advocates defeat or election of a federal candidate. Biggest chunk of that latter portion: Outside, non-party groups (including Super PACs and non-profits) opposing Democratic candidates ($73.5 million) followed by Democratic Party committees opposing Republican candidates ($66.4 million). Get the latest numbers right here.

Running out of cash? National Republican Congressional Committee reported spending $10 million over the last five days. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, over the same period, spent $1.2 million. Super PAC American Crossroads spent $1.9 million over the same period.

Discl-$0-sure: Ending Spending Fund, a Super PAC that's disclosed spending $1.1 million--the biggest chunk on opposing Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.--has filed its pre-general election report with the Federal Election Commission. Starting cash: $0. Total receipts: $0. Total spent: $0. They don't disclose donors either.

New Super PACs: Kinde Durkee, who runs a firm that specializes in helping political organizations comply with filing requirements (and was fined $110,000 by the California Fair Political Practices Commission for financial reporting violations), filed a form with the FEC for No 2 Sides PAC. The initial filing for the Super PAC lists the Liar Alert PAC as an affiliated committee; the latter discloses no receipts or disbursements in its October quarterly report. Matthew Garrington registered the Environment Colorado Action Committee. Garrington's linkedin profile is here. Neither group has disclosed spending any money, though Liar Alert PAC has a website featuring issue ads.

Be sure to check out our Follow the Unlimited Money tool--updated hourly!--to get all the latest info on outside groups.

PhRMA & 527s: Citizens for Strength and Security filed its 527 pre-election report with the Internal Revenue Service. Biggest donors: Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Democratic Governors Association and labor union SEIU. My colleague wrote about CSS Action Fund, which may or may not be an affiliated committee, here.

From Sunlight CAM: Democratic National Committee supporting Todd Young in Indiana? Might mean the DCCC.

The Daily Poligraft: Weekend edition: GOP Mega Donors look toward 2012, from Politico.

Subcontractors: USASpending.gov announces on its home page that it will track sub award data starting Dec. 1st.

Today's Politiwidget: Bank of America acknowledged errors in its handling of foreclosures, the Wall Street Journal reports. We've been keeping an eye on the foreclosure crisis and Bank of America; the top House recipient of contributions from them is...

Sunlight Still Needed

We think the USA Today editorialists have got it right: the new ethics laws haven't meant the end to the perks or ways for lobbyists to curry favor with lawmakers. We never really expected it to (I mean, we weren't exactly born yesterday...). You can't legislate good behavior. And that's why Sunlight's work urging full transparency for the work of Congress and its members is so hugely important.

Today's edition also includes an opposing view op-ed from Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid where he attempts to make the case that he and his fellow Democrats have delivered on their promise to end the status quo environment of corruption in Congress. Watchdog journalists have shown how lawmakers and lobbyists have conspired to get around travel restrictions and gift bans. Plus, when the Senate passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, the practice of earmark abuse was preserved by a slight of hand by Sen. Reid and his fellow senators, putting anonymity back in the process.


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Senate Puts the Anonymity Back in Earmarks

Wondering where the Senate Defense earmarks are in EarmarkWatch.org? Though our collaborators and friends at Taxpayers for Common Sense have compiled a list here, one thing you'll notice is that, unlike the House Defense earmarks contained in Earmark Watch, the Senate disclosures don't list the actual recipient of the earmark, but rather generic project names. So while we know that Sen. Maria Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray earmarked $2 million for "U.S. Army Extended Cold Weather Clothing System [ECWCS] Hand Protection System" (gloves, presumably), we don't know who will be making those gloves, whether the glovemaker hired lobbyists or had its executives contribute to Cantwell and Murray's campaigns, or were otherwise hand-in-glove with their earmark bestowers.

That's because of a slight change in wording that was made in the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007, one that the Senate, apparently, prefers--and which all but does away with meaningul earmark disclosure. Read on for more details...

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Backsliding on Earmark Reform?

Robert Novak suggests in a column today one subject in divided Washington that gets bipartisan support:

[Sen. Harry] Reid is also working behind the scenes with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to undermine earmark transparency and prevent open debate on spending proposals... ...Reid is plotting to strip anti-earmark transparency from the final version of ethics legislation passed by the Senate and House, with tacit support from Republican senators and the GOP leadership.

I'm shocked. Also not surprised. Interestingly, Novak reports that the issue that's rankling lawmakers is a provision that would "bar earmarks benefiting a senator's family members."

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Should Members of Congress Respond to Bad Press with Threats of Lawsuits?

Obviously, no. And I'm sure that Josh Marshall feels the same way. Marshall speculates that Sen. Harry Reid's hiring of a lawyer indicates that Reid might be planning to file a libel suit against John Solomon and his former employer, the Associated Press. I trust that he forgot to add that such a suit--or even the threat of one--would be an assault on the First Amendment and the public's right to know.

Sen. Reid is a public figure, and that it's unclear how exactly he has been harmed by the Associated Press story in question, so it would seem that a lawsuit would be problematic from the get go. Remember too that Reid had to amend his financial disclosure forms in response to the AP story (the Senate Ethics Committee is reportedly still reviewing the new filings). The AP continues to stand by the accuracy of the report; if it contains inaccuracies, Reid apparently has not pointed them out to the satisfaction of the AP.

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Speaking of Diverting Campaign Cash...

...to personal uses, it appears that Sen. Harry Reid, hot on the heels of amending his financial disclsoure reports to accurately report the details of a land deal, has also decided to reimburse his campaign $3,300 after using it as a petty cash stash to donate to a fund that buys Christmas gifts for the support staff who work in the building (which happens to be a Ritz-Carlton) where he has his Washington area home.

Incidentally, I tend to be much closer to the Captain Ed Morissey view of this--that additional spade work is warrented--as opposed to the Paul Kiel view--that the Associated Press's initial story doesn't add up.

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