Sunlight Foundation

Buffalo News — Dick Armey of Texas, former GOP majority leader and a millionaire lobbyist for big government contractors, chairs FreedomWorks. Brooklyn’s little gift was overwhelmed by individual donations of up to $250,000. Armey’s super PAC has raised more than $2.7 million, according to money trackers at the Sunlight Foundation.

Balitmore Sun — If Congress wants to demonstrate that it represents the people rather than the special interests, it could do so in no clearer way than to pass the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections, or DISCLOSE Act, which is currently stalled in the House and Senate.

Patriot Ledger (MA) — All of this allows innocuously named groups to shelter the names of powerful individuals and corporations. During the 2010 mid-term election (the first after Citizens United) $126 million of the $455 million spent by outside groups came from these ‘dark money’ groups. To address this problem, Congress should take immediate action by passing the DISCLOSE Act, recently introduced in the House (H.R. 4010). [...] It is straightforward legislation that should have bipartisan support. Meanwhile, inexplicably, DISCLOSE has yet to be introduced in the Senate.

Pacific Daily News — To address this problem, Congress should take immediate action and pass the DISCLOSE Act, recently introduced in the House. This bill is an update to a previous version introduced two years ago in the last Congress, and goes straight to the problem: the lack of transparency for unlimited, secret super PAC money and the influence it has on our elections and our elected officials. This simplified bill, stripped of controversial non-transparency provisions the previous version contained, is a good solution to the ‘dark money’ problem.

Sidney Herald (MT) — To address this problem, Congress should take immediate action and pass the DISCLOSE Act, recently introduced in the House. This bill is an update to a previous version introduced two years ago in the last Congress, and goes straight to the problem: the lack of transparency for unlimited, secret super PAC money and the influence it has on our elections and our elected officials. This simplified bill, stripped of controversial non-transparency provisions the previous version contained, is a good solution to the ‘dark money’ problem.

Summit Daily News — To address this problem, Congress should take immediate action and pass the DISCLOSE Act, recently introduced in the House. This bill is an update to a previous version introduced two years ago in the last Congress, and goes straight to the problem: the lack of transparency for unlimited, secret super PAC money and the influence it has on our elections and our elected officials.

Daily Local News (PA) — All of this allows innocuously named groups to shelter the names of powerful individuals and corporations. To address this problem, Congress should take immediate action and pass the DISCLOSE Act. This bill is an update to a previous version introduced two years ago in the last Congress, and goes straight to the problem: the lack of transparency for unlimited, secret super PAC money and the influence it has on our elections and our elected officials.

The Reporter (PA) — All of this allows innocuously named groups to shelter the names of powerful individuals and corporations. To address this problem, Congress should take immediate action and pass the DISCLOSE Act. This bill is an update to a previous version introduced two years ago in the last Congress, and goes straight to the problem: the lack of transparency for unlimited, secret super PAC money and the influence it has on our elections and our elected officials.

The Mercury (PA) — All of this allows innocuously named groups to shelter the names of powerful individuals and corporations. To address this problem, Congress should take immediate action and pass the DISCLOSE Act. This bill is an update to a previous version introduced two years ago in the last Congress, and goes straight to the problem: the lack of transparency for unlimited, secret super PAC money and the influence it has on our elections and our elected officials.

New Braunfels Herald-Zeuitung — Welcome to a new era of exponentially more unlimited and undisclosed campaign spending. This is the first presidential election since game-changing rulings by the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) and a federal district court in SpeechNow.org v. FEC paved the way for a small group of elites to spend unprecedented sums — with little or no transparency — to influence voters. Since then, outside groups often called “super PACs” have proliferated, stimulating new ways for big donors to influence elections — often in secret.

Bucks County Courier Times — The Sunlight Foundation tracks the maze of campaign contributions, and reported that executives of Goldman Sachs, the flagship of the pirate fleet that looted America, are splitting their campaign contributions 50-50 between Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney, the likely GOP presidential candidate.

San Francisco Examiner — When the supercommittee first convened, the cynics pointed out its great fundraising potential for the two parties. That potential has been more than fulfilled. The Sunlight Foundation reports that the 12 supercommittee members held or hosted 55 fundraisers for themselves, their PACs and other lawmakers during the committee’s short lifetime.

Longview News-Journal — President Obama, himself no amateur when it comes to community organizing and hobnobbing with union toughs, subversives and anarchists, pretends to understand the occupiers’ pain with Clintonian acuteness, embracing the ne’er-do-wells within the movement early while decrying the excesses of Wall Street and the rich. This is curious, given the Sunlight Foundation’s Influence Project unearthed proof that Obama pocketed “more money from Wall Street than any other politician over the past 20 years.” In 2008, up to one-fifth of Obama’s donations came from Wall Street.

Keene Sentinel (NH) — Kaiser was a key fundraiser for Obama’s presidential campaign, hosting a 2007 fundraiser at his home that raised more than $250,000. Kaiser’s foundation (which had nearly $4 billion in assets in 2009) was a key investor in Solyndra. Don’t be fooled by the foundation’s role: America’s super rich often use family foundations to cut their tax bills. And as the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation described it, Kaiser “built his fortune in part through shrewdly playing the Internal Revenue Code.”