Vulture funds preyed on Argentina during a debt crisis — resulting in economic depression for the South American country and huge profits for investors.
Continue readingMore than the Kochs: Big donors outside the campaign finance spotlight
Though the Koch's name is usually synonymous with large political donations, there are other names Americans should be paying attention to as we enter the 2016 election cycle.
Continue readingRevenge of the Democrats: Wealthy liberals top list of super PAC donors in 2014
The final FEC reports before the general election have landed and Sunlight's look at the biggest individual super PAC donors makes one thing clear: Wealthy liberal donors have warmed up to super PACs.
Continue readingTom Steyer’s flood of campaign money hits $55 million to NextGen
Now that quarterly and monthly campaign finance reports are in at the Federal Election Commission, Sunlight is crunching the numbers to see who's got the money edge. The top contributor has now given $55 million to super PACs.
Continue readingPro-gay marriage GOP group enters Florida congressional race
The new ad against Democrat Joe Garcia marks the fifth House race the group has invested in these midterms — in a cycle where most of the money is on the Senate.
Continue readingHedge fund millionaires fuel New York super PAC
Politically active hedge fund managers are the financial engine behind a new super PAC that's making a splash in a Republican primary in rural New York.
Continue readingGuns, gays, Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson: political fundraising reflects polarized USA
The super PACs that raised the most money so far this year reflect a deeply polarized nation.
Continue readingOutside groups seek to influence vote on LGBT workplace discrimination
The Senate's Monday cloture vote on the 2013 iteration of the Senate Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is either an important political litmus test for a Republican party in search of a new, more inclusive image or a crucial referendum on American civil liberties -- depending on your viewpoint. The bill would extend federal anti-discrimination protections to workers discriminated against because of their gender or sexual orientation. While observers are skeptical of the legislation's chances in the House, outside groups have spent bucketloads on grassroots and traditional lobbying in support of the law. On the other side? Not so much.
Continue readingDonors to Senate GOP super committee members seek tax cuts, tax breaks
The Club for Growth, which advocates making permanent some tax cuts and eliminating entirely others that, over just two years, would amount to more than $765 billion in lost revenues over two years, is a top donor to two of the three Republican Senators on the Joint Select Committee on Debt Reduction--the super committee. Other top donors include a hedge fund run by a top Republican donor that invests in, among other things, defaulted debt of sovereign nations, corporations trying to shield income earned overseas from U.S. taxes, and utility firms seeking to avoid regulation of greenhouse gases.
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Continue readingMurtha’s earmark recipients: How hands off (or on) is he?
Paul Singer reports in Roll Call on a tangled story that apparently involves the undisclosed hand of Rep. John Murtha but certainly involves his brother Kit (a retired lobbyist) and his former lobbying firm, five different companies doing business, directly or indirectly, with Defense (including one under federal indictment and one that allegedly wanted to outsource earmarked defense work to "China or someplace"), an earmark from the pre-disclosure era, some technical corrections added to the Tsunami relief bill that moved the funds for that earmark from one recipient to another (because the original recipient allegedly wanted to do the work ...
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