If there were any doubts about how much the political landscape has changed post-Citizens United, here's one leading indicator: An analysis by Sunlight's Reporting Group shows that the biggest donors to super PACs are giving more political donations earlier in the campaign than they have in the past.
In the first 12 months of the 2012 election cycle, 37 individuals and 9 organizations each gave $500,000 or more to super PACs, for a total of $48 million. The same individuals and organizations gave a combined $64 million to a range of state and federal candidates during the ...
Continue readingSuper PACs have spent most on Florida ad buys, so far
While the polls have constantly fluctuated in the last week before Tuesday's GOP presidential primary in Florida, one number has seen a steady rise: the campaign money being pumped into the Sunshine State. Helping to boost the total: The two super PACs supporting frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have spent more than $15 million in the state. That number makes 38 percent of all presidential super PAC spending that Sunlight is tracking.
About 66 percent of all super PAC spending in the races thus far has come from just two of super PACs, the pro-Romney Restore Our Future ...
No restriction on how Pro-Perry super PAC can spend funds
Texas Gov. Rick Perry's decision to drop his bid for the GOP presidential nomination Thursday raises a tantalizing question: What will happen to the big-spending super PAC that dropped close to $4 million backing his campaign?
Make Us Great Again, the super PAC set up by Perry’s former chief of staff Mike Toomey has yet to file a financial disclosure with the Federal Election Commission, but based on its spending, it appears to be the biggest of the super PACs left orphaned so far by the winnowing of the Republican presidential field. The uncertainty over its fate underscores ...
Continue readingSuper PAC profile: Pro-Perry Make Us Great Again has ties to former staff, major donor
One of the highest spending super PACs so far, the pro-Rick Perry Make Us Great Again is headed by the Texas governor’s former chief of staff Mike Toomey. A Texas lobbyist, Toomey is a longtime friend and confidant of Perry's who was behind Perry’s switch in party affiliation in 1985 after he was elected to the Texas legislature. He has a reputation of being Perry's “enforcer.”
The ads run by the super PAC portray Perry as an anti-Washington candidate, with energy and tax reforms as his leading campaign mantra. The video and radio ads feature Perry ...
Continue readingBank executives plead case to administration officials over Volcker rule
Top executives with major banks met regularly with federal agency officials who were writing a draft rule meant to curtail risky Wall Street trading — known popularly as the Volcker rule, named for the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker — federal agency meeting records show.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler were among the agency leaders who met with CEOs from companies including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase since June 2010. Big banks are strongly critical of a provision in the Dodd-Frank financial law that calls for restricting banks from trading for ...
Continue readingSuper committee related issues feature in hundreds of lobbying reports
K Street firms got little respite this past quarter, between lobbying on the debt ceiling early in the summer and then quickly shifting their focus to the "super committee," recently released lobbying reports show.
A little more than 200 registrants listed either "Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction" — the official name of the powerful budget cutting panel — or "super committee" on lobbying disclosures filed with the Senate Office of Public Records. The filings were released on Thursday, Oct. 20. The third quarter reports also show some overlap between the organizations that listed both the debt ceiling and the super committee ...
Super committee member Van Hollen doubles campaign cash intake over last quarter
The campaign of super committee member Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., took in more than twice as much money in the third quarter of 2011 as it did in the second, newly released Federal Election Commission records show. Overall, two of the six House members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction--popularly known as the "super committee"--reported increased fundraising totals in the third quarter.
Van Hollen and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, the other lawmaker whose campaign committee saw an uptick in money coming in, collected $153,278 and $471,259 respectively for the third quarter. Hensarling, the super ...
Continue readingDodd Frank: How rating agencies contributed to the financial crisis
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed in response to the financial crisis of 2008, added new regulations and new regulators for some—but not all—of the institutions whose actions led to the crisis. Over the next several days, we’ll be taking a look at each of the major groups of contributors to the economic crisis, who the major players were, what political influence they brought to bear on Congress and regulators, how Dodd-Frank intends to regulate them, and, using our new Dodd-Frank Meeting Logs tool, what rules these groups are trying to influence as ...
Continue readingBecerra, Clyburn, Van Hollen are House Dem Picks for Super Committee
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has tapped three close allies who are on powerful House committees to serve on the Joint Special Committee to find new ways of cutting the budget to roll back the national deficit. Her picks are: Reps, Chris Van Hollen from Maryland, James Clyburn from South Carolina, and Xavier Bacerra from California.
Both Van Hollen and Clyburn also served on Vice President Joe Biden’s deficit reduction committee earlier this year.
Xavier Becerra, who serves on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, is ranking member of the subcommittee on social security—a flash point for debt ...
Continue readingReport: Reid names Murray, Baucus and Kerry to Super Committee
Politico is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to nominate Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., as the co-chair to the special joint committee convened to propose reductions in the debt, and Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and John Kerry, D-Mass., as his other picks. The announcement of picks to what has been dubbed the super committee will be formally announced on Wednesday.
All three have substantial ties to beltway influencers and special interests.
Sen. Patty Murray serves on the all-powerful Appropriations Committee and is chair of the Transportation Subcommittee within Appropriations. Over the two decades she has served in ...
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