All 17 Democrats who sided with Republicans in Thursday's House vote to cite Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress have received contributions at some point in their careers from the political action committee of the National Rifle Association, which was lobbying hard to pass the resolution.
The Democrats who receive the most money from the NRA's PAC and also face competitive races were even more likely to side with the NRA. Of the eight Democrats in tight races in November that have received the most from NRA's PAC (see a chart of these lawmakers in ...
Continue readingGun money pushing some Democrats to vote against Holder?
Three Democrats who have said they plan to break party ranks in a historic rebuke of Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday are among the members of their party in tight races who have received the most money from the National Rifle Association's political action committee (PAC) over the course of their careers.
The National Journal reported Wednesday that Democratic Reps. Jim Matheson of Utah, John Barrow of Georgia and Nick Rahall of West Virginia have said they will vote with Republicans to find Holder in contempt of Congress because the attorney general has not released all the documents ...
Continue readingOMB clears way for FCC to put political ads online
Pushing back against the nation's broadcasters, the White House Office of Management and Budget has approved a rule requiring television stations in the nation's top markets to put information about political ad buys online.
The Federal Communications Commission had already passed the rule but the OMB had to certify that it does not violate government rules that call for minimizing paperwork. That's exactly what the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) unsuccessfully argued that it does.
That could mean that commercial time purchased on local broadcast stations by candidates and as well as by outside groups trying to ...
Continue readingMontana decision puts campaign finance reform in Congress’s court
With the Supreme Court's decision Monday not to revisit Citizens United, the high court appears to be a dead end for those seeking to address the problem of dark money in elections. Now, key congressmen and reformers say, Congress must act. But the prospects for lawmakers doing so appear slim.
In response to the decision, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., urged Congress to swiftly enact the DISCLOSE Act, a bill he's sponsoring to require organizations making election ads to disclose their underwriters. Whitehouse, seen at left with now Justice Elena Kagan when she was making courtesy calls before ...
Continue readingImmigration shift: As Obama, Romney court Hispanics, are state lawmakers doing the same?
Immigration is in the headlines this week, with President Barack Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, aggressively courting the Hispanic vote in back-to-back addresses to a conference of Latino politicians and the Supreme Court expected to rule next week on a controversial Arizona law aimed at illegal immigrants.
Those developments reflect a volatile debate that permeates deep into the nation's political fabric.
Scout, Sunlight's new issue alert service that tracks legislation and issues across the Congressional Record, the Federal Register and all 50 state legislatures, shows that state lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills relating to immigration ...
Continue readingTime Warner Cable posts its political file online, so why the fuss, NAB?
If posting already-public information on political ad spending is so damaging to broadcasters, as the National Association of Broadcasters argues, then why has one of the country's biggest cable providers been doing it since 2010?
Back then, Time Warner Cable created an online portal to search information regarding political ads sold on its system. Initially the portal served only the east coast, but has since provided data nationwide since 2011, according to a Time Warner spokesman. The ad buy records are available as downloadable PDFs.
Current law requires TV stations to keep political ad purchase orders on file at ...
Continue readingForget super PACs—unregistered committees are election’s dark horse
Super PACs get so much attention these days because they are a novel and easy way for donors who can write large checks to influence elections. But there's another avenue for big money to enter politics that's ideal for donors who'd rather keep their identities cloaked and that, thanks to a recent court decision, may be about to get more popular.
So far in the 2012 election cycle, some $9 million has been spent to help elect or defeat candidates for federal office by entities that don't have to disclose where they got their money. About ...
Continue readingSuper PACs flock to Arizona, North Dakota, Virginia
Voters head to the polls for primaries in six states today, with those in Arizona, North Dakota and Virginia inundated with the most money from super PACs trying to influence their votes. Here's a rundown of what outside groups are spending in the Grand Canyon, Peace Garden, and Old Dominion states, according to Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker:
Special Election: Arizona's 8th Congressional District
Among today's races, the special election to fill the remaining term of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who resigned in January to focus on her rehabiliation, has attracted the most outside money ...
Continue readingLibertarian think tank: Get behind DISCLOSE (or something like it)
A bill requiring super PACs and other outside political groups to include the names of top donors on their ads will hit the Senate floor next month, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said Friday. Meanwhile, an unlikely source warned the Republicans who are expected to filibuster it that they are standing in the way of the inevitable.
Whitehouse's comments came in his home state at a conference of liberal bloggers, where he was on a panel about the effects of Citizens United, a 2010 Supreme Court case that opened the door for unlimited campaign spending by corporations and unions ...
Continue readingFEC says that using “Obamacare” counts as election ad
When is an advertisement an election ad?
The FEC considered that question Thursday at a hearing, and despite a lot of partisan disagreement, came up with one definitive answer: An ad that uses the term "Obamacare," an initially derogatory term for describing President Obama's 2010 health care law that Democrats have since tried to reclaim, qualifies.
At issue is how to categorize thinly veiled attack ads that don't directly call for the election or defeat of a named candidate. It's a question of intense interest to groups planning to run political ads this summer and fall but ...
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