The Campaign for Primary Accountability, a super PAC that's raised $2.5 million and has been active in about a dozen races across the country, maintains that long serving incumbents should be ousted because their campaigns are accountable to lobbyists, not district voters. Yet in one district, the challenger it's backing in Tuesday's Indiana primary is a former House member who went on to work as a registered lobbyist.
Recently, the super PAC helped oust Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa., by calling him a friend to K Street. Part of the problem with incumbents, according the group's ...
Continue readingUnder-the-radar political ads: A guide to electioneering communications
Already in this election cycle, nonprofit groups using the cover of "issue advertisements"—thinly disguised attacks or promotions of a particular candidate—have spent about $30 million on general election ads, according to a new study. But only about $4.4 million of buys have been disclosed to the Federal Election Commission.
That’s because the issue ads, also known as "electioneering communications," must be disclosed to the FEC only when they air on TV or radio in the weeks immediately preceding an election. It's a quirk in the election law that offers another way for deep-pocketed donors to ...
Continue readingBetter off than four years ago? Not when it comes to political ads, report says
More than two thirds of all ads aired in the presidential race so far have been attacks, a drastic increase compared to recent presidential campaigns, according to a new study by the political ad-tracking Wesleyan Media Project that covers the race from the start of 2011 through April 22 of this year.
Of the ads aired during that period, 70 percent were negative, compared to 10 percent in the last presidential campaign. Political scientist Michael Franz, a co-director of the project, called the change "absolutely astonishing."
The negative tone is being driven by outside groups, responsible for 86 percent of ...
Continue readingOops, Never mind! Newt to endorse Romney but can’t erase attack ads
GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is set to officially exit the race Wednesday in Arlington, Va. and is telling USA TODAY that he'll soon endorse Mitt Romney. But can the former speaker make voters forget the millions of dollars worth of attack ads that he and the super PAC supporting him launched against the man Gingrich now says will be the next president?
We have compiled a highlight -- or should we call it lowlight? -- reel of the ads that ran in early primary states when Gingrich was Romney's main rival. It underscores how the intense negativity of this ...
Continue readingFCC expects political ad buys to be online before 2012 election
The Federal Communications Commission voted to give the public online access to reports detailing new political ad buys from affiliates of the top four networks in the 50 largest media markets before November’s election, despite objections from the nation’s broadcasters.
The only hurdle now: the Office of Management and Budget must approve the new rule. After that, the top four stations in the biggest markets will put the ad buys on the Federal Communication Commission’s website. And the FCC expects that approval soon, William Lake, the chief of the media bureau, told reporters after the meeting.
After ...
Continue readingFCC requires online posting of political ad files
Handing open-government advocates a partial victory in a better than decade-long battle, the Federal Communications Commission voted Friday to require major network affiliates in the top 50 TV markets to post information about their political ads online.
The move could provide the public with crucial information on who's behind the ads purchased by nonprofit groups that, under new campaign finance laws, can spend unlimited amounts of money advocating for or against candidates without registering with the Federal Election Commission. But the rule will leave out many TV markets in presidential battleground states as our map shows.
Broadcasters had fiercely ...
Continue readingTea Party standout joins leadership of disruptive super PAC
Tea Party activist Mark Meckler has joined the leadership of the Campaign for Primary Accountability (CPA), a disruptive super PAC aimed at ousting long-term incumbents from Congress. He has become part of a four-person, conservative leadership team of a group that says its aims are nonpartisan.
Meckler officially joined the $2.5 million super PAC, one of the outside groups spending the most in congressional primaries, as a senior advisor earlier this week but said he has been friends with its founders for quite some time and got to know them through the Tea Party movement. He resigned from the ...
Continue readingAs Renco’s lobbying drive fades, so does congressional support in its dispute with Peru
A group of lawmakers is urging Obama administration officials to oppose a multinational U.S. company's efforts to sue Peru in a mining dispute, citing the company's environmental and health record.
The request, made in a letter last month to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, pits the lawmakers against a secretive billionaire and big U.S. political donor—and, in some cases, against themselves.
Four of the letter-signers—Reps. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., Ed Towns, D-N.Y., and Danny K. Davis, D-Ill.—have switched sides in a controversy involving Doe Run ...
Continue readingPanel clashes on Citizens United, agrees on real-time disclosure
A discussion about whether to limit money in politics, and how to do so, led to little consensus Tuesday morning among a panel divided between politicians who favor limits on political contributions and election law practicioners who find ways to legally get around or challenge them. But the politicians and lawyers could more or less agree on one thing: more disclosure of campaign giving.
On one side of the argument was Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., sponsor of the legislation that banned unlimited contributions to political parties, presidential candidate Buddy Roemer, an independent pursuing the White House through Americans Elect, and ...
Continue readingFEC: Perry can use some presidential funds to create super PAC
The Federal Election Commission green-lighted Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s request to turn the funds he collected for his presidential campaign to other political uses -- just not all the funds.
After Perry dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination in January, his presidential campaign asked the FEC whether it could use its leftover funds to create a traditional political action committee or a super PAC -- either of which would enable the Texas governor to support other politicians, a traditional way of building goodwill for candidates with national aspirations.
All the commissioners present at the open meeting agreed that ...
Continue reading
59063
