Sunlight calculates outside spenders return on investment for congressional races and hosts a webinar on how to use the data
Continue readingBuyers remorse? Check out the return on investment webinar
Once the votes in election 2012 were counted, the Sunlight Foundation did some figuring of our own, calculating the percentage of money spent by outside groups in elections that helped winning candidates or hurt losing ones; we called that percentage return on investment (ROI). Mark your calendars for Thursday, Nov 29, at 1 p.m. for a webinar explaining how we did it, including a close up look at the ROI data. We will also debut our Congressional ROI data set, which shows how groups fared when the massive amounts of presidential election spending are removed from the totals. In this webinar we will show you how to dive into the data on a more granular level to tell the story behind the numbers. Sign up for the webinar here.
Continue readingCaffeinated lobbying
A New York Times report that the Food and Drug Administration is investigating the popular energy concoction “5-Hour Energy” in the deaths of 13 people, comes after a strong lobbying effort appears to have stymied congressional efforts to regulate highly caffeinated beverages.
The energy drink industry falls into a regulatory crack between soft drink industries and, oddly enough, the food supplement industry. Some of the makers of these drinks claim that they are not food but a dietary supplement. That classification allows them to avoid listing ingredients on their products.
"These energy drinks, do not have to abide by nutrition ...
Continue readingJohn Kerry: Influence Profile
Sen. John Kerry, now reportedly under consideration for one of two top jobs in President Obama's cabinet, has spent 28 years on Capitol Hill and run for the highest office in land, during the course of which, he has left a considerable money trail.
The Massachusetts Democrat, who saw his 2004 presidential run swift boated away from him, is being mentioned as a potential replacement for either Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, both of whom plan to leave office at the end of Obama's first term. The latter possibility comes as something of a surprise, since Kerry first burst onto the national scene as a Vietnam veteran opposed to that conflict (a position that came back to haunt him in his presidential race) and, as recently as September was criticizing the Republicans unyielding spending on defense.
Continue readingSeeing the return on investment
Outside groups have invested $1.3 billion in this election, and as the remaining votes are being counted, we at Sunlight... View Article
Continue readingThe case of the mystery texter
This Halloween mystery all began on a dark and stormy night, when unsuspecting phones were attacked by political ads via text message. What made this message so scary is that when people went to “unwrap” the text, they realized the organization had no face. When they went searching for the sender’s website, it was dead.
Not until the wee hours of the morning, was the privacy of the sender revoked for violating spamming rules. The Atlantic connected the texts to Jason Flanary and ccAdvertising.
This spooky spending looks like it is taking advantage of a legal loophole by emailing ...
Continue readingSpending millions to end spending
Ironically, the super PAC named “Ending Spending Action Fund” may end up having the largest single donation to a super PAC. Records show Joe Ricketts, who built his fortune through Ameritrade, is trying to reduce spending by spending -- a lot.
Ricketts wrote a check for $5.48 million to the super PAC in September. That beats the $5 million checks written earlier in the cycle by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson and Harold Simmons And it made up about half of the $11.3 million that Ricketts donated to Ending Spending last month alone.
The owner of the Chicago Cubs, Ricketts ...
Continue readingA sketch of the Stealthy Wealthy
The nickname “Stealthy Wealthy” is Sunlight’s shorthand for the billionaires who seek to influence elections through large donation and whose... View Article
Continue readingA sketch of the Stealthy Wealthy
Here are some of the donors we've featured so far in our continuing Stealthy Wealthy series. Keep watching for more. Meanwhile, Sunlight will be watching to see what these business people are seeking as a return on their investments.
Continue readingObama sends secret love to geeks
You would expect to see Obama branding in every aspect of the Obama Victory Fund website. But the web developers at President Obama's campaign have taken it a step further, creating the Obama “O” campaign insignia in the source code of the website -- the sort of thing only dedicated hackers and data nerds could love -- or, for that matter, bother to suss out.
A screenshot of the Obama source code:
Known as ASCII art, the “O” is made from characters and spaces, serving no functionality other than appeal to geeks.
The Easter egg has generated attention in some circles ...
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