Spending by outside interest groups helped force Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, into a primary, but the veteran lawmaker, comfortably ahead in Tuesday's race according to an election eve poll, is benefiting from some home state corporate love.
O. C. Tanner Co., a Utah company that specializes in employee appreciation and awards programs and that has donated Olympic rings for U.S. athletes since the Salt Lake games in 2000, has shown its appreciation for Hatch with a $5,700 in print advertisements supporting him. It's the sort of direct corporate support for a candidate that only became possible ...
Continue reading$12 million in the dark
So far this year, groups that do not disclose their donors, and legally are not required to do so, have reported almost $12.4 million in political spending to the Federal Election Commission, much of it made possible by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.
Some $8.4 million of this dark money has paid for independent expenditures--advertisements, phone banks, get out the vote operations and other spending aimed at electing or defeating a specific candidate. Non-profits organized under section 501(c) of the tax code spent the bulk of the money; under federal law, they are not required ...
Continue readingSenate hears from heavy hitters on both sides of fracking debate
The effect on the water supply of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking -- a method for extracting heretofore hard to reach natural gas reserves -- has caught national attention, even inspiring a fiercely critical movie. Now, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is looking into the effect of fracking on the air -- and getting an earful from witnesses from organizations on both sides of the debate with long track records in Washington's influence game..
The panel's Clean Air and Nuclear Safety subcommittee held a hearing Tuesday on recently issued Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) performance standards for reducing ...
Continue readingMitt Romney makes an early appearance in lobbying filings
It's not surprising that a Republican stalwart like Bob Dole, the party's 1996 presidential candidate and, prior to that, the Senate Majority Leader, would have occasion to speak with current GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. But the context is: Dole's firm, Alston and Bird, disclosed that he's started to lobby Mitt Romney on behalf of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office of the United States (TECRO), the diplomatic mission of Taiwan to the United States.
Filings made to the Justice Dept. under the Foreign Agents Registration Act show that Dole has reached out to many ...
Continue readingRealtors take out big mortgage on California House race
Tuesday's contest in California's 31st Congressional District morphed into the biggest outside money spending spree of any House primary so far, thanks a massive influx of funds by the National Association of Realtors on behalf of Rep. Gary Miller.
Late unofficial returns from the California Secretary of State's office show that Miller, a seven-term Republican running in a new district, topped a six-person field with nearly 27 percent of the votes cast, winning a slot on November's ballot. Because of a new California primary system that sends the top two finishers in a free-for-all primary to ...
Continue readingOpposition grows to Jamie Dimon role at Federal Reserve
A grassroots movement with some big name support is calling for Washington’s favorite banker to cut his ties with the Fed. Some 30,000 signatures have been collected on a Change.org petition urging that the chief executive of embattled JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, resign or be removed from the New York Federal Reserve's board of directors. The petition creator, Simon Johnson, is the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. In the past Change.org waged successful campaigns on issues ranging form the Bank of America debit card fee, to working conditions in Apple’s Chinese ...
Continue readingDespite ‘unlikes’ over Facebook, Morgan Stanley still has friends in high places
The disappointing debut of Facebook’s IPO and Morgan Stanley’s seemingly unequal treatment of its customers in providing inside last-minute cautions about the social network giant has investors and regulators upset, and lawyers readying for business. But when the nation's lawmakers start making the inevitable inquiries (key House and Senate committees already are making noises) about the deal and its chief underwriter, Morgan Stanley will not be defenseless. The financial services giant has plenty of political capital from campaign contributions and a veteran lobbying team.
Morgan Stanley has heavily invested in lobbyists. In the last three quarters of ...
Continue readingJPMorgan better at hedging political bets than financial investments?
JPMorgan Chase & Co. may have lost a $2 billion dollar bet on the markets, but the investment giant's campaign contributions show a much more conservative approach, featuring mega contributions to both political parties -- and both of this year's leading presidential candidates.
The company and its employees have been generous donors to political campaigns. JPMorgan's political largesse has totaled more than $21 million since 1991, according to Influence Explorer. The Center for Responsive Politics lists the storied bank as one of President Obama's top 2008 donors; his haul that year made him the top recipient of JPMorgan ...
Continue readingAdvise the FEC: Can you find the candidate?
The American Future Fund (AFF) is asking the FEC what kind of ads they can make without triggering donor-reporting requirements.... View Article
Continue readingWith merger, expect airline lobbying to take off
American Airlines and US Airways, the fourth and fifth biggest domestic airlines that took another step towards merger Friday, are also high fliers when it comes to political influence.
Any marriage of the two carriers would require government approval, and both airlines have been active lobbying Congress -- which controls the budgets of the federal agencies that would review the merger's impact on the market, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission.
American Airlines has spent $3.8 million on lobbying in the first three quarters of 2011 and has hired 10 lobbying firms during that period.
Although US ...
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