Warming up for a summit of hemispheric leaders in Colombia later this week, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff today wraps up a brief visit to the United States, where she met President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and leaders of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Despite the high-profile dance card, Reuters quoted some Brazilian officials as complaining that their president didn't get quite the reception she and her country deserves. "There's a feeling that most people in Washington don't appreciate what's happening in Brazil," the news agency reported one official close to Rousseff as saying ...
Continue readingHealth care lobbying groups head to the Supreme Court
If war is politics by other means, so is litigation. While there will be plenty of rhetoric today about President Obama's health care law on the second anniversary of its signing -- including a new op-ed by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who was for the health care reform in Massachusetts before he was against it nationally -- the big battle begins Monday, when the Supreme Court opens an unusual three days of argument over the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
In many respects, the mega-case -- a compilation of six separate cases that have been wending through ...
Continue readingNaming names: How super PAC ads might look if DISCLOSE were enacted
If this hasn't happened yet to you, it probably will in this year of record-breaking spending by outside interest groups: You are watching TV or perusing the Internet when you are confronted by one of those ads telling you that your prospective public servant is a disgusting human being and completely incompetent. Worst of all, the ads are brought to you by a committee or organization whose vague name gives no clue as to its true identity. Then you ask, "Who is doing this to me? "
Sunlight is trying to give those obnoxious ads a transparency makeover! The DISCLOSE ...
Continue readingWho’s the web savviest presidential candidate of all?
Running for president requires web presence. Facebook, Twitter, web videos and websites that take online donations are ubiquitous among this year's presidential contenders. Yet, in an ever-more sophisticated technical world, the basics are not enough, and each candidate is trying some unique approaches to mine the Internet for donations -- a key to President Obama's fundraising success in 2008.
As the GOP race moves today into the president's home state, Sunlight has taken a look at what the major contenders are doing on the web:
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney, hoping that a commanding win in today's Illinois ...
Continue readingHow super PACs fared on Super Tuesday
We won't know how much the candidates poured into Super Tuesday races until they file disclosure forms with the Federal Election Commission next month but it's not too soon to take a look at the Super Tuesday scorecard for super PACs, using Sunlight's Super PAC tracker.
What our analysis found: In these races at least, the biggest spenders didn't always bring home winners.
Here's a look at some of the states that saw heavy super PAC spending and how it broke down.
OHIO
Biggest spender: Restore Our Future (Mitt Romney)
Winner: Mitt Romney
Continue readingOn eve of Netanyahu visit, a look at Israel’s lobbying
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday begins a visit to the United States amid tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear program and a report President Obama will urge his Israeli counterpart to postpone a preemptive strike. In addition to Obama, Netanyahu will call on another U.S. power political player, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
AIPAC, which has been sounding the alarm on Iran, is the largest pro-Israeli lobbying operation, with $2.8 million in lobbying expenditures last year, according to Senate reports, AIPAC will draw top politicians from both countries to its 2012 Policy Conference. Besides Obama ...
Continue readingInfluence at the Oscars
Update: The contribution amounts coming from George Clooney and Kathleen Kennedy have been corrected.
It's Oscars weekend in Hollywood, a place that -- when it comes to money and influence -- isn't as far from Washington as it appears on a map. In honor of the occasion, Sunlight has decided to take a look at who among this year's Academy Award nominees are playing the political field. The results of our inquiry do absolutely nothing to dispel the notion that the Hollywood hills are a Democratic stronghold.
The envelopes, please.
Three movies from DreamWorks Animation -- "War Horse," "The Help ...
Continue readingArab Spring Data
| Location | Lobbying and PR totals 2010 | Recent events | U.S. lobbying summary |
| Algeria | $205,000 | President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has remained in power since, 1999. In March, the government boosted wages of government employees to soothe protesters. Spring protests were dispersed by riot police. Small-scale protests against housing shortages and unemployment continue. | Algeria has hired Foley and Hoag since 2007. Lobbying efforts focused on reducing Morocco's influence in Western Sahara. |
| Bahrain | $63,000 | Bahrain began to crackdown on protests mid March. Protests left 30 dead, the state of emergency was lifted June 1. Negations were set up between the government ... |
Arab Spring: One Year Later
International lobbying is the hidden story to come out of the Arab Spring, which hits a major landmark Saturday, the first anniversary of ex-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation. Lobbying represents a vital puzzle piece in an international structure of power that propped up dictators and oppressed millions of people. The Sunlight Foundation has been tracking these developments using the Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker, a searchable database of international lobbying records gleaned from the Department of Justice that we've just updated.
The project started in partnership with ProPublica, aiming to make this treasure trove of information accessible to the ...
Dark money in the twilight of 2011
Dark money has haunted the psyche of good government reformers. Recent changes in campaign law raise the prospect of unlimited donations, routed to political action committees through 501(c)4 "social welfare" organizations that don't have to disclose contributors' names. That could allow innocuously named groups to shelter powerful individuals and corporations and the influence they're exercising to determine who wins a federal office.
So far, that scenario has been the dog that didn't bark, but that doesn't mean it has been defanged.
Sunlight looked at the super PAC filings in search of 501(c)4 ...
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