Lindsay Young : Sunlight Foundation

Not so super PACs

by Lindsay Young

investigations

Jan 31, 2012 6:45 pm

For every high-spending, politically-connected PAC, there are even more PACs that fail to accomplish much of anything. As of January 30, some 300 organizations have written letters to the FEC with their intention of raising unlimited money as a super PAC.

Any citizen, union or company (assuming the company is U.S. or has a U.S. subsidiary) may start a PAC -- or 60 PACs, in the case of serial super PAC creator, Josue Larose.

While some PACs have causes without money, other PACs have money but no cause: The candidate they set out to assist, has dropped out of ...

Evolution of money in politics

by Lindsay Young

investigations

Jan 31, 2012 6:42 am

Here is an interactive timeline of the events that shape money in politics. Click on the dots for more information.

Sources: Campaign Legal Center, Congressional Research Service, FEC, OYEZ, Sunlight reporting

You can embed this timeline on your site:

GOP lawmakers reopen fight over Keystone XL pipeline

by Lindsay Young

investigations

Jan 24, 2012 4:53 pm

As House Republicans reopen efforts Wednesday to win approval for the Keystone XL energy project, new lobbying records filed over the weekend reveal a lopsided spending battle over the controversial proposed pipeline.

The Keystone pipeline has become an emblematic fight for those who see the pipeline as a North American job creator versus those who see it as an environmental disaster.

Environmentalists have applied political pressure through protest, but their lobbying expenditures on the pipeline have been dwarfed by those of their opponents. Three environmental groups that mention Keystone in their lobbying reports -- National Wildlife Federation, League of Conservation Voters ...

Super PAC profile: Pro-Ron Paul group has corporate address

by Lindsay Young

investigations

Jan 17, 2012 3:04 pm

Heading into the South Carolina primary, Santa Rita super PAC had created seven ads that appear on its YouTube channel. According to FEC records the PAC spent $317,500 producing ads and buying time on 14 channels for a promised 11-day ad blitz before Palmetto State voters head to the polls Saturday.

The president and treasurer of Santa Rita PAC is a Donald Huffines, the co-owner of Huffines Communities, a Texas-based real estate development company. Though the PAC is being run out of the same Dallas office suite as Huffines Communities, it is not registered as a corporate PAC and ...

Super PAC profile: Obama supported by Priorities USA Action

by Lindsay Young

investigations

Jan 9, 2012 11:04 am

Priorities USA Action defines its mission as "committed to the reelection of President Obama." The group is currently opposing Mitt Romney with media ad buys.

The following ad uses Romney quotes, mostly out of context, and the tone of an apocalyptic movie trailer to suggest that a Romney presidency that "is not a pretty picture."

The people behind Priorities USA Action are well connected to Obama and the Democratic party. The political strategist for the organization, Bill Burton, formerly served as the president's deputy White House press secretary. Before that, he was a spokesman for Obama's 2008 campagn ...

Super PAC profile: Red White and Blue for Santorum

by Lindsay Young

investigations

Jan 6, 2012 12:08 pm

Before the Iowa contest that catapulted Rick Santorum to front-runner status, the patriotically-named Red White and Blue PAC spent $537,200 and produced two television ads touting the former Pennsylvania senator's conservatism and electability. Borrowing a word from the organizers of a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, the ad above urged Iowans to "Restore America's greatness."

The PAC is a relatively new one, registering with the Federal Electoral Commission in October 2011. Like most super PACs, Red, White and Blue has yet to disclose its financial backers, but MSNBC identified one of its donors as Foster Friess, president ...

Santorum’s not-so-populist side

by Lindsay Young

investigations

Jan 4, 2012 4:30 pm

With his penchant for sweater vests and stories about his coal miner grandfather, former Sen. Rick Santorum is setting himself up as the populist conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, the millionaire GOP presidential frontrunner who bested him by a mere eight votes in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses.

"I share the values of the working people," Santorum said in his speech to Iowa supporters as the caucus results were being tabulated.

But while Santorum has crafted a folksy image for his presidential campaign, the Sunlight Foundation's Influence Explorer suggests a different picture. Retirees make up the largest sector of ...

Congress members owning TransCanada stock push to approve Keystone XL

by Lindsay Young

investigations

Dec 8, 2011 12:12 pm

Four members of Congress who have disclosed owning shares in Transcanada, the company trying to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, have pressed for the $7 billion project's approval.

The State Department took the lead in the approval process, and was supposed to rule last November on the project, which has been the subject of an intensive international lobbying campaign as well as a contentious split among supporters of President Barack Obama, who chose to delay a decision on authorizing construction until at least 2013.

While labor unions and energy companies support the project, environmentalists have objected to its ...

Deutsche Telekom meets key people opposing AT&T and T-Mobile merger

by Lindsay Young

investigations

Nov 23, 2011 10:01 am

While Congress and the Department of Justice are questioning the T-Mobile and AT&T merger, Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile's parent company has been working on a behind the scene lobbying campaign, contacting key opponents to the deal in the last few months, reports filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act show.

Deutsche Telekom, looking to sell T-Mobile to AT&T creating a mammoth corporation making up a large chunk of the U.S. wireless market, has spent $4.3 million in the last six months to lobby and maintain a staff in the U.S., six monthly reports filed with ...

TransCanada spends millions lobbying federal government, several key states

by Lindsay Young

investigations

Nov 14, 2011 2:17 pm

The Canadian oil sands, one of the most carbon-intensive fuel sources in the world, is spurring a flurry of global lobbying activity, from encouraging President Obama to approve an extension to a transnational pipeline pressuring Europe to ease its tax on the sands-produced oil.

TransCanada Lobbying in Keystone XL States

In 2008, the State Department sanctioned an environmental review to extend the Keystone pipeline, which runs from Alberta, Canada, through the Dakotas and south to Oklahoma, with a spur reaching Illinois. The extension, termed Keystone XL, would cut across Montana and reach Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, from where the ...

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