With the election over, a Congress full of lame ducks -- along with next year's class of soon-to-be sworn-in lawmakers, ready for freshmen orientation -- returns to Washington next week. Lobbyists and special interests that opened their wallets for candidates are poised to call in chits in a tense environment dominated by the budget impasse that threatens to impose sweeping automatic cuts to defense and social programs if Congress doesn't act.
Top CEOs of more than 80 companies issued a statement on October 25 calling on Congress to solve the issue by considering tax increases along with spending cuts. In ...
Continue readingChamber of Commerce funding secret but agenda public
One of the biggest “dark money” spenders in next week’s elections is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But while the Chamber's funding sources may be murky, its aims -- unlike those of some wealthy super PAC donors -- are relatively transparent.
The 100-year-old nonprofit organization has a far reaching public lobbying agenda that ranges from high profile fights like working to reverse parts of the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank financial reform law to more obscure issues like keeping flight information about corporate jets secret and opposing tighter regulation of the transportation of highly flammable lithium batteries.
Two ...
Continue readingColorado Super PAC moves into Scott Tipton’s race
The Colorado Future Fund, a super PAC fueled by a controversial donor to GOP Colorado Rep. Scott Tipton's campaign, today filed notice that it had made an expenditure against Tipton's Democratic opponent, Sal Pace.
As reported previously by Sunlight, the Colorado Future Fund, which is run by a law clerk in a Colorado law firm headed by Tipton's campaign lawyer, reported one $25,000 contribution in August from Houston-based SG Business Services, Ltd. The company, which operates leases on land in Tipton's district, has been a flashpoint in Tipton's campaign. Until now, the Colorado Future ...
Continue readingMysterious Colorado group has deep ties to GOP establishment
DENVER -- A newly created nonprofit organization here, which jumped into the presidential fray last week by dropping nearly $1 million in independent expenditures against President Barack Obama, has connections deep in Colorado's Republican establishment.
The law firm that serves as the registered agent for the Citizen Awareness Project, a 501(c)4 organization incorporated last June, is Zakhem Law LLC, home to John Zakhem, who has served as an attorney for the state Republican party and has helped the GOP play the campaign money game from every angle over the years. The listed staff contact is Charlie Smith, a ...
Continue readingRomney, Obama blitz Colorado with ads and visits
When GOP nominee Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama arrive in this battleground state for campaign rallies over the next 24 hours, they'll be accompanied by a barrage of television ads on programs ranging from news broadcasts to The View to Jimmy Kimmel to General Hospital.
Continue readingStealthy Wealthy: Who gave big in September?
It sounds like a scenario straight from central casting. A liberal Hollywood mogul and conservative Texas billionaire are among the exclusive 25-member million-dollar check writing club whose members forked over additional cash for super PACs in September, according to a recent Sunlight Foundation analysis.
Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and Texas nuclear waste entrepreneur Harold Simmons are also among Sunlight's Stealthy Wealthy, our continuing series that looks at the giving habits of influential political donors. For the month of September, Katzenberg and Simmons were the only Stealthies who showed up as donating to super PACs -- but it's always possible ...
Continue readingStealthy Wealthy: Franklin Haney built real estate empire with government help
Longtime Democratic donor Franklin L. Haney, who with his wife Emeline has poured $1.1 million into the effort to reelect President Barack Obama, has built his business around developing government-supported real estate projects and acting as a government landlord.
He survived investigations in the 1990s by the Justice Department on campaign finance violations and by Congress for using his monied influence to secure a lucrative government lease. During the latter, he was nearly found in contempt of Congress for failing to supply requested documents.
The onetime champion Bible seller and would-be governor of his home state of Tennessee has ...
Continue readingWho leases office space to the feds remains a mystery
After deciding to profile Franklin L. Haney as part of our Stealthy Wealthy series, an obvious question soon posed itself: Exactly how much have Haney's companies collected over the years in leasing office space to the federal government?
The answer -- or rather non-answer -- to the question says less about Haney than it does about the limits on what the public can know about how its tax dollars are being spent.
News reports stated that his company, through a variety of limited liability corporations and real estate partnerships, had leases for office space worth many millions of dollars dating back ...
Continue readingHaney campaign contributions hard to follow
Franklin L. Haney is a case study on how hard it can be to get a comprehensive picture of the campaign contribution clout of a particular individual or company given the limits of state and local level disclosure.
The influential developer, who bid unsuccessfully to become the owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team and helped bankroll the political career of fellow Tennessean Al Gore, has long been known as a major Democratic donor. But he leaves a surprisingly small footprint on Sunlight's Influence Explorer. The totals show $1.2 million since 1989 to federal candidates and parties and ...
Continue readingStealthy effort fuels get out the vote effort–in Israel
An assertive bipartisan get-out-the-vote effort known as “IVoteIsrael” and aimed at Americans living in that country appears to have ties to conservative billionaire Ronald S. Lauder, a supporter of Republican causes and of the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A project of Americans for Jerusalem, a charity registered under 501(c)4 of the U.S. tax code, IVoteIsrael is not required to release information about its donors. However, corporate filings in Delaware show that the group lists the same Manhattan address as that used by the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation. Other intriguing connections:
- Allen Roth, the president of ...
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