A tweet from Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., calling for volunteers to adopt IED-sniffing dogs has contributed to a situation that Marines might describe as a 'snafu.'
On West's Facebook page, a post stated that the Marine Corps has 400 decommissioned dogs in need of 'forever homes.' West (or a staffer) promoted the page on Twitter and deleted it two hours later. The deletion was captured by Sunlight Foundation's Politwoops, a site that records and posts deleted tweets from politicians. The Facebook post has since been removed.
Information about the dogs was based on a military listserv email sent ...
Continue readingRapper donor, mystery million and other fun finds in pop-up PAC filings
(Updated 8:42 a.m. Oct. 16)
Grammy-winning rapper Prakazrel Michel, known as Pras, can now add 'political activism' to his long list of talents. Michel is the only reported donor to super PAC Black Men Vote. He ponied up $250,000.
It's just one of the interesting nuggets turned up by the Sunlight Reporting Group's examinations of filings by super PACs that made their first-ever unveilings of donors Monday, as reports from committees that file on a quarterly schedule were due at the Federal Election Commission. Sunlight has identified nearly two dozen committees that surfaced as independent ...
Continue readingPolitical Ad Sleuth debuts: Track the money behind the campaign ads
Above Las Vegas last week, the air invisibly crackled with attacks and counter-attacks by candidates for a House and a Senate seat -- not to mention President Obama, his rival Mitt Romney and their backers. In Denver, there was a clash of political fronts: Outside groups like Planned Parenthood and Crossroads GPS competed for airtime with each other, as well as the candidates they are supporting.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., ads in a high-priced contest over a bridge to Canada dominated the TV airwaves, while in Sacramento, it was ballot initiatives and House races vying for voters' attention. Milwaukee viewers were ...
Continue readingGOP convention through the eyes of Sunlight Live
If you missed Sunlight Live's coverage of the Republican National Convention in Tampa last night, you missed a lot. A Wordle cloud of most-used terms from the speeches is above; below, a synopsis of some of Sunlight's observations, data and analysis, which our Sunlight Live tool allows us to provide to you on the same computer screen where you are watching a video stream of the convention proceedings.
Be sure to tune in tonight for our coverage of the second night. A few highlights from last night, whose theme was alternately you didn't build that, we did ...
Continue readingDo House freshmen speak differently?
Prices. Mother. Bless. Soldiers. Borrowing. Corporate. Abortion. Seniors.
What do these words have in common? They are all significantly more prominent in the speech of congressional freshmen than in overall speech patterns of House members, based on a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of the Congressional Record.
Transportation. Cosponsor. International. Order. Public. Intelligence. Human. Respect.
What do these words have in common? You guessed it. They are all significantly less prominent in the speech of congressional freshmen.
In general, there’s not a whole lot of difference in how the freshmen speak compared to their more senior colleagues. But certain words ...
Continue readingProfile: Rick Berg
| Party: Republican |
| State and District: North Dakota, 1 |
| Born: Aug. 16, 1959 Hettinger, N.D. |
| Campaign cash raised: $6,364,759 |
| Money from businesses that lobby: $1,384,525 |
| Money from leadership PACs: $374,726 |
| Money from in-state / out-of-state: $2,678,539 / $2,878,405 |
| At-risk in November? Yes |
| Outside group spending: $35,595.78 in opposition |
| Net worth in 2010: $12,146,147 to $54,979,033 |
| Net worth in 2011: $22,656,129 to $64,735,994 |
Berg's Capitol Words profile
How we compiled this information
Continue readingHouse freshmen in tight races: How many first-termers will be one-termers?
The 89 freshmen who roared into Washington last January are now experiencing the power, and also the perils, of incumbency. A number of them are not safe bets for reelection and some will certainly be one-termers. Of this fall's close races involving freshmen, a dozen stand out, based on the rankings of the nonpartisan political handicapper Charlie Cook.
Of them, 11 are Republicans who rode to power on the anti-Washington Tea Party wave. The remaining imperilled newcomer is Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline.
These are all bound to be expensive races where outside group spending may -- as it did ...
Continue readingProfile: Nan Hayworth
| Party: Republican |
| State and District: New York, 18 |
| Born: December 14, 1959 Chicago, Ill. |
| Campaign cash raised: $2,148,329 |
| Money from businesses that lobby: $751,164 |
| Money from leadership PACs: $149,626 |
| Money from in-state / out-of-state: $724,546 / $331,581 |
| At-risk in November? Yes |
| Outside group spending: $3,900 in support / $46,826 in opposition |
| Net worth in 2010: $9,347,241 to $22,463,000 |
| Net worth in 2011: $12,237,262 to $29,298,006 |
Hayworth's Capitol Words profile
How we compiled this information
Continue readingProfile: Dan Benishek
| Party: Republican |
| State and District: Michigan, 1 |
| Born: April 20, 1952 Iron River, Mich. |
| Campaign cash raised: $2,629,497 |
| Money from businesses that lobby: $552,450 |
| Money from leadership PACs: $214,400 |
| Money from in-state / out-of-state: $366,264 / $100,731 |
| At-risk in November? Yes |
| Outside group spending: $1,846 in support/ $39,858 in opposition |
| Net worth in 2010: $3,335,080 to $7,956,000 |
Benishek's Capitol Words profile
How we compiled this information
Continue readingProfile: Jim Renacci
| Party: Republican |
| State and District: Ohio, 16 |
| Born: December 3, 1958 Monongahela, Pa. |
| Campaign cash raised: $4,554,671 |
| Money from businesses that lobby: $678,134 |
| Money from leadership PACs: $158,025 |
| Money from in-state / out-of-state: $868,232 / $123,633 |
| At-risk in November? Yes |
| Outside group spending: $46,735 in opposition |
| Net worth in 2010: $32,345,756 to $51,775,662 |
Renacci's Capitol Words profile
How we compiled this information
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