By registering with the Federal Election Commission only 20 days before the Massachusetts special Senate election, a new super PAC supporting Gabriel Gomez, the Republican in the race, will avoid disclosing its donors until well after voters go to the polls.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 6/13/2013
- President Obama named Keith Harper, who netted record donations from Native American tribes for the 2012 campaign, the new U.S. representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council. (Washington Post)
- Continuing the trend of top Obama staffers leaving for lucrative new careers: the former White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, and assistant White House press secretary, Ben LaBolt, have started a new communications company under New Partners Consulting, the Democratic consulting shop. (Huffington Post)
- Though state judicial races used to be relatively low-key, they are increasingly influenced by political ads - many of them paid for by national political groups located outside of the state. (Public Integrity)
- Sick of news like this? You might be sympathetic to a provocative new ad to take money out of politics. Fair warning: NSFW - or indeed, your eyes. (Roll Call)
- A Florida television station uncovered the intersection of money, technology, policy, and safety in traffic lights, of all things. The Florida Department of Transportation shortened the length of yellow lights, collecting more in traffic fines, but also increasing the likelihood of dangerous accidents. (TechPresident)
Pesticide industry would benefit from farm bill provisions
Tucked within the 1,234-page House farm bill expected to come up for debate next week are two controversial provisions benefitting the pesticide industry by reversing court-ordered federal agency policies designed to protect water and wildlife.
Continue readingWill Bloomberg’s wrath hurt senators who opposed gun bill?
Billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg is asking prominent Democratic donors in New York, a key source of funds for candidates across the country, to stop contributing to the four Democratic senators who voted to block a bill that would have strengthened background checks for gun buyers, the New York Times reported.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 6/12/2013
- President Obama campaigns in Massachusetts today to support Rep. Markey's Senatorial bid, the latest in a string of high-profile campaigners including Joe Biden, Boston Mayor Tom Menino, and Michelle Obama. A leading Republican speculates that the Dems are pulling out the big guns out of desperation, or else they wouldn't be squandering the time of these officials. (The Hill)
- Meanwhile, campaign trackers note the absence of activity by major Republican super PACS in the Massachusetts special election. Gabriel Gomez is being outspent by Markey at a pace of 3 to 1, a marked contrast from when conservative ads flooded the state for the 2010 and 2012 Senatorial elections (Roll Call)
- Mayor Bloomberg sends a letter today urging hundreds of New York's biggest liberal donors not to contribute to the four Democratic Senators who opposed the April bill to strengthen background checks on gun buyers. Those four Senators have raised a combined $2.2 million from New York, so Bloomberg's letter could inadvertently strengthen the Senate's Republican majority. (New York Times)
- Though government innovation challenges succeed at getting entrepreneurs
interested in state issues, their impact is often fleeting. A survey of apps that won competitions in Kenya found that most had stopped being developed shortly after those competitions concluded. (Tech President) - The DOE flagged $450,000 in payments to the contracting company controlled by former New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson. Inspections showed that the payments failed to provide the mandated information on the scope and nature of the work performed. (POLITICO)
Groups come together in support of Senate e-filing
A coalition of groups interested in campaign finance reform and government openness, including the Sunlight Foundation, have joined together to urge Senators to support the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act and "help ensure that citizens have the same access to campaign finance information about Senate candidates that they currently have regarding all other federal candidates, political parties, and federal PACs." Candidates for President and the House of Representatives file their campaign finance reports electronically; So do party committees and federal PACs. Only Senate candidates still do things the old fashioned way, filing their campaign finance reports on paper. The paper filings, over 380,000 pages worth last year, have to be transferred into electronic formats and posted online by the Federal Election Commission before the public is able to see what kind of money Senate candidates are raising, and who they are raising it from. This process is time consuming, expensive, and unnecessary. Luckily, the legislation introduced in the 113th Congress by Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) would solve this problem and make Senate candidates more transparent and accountable to the public. The bill has been gaining momentum, garnering 34 bipartisan cosponsors since February. Unfortunately, previous versions of the bill have been blocked on a number of occasions. The bill's prospects are unclear this time around, but we are hopeful that the growing momentum for change will help push Senate candidates into the 21st century. You can read the full letter below.
Continue readingStudy finds link between who gives to judicial candidates and how they decide
A rising tide of campaign contributions to candidates for states' top courts appears to be influencing the way those courts mete out justice, a new academic study finds.
"Justice at Risk," a report from the American Constitution Society, examined more than 2,300 business-related cases decided between 2010-2012 by the Supreme courts of the 50 states and compared them to 175,000 records of campaign contributions obtained from the nonpartisan National Institute on Money in State Politics. The conclusion: "There is a statistically significant relationship between campaign contributions from business groups and justices voting in favor of business interests."
The ...
Continue readingFAIR continues TV ads against immigration reform
As the Senate launches an immigration debate that could last the rest of the month, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) drops at least $36,000 in its latest round of advertising against the bill, while a major labor union begins advertising in favor of passage.
Continue readingResearch Tool Kit: Immigration bills, lobbying, issue ads and more
Today, the U.S. Senate will consider the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill and to mark the occasion, we put together a handy research guide on everything we have on immigration policy. Legislation Follow the bill on Scout, and get updates on all immigration bills around the U.S., congressional speeches and more. Check out an interactive timeline that covers 125 years of immigration policy and legislation in the United States. Q: Who said “immigration reform” the most in Congress? A: Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) … even though he left office in 2009. Lobbying Since January, 61 people filed new registration forms, according to Sunlight’s Lobbying Tracker, with companies seeking more high-skilled foreign workers, led by the tech sector, driving the April and May uptick. This year already surpasses the 54 registrations from all of 2011 and 42 new reports from 2012 that reported immigration as an issue.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 6/11/2013
by Carrie Tian, policy intern
- A prime example of redundancy in government is the vocabulary of useful terms, such as "rural", which currently has 15 different definitions across US agencies. The farm bill approved by the Senate last night would streamline the definitions - from 15 to 9. (Washington Post)
- Following Obama's executive order in May for open, machine readable data, agencies look for useful ways to incorporate outside datasets and mitigate privacy concerns. (FCW)
- Think the furor over government surveillance calls for dedicated oversight? It turns out that there's been a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board since 2004, though it's done precious little in nearly a decade of existence. (Washington Post)
- Varying accounts of how much Congress knew about the surveillance programs call into question the necessity of classification of information, even between legislators and their staffers. (Roll Call)
- Nonprofit organization Transparency International released a report yesterday evaluating military contractors on their anti-corruption screening before making sales. Controversially low scores prompted several nations to ask for the evaluation criteria to improve their own screening processes. (New York Times)
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