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Continue readingThe Issue Groups Taking to TV So Far in 2013
While it’s not at the volume of the Fall, our television screens are continuing to experience a case of “political ad fever.” From commercials about gun laws and tax rates to ads about alleged animal cruelty, issue groups took to the airwaves this winter. We reviewed the ad files in Political Ad Sleuth for the first three months of 2013 and mapped the trends among issue group advertisers in the nation’s top 50 media markets.
Sidebar: Don't let broadcasters shut down FCC political ad database over online ripoff
Broadcast TV stations in 32 media markets aired issue ads from at least 55 advertisers. The political ads were split pretty evenly between a local or national scope, covering 27 different topics. Three markets had a diverse selection of advertisers:- Washington, DC — 14 issue groups bought airtime, including four on the topic of gun control, three urging the Senate not to appoint Chuck Hagel and one supporting the U.S. postal service.
- Milwaukee — 7, with issue ads around candidates for the city’s judge circuit race being the majority of the ones we found.
- Los Angeles — 6, mostly centered on candidates in the LA mayoral race.
The real scam: Don’t let broadcasters shut down FCC political ad database over online ripoff
A story which had been making the rounds in broadcast trade publications, broke into the mainstream media Thursday, when NPR reported that scammers have been taking advantage of the Federal Communications Commission's online political ad file to rip off political consultants.
Hold the no-honor-among-thieves jokes. Let's just stipulate that stealing is not a good thing, even if the victims are political consultants. More worrisome than what the latest developments on the FCC database mean for advertisers' information is what they could mean for yours.
2Day in #OpenGov 4/2/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- The annual White House Easter Egg Roll escaped the sequester's axe with a mix of corporate donations and souvenir sales. The National Park Service, which oversees the event, have been allow to accept private donations for almost 100 years. This year Victoria Knight McDowell, CEO of Pine Bros. Softish Throat Drops, chipped in $25,000 after her twins told her the event could get canceled. (Washington Post)
- A new lawsuit by Christopher Horner, who previously found that EPA officials were conducting official business through private email accounts, alleges that executives at the agency also used instant messages to avoid open-records laws.(Washington Times)
- The circus is in town and it's lobbyists aren't just a side show. Feld Entertainment, the company that owns Ringling Bros., spent more than $330,000 on federal lobbying last year trying to fend off attacks from animal rights groups. (Public Integrity)
- Former US Trade Representative Ron Kirk didn't take long to swing through the revolving door. He snagged a job at the Dallas office of the law firm Gibson Dunn where he will work on "international engagements" in many markets that he had experience with during his time as USTR as well as more parochial concerns in his home state of Texas. (POLITICO)
- More than 90 million Russians could be online by the end of 2013 and the Russian government is expected to step up their regulation and censorship of the internet to match. (Tech President)
- 21 chief executives from some of America's most powerful companies are pushing Congress for comprehensive tax reform. In a letter to the leadership of both the House and Senate committees in charge of the issue, CEOs from AT&T, FedEx, Disney, and more urged changes. (Roll Call)
As NRA pushes Congress, states consider bills to put guns in schools
Even as the National Rifle Association (NRA) announced a new push today to put armed guards in schools across the country, state lawmakers across the country are considering similar proposals. So far, legislation related to guns on school grounds has come up in at least three dozen states. The vast majority of these bills would make it easier for school personnel, guards, and volunteers to carry guns on campus, while a handful would toughen laws prohibiting firearms at schools.
Elizabeth Colbert Busch Cleans Her (Twitter) House Before Special Election
Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the Democratic nominee for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, deleted more than 500 tweets from her campaign Twitter account this morning.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 4/1/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- For the second year in a row The Committee to Save New York, a group of business interests that work to support Governor Andrew Cuomo, spent more on lobbying in the state than any other organization. Overall lobbying in New York topped $200 million last year. (New York Times)
- The FEC reports for Sarah Palin's PAC indicate that she spent only $300,000 supporting candidates in the 2012 election cycle while directing almost $5 million towards GOP consultants. Presumably those weren't the same "big consultants" that she lambasted at her speech to CPAC last month. (Washington Post, Daily Beast)
- FCC commissioner Ajit Pai, who is about to become the senior Republican on the panel at the youthful age of 40, would like to use technology to improve agency processes and transparency. His major suggestion is a dashboard for information about license renewals, consumer complaints, merger reviews and more. (Federal Computer Week)
- The creators of Ubuntu are working with the Chinese government on Chinese-specific version of the operating system. The Chinese may be pushing an open source alternative to wean their citizens off western software products. (Tech President)
- Mark Zuckerberg's new issue advocacy organization is tapping outside lobbyists in addition to its in house team for a push on immigration reform. Zuckerberg signed up Peck, Madigan, Jones & Stewart as well as Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock lobbyists that have experience on immigration. (POLITICO)
- Congress might be on an Easter break, but that doesn't mean the influence industry ignores the holiday. The holiday, known in secular circles for the abundance of sweets that come along with it, has powerful backers like the National Confectioners Association which hired 20 lobbyists last year. (Public Integrity)
Introducing Sunlight’s Transparency Drone
After years of waiting for the technology and regulations to catch up to our goals, we’re finally able to unveil our latest project: Transparency Drone.
Continue readingThe bigger the bank, the higher the complaint rate
The bigger the bank, the higher the rate of consumer complaints. That is the general pattern of a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of just-released consumer complaint data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
The relationship is hardly surprising. The biggest banks consistently score the worst on surveys of customer satisfaction. The most recent survey found Bank of America with the lowest customer satisfaction rate. We find Bank of America to have the second highest rate of complaints, trailing only Capital One, a major issuer of credit cards. Capital One accounts for 21.3% (4,181 of 19,603) of credit card complaints in the CFPB data.
Baseball’s (political) heavy hitters
While MLB players will be taking the field for Sunday's opening day games in hopes of winning a World Series title in October, team owners may have their sights set on winning a different sort of Fall Classic.
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