On the defensive and trying to wade off a Tea Party challenge, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has hit the airwaves with ads 20 months before Election Day.
His campaign is dropping at least $21,000 to run its first ads of the 2014 campaign, in the Louisville TV market over the next week during the Today Show, the nightly news, Dancing with the Stars and Americas Funniest Home videos, new ad buys disclosed on Political Ad Sleuth show. The Associated Press quoted a McConnell's spokesman as saying the total ad buy will run into six figures. (Only ...
Continue readingTeddy Turner gives himself $30 K as S.C. House race heads into home stretch
Political upstart Teddy Turner bankrolls himself as corporate bigs bankroll disgraced ex-Gov. Mark Sanford in a lively special election for a South Carolina House seat.
Continue readingThis Is Why Government Should Use Open Formats
James Fee brings news of a dismaying decision by an Ohio court. A real estate appraiser named Robert Gambill tried... View Article
Continue readingJoin us for a Twitter chat on FOIA
Happy Sunshine Week! The FOIA-rich week may be winding down but there are plenty of events still lined up. Tomorrow,... View Article
Continue readingAs earmark lobbyist gets out of jail, former colleagues still on the trail
Paul J. Magliocchetti, the former House Appropriations staffer who went on to be a top lobbyist for earmarks, got out of prison today. Magliocchetti pled guilty to charges that he made illegal campaign donations. He was served a 27-month sentence for admitting to funneling more than $380,000 to House and Senate campaigns through straw donors.
PMA Group, Magliocchetti's firm, boasted a stable of lobbyists who had gone through the revolving door, some 33 in all, including 7 who worked for the congressional appropriations committees or their members. Of those, 28 are still registered to lobby the federal government ...
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 3/14/2013
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- House Oversight Committee Chair Issa and Ranking Member Cummings introduced a bill this week that aims to strengthen existing FOIA policies, mandate a single online portal for FOIA requests across government, and more! (POGO, NextGov)
- Limited press access to a meeting of President Obama's Export Council was dismissed as a non-issue by press secretary Jay Carney, but there have been a number of other limited-access meetings recently that should have been open due to the Federal Advisory Committee Act. (Politico)
- Former White House adviser David Plouffe criticized critics for criticizing OFA at the group's "founders summit." The event was attended by top donors, activists, and former campaign staff and served as a launching pad for the group, which says it hopes to operate as a grassroots advocacy group, but can accept unlimited, opaque donations. (The Hill)
- The Entertainment Software Association is moving to protect itself on Capitol Hill as the ongoing gun violence debate shines a spotlight on video games. The association hired former staffers for Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (R-FL) to make its case on the hill. (Roll Call)
- As Wikileaks faces continued legal and financial pressure a number of other groups that it inspired appear to have gone quiet. Balkanleaks, based in Bulgaria, is one of the few that have continued to thrive. (ArsTechnica)
- Iceland made headlines recently when the country essentially crowd-sourced their new constitution. Iveta Kazoka recently sat down with Finnur Magnusson who was the CTO of the Constitutional Council in Iceland to talk about the process. (Opening Parliament)
Pro-Obama group insists it’s not selling access
As donors and Democratic activists meet with President Obama surrogates today and tomorrow to discuss the launch of a political nonprofit group that will help advance president's agenda, new details have emerged about it. But not the list of high rollers who have been asked to pay $50,000 to dine tonight with the president.
Continue readingCruz gears up fundraising machine
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who has managed to upend the adage about freshmen being seen and not heard in the less-than 10 weeks since he took his seat as the Lone Star State's junior senator, likes to portray himself as a political maverick. But when it comes to fundraising, he's playing like a classic insider.
The brash Texas Republican, who this week is trying to defund President Barack Obama's signature health care law, earlier this month registered the Cruz Victory Committee, a joint fundraising arm. By creating the group, Cruz eases the way for big givers to ...
Continue readingSunlight`s role in the global open government movement
In the last few years, Sunlight has found inspiration from all over the world in the actions of different stakeholders.... View Article
Continue readingA Look at Utah’s Future in Open Data
Open data policies can come in different shapes, sizes, and strengths. The most common and idealized form aims to mandate or direct energy toward open data specifically (reflected in the recent wave of municipal referendums). Another takes the focus off of open data, and instead tucks related provisions into policies for other issue areas (a neat example is this (now tabled) Viriginia education bill, introduced in January). The open data legislation passed yesterday by Utah reflects a third form: the mandated plan. We’ve seen this model before, most recently in Montgomery County, MD. In essence, this sort of legislation directs a particular agency (or, in Utah’s case, overhauls a snoozing Transparency Advisory Board) to study and make recommendations for online, best practice data disclosure. Although it’s easy to think of these policies as a punt, this sort of reallocation of attention, time, and expertise can actually be a move to stabilize and ensure thoughtful implementation and real enforcement of an open data agenda -- so long as it’s executed well, actually moves from planning to action, and operates start to finish within the public’s eye. Utah’s Board will be one to watch, with a unique combination of state agency actors, legislators, archivists, technologists, county and municipal reps, and two members of the public. It’s a team that hints at greater ambitions for Utah’s approach to future online publication of data, one that seems to be looking, at least tentatively, outside the State House and towards Utah’s local governments. But we won’t know for sure until the board turns around its first series of recommendations, due by November 30, 2013.
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