The Federal Communication Commission's online political ad database is supposed to make information about heavy political hitters more accessible, but a lack of clarity in the rules has resulted in some stations effectively censoring what the public is permitted to see.
An analysis using Sunlight's Political Ad Sleuth, a project to organize and expand the FCC database, shows that of the more than 220 stations that are required to post their political files online, more than half have removed documents since the process began Aug. 2. More than 2,100 of the total 35,400 records appear to ...
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 10/25/2012
NEWS ROUNDUP:
- Obama has more ads despite less spending: President Barack Obama's campaign and its allies have run more ads in battleground states than challenger Mitt Romney's campaign and supporters despite being outspent. Some 915,000 ads have run in total this campaign season. (Washington Post)
- Third-party candidates dig on campaign spending: Four third-party presidential candidates railed on the state of campaign finance at a recent debate. Each of the candidates expressed concern about the corrupting role of money in politics. (Public Integrity)
- Supreme Court keeps limit for now: The U.S. Supreme Court denied an application to vacate a stay that keeps limits on campaign contributions in Montana. Montana has been the site for many tests of campaign finance issues. (Lobby Comply Blog)
Learning how to navigate Congress.gov
The new and much improved location for Congressional information, beta.congress.gov, has plenty of resources to offer users. Now the Library of Congress (LOC) is offering webinars and in-person training to help users navigate the expanding website. We applaud LOC for providing a variety of training opportunities for those seeking a better understanding of the information available.
Continue readingOctober surprise! New outside groups dumping millions into races nationwide
Hardworking Americans is one of the newest members of the October Surprise Club, political committees that have only become visible on the political radar in the last month before Election Day. Sunlight is compling a list of them here. The first time spenders have spent at least $13 million on House and Senate races as well as the presidential contest.
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 readingThe News Without Transparency: Reports highlight lack of information available on 501(c)4s
Recent reporting and analysis by ProPublica and the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group have brought a certain dark money group, the Government Integrity Fund, into the light.
The Government Integrity Fund is registered as a 501(c)4, a type of nonprofit permitted to run issue ads to influence the outcome of elections without disclosing the names its donors to the Federal Election Commission.
Thanks to a long-anticipated ruling by the Federal Communications Commission in August, broadcast stations are now required to make information about political ad buys available online. That FCC decision, along with efforts by the Sunlight Foundation’s Political Ad Sleuth and ProPublica’s Free the Files projects to aggregate the more than 30,000 filings on the FCC database so far, have helped to shed more light on the money these groups are spending and the people and interest groups behind the influence.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 10/24/2012
NEWS ROUNDUP: Government
- FTC offers prize for blocking robocalls: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is offering $50,000 to whoever can make the best robocall blocker. The challenge is open through January 2013. (GovTech)
- .gov links targeted in spam scam: Government websites with a .gov URL are being targeted in a spam scam, according to Symantec. (GovTech)
- Whistleblower pleads guilty: A former CIA officer accused of leaking the identities of two former colleagues to journalists pleaded guilty to one charge, but prosecutors dropped several other charges. John Kiriakou will be sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison under the plea deal. (New York Times)
Influence Explored: Big Ag Lobbies Against Prop 37 in California
A recent New York Times Magazine article by Michael Pollan highlights the potential momentum for a new “food movement” in America if California voters decide to enforce the labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMO) foods by passing Proposition 37, the Genetically Engineered Foods Right to Know Act next month. Proposition 37 proposes to label all GMO foods, including processed foods that contain GMO ingredients, and to prevent GMO foods from being labeled or advertised as “natural.” Agriculture industry giants opposed to Prop 37 are pouring money into California to defeat the ballot measure. According to the California watchdog group, Maplight, agribusiness giants have already sunk $35.6 million into defeating the prop with agrochemical titans Monsanto and DuPont emerging as the top two proponents with contributions totalling $7.1 million and $4.9 million, respectively. The bulk of that money has gone to the committee, No on 37: Coalition Against the Deceptive Food Labeling Scheme, Sponsored by Farmers and Food Producers. Other agrochemical and agroscience institutions like BASF Plant Science, Syngenta Co., Bayer Cropscience and Dow Agrosciences LLC have each contributed $2 million to the cause. Meanwhile, advocacy and industry groups in support of Prop 37 have only managed to raise $7.7 million in support.
Continue readingOutside Money in the Senate: One map, four graphs and seven takeaways
Outside money continues to pour in at a record pace this election cycle, and beyond the presidential race, the biggest general election spending totals are all in Senate races: $29.7 million in Virginia; $24.6 million in Ohio; $22.2 million in Wisconsin; $18.5 million in Nevada; $16.3 million in Montana. And counting. All told, outside groups have dropped $189.4 million into Senate races as of October 23.
And no wonder: the Senate remains very much up for grabs, and the parties are very close in their levels of outside spending – unlike both the presidential and House races, where Republicans have the outside spending edge. In the Senate outside money chase, Republicans have a very narrow lead, $97.3 million to $92.1 million.
Of particular interest is that Republicans are relying much more on non-party organizations – primarily Crossroads GPS and the Chamber of Commerce – that don’t have to disclose their donors and only have to report their spending within 60 days of an election. Among these types of groups, Republicans lead Democrats $56.2 million to $24.6 million. And significantly, while party committees are limited in the amount of money they can raise from any one individual ($30,800 per cycle), groups like Crossroads GPS and the Chamber can receive unlimited contributions. By contrast, Democrats are still relying much more on the traditional party structure.
First, an overview of the outside spending, by state:
Spending millions to end spending
Ironically, the super PAC named “Ending Spending Action Fund” may end up having the largest single donation to a super PAC. Records show Joe Ricketts, who built his fortune through Ameritrade, is trying to reduce spending by spending -- a lot.
Ricketts wrote a check for $5.48 million to the super PAC in September. That beats the $5 million checks written earlier in the cycle by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson and Harold Simmons And it made up about half of the $11.3 million that Ricketts donated to Ending Spending last month alone.
The owner of the Chicago Cubs, Ricketts ...
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