President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will meet on stage tonight for their third and final debate... View Article
Continue readingPolitical donors’ million dollar check club: September edition
A relative handful of mega-donors capable of writing seven-figure checks, thanks to the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United that opened the door for unlimited campaign contributions, have fuelled this fall's dizzying rise in outside political spending, which jumped from $14 million the week ending Sept. 1 to $110 million the week ending Oct. 20, according to Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker.
In September, 25 individuals or organizations wrote checks of $1 million or more to super PACs, according to Sunlight's analysis of the last full month of campaign expenditure reports that we will see ...
Continue readingLast-minute Democratic political donations don’t close the money gap
A flood of last-minute largesse from Democratic donors helped Priorities USA Action, the super PAC backing President Barack Obama's reelection, outraise its Republican counterpart for the second month in a row in September. But Republican-leaning outside spenders still headed into the last full month of the campaign with a huge cash advantage, an analysis of records filed overnight at the Federal Election Commission by Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker shows.
Restore Our Future, the super PAC founded by former Mitt Romney aides to support the Republican presidential candidate, headed into the last month of the campaign with ...
Continue readingPro-Romney super PAC: $100 million and counting
Restore Our Future has hit a fundraising milestone: The super PAC supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has clocked $100 million in contributions since it was organized just two years ago this month.
That puts the pro-Romney super PAC far ahead of the rest of the PAC pack when it comes to fundraising, Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker shows, though just how wide a lead it enjoys won't be possible to determine until the rest of the campaign committees file their latest reports with the Federal Election Commission. Committees that report monthly to the FEC -- a group ...
Continue readingPro-gay marriage group pushes for ad removal
A gay marriage referendum on Maryland ballots Nov. 6 has set off a behind-the-scenes fight over a television advertisement, a dispute uncovered by Sunlight's Political Ad Sleuth.
A letter discovered on the database, which tracks political ad filings that local stations are required to post with the Federal Communications Commission, reveals that Marylanders for Marriage Equality has been pressing station managers to take down "Question 6 Doesn't," an ad produced by the Maryland Marriage Alliance, a group on the other side of the debate over same-sex marriage.
Marylanders for Marriage Equality raised a number of complaints about the ...
Continue readingRepublicans in tight House races on top in the money game
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Republicans vying for House seats have the money edge in tossup races as the campaign enters its home stretch. The latest campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that GOP candidates have at least $5.65 million more than the Democrats in 23 tossup races as identified by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Republicans in the group had about $17.64 million cash on hand, compared to the Democrats' $12 million.
The report, which covers the third ...
Calling all ad sleuths: Get happy; get data; get empowered
Wondering who’s flooding your living rooms with non-stop streams of negativity? Selling your would-be elected representatives like so many bars... View Article
Continue readingOutside political spending continues to skyrocket
Of the $810 million in outside spending that Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money has tracked since the beginning of the campaign cycle, more than half has been laid out in the last six weeks.
Continue readingVideo: This Week’s Political Money Weather Report
$800 million and counting. That’s how much money has been spent just by outside groups so far this election season. There's no doubt that this will be the most expensive election yet. Tune into this week’s Political Money Weather Report for a quick recap the steady downpour of money: where it’s happening, and who’s behind it (when transparency laws allow for us to know) -- and what we don’t know.
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 10/19/2012
NEWS ROUNDUP: Government
- DoD doubles down on leaks: In a memo released yesterday Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta reaffirmed the Pentagon's commitment to tracking down and punishing leakers. The DoD will impliment a "top down" approach, including the review of major media sources for leaked information, in their efforts to find individuals who release classified information into the public domain. (POGO)
- SEC seeing better tips: The SECs whistleblower office, which opened just over a year ago, has already received nearly 3,000 tips from around the world. According to SEC commisioner Luis Aguilar, the quality of information received has gone up significantly since the implementation of a Dodd-Frank Act program that provides rewards to whistleblowers whose information leads to enforcement cases with penalties over $1 million. (Wall Street Journal)
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