The Crossroads network has spent approximately $174,285,625.40 on the 2012 election and almost three out of every four dollars (70.5%)... View Article
Continue readingTwoops! Scott Brown (briefly) hails Elizabeth Warren appointment
Sometimes the fastest thumbs in politics are just too fast for their own (or their bosses') good.
About 15 minutes into Wednesday night's debate between Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., and his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, Team Brown -- using the boss' campaign Twitter account -- tweeted out a brag about the senator authoring an amendment to create a consumer protection board for members of the military service "which is now headed by Holly Petraeus."
That's a good name to drop. Holly Petraeus is the wife of retired Gen. David Petraeus, who commanded U.S. and allied forces in Iraq and ...
Continue readingA Report from the Election Hackathon
A bunch of us from the labs spent the weekend a few blocks away from Sunlight HQ, hacking away with... View Article
Continue readingPolitical Ad Sleuth Exposes the Money Behind Election Advertising
Today, Sunlight and Free Press are proud to launch Political Ad Sleuth, a new project dedicated to collecting and posting... View Article
Continue readingInfluence Explored: T-Mobile and Metro PCS merge successfully
An article in the New York Times last week reported that T-Mobile USA’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, bought Metro PCS,... View Article
Continue readingThe News Without Transparency: FCC Ruling Makes Tracking Political Ad Buying Easier
Redacted – USA Today Political Ad Buying in Denver In light of the first presidential debate held last Wednesday at... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 10/10/12
NEWS ROUNDUP: Government Outsourcing FOIA: At least 25 federal agencies are outsourcing parts of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)... View Article
Continue readingPolitical Ad Sleuth debuts: Track the money behind the campaign ads
Above Las Vegas last week, the air invisibly crackled with attacks and counter-attacks by candidates for a House and a Senate seat -- not to mention President Obama, his rival Mitt Romney and their backers. In Denver, there was a clash of political fronts: Outside groups like Planned Parenthood and Crossroads GPS competed for airtime with each other, as well as the candidates they are supporting.
In Grand Rapids, Mich., ads in a high-priced contest over a bridge to Canada dominated the TV airwaves, while in Sacramento, it was ballot initiatives and House races vying for voters' attention. Milwaukee viewers were ...
Continue readingObama September surge leaves Romney in a $360 million hole
Unless Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney persuaded donors to cough up $360 million in September, President Barack Obama will remain the all-time king of political fundraising.
The Obama campaign released preliminary figures showing their candidate's dollar domination in September, when he raised $181 million, the bulk of it--some 98 percent--in chunks of $250 or less. That brings Obama's overall total to a staggering $925 million in the current election cycle, including money raised by his joint fundraising committees, the Obama Victory Fund and the Swing State Victory Fund, and the Democratic National Committee.
Romney and his surrogates have ...
Continue readingExpert: Court enforces law when Federal Election Commission can’t
Last week a federal judge stepped in to decide when a political ad is a campaign ad, meaning it has to be reported to the Federal Election Commission, as Sunlight wrote on Friday.
The case was brought by a conservative, Virginia-based nonprofit that wants to run five political ads that appear to be aimed at criticizing President Obama without disclosing them to the FEC. The group, the Hispanic Leadership Fund, sued the FEC after the commissioners, beset by partisan gridlock, could not decide whether the ads were so called electioneering communications—a term of art meaning the ads have to ...
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