GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is set to officially exit the race Wednesday in Arlington, Va. and is telling USA TODAY that he'll soon endorse Mitt Romney. But can the former speaker make voters forget the millions of dollars worth of attack ads that he and the super PAC supporting him launched against the man Gingrich now says will be the next president?
We have compiled a highlight -- or should we call it lowlight? -- reel of the ads that ran in early primary states when Gingrich was Romney's main rival. It underscores how the intense negativity of this ...
Continue readingWill Lessons be Learned on Either Side of the Pond?
The British parliamentary inquiry into the phone hacking scandal by News of the World, the now shuttered tabloid published by... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 5/1/2012
NEWS ROUNDUP Government Schocking Allegations: Two congressional watchdog groups filed a complaint with the FEC arguing that Rep. Aaron Schock... View Article
Continue readingCongressional letter writing campaign helps torpedo voluntary food marketing guidelines for kids
Days after receiving several campaign checks from the food lobby last May, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who is up for reelection this year, sent a letter raising concerns about the Federal Trade Commission's efforts to develop voluntary guidelines aimed at toning down the marketing of junk food to kids.
Continue reading“The People Rule”- Can it be more than a motto?
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the guest blogger and those providing comments are theirs alone and do not reflect the... View Article
Continue readingFact checking group accuses Romney super PAC of spending $20 million on deceptive ads
Restore Our Future, the super PAC backing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, spent more than $20 million on deceptive ads in early primary and caucus states, according to a just-released study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center. That figure includes more than $9 million in ads distorting the record of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is set to endorse Romney on Wednesday.
Relying on the spending estimates of commercial ad-tracking company Kantar Media CMAG and the content analysis of Annenberg's own FactCheck.org, the center calculates that outside groups spent a total of $41.1 million through ...
Continue readingTariff bill opens the floodgates for lobbyists
In the three months before congressional leaders announced that they are once again opening the process to suspend tariffs, at... View Article
Continue reading2Day in #OpenGov 4/30/2012
NEWS ROUNDUP Campaign Finance Occupy Television: Members of the Occupy movement are trying to counter the impact of super PAC spending... View Article
Continue readingSuper PAC profile: Group focused on healthcare repeal has shadowy sister
This week, Restore America's Voice PAC has disclosed its first political spending of the 2012 election cycle--more than $50,000 worth of phone call fundraising pitches that mention President Barack Obama--but a shadowy nonprofit tied to the group has spent millions more attacking Obama and congressional Democrats for the healthcare reform act.
Restore America's Voice Foundation, a social welfare organization that does not have to disclose its donors, ran ads around the country in 2011 featuring former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. On one of its websites, Repealitnow.org, the group claims that the ads were "the only televised ...
Continue readingFCC expects political ad buys to be online before 2012 election
The Federal Communications Commission voted to give the public online access to reports detailing new political ad buys from affiliates of the top four networks in the 50 largest media markets before November’s election, despite objections from the nation’s broadcasters.
The only hurdle now: the Office of Management and Budget must approve the new rule. After that, the top four stations in the biggest markets will put the ad buys on the Federal Communication Commission’s website. And the FCC expects that approval soon, William Lake, the chief of the media bureau, told reporters after the meeting.
After ...
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