Denver, Colorado…Two kinds of non-disclosure popped up in my half hour of TV news viewing this morning in Denver, ground... View Article
Continue readingLocal watchdogging starts with one good question
When it comes down to it, beyond the ideal of “transparent governance,” everyone in the open government movement is looking... View Article
Continue readingDid the dog eat American Action Network’s disclosure reports?
Editor's note: As of today (10/27), American Action Network's buy in Colorado now shows up on Federal Election Commission disclosures, $725,000 dated October 12. The Denver Post reports today that channel 9 (ABC) pulled the ad posted below for false claims.
Soon after news surfaced that the American Action Network planned to drop $1.5 million into Colorado's seventh district, where Democratic incumbent Ed Perlmutter is facing off against Ryan Frazier in a race that has become competitive, TV advertisements started going up on the airwaves. The conservative group, however, has yet to report spending ...
Continue readingDCCC accuses McCain of flouting election laws he helped create
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is the only member of Congress that is using his campaign committee to make independent expenditures for other federal candidates which the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) claims is a violation of the McCain-Feingold Act because it exceeds the value of non-cash contributions.
The DCCC argues that either the ad was created in coordination with the candidates or, it was an independent expenditure. The complaint casts doubts that the ads were independent expenditures saying, “It is utterly implausible that the state's most senior Republican, who appeared at a Tea Party rally for these two candidates ...
Continue readingSuper PAC discloses donors?
Update: America's Families First Action Fund, an independent expenditure committee associated with a 501(c)4 organization that doesn't have to disclose its donors, discloses its donors. Their plan to avoid 1994 in 2010 is here. My sharp eyed colleague Aaron Bycoffe noticed this in the document the Times acquired: "The project team has established both a federal independent expenditure committee, America's Families First Action Fund (AFFAF) and a 501c4 advocacy organization, America's Families First. Gifts to the independent expentiture committee are disclosed but can be unlimited. Gifts to a 501c4 advocacy organization can be anonymous ...
Continue readingSwing State Confidential: Colorado–What (Senator) Do Women Want?
Denver, Colorado…This morning’s crop of political advertisements–collected while watching a half hour of morning news on channel 4, CBS–in the... View Article
Continue readingTake Transparency Offline…and into Your Mailbox
Election season is in high gear, as you’ve no doubt noticed. With it comes the normal barrage of ads, phone... View Article
Continue readingDaily Disclosures
A roundup of what we’re noticing in the Reporting Group as we dig into government data and disclosures: By the... View Article
Continue readingWhat to read now
1) E.J. Dionne writes about secret money in the Washington Post, “Imagine an election in a Third World nation where... View Article
Continue readingMaking Senate amendments more transparent
On the eve of the midterm elections and with the 111th Congress all but wrapped up with its business, Sunlight... View Article
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