American Express says that they'll start disclosing information on their donations to 501(c) groups (trade associations, political 501(c)4s and so on) that engage in political activity, provided that the groups disclose this info to Amex:
Beginning for payments made in calendar 2008, American Express will request information regarding political contributions from trade associations, entities organized under section 501(c) 4 of the Code, and other tax exempt organizations that engage in non-deductible lobbying and political expenditures under Code section 162(e). For any such organization that receives in excess of $50,000 during the calendar year ...Continue reading
It’s Not What’s Illegal That’s the Problem
Now this is sweet. Trent Lott, former U.S. senator and Senate Majority Leader and now lobbyist, is using his $1.3 million campaign war chest left over from when he retired from the Senate to make political donations to Members of Congress that vote and take other actions that directly impact the interests of his clients. As the report says, the practice is legal (amazingly so), and he's not the first retiring member to give former colleagues left over campaign funds. It all fits my view of the mix of money and politics: it's not what's illegal that's the real problem.
Lott retired from the Senate in December and then joined former Sen. John Breaux (D -La.) to launch The Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, a Washington lobbying operation. The Associated Press quotes Craig Holman at Public Citizen and a spokesperson from the Center for Responsive Politics as saying Lott's stockpile, $1.1 million at the end of March, is the largest they can remember, and is drawing scrutiny of the Mississippi Republican. The clients he has signed on to promote, the proposed Delta-Northwest airline merger and Northrop Grumman's $35 billion contract to build tanker jets for the Air Force, are drawing attention too.
Domenici “Admonished” By Ethics Committee
I tried to interfere with a U.S. Attorney's investigation, failed, got the Attorney fired, and all I got was this lousy letter of "qualified admonition."
The Senate Ethics Committee, yesterday, admonished Sen. Pete Domenici for creating an "appearance of impropriety" when he telephoned David Iglesias, the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico, prior to the 2006 election to ask when he was going to bring indictments against Democrats for voter fraud. After not receiving the answer he wanted, Sen. Domenici pushed the White House to fire Iglesias, as they did along with other Attorneys.
This is said qualified letter of admonition. While an admonition seems like pretty weak tea for what Domenici did, it's at least good to know that they actually do police themselves in the Senate, as opposed to the House.
Continue readingLocal Sunlight (Update)
This week I have highlights from
Tidbits from trainings
Lately I've been doing a lot of traveling, training reporters on using some of the campaign finance resources that Sunlight supports, and doing a lot of research in the process. I've come across some interesting stuff along the way, including this General Dynamics statement on their political contributions:
General Dynamics participates in the U.S. political process when it is in the best interests of its shareholders, businesses and employees to do so. Participation in this process ensures that the company's interests as a leading member of the defense and aerospace industries, as well as a large ...Continue reading
Grrrrrr
From the Center for Responsive Politics:
In the contests for Congress, 1st Quarter fundraising totals for some congressional candidates -- many of them incumbent senators -- still haven't come out electronically from the FEC. (Senators insist on filing their reports on paper even though everyone else files electronically, so this usually explains the delay in getting electronic information -- it has to be keyed in at your expense, taxpayer.)
OpenSecrets.org will update their congressional profiles as the data becomes available. Expect deeper analysis next month.
From the Knight Digital Media Center Conference in LA
I'm at the Knight Digital Media Center (USC based) here in LA at a training for a few dozen journalists. It's a very impressive group of so-called ‘experts' and journalists who are soaking in the latest in web reporting, analysis, tools, databases and using the web to involve citizens, to enhance their political coverage this year.
This morning's panel on new forms of reporting has some really interesting insights (live-blogging here so forgive any typos or errors).
There is a real appetite for innovative approaches to politics on the web, says Matthew Wait, news technologist from St. Pete Times who starts his presentation by saying that he hates politics. When you don't have a team of seven like the Times does, he suggests crowd sourcing, particularly for local politics. Check out Twine as a local politics meme watcher; Google Docs as a Source Collector. Twitter. Think election day problems for the latter. Long discussion about Polifact which has matured a lot since I first checked it out.
Aron Pilhofer says the NY Times where he leads a team of seven (!) journalist developer types, to work on news-focused, data-drive projects; e.g. ‘web development' at newsroom speed. (I like that! Really like that.)
Continue readingPublicMarkup.org at Web 2.0 Expo
We were delighted to hear that Tim O'Reilly brought up the Sunlight Foundation, and PublicMarkup.org in particular, during his keynote address to the Web 2.0 Expo (where you might be able to spot some Sunlight Labs staff, if you're attending).
Continue readingCongressonal Bad Boys and Girls
From a cynical, but entertaining Web site that was just pointed out to me:
Over 11,700 Members of Congress have served this great Nation. Overwhelmingly, they have been hard working, dedicated, intelligent, and deserving of the courtesy title "The Honorable." But then there are the Congressional BadBoys, the one-half of one percent, or so, of rotten apples, done in by their all too human frailties. It's the same old story: power, money, booze, drugs, and sex.
Here's the sexual harassement caucus. Those who've gone to jail but still collect their pensions and the full prison caucus. Here's the probation caucus.
You get the picture.
Continue readingHouse Passes Contractor and Federal Spending Accountability Act
From Danielle at POGO:
Continue readingBreaking news: the House has just passed H.R. 3033 (the "Contractor and Federal Spending Accountability Act"). The bill, introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), would essentially formalize POGO's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database by establishing a government database with centralized information on federal contractors who have broken the law and violated federal regulations. As of now, there are almost no safeguards in place to prevent irresponsible contractors from receiving future taxpayer dollars. The proposed database would allow procurement officials to become more informed about a company's corporate history before making contracting decisions.
This is a huge victory for taxpayers that will improve contractor accountability. POGO strongly supported Rep. Maloney's legislation, which now goes to the Senate, where Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has already introduced a companion bill.
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