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 ...
Outside 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 readingSurprise! Corporations funded Democrats’ convention
Though the party conventions are long over, the special interests that paid for them were only revealed to the public yesterday. It’s not a surprise that, despite a self-imposed ban on corporate cash to fund their Charlotte convention, the Democrats relied on plenty of it.
For their bash in Tampa, Republicans brought in donations from super PAC donors, an oil industry trade group that's running its own political ads, and some of the same corporate donors who underwrote the Democrats' convention.
MORE: See the largest donors to the Democratic and Republican host committees below
The Charlotte host committee ...
Continue readingRepublican groups swamping Democrats in outside spending
As the campaign heads into its final weeks, Republican outside interest groups are outspending their Democratic counterparts two-to-one, Federal Election Commission reports tracked this week by Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money show.
As Sunlight reported last week, outside spending has accelerated since Sept. 7, when federal law requires that all outside groups making political expenditures disclose them to the FEC. Expenditures hit $102 million between Oct. 5 and Oct 11, with House races getting the most attention from the outside spenders, and GOP candidates only having a slight advantage.
But so far this week, Republican groups have outmatched Democratic ...
Continue readingNAM authorized $1 million in undisclosed spending
The National Association of Manufacturers authorized close to $1 million on ads in Ohio over a two-week period, according to files uncovered with Sunlight's Political Ad Sleuth.
Update 10/18/2012, 10:15 a.m.: NAM seems to have focused its firepower on the Cincinnati market. An analysis of the ad buys by Sunlight turned up 161 spots on Cincinnati stations, compared to 96 in Cleveland and 40 in Columbus. This only includes stations that are required to file their ad buys with the Federal Communications Commission's online database. Only 11 of Ohio's 40 television stations are ...
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