Freshman Rep. Ben Quayle, R-Ariz., is getting help from a mysterious super PAC whose treasurer hails from the other side of the country.
Continue readingGOP Convention Report: Talkin’ Influence
Official Republican National Conventions proceedings were cancelled on Monday due to the threat of Hurricane Isaac, but press interest in... View Article
Continue readingSunlight Live covers the conventions
Republican conventioneers may have dodged Tropical Storm Isaac. Now they're facing another challenge: Sunlight at night.
Throughout this week's GOP convention in Tampa and next week's Democratic gathering in Charlotte, the Sunlight Foundation will be covering major speakers with a tool that will allow us -- and you -- to provide real-time commentary and analysis.
Starting at 7 p.m. ET, we'll open up our Sunlight Live website, where you can watch a video stream of the convention and, at the same time, read information and background about the speakers and their themes, mined from the Sunlight Foundation ...
Continue readingPlay Political Convention Bingo in Tampa and Charlotte
As you may noticed on Party Time, there are hundreds of events planned for the political conventions in Tampa next... View Article
Continue readingDo House freshmen speak differently?
Prices. Mother. Bless. Soldiers. Borrowing. Corporate. Abortion. Seniors.
What do these words have in common? They are all significantly more prominent in the speech of congressional freshmen than in overall speech patterns of House members, based on a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of the Congressional Record.
Transportation. Cosponsor. International. Order. Public. Intelligence. Human. Respect.
What do these words have in common? You guessed it. They are all significantly less prominent in the speech of congressional freshmen.
In general, there’s not a whole lot of difference in how the freshmen speak compared to their more senior colleagues. But certain words ...
Continue readingThe phone booth caucus: House Democratic freshmen
Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., the first black woman elected to Congress from Alabama, is the president of this year's small Democratic freshmen class. Those nine freshmen, dubbed the "noble nine" by supporters, elected the Harvard-educated lawyer as the leader of a small, but diverse class that includes four women, four African Americans and one openly gay member and one who identifies as Buddhist.
After winning her first House term with 73% of the vote in Alabama's 7th Congressional District, Sewell established herself as a reliably liberal vote. She supported the president's health care bill as well as ...
Continue readingProfile: Rick Berg
| Party: Republican |
| State and District: North Dakota, 1 |
| Born: Aug. 16, 1959 Hettinger, N.D. |
| Campaign cash raised: $6,364,759 |
| Money from businesses that lobby: $1,384,525 |
| Money from leadership PACs: $374,726 |
| Money from in-state / out-of-state: $2,678,539 / $2,878,405 |
| At-risk in November? Yes |
| Outside group spending: $35,595.78 in opposition |
| Net worth in 2010: $12,146,147 to $54,979,033 |
| Net worth in 2011: $22,656,129 to $64,735,994 |
Berg's Capitol Words profile
How we compiled this information
Continue readingObama bad at fundraising? Numbers tell a different story
You heard it here first (and here more recently): President Barack Obama is all but beating the pants off of... View Article
Continue readingAd Hawk: Identify Political Ads As They Air
Ad Hawk is our new iPhone and Android app that empowers you to identify political ads as they air and immediately learn about the secretive groups spending money to influence your vote.
Continue readingSuper PAC’s fundraising losing momentum, latest reports show
Closing in on the upcoming party conventions, super PACs appear to have lost some of their steam in attracting the big bucks. The big guns of political ad spending took in $30 million during July,reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission show. That's $25 million less than the previous month,. In all, super PACs have raised $343 million since Jan.1, 2011, the beginning of this campaign cycle.
The top donors include names now familiar as repeat super PAC underwriters, along with a few newbies. Among the eight donors who write seven-figure checks last month are three corporate donors and one left leaning nonprofit.
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