Facebook, which has set off a frenzy of market speculation with its plans go public as early as Friday, isn't just raising its profile on Wall Street. As the social networking giant prepares for its initial stock offering, Sunlight decided to take a look at how Facebook is doing when it comes to political networking. Our finding: The company with the famously hoodied CEO is beginning to grow up, at least in the ways of Washington.
In the first quarter of this year, Facebook spent $650,000 lobbying Congress, according to a report filed with the Senate Office of ...
Continue readingSuper PAC profile: Ending Spending aids Palin-endorsed Senate hopeful in Nebraska
A Florida-based super PAC that made more than $1 million in contributions in 2010, almost all of it underwritten by the former CEO of online brokerage TD Ameritrade, is emerging as a factor in Tuesday's Republican Senate primary in Nebraska.
In the three days before the election, the Ending Spending Action Fund has dumped almost $255,000 into the race to help Deb Fischer, a state senator who has suddenly turned an already-heated contest for the GOP Senate nomination into a three-way race. The group has not yet disclosed any donors this year, but in the 2010 campaign cycle ...
Continue readingSurvey finds attack ads work, though better on some voters than others
If the early campaign-season barrage of negative advertising is any indicator, the 2012 election is going to be a decidedly... View Article
Continue readingSuper PAC profile: Twenty-something Ron Paul supporters found Liberty for All
A new super PAC funded almost entirely by a 21-year-old Ron Paul supporter and run by a 24-year-old political consultant is putting big bucks behind a tea party candidate running in a Kentucky congressional race.
So far, the group -- Liberty for All -- has spent $542,600 on campaign ads supporting Thomas Massie in a seven-way battle for the Republican nomination in the northern Kentucky district currently represented by retiring Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky. In addition to backing congressional candidates the new super PAC has pledged to help Paul in his effort to amass delegates to the Republican convention -- an effort ...
Continue readingStealthy Wealthy: Jerry Perenchio speaks softly, carries a big checkbook
It may be easier to get the famously closemouthed mega-donor Jerry Perenchio to open his checkbook than to get him to talk to a reporter. The octogenerian former chairman of Univision and his wife Margaret are major players in this year's election, having underwritten American Crossroads to the tune of $2 million so far. Perenchio also gave half a million dollars to Restore America, the Super PAC that supports Mitt Romney, and $100,000 to the super PAC that supported Jon Huntsman's now-defunct presidential campaign.
That's just the latest in the more than $50 million Perenchio and ...
Continue readingAre independent attack ads more effective than candidate attack ads? New research says yes
So far, the 2012 election has been chock full of negative advertising, and most of it has come from innocuous... View Article
Continue readingOutspending peers, Club for Growth helps unseat Lugar
Sen. Richard Lugar's loss in yesterday's Indiana Republican primary — the third such primary loss for a Republican senator since 2010 — was a victory for state treasurer Richard Mourdock and the conservative wing of the Republican Party, which painted the six-term senator as too liberal. But, Lugar's loss may say more about the increasing role of outside money than either of the candidates in the race.
The primary battle was fueled in part by the biggest outside money dump of any congressional race thus far. Leading the money charge was the anti-tax group Club for Growth, which accounted ...
Continue readingAd buys mostly outside of FCC’s new disclosure rule
New rules requiring greater online disclosure of political TV advertisements in the country's top 50 markets wouldn't have applied to the majority of ads aired by the Obama campaign during an 11 day period in April, according to a new analysis.
Continue readingUnder-the-radar political ads: A guide to electioneering communications
Already in this election cycle, nonprofit groups using the cover of "issue advertisements"—thinly disguised attacks or promotions of a particular candidate—have spent about $30 million on general election ads, according to a new study. But only about $4.4 million of buys have been disclosed to the Federal Election Commission.
That’s because the issue ads, also known as "electioneering communications," must be disclosed to the FEC only when they air on TV or radio in the weeks immediately preceding an election. It's a quirk in the election law that offers another way for deep-pocketed donors to ...
Continue readingBetter off than four years ago? Not when it comes to political ads, report says
More than two thirds of all ads aired in the presidential race so far have been attacks, a drastic increase compared to recent presidential campaigns, according to a new study by the political ad-tracking Wesleyan Media Project that covers the race from the start of 2011 through April 22 of this year.
Of the ads aired during that period, 70 percent were negative, compared to 10 percent in the last presidential campaign. Political scientist Michael Franz, a co-director of the project, called the change "absolutely astonishing."
The negative tone is being driven by outside groups, responsible for 86 percent of ...
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