GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is set to officially exit the race Wednesday in Arlington, Va. and is telling USA TODAY that he'll soon endorse Mitt Romney. But can the former speaker make voters forget the millions of dollars worth of attack ads that he and the super PAC supporting him launched against the man Gingrich now says will be the next president?
We have compiled a highlight -- or should we call it lowlight? -- reel of the ads that ran in early primary states when Gingrich was Romney's main rival. It underscores how the intense negativity of this ...
Continue readingFCC expects political ad buys to be online before 2012 election
The Federal Communications Commission voted to give the public online access to reports detailing new political ad buys from affiliates of the top four networks in the 50 largest media markets before November’s election, despite objections from the nation’s broadcasters.
The only hurdle now: the Office of Management and Budget must approve the new rule. After that, the top four stations in the biggest markets will put the ad buys on the Federal Communication Commission’s website. And the FCC expects that approval soon, William Lake, the chief of the media bureau, told reporters after the meeting.
After ...
Continue readingFCC requires online posting of political ad files
Handing open-government advocates a partial victory in a better than decade-long battle, the Federal Communications Commission voted Friday to require major network affiliates in the top 50 TV markets to post information about their political ads online.
The move could provide the public with crucial information on who's behind the ads purchased by nonprofit groups that, under new campaign finance laws, can spend unlimited amounts of money advocating for or against candidates without registering with the Federal Election Commission. But the rule will leave out many TV markets in presidential battleground states as our map shows.
Broadcasters had fiercely ...
Continue readingFCC ruling could exempt 160 markets from posting political ad data
Red shows TV markets left out if the FCC orders stations in the top 50 to post political ad buys. For a closer view, zoom in; for more information, click on an area.
The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote Friday on a rule that would require broadcast stations to post online their public files, including records of political advertisements. That could provide a crucial source of information about the shadowy groups that can now spend unlimited sums to advocate for or against political candidates without having to register with the Federal Election Commission.
But the proposed rule would ...
Continue readingPresidential campaign donors moving to super PACs
A few weeks after some individual donors hit their campaign contribution limits to President Obama’s reelection campaign, they made donations to the super PAC supporting him, extending their financial support to the shadow campaign that's backing his bid for another four years in the White House.
This new trend has just begun to emerge in the most recent super PAC financial disclosures filed over the weekend with the Federal Election Commission. It's another impact of the sweeping changes in campaign finance law set off by the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United, which opened the door ...
Coincidence? Sunlight map shows how Obama fundraising crosses paths with his super PAC
Obama and Priorities USA fundraising paths often cross.
Although super PACs are not allowed to coordinate with candidates when it comes to campaign spending, the Federal Election Commission has determined that it's permissible for candidates to raise money for the super PACs supporting them.
With that in mind, Sunlight analyzed President Obama's campaign fundraisers and cross-referenced them with the locations of donors to the Priorities USA Action super PAC, which supports Obama.
We drew on data from our Follow the Unlimited Money tracker as well as Political Party Time, our database of political fundraisers. We also got an ...
Continue readingGingrich super PAC backers pulled the plug before he did?
The latest news reports say that Newt Gingrich plans to drop his roller coaster of a presidential bid next week but Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker suggests that the former House speaker's biggest money backers may already have pulled the plug.
Winning Our Future, the pro-Gingrich group that has been almost entirely funded by the family of gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, made it's last independent expenditure almost a month ago in the Wisconsin primary, the tracker shows. That means the committee didn't play in Delaware, the state where Gingrich vowed to make his last stand ...
Continue readingKent State student journalists have tough time prying open TV political ad files
Trying to get FCC records at Cleveland TV Stations from Karl Idsvoog on Vimeo.
Days before the Federal Communication Commission's closely-watched Friday vote on requiring local television stations to put political advertising information online, a group of Ohio college students made a powerful argument for why the commissioners should buck the pressure from the broadcasting industry and vote aye. Just look at the above video.
At issue is whether the stations should post online detailed information on political ad buys. Such information is currently available only in paper files that must be accessed in person and under supervision from ...
Continue readingPennsylvania Rep. Tim Holden is a magnet for outside spending
Tuesday's battle for the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania's newly-redrawn 17th Congressional District has emerged as the biggest money magnet so far for outside groups spending on House primaries, data compiled by the Sunlight Foundation's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker shows.
Outside groups have spent more than $572,000 in the semi-rural central Pennsylvania district, most of it to defeat Rep. Tim Holden. The only other House races that have drawn more outside spending so far have been special elections in which Democrats and Republicans were competing.
By contrast, the Pennsylvania race is a Democrat-on-Democrat affair: Holden, a ...
Continue readingSuper PACs first quarter haul: More than $100 million in political contributions
Super PACs raised more in the first three months of 2012 than they did in all of 2011, and after just two years of existence have emerged as a financial force that rivals the political parties and candidates' campaign committees.
An unusual conjunction of Federal Election Committee filing deadlines -- reports from campaign committees that file quarterly were due at midnight Sunday while those that file monthly were due Friday -- has given us the first comprehensive look at the impact of super PACs in the first presidential campaign year where they've been a factor.
An analysis of data gathered by ...
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