Tea Party activist Mark Meckler has joined the leadership of the Campaign for Primary Accountability (CPA), a disruptive super PAC aimed at ousting long-term incumbents from Congress. He has become part of a four-person, conservative leadership team of a group that says its aims are nonpartisan.
Meckler officially joined the $2.5 million super PAC, one of the outside groups spending the most in congressional primaries, as a senior advisor earlier this week but said he has been friends with its founders for quite some time and got to know them through the Tea Party movement. He resigned from the ...
Continue readingWho funded pro-Romney ad in South Carolina? We may never know
The ever-hard to track Citizens for a Working America, last seen in Iowa making a big Christmas Eve ad buy on behalf of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has resurfaced in a new-old incarnation.
Confused? So were we, when we last wrote about this shadowy organization. No wonder.
Turns out that the name Citizens for a Working America is shared by two linked but distinct entities:
- Citizens for a Working America PAC, a super PAC that first surfaced in 2010 when it helped defeat veteran Democratic Rep. John Spratt, a South Carolina Democrat who chaired the House Budget Committee, and ...
The X-factors? Lesser-known super PACs could have big impact in fall congressional races
While the super PACs supporting presidential candidates have been in the spotlight in the early months of the campaign season, a number of lesser-known -- but potentially as influential -- super PACs are emerging. Filings that came in over the weekend at the Federal Election Commission featured a number of heretofore unsung super PACs, many formed for the purpose of influencing a specific House or Senate election.
Though they are smaller than their presidential counterparts, some of the groups benefit fromt he same big-name donors. While some super PACs are new, others appear to be gearing up for an encore after playing ...
Continue readingDemocrat, Republican political collectors ask FEC to OK texted contributions
The economy may be largely lackluster but the political sector is so flush with cash it appears on the verge of creating a whole new profession: Campaign contribution brokers.
That would be the result if the Federal Election Commission approves a bipartisan request that it made public late Wednesday afternoon. Filing on behalf of two campaign consulting groups, one Democrat and one Republican, the blue-chip Washington law firm Arendt Fox urges the FEC to approve a system for texting small contributions to political campaigns that would allow middlemen to collect as much as 50 cents on every donated dollar.
The ...
Continue readingBiggest loser in Pennsylvania primary isn’t Santorum
That sniffling sound you hear is not Rick Santorum's supporters bemoaning his decision Tuesday to pull the plug on his presidential campaign but the managers of the Keystone State's television stations counting the ad dollars they have lost. There are 46 of them, according to the Community Media Database created and maintained by Rob McCausland.
So far this year, the race for the Republican presidential nomination has brought a bonanza of ad dollars to broadcasters in states that have played host to early contests, the more so because of the rise of super PACs, political action committees that ...
Continue readingNaming names: How super PAC ads might look if DISCLOSE were enacted
If this hasn't happened yet to you, it probably will in this year of record-breaking spending by outside interest groups: You are watching TV or perusing the Internet when you are confronted by one of those ads telling you that your prospective public servant is a disgusting human being and completely incompetent. Worst of all, the ads are brought to you by a committee or organization whose vague name gives no clue as to its true identity. Then you ask, "Who is doing this to me? "
Sunlight is trying to give those obnoxious ads a transparency makeover! The DISCLOSE ...
Continue readingWho’s the web savviest presidential candidate of all?
Running for president requires web presence. Facebook, Twitter, web videos and websites that take online donations are ubiquitous among this year's presidential contenders. Yet, in an ever-more sophisticated technical world, the basics are not enough, and each candidate is trying some unique approaches to mine the Internet for donations -- a key to President Obama's fundraising success in 2008.
As the GOP race moves today into the president's home state, Sunlight has taken a look at what the major contenders are doing on the web:
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney, hoping that a commanding win in today's Illinois ...
Continue readingFight to oust Hatch fuels a $1 million outside money blitz
With Sen. Orrin Hatch appearing to pass a first crucial political test on Thursday night when his supporters swelled attendance at GOP caucus meetings in his state to record numbers, the inundation of outside money in the Utah Senate race may only pick up steam. Super PACs have played a bigger role in the multi-stage contest that will decide the 36-year Senate veteran's fate than any other 2012 congressional contest so far. And that's not even counting the money spent by a nonprofit group spending hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting Senator Hatch.
At least six outside interest ...
Continue readingCrusading lawyer takes aim at contribution limits
The attorney who has been pushing the FEC to ease a host of campaign finance rules is at it again.
Dan Backer's latest target: the ceiling on how much money a person can give candidates for federal office in one election cycle, which currently stands at $46,200. In an advisory opinion request to the Federal Election Commission posted today, Backer, of DB Capitol Strategies, and two other attorneys argue the limit "has the effect of punishing the wealthy contributor" and is unconstitutional for many reasons, not the least of which is the Supreme Court's game-changing Citzens United ...
Continue readingStealthy wealthy: How Harold Simmons’ political giving has benefited his business empire
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| Photo by the Dallas Morning News |
(This is the first in an occasional series that will shine a light on little known but highly influential donors.)
Even under the post-Citizens United campaign finance rules that unleashed a new generation of mega-donors, Harold Simmons stands out as old political money.
The Dallas-based billionaire, dubbed the king of superfund sites after acquiring an environmentally-challenged company, has gotten plenty of attention for the $10 million he’s given super PACs in the first four months of this year.
But a closer examination of the record shows that Simmons’ 2012 donations are just the ...
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