Newly flush with more than $5 million in cash from a mystery donor, FreedomWorks, the libertarian super PAC that touts its grassroots focus, has just made a $1.5 million television ad buy in a competitive Illinois House race.
The ad, which has not aired yet, appears to be a Hail Mary pass to help Rep. Joe Walsh, a freshman Republican who is at risk of losing his job to Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth. Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran, was up 10 points in a recent poll.
It's an unusual move because FreedomWorks generally steers clear of television ads ...
Continue readingThe $50 million couple: Adelsons lap the field of big donors
In a campaign characterized by big donors, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, stand out. The couple's latest blizzard of political check writing -- which produced more than $15 million of donations to Republican candidates and causes in a one week period this month -- brought their total political contributions for the 2012 cycle to a whopping $52 million.
The next closest big campaign donor, billionaire nuclear waste entrepreneur Harold Simmons, has given $23 million.
The Adelsons lead a roster of 134 individuals or organizations giving $1 million or more to campaigns in this, the first presidential campaign to ...
Continue readingInbox Influence: Another Tool for the Elections
The folks who enjoy actively researching the influence behind the election turn to Sunlight's tools like Follow the Unlimited Money, Ad Hawk or our Elections hub page. For everyone else, there's Inbox Influence.
Continue readingWeek’s outside spending favors Republicans 2:1
Less than two weeks before the election, outside spending took another big leap last week, jumping to $180 million since last Friday favoring Republicans nearly two-to-one.
Continue readingDark money group attacks Obama on Benghazi
Special Operations Opsec Education Fund, a dark money group that shares an office with top aides to the 2008 campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, is launching an $397,000 ad buy attacking the President Barack Obama and his administration over last September's Benghazi embassy attack, according to disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission.
The group, which says its members are forrmer members of the Navy SEALs and intelligence officers, already attacked Obama's administration in August for, the group claimed, leaking sensitive intelligence information.
The new ad focuses on the administration's handling of the embassy ...
Continue readingPolitical Money Weather Report: A ‘Frankenstorm’ of Cash
Like many people living near the East Coast, we are anxiously following the development of Hurricane Sandy. The National Weather... View Article
Continue readingOutside political spending crosses $1 billion mark
Outside groups have spent more than $1 billion trying to influence this year's election, and the tidal wave of special interest money so no signs of abating in the 10 days that remain before Election Day.
The total, tabulated by Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money, is especially mind-boggling considering that it comes in a campaign that has focused largely on the anemic economy and underscores the changed landscape in the first presidential campaign to be contested following the Supreme Court 2010 decision in Citizens United, which opened the door for deep-pocketed donors to flaunt their wealth in ways ...
Continue readingColorado Super PAC moves into Scott Tipton’s race
The Colorado Future Fund, a super PAC fueled by a controversial donor to GOP Colorado Rep. Scott Tipton's campaign, today filed notice that it had made an expenditure against Tipton's Democratic opponent, Sal Pace.
As reported previously by Sunlight, the Colorado Future Fund, which is run by a law clerk in a Colorado law firm headed by Tipton's campaign lawyer, reported one $25,000 contribution in August from Houston-based SG Business Services, Ltd. The company, which operates leases on land in Tipton's district, has been a flashpoint in Tipton's campaign. Until now, the Colorado Future ...
Continue readingDead end disclosure: Ohio super PAC lists dark money donors
The Government Integrity Fund Action Network, a Columbus, Ohio-based super PAC that dropped a late $1.1 million ad buy opposing Connecticut House candidate Elizabeth Esty last week, disclosed today the big donors who funded it: A pair of political nonprofits that don't disclose their donors.
New Models LLC contributed $627,000, while the Government Integrity Fund, a nonprofit sister organization of the super PAC, gave $475,000. Because both New Models and the Government Integrity Fund are social welfare organizations, they are not required to disclose their donors.
The three groups show why, in the post-Citizens United world ...
Continue readingEleventh hour political donations marked by Adelson largesse
A casino-fueled and Israel-inspired power couple that so far has underwritten Republican candidates and causes to the tune of more than $35 million in the 2012 campaign continued its open-handed ways in the closing weeks of the contest.
The final accountings of campaign committees before Election Day are due at the Federal Election Commission at midnight Thursday and early returns show big contributions from Sheldon and Miriam Adelson in the first two weeks of October.
Sheldon Adelson, who owns the Las Vegas Sands Corp. as well as casinos in Bethelehem, Pa., Singapore and Macau, gave $1.5 million Independence Virginia ...
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