President Barack Obama's second inaugural committee promised to disclose who underwrote the festivities, but a new campaign finance report reveals that the now-defunct website of the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee, omitted the names of two million-dollar corporate donors -- Boeing and Chevron -- among others.
Continue readingAfter $100,000 inaugural donation, nuclear deal gets closer
It turns out there was a good reason, The Nation points out, that we reported extensively on the donors behind President Obama's second presidential inauguration. One of the corporate donors, Southern Company, is expecting a big benefit from the administration.
An executive with the Atlanta-based utility said last week that the company expects to finalize its long-awaited $8.3 billion loan guarantee from the administration by the middle of the year to help it build a new nuclear power plant with two reactors, the Wall Street Journal reported. The historic loan approval was made in 2010 -- to the ire ...
Continue readingAmazon, AT&T donated services to Obama’s inaugural
While some information on the staggering sums given by the more than 20 corporations and unions that contributed to President Barack Obama's inauguration has been reported, like AT&T's staggeringly large $3 million donation, less attention has been paid to the goods and services that companies provided to the 57th inaugural.
Continue readingShadow lobbyists, ex-lobbyists, give to Obama inaugural committee
Lucky for longtime lobbyist Mickey Ibarra, the president of his own lobbying and strategy shop, he could buy that champagne flute with the presidential inaugural seal.
That's only because, months before, Ibarra had technically deregistered as a federal lobbyist -- on the advice of counsel, he said, even though he continued doing some lobbying. Others in the influence business -- including one lobbyist who told Sunlight she was denied inaugural tickets she had already purchased because of her job -- had more difficulty being part of the inaugural festivities.
But an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation raises questions about just how meaningful ...
Continue readingInaugural party surprise: VIP room off limits to congressional VIPs
Celebrities from John Leguizamo to Marlon Wayans were bused to Washington D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Monday night for a gala to celebrate with the second inauguration of President Barack Obama but in an odd reversal of their usual good fortune, members of Congress found themselves shut out of the Creative Coalition's VIP party-within-a-party.
Continue readingCorporations pony up for inauguration bashes
President Obama may have downsized the number of official inaugural balls, but everybody knows that the real party goes on at the more than 100 unofficial galas and late-night parties, often sponsored by corporations, interest groups and state societies.
Continue readingObama inaugural officials tight-lipped at press conference
Officials with President Obama's inaugural committee took questions from reporters Wednesday at the National Press Club but the answers were less than illuminating. Here's the rundown:
- Q. Why is the committee providing less information on donors than former President George W. Bush, and Obama himself did in earlier inaugurals?
- A. That was then. This is now.
"Each one of these is created anew every four years," Brent Colburn, communications director for the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee, said of the more parsimonious disclosure strategy. Because the PIC isn't legally required to report its donors to the Federal Election ...
Continue readingEight corporations donate to Obama’s inaugural so far
After lifting the lid on donations to his second inauguration and agreeing to accept corporate contributions, President Barack Obama only has eight corporate donors so far, according to an updated donor list posted on the inaugural committee's website over the weekend.
The two new corporate donors on the list: A subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation's biggest electric utilities and a major lobbying powerhouse, and United Therapeutics, a $1.5 billion Maryland pharamaceutical company seeking Federal Drug Administration approval for a drug treating a lung disorder.
The Atlanta-based Southern Company contributed $100,000 to the inaugural ...
After the inaugural balls, where does the extra money go?
President Barack Obama's aggressive inaugural fundraising -- he's reversed the ban on corporate donors, lifted the lid on contributions and is soliciting up to $1 million for various VIP ticket packages -- raises an intriguing question: What's he planning to do with all the money? After all, the Presidential Inaugural Committee already has radically downsized the number of official balls.
The options are limitless. A number of recent presidential inaugural committess have acknowledged -- either wittingly or not -- ending up with a surplus of funds. There are no rules limiting how the money can be used. The 2013 Inaugural Committee ...
Continue readingObama discloses less about inaugural donors
What a difference four years makes: President Barack Obama, who began his first term with a promise to change the way Washington works, barred corporate donations to his first inauguration, capped individual contributions at $50,000 and began disclosing his donors and bundlers more than a month before his swearing-in.
This time he waited until two weeks before the inauguration to release his first list of donors. The Presidential Inaugural Committee posted the names on its website but without the amount of each donation nor the contributor's occupation and city. Nor was a separate list of bundlers posted.
Moreover ...
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