With the election over, a Congress full of lame ducks -- along with next year's class of soon-to-be sworn-in lawmakers, ready for freshmen orientation -- returns to Washington next week. Lobbyists and special interests that opened their wallets for candidates are poised to call in chits in a tense environment dominated by the budget impasse that threatens to impose sweeping automatic cuts to defense and social programs if Congress doesn't act.
Top CEOs of more than 80 companies issued a statement on October 25 calling on Congress to solve the issue by considering tax increases along with spending cuts. In ...
Continue readingKarl Rove’s super PAC breaks $100 million in spending
American Crossroads, the super PAC run by Karl Rove, has spent more than $100 million.
Continue readingNo donors to report but $1.5 million to spend for Romney
A political action committee that so far has reported no donations in the current campaign cycle has just unleashed $1.5 million in Internet advertising to help Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
The big web buy, which features a reedy-voiced young girl accusing President Barack Obama of leaving her generation in the lurch, comes courtesy of Right Change, a committee that was active on behalf of a number of Republican House and Senate candidates in 2010 but is only now surfacing in this year's campaign.
According to the group's website, Right Change encompasses a "national movement" of more ...
Continue readingOutside spenders dump $210 million into last full week of the campaign
In the last full week before the election, outside spending groups have bombarded voters with a record $210 million in ads, direct mail, and other political expenditures, and, as in weeks past, the vast majority of the funds went to support Republican candidates.
Since Sept. 7 -- when the FEC began requiring all groups to disclose independent expenditures, regardless of the content -- the rate of outside spending has ballooned, reaching a new high this week. A Sunlight analysis of Federal Election Commission records shows that organizations dropped $132.6 million to back Republicans in the period between Oct. 26 and Nov. 1, while just $76.4 went to help Democrats. That compares to $26 million for the second week of September.
Continue readingMystery PAC drops $1.7 million before revealing Adelson connection
A super PAC that deliberately disguised its connection to Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson emerged from the shadows to drop nearly $1.7 million in a single day this week to oppose President Barack Obama's reelection, one of a series of money bombs in a week where outside spending threatens to top $200 million.
On the same day it filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring the expenditure, Republicans for Prosperous America also announced it was changing its name to the Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund, thereby revealing its ties to the Republican Jewish Coalition, a politically active nonprofit ...
Continue readingConservative columnists’ anti-Obama ads backed by unknown donors
The super PAC run by conservative columnists Michael Reagan and Dick Morris is dropping last-minute money on series of ads against President Barack Obama, and the vast majority of the donors are unknown.
Super PAC for America had only $16,000 in the bank at the end of September. But it’s been infused with cash the second half of this month – and the sources of that bounty will be unknown to the public until December. That's because donations made after Oct. 17 don't have to be reported to the Federal Election Commission until after the election.
Reagan ...
Continue readingHalloween special: Scary super PACs and America’s zombie apocalypse
While browsing our super PAC database in the days leading up to Halloween, Sunlight reporters couldn't help but notice the number of committee names that were creepy--even scary. On the other hand, perhaps it's not so surprising given how many operate in shadowy fashion.
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 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 readingSuper PACs that stay off the air
With early voting starting Saturday in Florida, a Miami-based group of community organizers and union members will be undertaking a major push across five of the battleground state’s cities to get voters to the polls.
And this group—believe it or not—is a super PAC. Yes, one of the same committees that are often described as tools of the corporate and the rich and maligned for polluting the airwaves with negative advertising.
But Florida Freedom PAC is a partnership between Florida New Majority, a community organizing group that sprung up in 2009 to empower the state’s minorities ...
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