When GOP nominee Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama arrive in this battleground state for campaign rallies over the next 24 hours, they'll be accompanied by a barrage of television ads on programs ranging from news broadcasts to The View to Jimmy Kimmel to General Hospital.
Continue readingStealthy Wealthy: Who gave big in September?
It sounds like a scenario straight from central casting. A liberal Hollywood mogul and conservative Texas billionaire are among the exclusive 25-member million-dollar check writing club whose members forked over additional cash for super PACs in September, according to a recent Sunlight Foundation analysis.
Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and Texas nuclear waste entrepreneur Harold Simmons are also among Sunlight's Stealthy Wealthy, our continuing series that looks at the giving habits of influential political donors. For the month of September, Katzenberg and Simmons were the only Stealthies who showed up as donating to super PACs -- but it's always possible ...
Continue readingTwo Midwestern states targets of gun violence and the NRA
Two states struggling with gun violence this fall, Wisconsin and Michigan, also have been targeted for campaign expenditures by the National Rifle Association.
The big gun rights group appears to have its biggest political footprint in Wisconsin, where a gunman on Sunday shot seven women -- three fatally -- before killing himself in state's second mass shooting this year. Of the $5.9 millon the NRA Political Victory Fund, has spent so far to defeat President Barack Obama, at least some has gone to Wisconsin. While the Federal Election Commission does not require independent expenditure groups to identify ...
Continue readingTonight’s Sunlight Live Marks Final Presidential Debate
President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will meet on stage tonight for their third and final debate... View Article
Continue readingDemocratic super PACs come into their own
Democratic super PACs, which earlier this year lagged far behind their Republican counterparts, passed a milestone in August: they took more in contributions into their coffers than GOP super PACs: $28 million versus $22 million. Filings covering September are due this Saturday.
It may be more of a photo-finish than it first appears: a portion of the Democratic groups' take involve PAC-to-PAC transfers, which are difficult to extricate from the totals due to way reports are filed with the Federal Election Commission. But quarterly filings that landed Monday leave little doubt that the Democratic super PACs, including Priorities USA and ...
Continue readingRapper donor, mystery million and other fun finds in pop-up PAC filings
(Updated 8:42 a.m. Oct. 16)
Grammy-winning rapper Prakazrel Michel, known as Pras, can now add 'political activism' to his long list of talents. Michel is the only reported donor to super PAC Black Men Vote. He ponied up $250,000.
It's just one of the interesting nuggets turned up by the Sunlight Reporting Group's examinations of filings by super PACs that made their first-ever unveilings of donors Monday, as reports from committees that file on a quarterly schedule were due at the Federal Election Commission. Sunlight has identified nearly two dozen committees that surfaced as independent ...
Continue readingNobel economics laureates both gave to Democrats
The two American economists who on Monday won a Nobel Prize for their work on "matching methods," theories on how to link supply with demand, are both modest political donors with a decidedly partisan streak.
Both Lloyd Shapley and Alvin Roth have exclusively favored Democrats in their campaign contributions, Sunlight's Influence Explorer reveals.
Shapley, with the University of California at Los Angeles, was more active as a donor earlier in his career. The professor emeritus hasn't made a contribution since Democrat Gray Davis was governor of California in 2001, and his earlier donations were all to Democratic causes ...
Continue readingSay what? Obama and others mistweet during VP debate
As Joe Biden and Paul Ryan spat fire at one another during the Thursday night's vice presidential debate, the online community buzzed with commentary, tweeting quotes, praise, and criticism of the candidates' performances. President Barack Obama's Twitter feed was particularly busy, feverishly posting Democratic debate points under the label #TeamJoe.
As Politwoops--a Sunlight Foundation tool that captures politicians' deleted tweets--proves, not even the president is absolved of error. In the social media frenzy, Obama's team misquoted his number two, taking a statement intended to support the middle class and turning it into one championing the rich ...
Continue readingNew anti-Obama super PAC backed by pro-Israel Republican activists
A new Miami-based super PAC has surfaced with billboards opposing President Barack Obama in south Florida and plans to plant more in at least two other battleground states before Election Day. Backed by mostly Republican, pro-Israel activists, American Principles super PAC has spent about $220,000 so far and plans to spend $500,000 this election.
It's one of a number of pop up super PACs that are emerging just before the November election, barraging voters with advertisements before having to reveal any information about financial backers. American Principles will release its first list of donors by Oct. 20 ...
Continue readingWhistleblower directive encourages protections
A new Presidential Policy Directive aimed at protecting whistleblowers with access to classified information marks an important step in securing the rights of government employees who try to expose waste, fraud, and abuse. The directive, issued by President Barack Obama, bans retaliation against employees for protected disclosures, though it does not extend to disclosures to Congress or the public. It sets standards that Congress has so far failed to put into law. The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act has been approved in the House but has yet to make it through the Senate, and it does not contain the intelligence-community protections outlined in the directive.
Continue reading
59063
