In shutting down the government, the nation's lawmakers also guaranteed a little less surveillance on themselves.
Among the many agencies that will not be open for business as long as the political and budgetary stalemate continues is the Federal Election Commission, an agency created after the Watergate scandal. The idea was to reduce the possibilities of corruption in politics by making campaign donations more transparent.
For the foreseeable future at least, those donations will be taking place under a cloak of darkness.
Because the FEC's electronic filing system won't necessarily be available during the shutdown, the public will not be able to view the latest filings and filers will be free to ignore existing deadlines. Candidates will have until 24 hours after the government reopens to file campaign finance reports due during the shutdown. That could mean an extension for just about every candidate for federal office--there are two major filing deadlines fall this month. It also raises the possibility that some voters may not know the whole story about who's trying to influence their vote until after they go to the polls.
Supreme Court Could Snuff Out Last Ember of the Campaign Finance System
On Oct. 8, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, a case in which the plaintiff, Shaun McCutcheon, joined by the Republican National Committee, is challenging the constitutionality of the overall limit on contributions to federal candidates and political parties. If the court rules in favor of McCutcheon and the RNC, it might as well tie a big bow around Congress and deliver it to a tiny percentage of the very, very rich.
Plutocracy anyone?
Five years of Political Party Time
We’ve told you before about the innovative ways our elected representatives raise cash: from assault rifle raffles to March Madness fund-a-thons to swanky out-of-town retreats. But taking a step back from all the invites shows some interesting trends. Check the graphic below, and see more dataviz on our 18,000 political fundraising invitations after the jump!
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Donors flooded state level PACs with big checks
If you think the $6 billion spent during the last election cycle on federal races was a lot, consider this: Another $1.4 billion that up until now was nearly impossible to total up on a national level flowed into campaigns through political committees that don't report to the Federal Election Commission because they operate only at the state level.
That's more than the $1.2 billion traditional PACs--the kind that give directly to candidates--collected at the federal level. And it reflects giving in just 23 states, those included in a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of data compiled ...
What Eduardo Porter gets wrong about corporate money and the GOP
If there is a “reluctance of corporations to spend on politics,” somebody forgot to tell the corporations. As far as I can tell, corporations are still spending ridiculous sums here in Washington. This surprising assertion comes from the New York Times’ Eduardo Porter, who wrote an article in today’s paper trying to puzzle through what would be a provocative question if the premise were true: “How did corporate America lose control of the Republican Party?” Porter’s thesis seems to be that corporations should have spent more money to shape the make-up of the Republican Party in Congress. If they had, they’d be better poised to get some action on immigration reform and infrastructure improvement. “Corporations’ reluctance to open their checkbooks,” Porter writes, “suggests an intriguing alternative explanation for the rise of Republicans who are willing to defy their will.” Let’s set a few things straight.
Continue readingThere’s no summer vacation for education lobbying
Though the fall doesn't officially start for another couple of weeks, for most Americans summer ends when school buses begin running their routes and college football broadcasts return to Saturdays. While educational institutions from kindergartens to law schools are welcoming students back, there was no summer vacation in Washington, where their lobbyists have reported spending more than $43 million lobbying Congress and the executive branch so far this year.
It's easy to understand why. Altogether, the federal government spent $47.5 billion on elementary and secondary education in 2012, the last full year for which statistics are available ...
Continue readingTempers flare as FEC postpones votes on contentious issues yet again
In what might almost be dubbed a summer repeat of its last meeting, the Federal Election Commission sidestepped consideration of a pair of controversial issues while ruling on relatively minor ones.
Votes on whether non-federally regulated contributions (i.e. 'soft money') can be used by an organization affiliated with the Democratic Governors' Association (DGA) and what rules will govern the way FEC staff conduct investigations will be delayed until a future episode.
As previously reported by Sunlight, the DGA is seeking the FEC's approval of its plans to create a separate 527 organization, Jobs & Opportunity, that could raise funds ...
Continue readingCiting Sunlight Foundation report, watchdog groups file complaint against Santorum
Campaign finance watchdog groups filed a complaint Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Rick Santorum's presidential campaign illegally directed a donation to a super PAC.
The complaint is based on a Sunlight Foundation report in which Louisiana mega donor Bill Doré recounted how he was instructed to donate $1 million to the Red, White and Blue Fund, the super PAC supporting Santorum's 2012 run for the presidency. It comes days after Santorum triggered speculation about an encore presidential run with a visit to Iowa, the state that will kick off the 2016 campaign with its much-watched ...
Regulating Money in Politics a Global Shortcoming
Open government advocates around the world (including Sunlight) are thrilled to see how more and more governments commit themselves to openness. Unfortunately, a vital piece of the transparency agenda--party and campaign funding--remain depressingly opaque. Because the financing behind how candidates and parties come to power influence later policy and spending decisions, it is critical that countries address political finance transparency. Sunlight is committed to create a strong base for reform by combining our efforts with other activists and sharing our expertise in a meaningful way.
Continue reading90 Percent of Business Execs Support Transparency Reforms for Money-in-Politics
Good news for making the case for campaign finance transparency! The Committee for Economic Development, a nonpartisan business-oriented public policy nonprofit, released an illuminating report and survey of business leaders this week that shows large majorities of American business executives agree the campaign finance system is in need of complete overhaul, with 90 percent of survey respondents supporting reforms that disclose all individual, corporate and labor contributions to political committees.
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