The NFL bigwigs who early this morning conceded defeat in an ongoing labor dispute like to play politics themselves, and tend to favor the party with the most adversarial relationship with unions.
Continue readingThe money bombers: Which outside spenders have the most for the homestretch?
Heading into the final stages of the 2012 campaign, the super PAC in position to have the biggest impact, by far and away, is American Crossroads, Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker shows.
Of all the outside spenders who filed monthly reports Thursday with the Federal Election Commission, the super PAC founded by veteran Republican strategists Ed Gillespie and Karl Rove, has by far the biggest stockpile of cash: more than $32 million. The intriguing question: Will Crossroads, which has spent $25 million so far opposing President Barack Obama's reelection, continue to invest in the presidential race, or ...
Continue readingDemocratic convention watch: Join the conversation tonight
The Sunlight Foundation is at the Democratic convention, literally and virtually, and you can join us online Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Our colleagues in Charlotte, Liz Bartolomeo and Keenan Steiner, are following the (oops - did we see corporate? And super PAC? yes we did!) money at all the parties. They can't possibly make all 400+ that we've got in our Party Time database. But they are doing their best. See something we don't know about? Let us know!
And we are exposing the Democrats to Sunlight at night via Sunlight Live. This platform enables our team to ...
Continue readingCorporate funded nonprofit works at nexus of politics and entertainment
A corporate-funded nonprofit organization that operates out of a Washington, DC lobbying firm's offices and describes itself as working in the "nexus between the entertainment community and Washington" will be helping to host a "high-profile evening event" on Tuesday at the Democratic convention in Charlotte.
The Artists and Athletes Alliance is one of the cosponsors of an "In the Know VIP session" organized by The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress. The session will feature political gossip columnist Judy Kurtz.
Artists and Athletes specializes in bringing athletes and entertainers together with politicians, government executives and the media. Founded in ...
Continue readingElection law? What election law?
A Republican lawyer wonders where the FEC enforcers are and a donor sneaks a reporter into a Karl Rove meeting for financiers. Are even the bankrollers getting fed up with the political big money game?
Continue readingThe phone booth caucus: House Democratic freshmen
Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., the first black woman elected to Congress from Alabama, is the president of this year's small Democratic freshmen class. Those nine freshmen, dubbed the "noble nine" by supporters, elected the Harvard-educated lawyer as the leader of a small, but diverse class that includes four women, four African Americans and one openly gay member and one who identifies as Buddhist.
After winning her first House term with 73% of the vote in Alabama's 7th Congressional District, Sewell established herself as a reliably liberal vote. She supported the president's health care bill as well as ...
Continue readingProfile: Rick Berg
| Party: Republican |
| State and District: North Dakota, 1 |
| Born: Aug. 16, 1959 Hettinger, N.D. |
| Campaign cash raised: $6,364,759 |
| Money from businesses that lobby: $1,384,525 |
| Money from leadership PACs: $374,726 |
| Money from in-state / out-of-state: $2,678,539 / $2,878,405 |
| At-risk in November? Yes |
| Outside group spending: $35,595.78 in opposition |
| Net worth in 2010: $12,146,147 to $54,979,033 |
| Net worth in 2011: $22,656,129 to $64,735,994 |
Berg's Capitol Words profile
How we compiled this information
Continue readingSuper PAC Profile: CREDO takes aim at House freshmen
The CREDO SuperPAC exists in spite of—or because of?—its own desire to overturn Citizens United, the Supreme Court case that led to the creation of super PACs. “We wouldn't launch this SuperPAC unless we felt it was absolutely necessary to fight back,” says the group's website. But this sort of self-loathing isn’t the group's only unusual trait. Among organizations whose purpose is to obscure funding sources, CREDO is unique in its transparency.
For one thing, the group's name conspicuously excludes words like ‘freedom,‘ ‘future,’ ‘fund’ and ‘restore,' (see a list here) and makes ...
Continue readingProfile: Allen West
| Party: Republican |
| State and District: Florida, 22 |
| Born: Feb. 7, 1961 Atlanta, Ga. |
| Campaign cash raised: $16,492,982 |
| Money from businesses that lobby: $195,717 |
| Money from leadership PACs: $144,845 |
| Money from in-state / out-of-state: $3,281,864 / $2,596,317 |
| At-risk in November? Yes |
| Outside group spending: $6,404 in support / $97,725 in opposition |
| Net worth in 2010: -$102,992 to $454,998 |
West's Capitol Words profile
How we compiled this information
Continue readingProfile: Ann Marie Buerkle
| Party: Republican |
| State and District: New York, 24 |
| Born: May 8, 1951 Auburn, N.Y. |
| Campaign cash raised: $1,966,755 |
| Money from businesses that lobby: $240,481 |
| Money from leadership PACs: $151,500 |
| Money from in-state / out-of-state: $511,447 / $246,787 |
| At-risk in November? Yes |
| Outside group spending: $374 in support / $6,694 in opposition |
| Net worth in 2010: $601,004 to $5,099,998 |
| Net worth in 2011: Not yet reported |
Buerkle's Capitol Words profile
How we compiled this information
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