When Mayors Against Illegal Guns Action Fund, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's vehicle for pushing for tighter gun control regulation, ran ads Sunday morning calling on President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, to offer plans to reduce gun violence, they became the first dark money group to publicly disclose its donors.
Bloomberg's group, a social welfare organization set up under section 501(c)4 of the tax code, is the first to comply with a U.S. District Court ruling requiring such organizations, which normally keep their donors secret, to disclose them ...
Continue readingWisconsin’s Ron Johnson defends gun ownership
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican whose state is the site of the nation's most recent deadly shooting spree, this time at a Sikh temple, has benefitted from more than $1.3 million from gun rights groups, far more than any other member of Wisconsin's congressional delegation.
Overall, gun rights groups and associated individuals, dominated by the National Rifle Association (NRA), have poured $1.6 million into campaigns involving members of the Wisconsin congressional delegation, according to a search on Influence Explorer. In contrast, gun control groups have spent $11,300 since 1989.
Tea party enthusiast Johnson won ...
Continue readingA matter of trust? Mystery groups write big checks to super PACs
They may not be the biggest givers of this campaign cycle but they could be the shadiest: So far in this campaign cycle,12 trusts have given super PACs a total of $3.2 million.
Though that amounts to a sliver of the $314 million flowing to super PACs, it represents an extreme in one sense: Trusts are a highly opaque way to facilitate political spending. Trusts act as separate entities that manage assets on behalf of people, corporations, charities, and other entities. They can serve as tax shelters and generally, are more private than traditional charities and corporations because ...
Continue readingPoliticians win Olympic gold too
All eyes are on London for Friday's official opening of the 2012 Olympic Games, but the medal stands won't be the only place you'll find Olympic gold.
Since 1997, Olympic organizing groups in the United States have spent more than $10 million lobbying Congress. Some members of U.S. Olympic Committee's 15-member board of directors have also been generous political donors. Here's Sunlight's look at some of the top finishers in the influence Olympics:
- The US Olympic Committee (USOC) spent more than $2.7 million on lobbying since 1997, according to Sunlight's Influence ...
Colorado politicians magnets for gun contributions
Despite suffering two of the worst gun killings in the nation's history--Columbine and now the "Batman" shootings--Colorado, with its cowboy swagger and reputation for independence, has long been home to supporters of gun rights. And its politicians, mostly Republicans, but some Democrats as well, have been magnets for contributions from gun rights groups, benefiting from more than $3.8 million in political spending since 1989, according to a search on Influence Explorer.
In contrast, gun control groups have spent $140,342 in the state for federal and state campaigns. Of that amount, $48,000 came from the ...
Continue readingPenn State’s powerful political influence
(photo credit: flckr drocpsu)
Penn State University, targeted for unprecedented penalties after NCAA officials concluded that top university officials covered up child sex abuse by an assistant football coach has received more than $6 million in federal earmarks in recent years -- a sign of the school's aptitude at the political influence game.
Some critics have contended that aptitude may have enabled the scandal to go on longer than it otherwise might have. In 2008, Pennsylvania's state legislature debated whether to require the school to disclose police records, email, phone records--information that might have led to earlier detection of ...
Continue readingGun interests spend millions to influence lawmakers
In the wake of the Batman movie massacre, Colorado's second mass killing in recent memory, much is being written about the unlikeliness of the tragedy leading to the kind of gun control legislation that might have prevented another troubled young man from amassing a huge arsenal. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted in the New York Times on Saturday venting his frustration at the inertia of both major party's presidential candidates.
The gun lobby is one of the most influential in Washington -- as well as state capitals -- and figures available on Sunlight's Influence Explorer describe ...
Continue readingSurvey Says… House Republicans Schedule Bevy of Critical Dodd-Frank Hearings
House Republicans are on an anti-Dodd-Frank blitz, but with a populist twist, leading up to the financial reform law’s second birthday later this week.
The Republican-controlled Financial Services Committee has launched an "online survey," which asks users a series of questions about how Dodd-Frank affects “you, not Wall Street.” The survey comes as the committee has scheduled a half dozen hearings over a two-week period focusing on such topics as Dodd-Frank's impact on home mortgages, consumer choice, and access to credit and municiple finance.
We'll be covering one of those hearings — titled "Who’s In Your Wallet ...
Continue readingThe black hole of political disclosure
Our Sunlight Foundation colleague, Lee Drutman, has written elsewhere about the amount of dark money -- political donations that come without donors attached -- flowing into this year's campaign. But what about the conduits? As the Senate debates the DISCLOSE Act this week, a measure that would take modest steps towards adding a little transparency back into the campaign finance system, it's worth taking a look at the entities that are taking advantage of the loopholes that allow them to avoid disclosing -- sometimes just donors, sometimes just about everything.
The groups run the gamut from long established organizations with a ...
Continue readingMcCain campaigns for Romney, transparency or not
Political irony: That's probably the best definition for what happened Monday when when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., probably the only GOP lawmaker to express interest in the Disclose Act, rallied Michigan on behalf of GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who has turned his back on requests to be more open with his campaign finance. 
McCain is the father of modern campaign finance reform. He was the coauthor of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, popularly known as the McCain-Feingold Act. And he hasn't been shy about criticizing this year's conduits for big money, even if it ...
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