As the Senate this week takes up the DISCLOSE Act, a bill that Sunlight and other open government groups are... View Article
Continue readingRomney surging, but Obama well ahead in campaign cash
For Mitt Romney, the magic number is $158 million. That's how much he'll have to outraise President Barack Obama over the last four months of the campaign to surpass the president, the record holder for campaign fundraising.
Obama's advantage has been lost in media reports highighting the Republican nominee's $106 million June haul. Even Obama's campaign, including the president himself, has downplayed its financial advantage when it warns of being outspent by Romney and the Republican National Committee. For that to happen, Romney would have to best Obama by $39.5 million a month for ...
Continue readingFollowing the Chamber of Commerce down the campaign finance rabbit hole
A New York Times report that New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is subpoenaing records of tax-exempt groups involved in politics underscores the difficulty of tracking campaign spending to its source following the 2010 Citizens United decision, a ruling that the Supreme Court reaffirmed this week.
According to the Times story, Schneiderman is seeking emails and bank records to determine the legality of financial transactions made between the National Chamber Foundation and one of its donors, the Starr Foundation, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The business trade association received $18 million from the Chamber Foundation in 2003 ...
Continue readingCharlie Rangel’s challenge: The end of an era?
It has the potential to be a primary that makes history.
The seat at stake, in New York's 13th Congressional District, has been a place where black politicians have flourished -- the place where Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. became the Empire State's first African American elected to Congress.
Continue reading$12 million in the dark
So far this year, groups that do not disclose their donors, and legally are not required to do so, have reported almost $12.4 million in political spending to the Federal Election Commission, much of it made possible by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.
Some $8.4 million of this dark money has paid for independent expenditures--advertisements, phone banks, get out the vote operations and other spending aimed at electing or defeating a specific candidate. Non-profits organized under section 501(c) of the tax code spent the bulk of the money; under federal law, they are not required ...
Continue readingDid mystery Romney donors also play in Texas?
A subsidiary of the Reynolds and Reynolds Company--which was apparently behind $1 million in contributions to the super PAC backing Mitt Romney through three shell companies last month--also gave at least $250,000 to super PACs earlier this election cycle through another subsidiary.
Yesterday we noted that three contributions for about a third of a million dollars each that originated from the same post office box in Dayton, Ohio on May 22 all seemed to be related to Reynolds and Reynolds. The company provides software and other services to car dealerships and related businesses. Chief Executive Officer Robert T ...
Continue readingWatergate + 40: What have we unlearned?
This Sunday is the 40th anniversary of the break-in that led to President Richard Nixon's downfall. The commemorations this week will mostly focus on the investigative reporting that unravelled the story -- and that now is in danger. That's a concern that we at the Sunlight Foundation share and try to address in the tools we make available to help journalists and citizens be better civic watchdogs.
But it's also important to remember Watergate's other legacy: Two years after the burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices -- by a group of so-called plumbers who were paid by ...
Continue readingFEC adds RSS feed of campaign finance filings
Harried campaign finance dorks who spend the 20th of each month huddled over a terminal window hoping the next 43,558-page... View Article
Continue readingGuess who’s giving to lawmaker trying to repeal tax on medical devices?
The Minnesota congressman leading the charge to repeal a medical device excise tax that is meant to generate a big chunk of funding for the health care reform law has taken the most campaign money--more than $64,000--from medical device manufacturers this election cycle.
Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., has attracted 240 cosponsors, including 11 Democrats, for his bill to repeal the 2.3 percent excise tax, which the House is scheduled to consider this week. Paulsen hails from a state where the medical device industry is a substantial employer. Companies such as Medtronic, St. Jude Medical, and Starkey Laboratories ...
Continue readingSurvey finds attack ads work, though better on some voters than others
If the early campaign-season barrage of negative advertising is any indicator, the 2012 election is going to be a decidedly... View Article
Continue reading
59063
