This is a pretty amusing take on Washington's revolving door. But the truth is often stranger than fiction. If you want all the facts, check out the Center for Responsive Politics' Revolving Door database. In fact, you can start by looking up the names of some of the people mentioned in the cartoon.
Where the Money Comes from Matters
The official voting of the 2008 presidential race begins tonight at the Iowa Caucuses. And next Tuesday, New Hampshire voters will cast votes in the first primary of the election. Before casting a ballot I want to encourage everyone in all states to visit OpenSecrets.org, the website of our colleagues at the Center for Responsive Politics, the "follow the money" folks. CRP's easily accessed Race for the White House database profiles the fund raising and spending of each candidate's campaign. Unfortunately, because of filing rules, CRP only has data through September 30. Fund raising and spending reports for October through December are not due to the Federal Election Commission until the end of this month. Nevertheless, the data CRP has shows the important early period where the various candidates' strengths and weaknesses is gauged largely by the amount of money raised.
CRP breaks down the data to reveal each candidate's contributors by state, metropolitan area and zip code; contribution size; gender and industry the donor is associated with. You can even look up individual donors by candidate, industry or ZIP code. "Before you vote, count the candidates' cash," CRP Executive Director Sheila Krumholz advises Iowa and New Hampshire residents, as well as those in later-voting states. "Just as it's important to know the candidates, it's important to know who got them this far and might hold sway with them in the White House," Sheila adds.
Continue readingSuper Donors
Public Campaign's blog highlighted a National Journal cover story about super donors -- lobbyists who max out on personal contributions to political campaigns each year. In this election cycle the aggregate contribution limit is $108,200.
Most of these K Street "royals" have spouses giving them the opportunity to double that amount (as long as the spouse goes along). Now that adds up to some real money as you will see. National Journal includes a list of the top 20 individual K Street donors provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, as well as a deeper profile of five of the. Even though the report finds that the top lobbyist donors cite various motivations for giving, "virtually all of them enjoy a level of influence and access that many others on K Street would envy."
And surprise surprise! K Street work has paid off spectacularly well for these folks.
Continue readingCRP Meets Colbert
Steven Colbert’s nascent presidential campaign came up against reality last night when he interviewed Massie Ritsch, the communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics. Ritsch gave Colbert the one-two of how he could legally finance his presidential run, which, at one point stunned Colbert into silence. Enjoy the whole encounter.
Continue readingPromiseKeeper
There was a really important money and politics story yesterday on the front page of The New York Times. It noted that the Democrats are now getting more money from the health care sector of givers than the Republicans. (Historically, health care has always given more to the GOP.) Candidate Clinton is getting the most of the dough. The Times, working with our friends at the Center for Responsive Politics, found the industry is giving to get an inside track with the potential next president.
No great surprise here and the story confirms the reason. It quotes an advisor to healthcare corporations: "For many people in the industry," he said, "these contributions are a defensive measure. Health care is the No. 1 domestic policy issue, and they want access, a seat at the table." And another quote: "Everybody in the industry knows that health care reform is on its way," said the president of the Greater New York Hospital Association. "You have only two decisions: sit on the sidelines or get on the field," he adds.
Maybe we need to start up a new site:how about Promisekeeper.com?
Continue readingSeattle Times Creates Earmark, Political Contributions and Lobbying Database
Sunlight's Real Time Investigations' Project has done partial investigations into the connections between earmark recipients and their political contributions, but the Seattle Times has launched a database of 2007 defense earmarks for every member of Congress compared to the political contributions they received from the recipients of those earmarks. They also included how much was spent on lobbying by the recipients. (The campaign finance information only goes back six years. It's unclear what period the lobbying money covers.) You can search by lawmaker's name or by the name of a company or nonprofit that got the earmark. You can also browse lawmakers or earmark recipients by state. (Click on the corporate names for the information on how much was spent on lobbying.)
The reporters were able to tie only about half of the 2,700 earmarks in the 2007 defense spending bill to members of Congress. And they included only items Congress funded that the military did not ask for. Even so, they found some 45,000 matches.
Continue readingThe Open Secrets Effect
The man who really introduced me to the power of Internet (long story, see his explanation here) -- Gavin Clabaugh -- reminds us what shining a light into hidden corners of Washington, and mixing the data with a bit of technology and a handful of the Internet (with a little Miller and co-conspirator pixy dust thrown in) can do. He says that the combination may result in nothing short of the power to save democracy from itself. I promise you, Gavin was not sitting at the table when we hatched the idea for Sunlight (though his wife was my communications director when I headed the Center for Responsive Politics, so maybe there's something in the bloodline).
Continue readingComputer Glitch Prevents Searching for Individual Lobbyist Names
In the Senate the lobbying data is maintained by the Senate Office of Public Records (SOPR) which currently enters the lobbyist disclosure reports filed on paper into a database. Did you know -- I just learned this -- that electronic disclosure has been required for lobbyist reports since 1995, but still hasn't been fully implemented?! An apparent glitch in SOPR's computer system is currently preventing the public from searching for individual lobbyists, as well as for issues that interests have reported lobbying on in 2007. How beyond ridiculous is this?
It's absurd because whether the Democrats or the GOP control Congress, lobbyists often set the table. Industry lobbyists make sure that their clients' interests are tended to, no matter who runs the Congress. The Center for Responsive Politics analyzed reports filed last month and found lobbyists spending has topped $1.24 billion in the first six months of this year. For perspective, lobbyists spend a record amount of $2.61 billion throughout 2006. CRP's analysis found:
Continue readingAnother Kind of Surge
The Center for Responsive Politics has an fascinating analysis today that should be mighty disturbing to Republican candidates closely allied with President Bush's Iraq war strategy.
Since the start of the Iraq war in 2003, members of the U.S. military have dramatically increased their political contributions to Democrats, marching sharply away from the party they've long supported. In the 2002 election cycle, the last full cycle before the war began, Democrats received a mere 23 percent of military members' contributions.* So far this year, 40 percent of military money has gone to Democrats for Congress and president, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Anti-war presidential candidates Barack Obama and Ron Paul are the top recipients of military money.
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Congress vs. Hedge Funds
This Bloomberg story that covered how James Simons, the highest-paid hedge-fund manager in the U.S. last year (and one of the Forbes 500 richest Americans), could pay enough in Medicare taxes to provide health insurance for about 4,800 senior citizens is a good story about a policy fight that is about to be engaged. Rep. Sander Levin has proposed requiring that the earnings of such executives to be classified as compensation and subject them to the 2.9 percent Medicare tax.
But as a policy story, there was more I wanted to know, not the least of which was an understanding of the chances of Levin's proposal becoming law.
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