Medical and doctors specialty groups jumped into the independent spending fray in the 2014 elections, supporting candidates who would help their bottom line.
Continue readingContest for the Senate in charts: Outspent Dems lean on super PAC donors in homestretch
The story of outside money in this year's contest for control of the Senate, told in handy, embeddable charts.
Continue readingDark money still a Republican game
A review of reported spending by dark money outfits finds Republican candidates are getting a bigger boost from anonymous donors.
Continue readingInfluence Analytics: Politicians weighing in against expanded wetlands protection
Hundreds of members of Congress are blasting an Obama administration plan to expand the definition of wetlands, an analysis of public comments by Sunlight's Docket Wrench shows.
Continue readingHow Big Pharma (and others) began lobbying on the Trans-Pacific Partnership before you ever heard of it
From 2009 until mid-2013, drug companies and associations mentioned the Trans-Pacific Partnership in 251 separate lobbying reports – two and a half times more than the next most active industry.
Continue reading2014 races we’re watching
Using our trackers Sunlight makes it easy to track the advertisements, money and fundraisers in 2014's most pivotal races. Follow the money to see who is influencing your vote — and how much they're paying.
Continue readingTea Party challenger trounced in last minute fundraising
The GOP establishment is doubling down on its effort to beat the Tea Party in a special election today, last-minute filings on Sunlight's Real-Time FEC tracker show.
Continue readingTo the victors go the spoils: What top donors want
With the election over, a Congress full of lame ducks -- along with next year's class of soon-to-be sworn-in lawmakers, ready for freshmen orientation -- returns to Washington next week. Lobbyists and special interests that opened their wallets for candidates are poised to call in chits in a tense environment dominated by the budget impasse that threatens to impose sweeping automatic cuts to defense and social programs if Congress doesn't act.
Top CEOs of more than 80 companies issued a statement on October 25 calling on Congress to solve the issue by considering tax increases along with spending cuts. In ...
Continue readingOutside Money in the House: Six Graphs and Seven Takeaways
Outside money is flooding into U.S. House races, primarily from party committees, but also significantly from dark money groups and super PACs. And though Democrats need to win 25 seats to take back the House (which most forecasters deem unlikely), nobody is giving up on anything, judging from the recent cash infusions. We are now at $218.8 million in House outside spending, with almost one-third of that money coming in the last 10 days, and more than half of it coming since October 1. Republicans lead in outside money $119.6 million to $96.7 million, including a two-to-one lead in dark money. Democratic super PACs, meanwhile, have outspent Republican super PACs. What this money all adds up to, we are still waiting to see. For now, the best we can do is to give our best take on the current state of play.
Continue readingOutside Money in the Senate: One map, four graphs and seven takeaways
Outside money continues to pour in at a record pace this election cycle, and beyond the presidential race, the biggest general election spending totals are all in Senate races: $29.7 million in Virginia; $24.6 million in Ohio; $22.2 million in Wisconsin; $18.5 million in Nevada; $16.3 million in Montana. And counting. All told, outside groups have dropped $189.4 million into Senate races as of October 23.
And no wonder: the Senate remains very much up for grabs, and the parties are very close in their levels of outside spending – unlike both the presidential and House races, where Republicans have the outside spending edge. In the Senate outside money chase, Republicans have a very narrow lead, $97.3 million to $92.1 million.
Of particular interest is that Republicans are relying much more on non-party organizations – primarily Crossroads GPS and the Chamber of Commerce – that don’t have to disclose their donors and only have to report their spending within 60 days of an election. Among these types of groups, Republicans lead Democrats $56.2 million to $24.6 million. And significantly, while party committees are limited in the amount of money they can raise from any one individual ($30,800 per cycle), groups like Crossroads GPS and the Chamber can receive unlimited contributions. By contrast, Democrats are still relying much more on the traditional party structure.
First, an overview of the outside spending, by state:
59063
