Senators Tester and Cochran introduced the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act today, a bill that would speed disclosure of public... View Article
Continue readingSen. Scott Brown’s campaign requests FEC approval to buy his book
Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachussetts wants to thank his campaign donors with a signed copy of his yet to be released autobiography. And in order to do so, he's asked the Federal Election Commission to allow him to buy several thousand of copies of his own book using his campaign committee's funds.
But Brown says he doesn't plan to profit from this. According to the advisory opinion request he'll either not receive royalties from this purchase or he will donate all the proceeds he receives from this purchase to charity.
Brown also plans to mix ...
Continue readingImpotent FEC fails to act on Disclosure Rules
The Federal Election Commission marked this one-year anniversary of the Citizens United case by failing to do anything to provide... View Article
Continue readingLast Super PAC of 2010 started by wife of congressional challenger
We missed it between Christmas and New Years, but Heartland Revolution registered as an independent expenditure only committee with the Federal Election Commission. Such committees, also known as Super PACs, can take contributions in any amount from any source, and spend that money influencing federal elections.
Heartland Revolution shares a Post Office box with John Waltz for Congress, the eponymous campaign committee for the Democratic challenger to Rep. Geoffrey Davis, R-Ky. In filings with the FEC, the committee discloses just one official--Janie Waltz, which is the name of Waltz's wife.
Super PACs are bared from coordinating with federal candidates.
Continue readingDead end disclosure: Super PAC’s biggest giver is a shadowy nonprofit with links to Sarah Palin
Citizens for a Working America PAC, a political organization that's spent $250,000 to oppose the reelection of Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., discloses its contributions to the Federal Election Commission. Its contributor (it has only one) is New Models, a Virginia-based non-profit organized under section 501(c)4 of the Internal Revenue Code, that doesn't disclose its donors.
Call it another wrinkle in the wide open world of 2010 money in politics: Disclosed donors can be anonymous too.
Citizens for a Working America PAC filed a statement of organization with the FEC on Sept. 2, 2010; about ...
Continue readingEditor’s Notebook: Following the muddled money
Over the weekend, I came across a new group in our Follow the Unlimited Money tool called CSS Action Fund. I googled the group and didn't find anything about it; by Monday they'd set up a website. Curious, I asked Ryan Sibley, who's been all things post-Citizens United for us, to see what she could find out about the group.
When I sat down to edit her investigation into the 501(c)4 organization, which can run all kinds of political ads without revealing its donors, my head started to spin. There's a D.C ...
Continue reading‘Grassroots’ group grows mainly in offices of D.C. law and PR firms
A political committee called Citizens for Strength and Security Action Fund--usually abbreviated as CSS Action Fund--claims to be active across the country promoting the best solutions to America's problems, but the limited disclosures available about the group suggest that it's a creature of the beltway. The organization, which made its first noise in the 2010 mid-term elections by spending $640,000 supporting Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash in late September, shares a Washington, D.C. address with similar advocacy groups and lists political pros as its main players.*
CSS Action Fund lists a Southeast Washington, D.C., address ...
Continue readingSuper PACs: Track (and read all about) them on the Reporting Group site
The Washington Post weighs in on the growth of “Super Pacs,” organizations that can take unlimited funds from any source... View Article
Continue readingSpeechNow now speaking
The nonprofit group Speechnow.org has finally established itself as an independent expenture-only committee with the Federal Elections Commission. The group waited for two months after the FEC issued advisory opinions clearly stating that groups could organize to make independent expenditures and receive unlimited contributions -- a result Speechnow's win in a federal court case againt the FEC.
David Keating, spokesman for Speechnow.org, says the organization was simply waiting until it was ready to start receiving contributions and spending money, and that didn't happen until recently.
Continue readingMore political organizations declare they’ll take unlimited funds
In the 6 weeks following an advisory opinion issued by the Federal Elections Commission allowing some political organizations—called independent expenditure-only PACs—to receive unlimited contributions from corporations and labor unions, 23 groups have registered as such. The FEC is anticipating 67 more to do so as well. To see both FEC lists click here.
Sunlight first reported on these organizations when a group called the League of Conservation Voters Fund intervened in the Colorado primary, running a phone bank to support Sen. Michael Bennet.
These groups are created for the sole pupose of making independent expenditures to influence elections ...
Continue reading
59063
