Tag Archive: Federal Election Commission

Gross Political Product: Outside campaign spending tops 2010 total

by Kathy Kiely

investigations

Sep 23, 2012 9:09 pm

In a campaign that's supposed to be about an ailing economy, there's just one financial indicator that remains consistently robust: Call it the Gross Political Product.

The latest signal of just how profitable a business politics remains is available on Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money, which shows outside spending at nearly $465 million as of Sunday evening. That's more than the total for the entire 2010 campaign, the first that took place following the Supreme Court's landmark Citizens United decision, which allowed corporations and unions to give in unlimited amounts. Chart showing independent expenditures

This cycle's outside spending ...

Federal election commissioners versus the Federal Election Commission

by Keenan Steiner

investigations

Sep 21, 2012 2:27 pm

In an odd twist even for a federal agency known for its fecklessness and divisiveness, some commissioners are challenging their own commission. Typically they merely oppose each other--along partisan lines.

Bizarrely, a group suing the Federal Election Commission submitted a statement supporting its case in court this week by Republican commissioner Donald McGahn. Which means McGahn is backing a suit against the body on which he serves.

The rigmarole started in June but came to a head Thursday, when a complicated case involving obscure aspects of campaign finance law landed at the Eastern District Court of Virginia. Judge T.S ...

Election law? What election law?

by Kathy Kiely

investigations

Aug 31, 2012 8:37 am

A Republican lawyer wonders where the FEC enforcers are and a donor sneaks a reporter into a Karl Rove meeting for financiers. Are even the bankrollers getting fed up with the political big money game?

First light on dark money: Bloomberg gun control group discloses donors

by Bill Allison

investigations

Aug 7, 2012 12:22 pm

NYC Mayor Bloomberg visits Sikh temple 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 ...

Libertarian think tank: Get behind DISCLOSE (or something like it)

by Keenan Steiner

investigations

Jun 8, 2012 7:22 pm

A bill requiring super PACs and other outside political groups to include the names of top donors on their ads will hit the Senate floor next month, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said Friday. Meanwhile, an unlikely source warned the Republicans who are expected to filibuster it that they are standing in the way of the inevitable.

Whitehouse's comments came in his home state at a conference of liberal bloggers, where he was on a panel about the effects of Citizens United, a 2010 Supreme Court case that opened the door for unlimited campaign spending by corporations and unions ...

Democrat, Republican political collectors ask FEC to OK texted contributions

by Kathy Kiely

investigations

Apr 11, 2012 10:36 pm

The economy may be largely lackluster but the political sector is so flush with cash it appears on the verge of creating a whole new profession: Campaign contribution brokers.

That would be the result if the Federal Election Commission approves a bipartisan request that it made public late Wednesday afternoon. Filing on behalf of two campaign consulting groups, one Democrat and one Republican, the blue-chip Washington law firm Arendt Fox urges the FEC to approve a system for texting small contributions to political campaigns that would allow middlemen to collect as much as 50 cents on every donated dollar.

The ...

The News Without Transparency: Super PAC Donations Used as Campaign Weapon

by Melanie Buck Mar 9, 2012 12:01 pm

Last month Politico reported that corporate contributions to a super PAC set up to support Democratic U.S. Rep. Howard Berman... View Article

The iPad Proposal: e-File for Favorite Things

by Nicko Margolies Mar 7, 2012 1:40 pm

The day of gadget envy reckoning is upon us as Apple unveils their latest iPad and it seems only natural that the Sunlight Foundation watch this media frenzy in regards to our policy proposals.

Super PAC disclosures: Simmons hedges his bets; PayPal co-founder hearts Ron Paul

by Reporting Group

investigations

Feb 21, 2012 6:21 am

Monday was the day that super PACs on a monthly filing schedule file financial disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission. Sunlight Foundation's Reporting Group is watching as they go online to see who is writing big checks. Highlights so far:

American Crossroads, which put super PACs on the map in the last election cycle with mega-donations to GOP candidates, took in just over $5 million in January, almost all of it from one man: Harold Simmons, a major Republican donor who also has written checks to super PACs backing three of the party's presidential candidates.
The super ...

Lobbyist Bundler Data Includes Giving to Super Committee

by Ryan Sibley Nov 22, 2011 9:23 am

Of the 12 members of the failed supercommittee that were tasked with cutting $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit, five... View Article

« Previous
1
…
6
7
8
9
10
11
Next »