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Tag Archive: Karl Rove

Crossroads, Planned Parenthood advertise in presidential battlegrounds

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As if independent expenditures by super PACs weren't enough, two major political players have notified the Federal Elections Commission of recent electioneering communications in states likely to be battlegrounds this fall.

Crossroads GPS reported spending $500,000 on ads against President Obama in Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota and Missouri, while  Planned Parenthood Action Fund Inc., spent $36,000 on ads in Florida and Michigan. Electioneering communication are TV or radio ads that refer to a candidate for office within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election but stop short of calling for a vote for ...

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Outside groups are insiders on D.C.’s fundraising scene

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Last May Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., raised campaign cash at a reception at the offices of the National Association of Realtors and around the same time, the group's PAC sent his campaign a check for $4,000.

Four months later, in September, the PAC started spending big, but this time on independent expenditures. Three hundred thousand dollars for a campaign ad. Forty-six thousand dollars on Internet ads. By mid-October, the group had spent more than $576,000 in support of Reichert.

When groups make independent expenditures to support or oppose a candidacy, they are not supposed to coordinate in ...

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Crossroads connections visualized

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Crossroads Media has a slew of conservative leaning political organizations as their clients spending millions in the run up to mid-term elections on ad buys. The company has processed more than $10.6 million worth of ad placements this election cycle (not all that money ends up with Crossroads Media--the bulk goes to the television, radio, cable and other outlets that run the advertisements it places).

All but one of their clients – the Susan B. Anthony List -- are connected to two high profile Republican operatives, Karl Rove and Mary Cheney. Rove helps to raise money for American CrossroadsCrossroads GPS ...

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Outside groups spending record amounts on mid-term elections

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Since January 2010, spending by outside organizations to influence congressional elections totals some $57 million--up more than $20 million from a comparable time period in 2006, the most recent non-presidential election cycle--according to reports collected by the Federal Election Commission. 

Though the rising independent expenditures--money spent by outside groups on anything from phone banks and mailing lists to negative political ads to influence a federal election--come after the Supreme Court decisions that weakened campaign finance laws, it's unclear whether those rulings are fueling the boom.

While some labor unions have taken advantage of the rulings to directly make independent ...

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The FOIA Process: Still as Archaic as Snail Mail

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There are very few occasions in the Sunlight offices for us to use the fax machine, so we were somewhat out of practice when we learned that we had to use it to send Freedom of Information Act requests to the Department of Treasury. At least the fax is instantaneous: we received most of our responses from them via snail mail.

To do this story, which involved looking into various agencies in charge of the bailout of the financial sector, we had to file seven FOIA requests--all sent via fax to Treasury--then make several phone calls to follow up on ...

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