Seven key Democrats seen as potential vote-flippers on the health care reform bill are heavily reliant on campaign funds from... View Article
Continue readingLess than three percent Palin’s itemized PAC contributions from Alaskans
Less than three percent of the itemized money raised by resigning Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's leadership PAC came from Alaskans, newly filed campaign finance reports show. SarahPAC reported raising more than $730,000 in the last six months--less than half of the $1.6 million raised by Mitt Romney's PAC.
Both names have been mentioned as potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates, and the non-campaign, federal-level political action committee accounts are sometimes used to lay the infrastructure for a later bid, financing travel and winning over fellow politicians with donations to their campaigns.
The reports do not provide information ...
Continue readingStimulus Funds Premium Pork?
I'm assuming that either there's an error somewhere, or this is really, really good ham. From Recovery.gov's new recipient data comes this contract, which if I'm reading it right, spends $1,191,200 for "2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED."
That seems like an awful lot for ham--even sliced ham. Just a hunch, but they're probably buying tens and tens of thousands of 2 pound frozen hams sliced, but of course that's not apparent from the linked entry.
I just got done writing up some cautionary tales about why one can never take federal ...
Continue reading$1,000 to the Jerry Lewis Portrait Committee
LD-203 forms--on which lobbyists disclose their contributions to lawmakers' campaigns, to presidential libraries, and to nonprofits honoring members of Congress, is available online. The disclosure that prompted the headline of this post is here. Lots of other interesting stuff, but there are a little less than 3,917 records in the entire database, which makes me think that the data isn't yet complete. There are also all the usual issues with inaccurate federal data -- here's a a $200,000 contribution to Sen. Barbara Boxer's leadership PAC. That's a bit more than the $5,000 FEC limit ...
Continue readingThe Favor Factory: Earmarks and Campaign Cash Connections
Out of Compliance: Nonprofit with ties to Stevens’ PAC, Tardy on Paperwork and Fees to the State of Alaska
An Alaskan nonprofit foundation that raises money to make the records and mementos of Sen. [Ted] Stevens' career in public service" has failed to file registration documents or pay fees since 2004, according to the Alaska Department of Law. In response to a FOIA request to the department for all documents filed by the Ted Stevens Foundation (recently renamed the North to the Future Foundation), we received papers filed in 2003 and were told by department officials that none had been filed since then.
Any organization that is raising funds in the state of
Rep. Russ Carnahan tied to Arch Leadership PAC
Following up on this post, I spoke to Vince Currao, a political consultant for both Rep. Russ Carnahan and the Arch Leadership PAC. Currao said that Carnahan is the honorary chair of Arch Leadership PAC and that the Missouri lawmaker "raises money for" it.
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Looking into Arch Leadership PAC
Just for fun, I thought I'd take ten minutes and see if I can track down another mystery PAC for our friends at the Center for Responsive Politics--this time the Arch Leadership PAC. FEC filings list the PAC's address as 906 Olive St., Suite 1212, St. Louis, MO 63101. Googling it, I got a lot of links--the one that caught my eye was this campaign finance report from the Missouri Ethics Commission showing that Tom Carnahan, treasurer of a state-registered campaign committee for Robin Carnahan, lists that address. Googling Tom and Robin Carnahan, one comes across this bio ...
Continue readingOne Fewer Mystery PAC
A quick update to Paul's post on CRP's invitation to track mystery PACs. The Penguin PAC, one of the 31 political action committees that our friends at the Center for Responsive Politics listed as an "anonymous" leadership PAC, does indeed belong to Rep. Tim Ryan. I called Fraioli & Associates to confirm what their Web site seemed to indicate, that Ryan had a connection to Penguin PAC. And here's a few suggestions on tracking these things if searching for the name of the PAC doesn't turn up anything:
Continue readingHelp Identify Mystery PACs
Got some spare time? Want to get involved in a little open source watchdogging project? Our friends at the Center for Responsive Politics are asking users to research a list of "mystery PACs," or leadership political action committees that appear to be affiliated with a member of Congress but do not explicitly say so. Leadership PACs do not have to disclose the identity of an affiliated member of Congress. There's a bill in Congress, HR 347, sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), that would end this secretive process. While we wait for this bill to get a hearing in the House you can research these PACs yourself. If you need a little help in getting started, Bill Allison, at the Real Time Investigations blog, writes up a good summary of how he researched one of mystery PACs. And if you're feeling in a good mood and want to contribute your findings to another resource, Congresspedia has a great page on political action committees that lists many of the leadership PACs currently active. Feel free to add your findings to the list. Definitely go and help out CRP uncover the members of Congress behind these mystery PACs.
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