Sixteen candidates have already come and gone in the 2016 election, raising (and spending) millions of dollars along the way. But campaigns tend to come to an abrupt end — usually with some cash left over.
Continue readingCiting Sunlight Foundation report, watchdog groups file complaint against Santorum
Campaign finance watchdog groups filed a complaint Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission alleging that Rick Santorum's presidential campaign illegally directed a donation to a super PAC.
The complaint is based on a Sunlight Foundation report in which Louisiana mega donor Bill Doré recounted how he was instructed to donate $1 million to the Red, White and Blue Fund, the super PAC supporting Santorum's 2012 run for the presidency. It comes days after Santorum triggered speculation about an encore presidential run with a visit to Iowa, the state that will kick off the 2016 campaign with its much-watched ...
Abortion restrictions going viral?
As state lawmakers in Texas and North Carolina move towards enacting tough new limits on abortions, Sunlight decided to use some of our data tools to see how far the trend is spreading nationwide. To do so, we lifted key phrases from four of the most restrictive abortion bills that have either been enacted or considered recently and ran those terms through our Open States database, which surveys activity in all 50 state legislatures.
Restrictive abortion bills on the move in 2013
FEC asks Santorum about charges that he bought an endorsement
The Federal Election Commission is asking former presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Iowa evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats and an anti-gay marriage organization to tell the agency why it should not investigate an allegation that they violated campaign finance limits during the last election.
Continue readingThe $1 million dinner: When big donor Bill Dore meets Rick Santorum
Who told Rick Santorum's angel investor about the super PAC supporting the former (and perhaps future) presidential candidate?
Continue readingMysterious Rick Santorum super PAC donor speaks out
In the 2012 election 28 percent of all disclosed political contributions came from just 31,385 people. In a nation of 313.85 million, these donors represent the 1% of the 1%, an elite class that increasingly serves as the gatekeepers of public office in the United States.
William J. Doré, Sr., who rose from humble beginnings to make hundreds of millions in the energy industry, ended up as the biggest donor to the super PAC that kept Rick Santorum’s presidential bid afloat in 2012. Unlike another, Foster Friess, the well-heeled donor to the Red, White and Blue Fund whose comments occasionally led to embarrassing headlines, Doré kept a low profile. He gave no interviews to the press about his $2.25 million in donations. Continue reading
The case of the mystery texter
This Halloween mystery all began on a dark and stormy night, when unsuspecting phones were attacked by political ads via text message. What made this message so scary is that when people went to “unwrap” the text, they realized the organization had no face. When they went searching for the sender’s website, it was dead.
Not until the wee hours of the morning, was the privacy of the sender revoked for violating spamming rules. The Atlantic connected the texts to Jason Flanary and ccAdvertising.
This spooky spending looks like it is taking advantage of a legal loophole by emailing ...
Continue readingSunlight Live covers the conventions
Republican conventioneers may have dodged Tropical Storm Isaac. Now they're facing another challenge: Sunlight at night.
Throughout this week's GOP convention in Tampa and next week's Democratic gathering in Charlotte, the Sunlight Foundation will be covering major speakers with a tool that will allow us -- and you -- to provide real-time commentary and analysis.
Starting at 7 p.m. ET, we'll open up our Sunlight Live website, where you can watch a video stream of the convention and, at the same time, read information and background about the speakers and their themes, mined from the Sunlight Foundation ...
Continue readingBiggest loser in Pennsylvania primary isn’t Santorum
That sniffling sound you hear is not Rick Santorum's supporters bemoaning his decision Tuesday to pull the plug on his presidential campaign but the managers of the Keystone State's television stations counting the ad dollars they have lost. There are 46 of them, according to the Community Media Database created and maintained by Rob McCausland.
So far this year, the race for the Republican presidential nomination has brought a bonanza of ad dollars to broadcasters in states that have played host to early contests, the more so because of the rise of super PACs, political action committees that ...
Continue readingWho’s the web savviest presidential candidate of all?
Running for president requires web presence. Facebook, Twitter, web videos and websites that take online donations are ubiquitous among this year's presidential contenders. Yet, in an ever-more sophisticated technical world, the basics are not enough, and each candidate is trying some unique approaches to mine the Internet for donations -- a key to President Obama's fundraising success in 2008.
As the GOP race moves today into the president's home state, Sunlight has taken a look at what the major contenders are doing on the web:
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney, hoping that a commanding win in today's Illinois ...
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