From venues like Johnny’s Half Shell in D.C., maritime museums or Magic Johnson’s house, lawmakers follow the money wherever it takes them. Sometimes, it’s even in their own backyard.
Continue readingWhy are states replacing email with flawed web forms for contacting lawmakers?
Providing email addresses to contact state legislators is easy and effective — but more and more states are replacing them with inaccessible, buggy web forms. Help us get back on the right track!
Continue readingData is changing our approach to prisons (and saving us money, too)
A new initiative from the Justice Department empowers state and local governments to effectively utilize crime data, saving money and increasing public safety.
Continue readingTeam Rand tries to quash anonymous attack ad
A lawyer for Rand Paul's presidential campaign told TV stations that they could lose their broadcasting licenses if they continued airing the "false and misleading" advertisements.
Continue readingSunshine and shadows: Statehouses tackle open records laws in 2015
The 2016 state legislative sessions have already witnessed a host of important actions, with legislators across the country considering measures to increase and decrease governmental transparency.
Continue readingOutside political spending = economic boom in D.C.
The politicians may love to hate Washington but guess where most of the money being spent on their behalf is going.
Continue readingCampaign intelligence: Nearly $110 million in independent expenditures this primary season
The vast majority of this spending is aimed at Republicans.
Continue readingHow ex-Det. Guy Bowers became the biggest campaign donor of all
One of the most prolific donors to political candidates running for federal office has no idea that’s his status.
Guy Bowers, a 66-year-old ex-detective who says he owes his fortune to an inheritance and some savvy investing, is not your typical corporate executive often associated with fattening politicians’ campaign accounts.
Yet Bowers was such an enthusiastic donor that he tops a list of perhaps hundreds who appear to have broken a campaign finance law that caps the total amount of money individuals can give federal political candidates and committees in the course of a two-year election cycle. For 2011 ...
Whom Mark Sanford owes
Some big investors got a nice payoff Tuesday when Mark Sanford, South Carolina's disgraced former governor, won back his old House seat.
As Sanford acknowledged in his victory speech Tuesday night in Charleston, he's got a lot to be thankful for. The list could include more than $200,000 in late donations from big Republican donors and interests who bet that the ex-South Carolina governor could overcome a sex scandal and get his political career on track. The group includes 47 organizations and out-of-state givers -- a number of them with ties to the financial industry and libertarian causes ...
Continue readingThere he goes again: Larry Flynt backs Mark Sanford
If Mark Sanford accepts the endorsement of Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and the $2,600 that goes along with it, the South Carolina Republican congressional hopeful will be joining a list of well-known Democrats and breaking a long streak for the pornographer-turned-political activist.
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