A new fight over immigration appears to be brewing, but it likely has more to do with the 2014 elections than with any real chance legislation will be passed.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, appeared to close that door on Wednesday, when he ruled out any negotiations over the sweeping immigration law the Senate passed in June. On the same day, Organizing for Action, the dark money committee that grew out of President Barack Obama's campaign, sent an email to supporters calling on them to pressure Republican lawmakers to take up the immigration bill. The committee suggested targeting Rep ...
Continue readingAmerican Crossroads targeting vulnerable Senate Democrats — and passing the hat
American Crossroads, the big-spending Republican super PAC that's been relatively quiescent since posting a less-than-impressive return on investment in the last election cycle, has resurfaced with some advertisements targeting some of the Senate's most vulnerable Democrats -- and an ask for money.
The ads, which surfaced on Political Ad Hawk, Sunlight's mobile app for linking political advertisements with the sources of their funding, are nearly identical and attempt to discredit three Democrats up for reelection next year -- Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana -- over the controversial new health care law ...
Continue readingShutdown spells big gains for nation’s gross political product
While federal workers and beneficiaries are taking an economic hit, the shutdown seems to be proving a financial bonanza for the nation's political consultant class. Both Republicans and Democrats are churning out ads focused on the shutdown. Guess what? Each blames the other for it.
Continue readingDemocrats pull a page from last shutdown playbook
A Democratic super PAC is pulling a page from the 1995 playbook in hopes of turning the government shutdown into political gains.
Continue readingDemocrats making shutdown an issue in swing races
Democrats are making a political bet that swing voters will make Republicans pay for the shutdown of the federal government.
Sunlight's Ad Hawk database, which tracks political ads and enables smartphone users to identify sources of money behind them, picked up four ads on Thursday by Democratic candidates or political action committees that tie GOP officeholders to the shutdown.
In Virginia, where voters go to the polls Nov. 5 to elect a new governor, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe is linking his GOP opponent, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose outspoken opposition to the implementation of ...
Continue readingClosure of disclosure, part II: Political ad filings go dark
The government shutdown is turning into a major denial of service for journalists and other citizens interested in tracking the influence of big money on politics.
Not only is it preventing scrutiny of campaign finance records -- potentially leaving voters in at least one Louisiana special election with NO information on donors before they head to the polls -- it's also making it next to impossible to provide up-to-date information on political ad buys.
The shuttering of the Federal Communications Commission's website has severely hamstrung Political Ad Sleuth, a tool that the Sunlight Foundation and Free Press developed last year to track those buys at hundreds of TV stations across the country.
And there are plenty of them -- some of them attempt to capitalize on the shutdown itself.
Ending Spending readies air war in Virginia governor’s race
Ending Spending, a group bankrolled by Chicago Cubs owner Joe Ricketts that spent $13 million in the last election, is gearing up in the Virginia Senate race.
Continue readingSenate Conservatives Fund raises pressure, dollars over Obamacare battle
The Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee founded by former North Carolina senator and current Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint, has released a slew of radio spots, Internet ads and a website--Don't Fund Obamacare--that accuse some Rebublican senators of supporting the Affordable Care Act rather than trying to stop it.
Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., all oppose the tactic of blocking implementation of healthcare reforms by launching a budget fight that could result in a shut down of the federal government. The strategy ...
Continue readingSenate Conservatives Fund targets Lindsey Graham
A group founded by former Sen. Jim DeMint is targeting fellow South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, charging the two-term Republican with being insufficiently hostile to President Barack Obama's health care law.
The 61-second radio ad by the Senate Conservatives Fund popped up on Sunlight's Political Ad Hawk days after a tea party challenger announced she is entering the primary against Graham. The ad cites Graham's refusal to join Senate Republicans, such as Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah, in an effort to cut off funding for the law. Graham, along with a number ...
Continue readingAd watch: RNC launches attack on Hillary Clinton
It's the dog days of August. It's more than three years till the next presidential election. But the Republican National Committee is attacking like it's 2016 already.
The spot above, which just appeared in Ad Hawk, Sunlight's mobile app that helps voters learn who's putting up the money behind ads, has all the earmarks of a preemptive strike against a Hillary Clinton for president campaign. The ad features Clinton's emotional testimony to Congress on the deaths of U.S. diplomatic personnel in Benghazi, Libya while she was secretary of state.
At 31 seconds, it ...
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