"Good Morning America" and the "Today" show both talked with Sunlighters about why the public deserves transparency around political conventions.
Continue readingPolitical Party Time takeover: Sunlight at the 2016 Democratic National Convention
Sunlight's Melissa Yeager, Libby Watson and Louis Serino crash the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia! Stay tuned to our blog as they'll be live-tweeting, snapping photos, shooting videos and bringing you the latest news — all with a focus on money in politics, influence and more. We'll be compiling the most interesting missives from the DNC.
Continue readingMay was a kind month to RNC, some super PACs, FEC filings show
More than 17 months before the November election, filings at the FEC show that some of the bigger supporting players in politics are getting into electoral form.
Continue readingDNC paid $4.5 million for events at White House
A new Sunlight analysis of campaign finance records from the Democratic National Committee finds party operatives have made frequent use of the White House grounds during the past four years.
Continue readingLiberals still top list of largest super PAC donors
With control of the Senate in doubt and Republicans likely to hold on to their majority in the House, liberal power brokers are ramping up their electoral giving.
Continue readingFebruary filings: Following the political money trail
The February financial reports are in for political committees filing on a monthly schedule. Some of the highlights? The DNC outraises Republicans, labor unions play state politics and Club for Growth scores another million dollar donation.
Continue readingSurprise! Corporations funded Democrats’ convention
Though the party conventions are long over, the special interests that paid for them were only revealed to the public yesterday. It’s not a surprise that, despite a self-imposed ban on corporate cash to fund their Charlotte convention, the Democrats relied on plenty of it.
For their bash in Tampa, Republicans brought in donations from super PAC donors, an oil industry trade group that's running its own political ads, and some of the same corporate donors who underwrote the Democrats' convention.
MORE: See the largest donors to the Democratic and Republican host committees below
The Charlotte host committee ...
Continue readingTexas-sized lobbyist bundler shuns Democrats’ super PACs
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Democratic super PACs and other outside political groups will be deprived of the party's most generous 2010 bankroller this election: Donor and bundler extraordinaire Ben Barnes is repudiating the outfits that don't provide full financial disclosure.
Since the 2008 election, the 74-year-old Texan has been the lobbyist who, along with his family, has given the most to Democrats -- more than $900,000 in donations to candidates and committees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He has been in Charlotte all week for the Democratic convention with a few aides and was spotted busting a ...
Continue readingFirst lady courts LGBT donors over lunch
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- After a rousing convention speech Tuesday night that, among other things, commended LGBT Americans for their courage to marry, Michelle Obama spent about an hour Wednesday at a downtown Charlotte Marriott courting well-heeled gay donors.
According to one political consultant and LGBT activist there, she knocked it out of the park. “It was like a conversation in a living room almost,” said Palm Springs, Calif. LGBT activist and political consultant Greg Rodriguez.
That may be important, as a recent analysis showed that one in six bundlers for President Obama are gay. Another report identified 33 gay bundlers ...
Continue readingAt Democratic super PACs briefing, strategists ask for more cash
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- If there were millionaires at Tuesday's happy hour for prospective donors of the three major super PACs backing congressional Democrats and President Obama, they were not the recognizable backers of the groups. And there was not much exclusive about the affair.
At the door of a cozy, downtown bar a short walk from the site of the Democratic Party’s convention, an employee checked off names of attendees on an iPad. But he did not seem to stop anyone, and so this reporter walked on through the door.
The event was one of several being hosted ...
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