Yesterday morning, the campaign account for Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., deleted 108 tweets, making the Sunlight Foundation's Politwoops archive the only place to find these once public messages.
Continue readingPolitwoops 2013: the year’s top politicians and their best deletions from Twitter
As the year winds down and Washington retreats to spend the holidays with family and friends, let's look back at the many gifts politicians left for Politwoops in 2013 as they deleted messages once shared eagerly with their followers.
Continue readingReading the big green tea leaves in Sanford-Colbert Busch race
(Updated 4:45 p.m. ET)
Despite his capacity for self-sabotage and the public shunning of his own party, some well-heeled Republicans continue to believe that it's worth investing in former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's comeback bid in Tuesday's special election for a vacant congressional seat in the Palmetto State.
During the last three weeks of the campaign, the unexpectedly competitive contest in a heavily GOP district between Sanford and Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch has become a magnet for big political spenders. Sanford, attempting a redemption run after a headline-making sex scandal that cost him his ...
Continue readingSanford continues to draw big money in S.C. race versus Colbert Busch
How many political lives does former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford have? Even though much of the Republican establishment abandoned him after news broke that his ex-wife is suing him for trespass, a stream of last-minute contribution reports shows that the bottom has not fallen out completely for the once-rising and now badly tarnished political star.
As he heads into the final week of this effort to win back his old House seat in a race against Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, Sanford continues to reel in support from some prominent party mavericks, as well as some deep-pocketed donors. The two ...
Continue reading11th Hour SC-1 Fundraising Plummets for Sanford
While the Republican establishment has deserted former Gov. Mark Sanford in his bid for South Carolina’s first district, a dedicated few are still giving thousands to his campaign at the 11th hour.
Continue readingDemocratic establishment betting heavily on Colbert Busch upset in S.C.
The shifting political tides in a coastal South Carolina congressional district are vividly apparent from the first look at last-minute big donations to Mark Sanford and Elizabeth Colbert Busch, rival candidates for the House seat left vacant when Republican Tim Scott was promoted to the U.S. Senate earlier this year.
Under federal law, any donations of $1,000 or more made during the final days before the May 7 election must be reported to the Federal Election Commission. Over the weekend, both campaigns filed their first reports, and they showed the late money breaking strongly in favor of Democrat ...
Continue readingSuper PACs next for Sanford and Colbert Busch?
With the race for a special House election in South Carolina now set, and polls showing it could be close, the outcome may partly hinge on who has the most money.
Continue readingElizabeth Colbert Busch Cleans Her (Twitter) House Before Special Election
Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the Democratic nominee for South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, deleted more than 500 tweets from her campaign Twitter account this morning.
Continue readingIn South Carolina special election full of characters, donors are just as colorful
As voters go to the polls in today's primary contests for a South Carolina special congressional election that has garnered attention for its share of colorful candidates, the donors appear just as just as worthy of a second look.
That's not just because the donors are, in most cases -- the candidates themselves. They also include a diverse range of out-of-staters from infamous dark money man David Koch to comedian Stephen Colbert's wife, as Sunlight has reported.
In the final days before polls opened, donations continued to pour in. We're keeping tabs using our Follow the Unlimited Money alert service that sends us emails every time one of the committee's we're watching files with the Federal Election Commission.
Most of the late cash has gone to former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who is trying to make the political comeback of a lifetime just two years after departing office in disgrace. Revelations of Sanford's extra-marital affair with his Argentine lover (now fiance) ended his marriage but not, it now appears, his once-promising political career. By late last month, Sanford was already the dollar frontrunner in the contest to replace Tim Scott, a Republican appointed to the Senate this year. That financial momentum has only continued to build with more late contributors jumping on the frontrunner's bandwagon.
In the 20-day period before today's primary, Sanford raked in $80,050 in contributions of $1,000 or more, bringing him to a total of at least $414,447, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Combined, the six leading Republicans and the Democrat most likely to win her primary, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, have raised over $3 million so far in the race.
Continue readingBehind Sanford in South Carolina House race, a trail of self-funders
The race to replace Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican congressman, who won appointment earlier this year to the U.S. Senate, has attracted a (literally) rich field of candidates.
Continue reading