Our Denver-based colleague, Nancy Watzman, caught some of the big speakers at Wednesday's Conservative Political Action Conference in Denver.
Continue readingFCC database misses huge chunk of ads
In key battleground states, huge numbers of presidential ads are airing on TV stations that are not required to post to the Federal Communications Commission's online political ad database, new data released by the Wesleyan Media Project shows.
Continue readingParty crash fail: No Sunlight at Mitt’s fundraiser
We at Sunlight Foundation are fond of writing about fundraisers and gatherings, especially the quirky or high-priced local ones that we come across on our Political Party Time website. But, once in a while, we get a chance to check out the parties in person. Or at least, experience the novelty of attending and meeting the folks who donate and coordinate these expensive affairs while we hang around outside closed doors.
So Thursday evening's fundraiser for Mitt Romney held at the Rennaissance Marriott Hotel in downtown Washington, was an irresistable target. The event was tagged at $2,500 for ...
Continue readingSpending in Wisconsin spikes before debate
As Rep. Tammy Baldwin and former Gov. Tommy Thompson prepare for the first of three debates tonight in a race that will help determine control of the Senate, their campaigns and outside groups are bombarding Wisconsin with advertising to sway the hearts and minds of undecided voters.
An analysis of expenditures and political ad buys shows an increase in expenditures by campaigns and outside groups heading into the last month of the long, politically charged year. Since April, Wisconsin has garnered national attention from its Republican presidential primary, another primary to determine who would run against Gov. Scott Walker in ...
A half-billion in outside influence: What else could the money buy?
A little less than six weeks shy of Election Day, we've crossed another campaign spending Rubicon: Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker has now recorded more than $500 million in a spending on the 2012 campaign by outside interest groups.
For those of you who have a hard time wrapping your heads around all those zeros, Sunlight's Jake Harper has calculated that it's enough to cover 155 football fields with $100 bills.
An indicator of just how rapidly folks who can write big checks are doing so: Our tracker showed a $28 million jump in 48 ...
Continue readingDo business groups’ pre-election forecasts follow their campaign money?
Housing prices and consumer confidence are up but several business groups that have been in town this week have been delivering a distinctly gloomy view of the economy. While the groups have blue-chip reputations in the business world, what's less apparent is their track record of political giving -- one that raises some questions about the forecasts they are presenting six weeks before Election Day.
First out of the blocks: the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Federation of Independent Business. The two groups teamed up at a Tuesday press conference to release a survey conducted by Public Opinion ...
In Ohio ad wars, the Democrats are on top
In Ohio, which is playing host to both presidential campaigns today, Democrats appear to be pulling ahead in the money race -- and in the polls -- an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation has found.
With President Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, barnstorming the state Wednesday, Sunlight decided to take a look at how their campaigns, and other candidates in the critical swing state, are faring. It looks like the Democrats have the advantage so far, when ad spending by outside groups and the candidates’ campaigns are weighed together. Because the Federal Election Commission does not require groups or campaigns ...
Todd Akin on the November ballot: Will he have any serious money?
This post has been updated.
Todd Akin is resolute about staying in his race for Missouri's Senate seat, but the question is how much money he'll have for the contest.
Ignoring calls from leaders of his own party to abandon the contest -- one the GOP had been counting on winning in its quest to take over the Senate -- after airing his controversial theories about "legitimate rape" and female biology in an interview last month, the Republican congressman on Tuesday evening let the last deadline pass for getting off the ballot.
Even though the GOP establishment is shunning their ...
Continue readingHouse passage of Cravaack land swap bill boosts freshman’s profile, fundraising
The Minnesota Education Investment and Employment Act would order the federal government to take 86,000 acres of state land inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), part of the federally protected Superior National Forest, and give Minnesota a similar amount of federal-owned land just outside the wilderness--and its limits on develepment.
Continue readingResolution of Chicago teacher strike would be relief for Obama
If striking Chicago teachers agree to the new contract framework hammered out with school board officials, perhaps no one will be happier than President Barack Obama, who calls the windy city home.
The increasingly polarized issue of public education threatened to split the Democratic party from one if its biggest bases of support, potentially hurting Obama's campaign. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has been a key Obama fundraiser and was Obama's former White House chief of staff, took a hard line against the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), receiving unsolicited praise for his stance from Republican Vice Presidential Candidate ...
Continue reading
59063
