How are House and Senate candidates’ war-chests faring this election cycle? The animations below show who has been pulling further... View Article
Continue readingKing of fundraising: Obama leads Romney by $242 million
While the most recent Gallup poll shows registered voters equally split, at 47 percent a piece, in the money race President Barack Obama has an unassailable lead.
In the 2012 campaign cycle, Obama's campaign, the Democratic National Committee and two joint fundraising committees supporting them have collectively raised $743.5 million. The campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, his joint fundraising committee and the Republican National Committee have raised $500.6 million. Because the joint fundraising committee, Romney Victory Inc., files quarterly, its total had to be estimated from media accounts of the campaign's August fundraising totals ...
Continue readingObama’s fundraising machine leaves Romney in the dust
So can we finally stop hearing the erroneous claim that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is winning the fundraising battle against President Barack Obama, the all-time champion when it comes to vacuuming up campaign cash? In August, the GOP nominee had his best month of fundraising--and fell about $2 million short of Obama's haul.
As we've previously noted, Obama began raising money for his reelection bid in April 2011, pulling in tens of millions of dollars each month for his reelection committee and the Democratic National Committee. Romney only began his joint fundraising efforts with the Republican National ... Continue readingRomney falls further behind Obama in race for campaign cabbage
Mitt Romney and President Obama have released their July campaign fundraising totals, and the Republican challenger continues to fall further behind the incumbent in the race to raise the most money.
Obama's campaign and the Democratic National Committee claim they raised $75 million last month--$4 million more than their haul in June, while Romney's campaign and the Republican National Committee say they brought in just $101 million, a decline from the $106 million they raised the month before. Much has been made of the fact that Romney has outpaced Obama in monthly numbers since effectively wrapping up ...
Continue readingWatergate + 40: What have we unlearned?
This Sunday is the 40th anniversary of the break-in that led to President Richard Nixon's downfall. The commemorations this week will mostly focus on the investigative reporting that unravelled the story -- and that now is in danger. That's a concern that we at the Sunlight Foundation share and try to address in the tools we make available to help journalists and citizens be better civic watchdogs.
But it's also important to remember Watergate's other legacy: Two years after the burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices -- by a group of so-called plumbers who were paid by ...
Continue readingListen and Share This American Life’s “Take the Money and Run for Office” Episode
If you haven’t already listened to This American Life’s episode, “Take the Money and Run for Office,” I encourage you... View Article
Continue readingTools for Transparency: Fundraising with Square
I don’t usually write non-social media related Tools for Transparency posts, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to write... View Article
Continue readingVan Hollen’s alternate fundraising vehicle wakes up
After being dormant for all of 2011, Congressman Chris Van Hollen's joint fundraising committee woke up in the third quarter, with most of the over $180,000 in funds coming after he was tapped for Congress’s powerful deficit-cutting committee in early August.
As a result, Van Hollen, D-Md., one of the most prominent Democrats on Capitol Hill, raised much more in the quarter than was previously reported. His campaign raised a total of about $254,000 in the period, more than tripling his bounty from the previous quarter. And he collected about 50 percent more than he did ...
Continue readingSunlight Live to cover first “Supercommittee” hearing
After a quick summer recess, Congress returned this week with the newly formed “Supercommittee” scheduled to hold its first debt reduction meeting this Thursday at 10:30 a.m. EST. Unlike the debt negotiations held earlier this summer, the Supercommittee meetings will be conducted openly and we’ll be there to provide live fact checking, context and analysis so you can better understand the tanlged web of money and politics and how it relates to these meetings.
Although it is not yet known if the first hearing will be televised of livestreamed online, we will have reporters in the room ...
Continue readingSuper committee member Upton creates joint fundraising committee
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., one of the members of the Joint Select Committee for Deficit Reduction, filed paperwork Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission to create a joint fundraising committee. Contributions collected by the committee will be split between Upton's campaign and leadership PAC.
The creation of a joint committee, the Upton Victory Committee, allows fundraising that benefits both Upton's political action committee, TRUST PAC (Team Republicans for Utilizing Sensible Tactics), which distributes thousands of dollars to Republican candidates, and his campaign, Upton for All of Us. FEC rules require that money given to the joint committee be ...
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