The tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary has brought gun policy back to the forefront of our national conversation. As a nonpartisan, nonprofit Sunlight takes no stance on the issue, but we have put together a collection of resources looking at the legislation, policy and influence around gun rights and gun control, plus the groups and lawmakers involved. The Gun Lobby Sunlight Foundation Senior Fellow Lee Drutman reviews the political influence of the National Rifle Association and the leading gun control group, the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence. Read his full analysis in this blog post. Lee notes that when it comes to the debate on gun policy, Congress is pretty much only hearing from one side. The NRA spends 66 times what the Brady Campaign spends on lobbying, and 4,143 times what the Brady Campaign spends on campaign contributions. Since 2011, the NRA spent at least $24.28 million: $16.83 million through its political action committee, plus $7.45 million through its affiliated Institute for Legislative Action. According to Influence Explorer records, the Brady Campaign spent $5,800 this election cycle and reported $60,000 in lobbying costs.
Continue readingInfluence Explorer API, Now with Entity Type Filtering
Last year, we wrote about how to get access to our political influence data via the Influence Explorer API. That post is a great introduction, but here's an update on a small, but significant, improvement we've made to make accessing our data easier.
Continue readingThe 12 Days of APIs
‘Tis the season for application programming interfaces. Sunlight is in a festive mood. Not only are we hosting a pretty... View Article
Continue readingInfluence Explored: Education Sector Contributes Millions to Presidential Race
With the Higher Education Opportunity Act up for renewal in 2013, either President Obama or Mitt Romney will need to address higher education, particularly funding and student loans. And although neither campaign has placed much focus on higher education, both candidates touched on the issue during the Presidential debates.
Continue readingInbox Influence: Another Tool for the Elections
The folks who enjoy actively researching the influence behind the election turn to Sunlight's tools like Follow the Unlimited Money, Ad Hawk or our Elections hub page. For everyone else, there's Inbox Influence.
Continue readingInfluence Explored: Big Ag Lobbies Against Prop 37 in California
A recent New York Times Magazine article by Michael Pollan highlights the potential momentum for a new “food movement” in America if California voters decide to enforce the labeling of genetically modified organisms (GMO) foods by passing Proposition 37, the Genetically Engineered Foods Right to Know Act next month. Proposition 37 proposes to label all GMO foods, including processed foods that contain GMO ingredients, and to prevent GMO foods from being labeled or advertised as “natural.” Agriculture industry giants opposed to Prop 37 are pouring money into California to defeat the ballot measure. According to the California watchdog group, Maplight, agribusiness giants have already sunk $35.6 million into defeating the prop with agrochemical titans Monsanto and DuPont emerging as the top two proponents with contributions totalling $7.1 million and $4.9 million, respectively. The bulk of that money has gone to the committee, No on 37: Coalition Against the Deceptive Food Labeling Scheme, Sponsored by Farmers and Food Producers. Other agrochemical and agroscience institutions like BASF Plant Science, Syngenta Co., Bayer Cropscience and Dow Agrosciences LLC have each contributed $2 million to the cause. Meanwhile, advocacy and industry groups in support of Prop 37 have only managed to raise $7.7 million in support.
Continue readingPolitical big bucks in paradise: Hawaii Senate race draws outside donors
Hawaii's first open Senate seat in more than three decades has attracted two high-profile women candidates and lots of outside money.
The race, which guarantees that Hawaii will elect its first woman senator in the state's 53-year history, represents a rematch between Republican Linda Lingle, below left, and the Democratic congresswoman Mazie Hirono, at right. Lingle beat Hirono in a 2002 race for governor. Both women have attracted considerable support from inside and outside their state, as well as from a host of interest groups, which have pumped more than $1 million into the race.
Early on, Lingle ...
Continue readingNobel economics laureates both gave to Democrats
The two American economists who on Monday won a Nobel Prize for their work on "matching methods," theories on how to link supply with demand, are both modest political donors with a decidedly partisan streak.
Both Lloyd Shapley and Alvin Roth have exclusively favored Democrats in their campaign contributions, Sunlight's Influence Explorer reveals.
Shapley, with the University of California at Los Angeles, was more active as a donor earlier in his career. The professor emeritus hasn't made a contribution since Democrat Gray Davis was governor of California in 2001, and his earlier donations were all to Democratic causes ...
Continue readingInfluence Explored: T-Mobile and Metro PCS merge successfully
An article in the New York Times last week reported that T-Mobile USA’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, bought Metro PCS,... View Article
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 ...
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