In the 2012 election 28 percent of all disclosed political contributions came from just 31,385 people. In a nation of 313.85 million, these donors represent the 1% of the 1%, an elite class that increasingly serves as the gatekeepers of public office in the United States.
In his two runs for the White House, President Obama pledged that he would not accept money from registered lobbyists. But his campaign received donations from people who, while not registered, walk and talk an awful lot like lobbyists, including advisors who manage lobbyists. Sunlight's investigation into the political 1 percent of the 1 percent -- the donor class whose members individually contributed at least $12,950 to political campaigns in the 2012 election -- showed that many, many big donors in the influence business have contributed to the president. At least four dozen of them -- lobbyists and employees of lobbying or public relations firms -- contributed to the president in 2011 or 2012. One officially registered lobbyist even donated and unlike the other registered lobbyists who did so, his contribution was not refunded. Continue reading
Lobbyists in the 1% of the 1%
In the 2012 election 28 percent of all disclosed political contributions came from just 31,385 people. In a nation of 313.85 million, these donors represent the 1% of the 1%, an elite class that increasingly serves as the gatekeepers of public office in the United States.
One way that Washington lobbyists build and maintain relationships is through campaign contributions. So it’s no surprise to see 894 individuals employed at lobbying and public relations firms show up among the 31,385 biggest individual donors – a group we named “the 1% of the 1%” after the share of the U.S. population that they represent. Although not all of these individuals are registered as lobbyists, they all work in the lobbying industry. For shorthand, we simply call them “lobbyists” because their profession is influencing government (for more details on how we classified them, see our methodology section at the end of this post). Though these lobbyists make up only 2.8 percent of the 1% of the 1% and only 2.0 percent of the donations (they gave a combined $34.1 million), their importance in the Washington ecosystem makes them worth a closer look. In some ways lobbyists are similar to other 1% of the 1% donors. The median donation among lobbyists was $27,540, as compared to $26,584 for all of the 1% of the 1%. Lobbyists in the 1% of the 1% are 80.3 percent male, a little more than the 71.8 percent male for the entire 1% of the 1%. These 1% of the 1% lobbyists gave a combined $34.1 million in the 2012 election cycle. Continue reading
In Broad Daylight: Down the Tubes
Ted Stevens is toast; Hawaii is the Big Kahuna; and K Street says hello and goodbye. Today’s news round-up below:... View Article
Continue readingK Street Sees Mixed Opportunities
The 2008 presidential campaign featured blistering attacks, particularly from the eventual victor Sen. Barack Obama, on Washington’s chief money-making industry.... View Article
Continue readingD.C., VA Top Campaign Contributors
Update: Please see Ellen’s comment in the comment thread for a clarification of these numbers. MAPLight.org’s excellent study on in-state... View Article
Continue readingBailout Bill Lobbying Frenzy
The consideration of the $700 billion bailout bill — now lovingly known as the Authorization for Use of Financial Force... View Article
Continue readingGovernment Takeover to Roil K Street
Yesterday, I was thinking about Sen. Jim DeMint’s bill to ban Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from lobbying Congress and... View Article
Continue readingYou Spin Me Right Round
Congress doesn’t spin records, they spin in revolving doors. And those doors are spinning faster than ever, according to a... View Article
Continue readingK Street Stalls
While many major K Street firms are still increasing their profits, the total improvement of profits over last year was... View Article
Continue reading
59063
