In a heated Idaho primary, an embattled Republican incumbent is getting support from an unexpected quarter: Big labor.
Continue readingReporter’s notebook: How we came up with that campaign finance maze
If it makes you all feel any better, campaign finance is hard for us too.
At the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group, we make a speciality of money in politics reporting, so when the dark money groups that we often cover burst into the headlines -- on reports that the Internal Revenue Service was denying the coveted tax exempt status to Tea Party groups -- we figured it was time to put what we know about the campaign finance ecosystem out there.
The process turned out to be revealing, if painful.
You can see the final product here. But we learned a lot ...
Continue readingThe News Without Transparency: Political Spending by Unions Far Exceeds Direct Donations
Redacted – WSJ Union Spending The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Unions spend more money on politics than is... View Article
Continue readingWhat You Should Know About the DISCLOSE Act Part 3: Does the DISCLOSE Act Favor Unions?
Opponents of the DISCLOSE Act are so desperate to keep the light from shining on massive amounts of secret, dark... View Article
Continue readingRebuttal to McConnell’s War of Misinformation on DISCLOSE Act
A war is being waged against the DISCLOSE Act. Its Commander in Chief is Senator Mitch McConnell, his secret weapon is misinformation and his goal is to protect unlimited dark money contributions to the political process. It’s time for a counter-attack. Last week, McConnell outlined his plan of attack in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute. Wrapping himself in a narrow and self-serving interpretation of the First Amendment, McConnell casts liberals as the enemies of free speech and he and his foot soldiers (the Chamber of Commerce) as the true protectors of our constitutional rights. But take apart his arguments and it is easy to spot his true intentions—not to protect the free speech rights of all citizens, but to protect the ability of wealthy donors to anonymously influence our democratic process. The Sunlight Foundation refutes the worst inaccuracies being lobbed against reasonable efforts to disclose the dark money that is infiltrating our elections. This Orwellian tactic is timed to defang public support for the DISCLOSE Act, which the Senate is likely to consider in July.
Continue readingSuper PACs, other groups, fuel four-fold spending increase in 2012 presidential race
Outside groups, including super PACs and nonprofit organizations, have spent almost four times more on the 2012 presidential campaign than comparable organizations spent at the same point in the 2008 cycle, an analysis of Federal Election Commission filings show.
Four years ago in late March, when Republicans had already wrapped up a wide-open battle for their party's nomination and Democrats were still engaged in a battle that would go on for months, spending on the presidential campaign by independent groups stood just shy of $22 million. Today, outside spending on the race for the White House has already topped ...
Continue readingInfluence Explored: Union Politics in Connecticut
The Hartford Courant published a story today profiling the spokesmen for the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition in Connecticut. SEBAC... View Article
Continue readingInfluence Explored
An article published yesterday in Roll Call highlights a new website published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—one of Washington’s... View Article
Continue readingA New Regime Required For Disclosure
As most of you know I have a long history in the campaign finance field as a founder of two... View Article
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