Political outsider Vance McAllister has been forced to rely on his personal wealth to keep his campaign competitive in tomorrow's Louisiana special election, while state senator -- and ally of Gov. Bobby Jindal -- has received a steady stream of cash from Republican congressman and business PACs over the past few weeks
Continue readingDemocratic super PACs come into their own
Democratic super PACs, which earlier this year lagged far behind their Republican counterparts, passed a milestone in August: they took more in contributions into their coffers than GOP super PACs: $28 million versus $22 million. Filings covering September are due this Saturday.
It may be more of a photo-finish than it first appears: a portion of the Democratic groups' take involve PAC-to-PAC transfers, which are difficult to extricate from the totals due to way reports are filed with the Federal Election Commission. But quarterly filings that landed Monday leave little doubt that the Democratic super PACs, including Priorities USA and ...
Continue readingA matter of trust? Mystery groups write big checks to super PACs
They may not be the biggest givers of this campaign cycle but they could be the shadiest: So far in this campaign cycle,12 trusts have given super PACs a total of $3.2 million.
Though that amounts to a sliver of the $314 million flowing to super PACs, it represents an extreme in one sense: Trusts are a highly opaque way to facilitate political spending. Trusts act as separate entities that manage assets on behalf of people, corporations, charities, and other entities. They can serve as tax shelters and generally, are more private than traditional charities and corporations because ...
Continue readingGingrich super PAC backers pulled the plug before he did?
The latest news reports say that Newt Gingrich plans to drop his roller coaster of a presidential bid next week but Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker suggests that the former House speaker's biggest money backers may already have pulled the plug.
Winning Our Future, the pro-Gingrich group that has been almost entirely funded by the family of gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, made it's last independent expenditure almost a month ago in the Wisconsin primary, the tracker shows. That means the committee didn't play in Delaware, the state where Gingrich vowed to make his last stand ...
Continue readingFEC: Perry can use some presidential funds to create super PAC
The Federal Election Commission green-lighted Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s request to turn the funds he collected for his presidential campaign to other political uses -- just not all the funds.
After Perry dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination in January, his presidential campaign asked the FEC whether it could use its leftover funds to create a traditional political action committee or a super PAC -- either of which would enable the Texas governor to support other politicians, a traditional way of building goodwill for candidates with national aspirations.
All the commissioners present at the open meeting agreed that ...
Continue readingOhio, Tennessee and Georgia see super PAC influx
Of the nearly $10.7 million dollars in super PAC spending dumped on the super Tuesday states over the last two weeks, three — Ohio, Tennessee and Georgia — account for nearly all of the spending and almost half of the available delegates.
According to Sunlight's super PAC tracker, the race for Ohio and its 66 delegates leads the spending spree with nearly $4.5 million, nearly half of all the super PAC money spent in the past two weeks on super Tuesday states. The biggest spender has been Restore Our Future, which supports former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. That super ...
Continue readingSuper PAC profile: Red White and Blue for Santorum
Before the Iowa contest that catapulted Rick Santorum to front-runner status, the patriotically-named Red White and Blue PAC spent $537,200 and produced two television ads touting the former Pennsylvania senator's conservatism and electability. Borrowing a word from the organizers of a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, the ad above urged Iowans to "Restore America's greatness."
The PAC is a relatively new one, registering with the Federal Electoral Commission in October 2011. Like most super PACs, Red, White and Blue has yet to disclose its financial backers, but MSNBC identified one of its donors as Foster Friess, president ...
Continue readingFEC proposes rule to allow federal officeholders, candidates to appear at Super PAC fundraisers
In response to a request by a pair of Democratic Super PACs, the Federal Election Commission has proposed a new rule that would allow members of Congress, federal candidates and national political party officials to appear and speak at fundraisers for independent expenditure-only committees, or Super PACs, but would bar them from asking corporations, labor unions or individuals for the unlimited contributions that fueled the spending of these outside groups in the 2010 election cycle.
The FEC issued the proposed rule, which will be considered at a commission meeting on June 30, after James Bopp Jr., the conservative lawyer who ...
Continue readingDemocratic Super PAC raises individual, union, corporate and Super PAC contributions
The House Majority PAC, one of the two Democratic Super PACs currently seeking permission from the Federal Election Commission to have federal candidates and party officials solicit funds for them, has disclosed its first batch of donors in the 2012 election cycle. Among the big givers are stalwart Democratic donors, including unions like the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees ($200,000) and the Communications Workers of America ($50,000), individuals like Fred Eychaner ($100,000) and George Soros ($75,000), trial law firm Kazan McClain Lyons Greenwood & Harley ($10,000), tech company Integrated Archive Systems ($25,000 ...
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