The biggest scandal involving former House Speaker Dennis Hastert has little to do with the one he faced in a U.S. courthouse in Chicago this week.
Continue readingStealthy Wealthy: A Texas donor plays state PACs
W.E. "Ed" Bosarge Jr. isn't a household name, but the $2 million he gave in federal contributions and the $1.2 million more he chipped in to state level political action committees--much of it in his home state of Texas--in the 2011-2012 election cycle have made him well known to politicians. So well known, in fact, that a pair of bills pending in the Texas House or Representatives would commend him and his wife Marie Taylor Bosarge on their accomplishments.
A financial wizard who got his start working flight control systems for Saturn rockets, Bosarge has interests beyond ...
Continue readingBaseball’s (political) heavy hitters
While MLB players will be taking the field for Sunday's opening day games in hopes of winning a World Series title in October, team owners may have their sights set on winning a different sort of Fall Classic.
Continue readingImmigration lobby begins to flex muscle
This week, while much of Washington's attention is focused on the debates over gun control and Chuck Hagel's nomination as defense secretary, the pieces are beginning to move into place for another legislative battle that could make the other two look like a lobbying Little League (sorry, NRA).
What has all the earmarks of a well-orchestrated roll-out of the administration's immigration reform package began Sunday with a front page New York Times story. This is being followed up by an immigration event every day this week organized by proponents of more liberalized immigration laws:
- Monday: Los Angeles ...
Halloween special: Scary super PACs and America’s zombie apocalypse
While browsing our super PAC database in the days leading up to Halloween, Sunlight reporters couldn't help but notice the number of committee names that were creepy--even scary. On the other hand, perhaps it's not so surprising given how many operate in shadowy fashion.
Continue readingWeek’s outside spending favors Republicans 2:1
Less than two weeks before the election, outside spending took another big leap last week, jumping to $180 million since last Friday favoring Republicans nearly two-to-one.
Continue readingSpending millions to end spending
Ironically, the super PAC named “Ending Spending Action Fund” may end up having the largest single donation to a super PAC. Records show Joe Ricketts, who built his fortune through Ameritrade, is trying to reduce spending by spending -- a lot.
Ricketts wrote a check for $5.48 million to the super PAC in September. That beats the $5 million checks written earlier in the cycle by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson and Harold Simmons And it made up about half of the $11.3 million that Ricketts donated to Ending Spending last month alone.
The owner of the Chicago Cubs, Ricketts ...
Continue readingStealthy Wealthy: Who gave big in September?
It sounds like a scenario straight from central casting. A liberal Hollywood mogul and conservative Texas billionaire are among the exclusive 25-member million-dollar check writing club whose members forked over additional cash for super PACs in September, according to a recent Sunlight Foundation analysis.
Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and Texas nuclear waste entrepreneur Harold Simmons are also among Sunlight's Stealthy Wealthy, our continuing series that looks at the giving habits of influential political donors. For the month of September, Katzenberg and Simmons were the only Stealthies who showed up as donating to super PACs -- but it's always possible ...
Continue readingPolitical donors’ million dollar check club: September edition
A relative handful of mega-donors capable of writing seven-figure checks, thanks to the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United that opened the door for unlimited campaign contributions, have fuelled this fall's dizzying rise in outside political spending, which jumped from $14 million the week ending Sept. 1 to $110 million the week ending Oct. 20, according to Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker.
In September, 25 individuals or organizations wrote checks of $1 million or more to super PACs, according to Sunlight's analysis of the last full month of campaign expenditure reports that we will see ...
Continue readingLast-minute Democratic political donations don’t close the money gap
A flood of last-minute largesse from Democratic donors helped Priorities USA Action, the super PAC backing President Barack Obama's reelection, outraise its Republican counterpart for the second month in a row in September. But Republican-leaning outside spenders still headed into the last full month of the campaign with a huge cash advantage, an analysis of records filed overnight at the Federal Election Commission by Sunlight's Follow the Unlimited Money tracker shows.
Restore Our Future, the super PAC founded by former Mitt Romney aides to support the Republican presidential candidate, headed into the last month of the campaign with ...
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