As stated in the note from the Sunlight Foundation′s Board Chair, as of September 2020 the Sunlight Foundation is no longer active. This site is maintained as a static archive only.

Sunlight Foundation

Follow Us

Tag Archive: Investigations

NAM authorized $1 million in undisclosed spending

by

The National Association of Manufacturers authorized close to $1 million on ads in Ohio over a two-week period, according to files uncovered with Sunlight's Political Ad Sleuth. 

Update 10/18/2012, 10:15 a.m.: NAM seems to have focused its firepower on the Cincinnati market. An analysis of the ad buys by Sunlight turned up 161 spots on Cincinnati stations, compared to 96 in Cleveland and 40 in Columbus. This only includes stations that are required to file their ad buys with the Federal Communications Commission's online database. Only 11 of Ohio's 40 television stations are ...

Continue reading

Fall cleaning: DC’s Eleanor Holmes Norton deletes tweets

by

Holmes Norton tweet

It looks like the office of Eleanor Holmes Norton just discovered that she has been tweeting to the wrong account, typically when publishing personal and partisan reactions in real time.

Politwoops, a Sunlight Foundation tool that aggregates the deleted tweets of politicians, was flooded with deletions from the Washington, D.C. delegate's congressional account this morning. She deleted 17 tweets so far today, some of which were days, even months, old.

While some of the tweets were mere typos, other tweets were not as insignificant. For example, Norton deleted a post that said “Paul Ryan is the affable face ...

Continue reading

Democratic super PACs come into their own

by

Chart of donations to super PACs by party

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 reading

Who let the dog out? Frosh Republican Allen West’s tweet sics would-be pooch adoptees on the Marines

by

A tweet from Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., calling for volunteers to adopt IED-sniffing dogs has contributed to a situation that Marines might describe as a 'snafu.' 

On West's Facebook page, a post stated that the Marine Corps has 400 decommissioned dogs in need of 'forever homes.' West (or a staffer) promoted the page on Twitter and deleted it two hours later. The deletion was captured by Sunlight Foundation's Politwoops, a site that records and posts deleted tweets from politicians. The Facebook post has since been removed. 

Information about the dogs was based on a military listserv email sent ...

Continue reading

Stealthy effort fuels get out the vote effort–in Israel

by

Image of ballot box with backdrop of israeli flagAn assertive bipartisan get-out-the-vote effort known as “IVoteIsrael” and aimed at Americans living in that country appears to have ties to conservative billionaire Ronald S. Lauder, a supporter of Republican causes and of the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A project of Americans for Jerusalem, a charity registered under 501(c)4 of the U.S. tax code, IVoteIsrael is not required to release information about its donors. However, corporate filings in Delaware show that the group lists the same Manhattan address as that used by the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation. Other intriguing connections:

Continue reading

Moderate millionaire floods far-flung House race

by

The super PAC of one of California’s richest political donors, who supports centrist Republicans, has dropped more money on an obscure House race than both candidates combined.

The committee, Spirit of Democracy America is largely funded by Charles T. Munger, Jr., the heir to Berkshire Hathaway’s billionaire vice chairman and the third third biggest donor in California politics in the past decade, according to a study by California Watch. The group has spent more than $545,000 on the race so far. Combined, candidates Paul Cook and Greg Imus reported spending $363,000 as of the most recent ...

Continue reading

Rapper donor, mystery million and other fun finds in pop-up PAC filings

by

(Updated 8:42 a.m. Oct. 16)

Grammy-winning rapper Prakazrel Michel, known as Pras, can now add 'political activism' to his long list of talents. Michel is the only reported donor to super PAC Black Men Vote. He ponied up $250,000.

It's just one of the interesting nuggets turned up by the Sunlight Reporting Group's examinations of filings by super PACs that made their first-ever unveilings of donors Monday, as reports from committees that file on a quarterly schedule were due at the Federal Election Commission. Sunlight has identified nearly two dozen committees that surfaced as independent ...

Continue reading

Shadowy super PAC spends $1 million in Connecticut House race

by

The Government Integrity Fund Action Network, a super PAC that to date has disclosed just $10,500 in contributions, today reported dropping a money bomb in a Connecticut House race: $1.1 million in to produce and air ads in opposition to Elizabeth Esty, the Democratic candidate in her state's 5th Congressional District.

The money more than levels the financial field in the competitive race for the open seat: Esty has raised $2.1 million for her race, with about $857,000 left to spend down the stretch, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Her Republican opponent, Andrew ...

Continue reading

Political big bucks in paradise: Hawaii Senate race draws outside donors

by

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 reading

Nobel economics laureates both gave to Democrats

by

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 reading

CFC (Combined Federal Campaign) Today 59063

Charity Navigator