TAMPA -- When Tampa Bay Online reported a few weeks back that a lobbyist rented out a sprawling, upscale restaurant for the whole week of the Republican National Convention, they provided a host of details about the restaurant, the big tabs that the GOP high rollers would run up there from early breakfasts to late hour sessions, even the fact that the lobbyist had run the same kind of insiders dining club at the last three Republican conventions. But they were unable to find out the lobbyist's name, or who he worked for.
That mystery has yet to be solved ...
Continue readingBack to school: Privatizers turn to big screen to push charters, trigger laws
As school starts up, it seems a good time to take a look at the a well-financed political tussle for control of the blackboards and soon-to-be bustling halls. It's a battle that pits upstart entrepreneurs and big-name philanthropists against the well-oiled political machines of the nation's leading teacher's unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.
The battle has been fought in Congress and state legislatures. More recently, it has gone Hollywood.
Conservative bankrollers Rupert Murdoch and Philip Anschutz have teamed up to produce "Won't Back Down," a film that presents the inspiring ...
Continue readingDo House freshmen speak differently?
Prices. Mother. Bless. Soldiers. Borrowing. Corporate. Abortion. Seniors.
What do these words have in common? They are all significantly more prominent in the speech of congressional freshmen than in overall speech patterns of House members, based on a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of the Congressional Record.
Transportation. Cosponsor. International. Order. Public. Intelligence. Human. Respect.
What do these words have in common? You guessed it. They are all significantly less prominent in the speech of congressional freshmen.
In general, there’s not a whole lot of difference in how the freshmen speak compared to their more senior colleagues. But certain words ...
Continue readingOops! What House freshmen deleted from Twitter
Like other Twitter users, members of Congress delete and revise their tweets. Unlike most Twitter users, however, lawmakers maintain official accounts -- a use of taxpayer resources -- which is why the Sunlight Foundation considers them fair game to monitor for Politwoops, our database of deleted tweets by elected officials, launched earlier this year.
Freshman may be new to Congress, but they seem seasoned when it comes to social media skills. Based on our sample of congressional Twitter behavior so far, new members, who make up 20 percent of the 112th Congress, are sending out 19 percent of the tweets. On the ...
Continue readingThe phone booth caucus: House Democratic freshmen
Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., the first black woman elected to Congress from Alabama, is the president of this year's small Democratic freshmen class. Those nine freshmen, dubbed the "noble nine" by supporters, elected the Harvard-educated lawyer as the leader of a small, but diverse class that includes four women, four African Americans and one openly gay member and one who identifies as Buddhist.
After winning her first House term with 73% of the vote in Alabama's 7th Congressional District, Sewell established herself as a reliably liberal vote. She supported the president's health care bill as well as ...
Continue readingHeadlining the RNC Convention: Fundraisers, Lobbyists and Shadowy Nonprofits
Once upon a time, the national Democratic and Republican political conventions were all about writing political platforms and nominating a presidential ticket. Once upon a time, convention planners relied heavily on public financing.
Now, with the main business already settled before the first gavel goes down, conventions are all about partying and access, and the bulk of the show is underwritten by corporate and other private money.
Next week's Republican gathering in Tampa features more than 150 events of various kinds – policy talks to late night bashes to campaign fundraisers -- according to event schedules and other invitations we have ...
Profile: Rick Berg
| Party: Republican |
| State and District: North Dakota, 1 |
| Born: Aug. 16, 1959 Hettinger, N.D. |
| Campaign cash raised: $6,364,759 |
| Money from businesses that lobby: $1,384,525 |
| Money from leadership PACs: $374,726 |
| Money from in-state / out-of-state: $2,678,539 / $2,878,405 |
| At-risk in November? Yes |
| Outside group spending: $35,595.78 in opposition |
| Net worth in 2010: $12,146,147 to $54,979,033 |
| Net worth in 2011: $22,656,129 to $64,735,994 |
Berg's Capitol Words profile
How we compiled this information
Continue readingRich kids in the freshmen class
Nearly two-fifths of the lawmakers swept into the House two years ago on a tide of populist anger appear to millionaires or near-millionaires.
Continue readingRape by any other name
Updated 3:32 p.m.
The political firestorm that Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., ignited with his now-recanted claim that women rarely getting pregnant from “legitimate rape" has focused attention on an unusual fact about the crime: When speaking of it, politicians often use a qualifier.
A search of the Congressional Record using the Sunlight Foundation's Capitol Words tool shows no instances of other lawmakers using the phrase or advancing the odd biological theory that has led Republican leaders from Mitt Romney to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to urge Akin -- a member of the House Science Committee ...
Continue readingSuper PAC’s fundraising losing momentum, latest reports show
Closing in on the upcoming party conventions, super PACs appear to have lost some of their steam in attracting the big bucks. The big guns of political ad spending took in $30 million during July,reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission show. That's $25 million less than the previous month,. In all, super PACs have raised $343 million since Jan.1, 2011, the beginning of this campaign cycle.
The top donors include names now familiar as repeat super PAC underwriters, along with a few newbies. Among the eight donors who write seven-figure checks last month are three corporate donors and one left leaning nonprofit.
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