Outside money ain't got that swing. At least, not in Tuesday's state primaries.
Super PACs attempting to influence elections have been spending tens of thousands campaigning for and against politicians this cycle and often have had their way. But this week, they struck out.
Despite considerable spending on behalf of their opponents, two powerful incumbents, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah survived the primaries in their respective states, while another incumbent, Rep. John Sullivan, R-Okla, lost despite the big bucks spent to ensure his reelcction.
- In New York's 13th Congressional District, Rangel managed ...
Sunlight Live: Video stream with real time data as House panel grills EPA chief
(Updated: 9:56 a.m. June 28: The House science panel has postponed this hearing, and so our Sunlight Live blog is postponed too. We'll let you know as soon as we can reschedule.)
Fracking is likely to be at the center of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson's first appearance before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee on Thursday, which we'll be covering that day beginning at 10 a.m. on Sunlight Live, a tool that allows us to provide a video stream of the proceedings along with real time data and commentary.
OMB clears way for FCC to put political ads online
Pushing back against the nation's broadcasters, the White House Office of Management and Budget has approved a rule requiring television stations in the nation's top markets to put information about political ad buys online.
The Federal Communications Commission had already passed the rule but the OMB had to certify that it does not violate government rules that call for minimizing paperwork. That's exactly what the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) unsuccessfully argued that it does.
That could mean that commercial time purchased on local broadcast stations by candidates and as well as by outside groups trying to ...
Continue readingUtah sees $1.6 million in outside spending, including a corporation
Spending by outside interest groups helped force Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, into a primary, but the veteran lawmaker, comfortably ahead in Tuesday's race according to an election eve poll, is benefiting from some home state corporate love.
O. C. Tanner Co., a Utah company that specializes in employee appreciation and awards programs and that has donated Olympic rings for U.S. athletes since the Salt Lake games in 2000, has shown its appreciation for Hatch with a $5,700 in print advertisements supporting him. It's the sort of direct corporate support for a candidate that only became possible ...
Continue readingCharlie Rangel’s challenge: The end of an era?
It has the potential to be a primary that makes history.
The seat at stake, in New York's 13th Congressional District, has been a place where black politicians have flourished -- the place where Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. became the Empire State's first African American elected to Congress.
Continue readingMontana decision puts campaign finance reform in Congress’s court
With the Supreme Court's decision Monday not to revisit Citizens United, the high court appears to be a dead end for those seeking to address the problem of dark money in elections. Now, key congressmen and reformers say, Congress must act. But the prospects for lawmakers doing so appear slim.
In response to the decision, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., urged Congress to swiftly enact the DISCLOSE Act, a bill he's sponsoring to require organizations making election ads to disclose their underwriters. Whitehouse, seen at left with now Justice Elena Kagan when she was making courtesy calls before ...
Continue reading$12 million in the dark
So far this year, groups that do not disclose their donors, and legally are not required to do so, have reported almost $12.4 million in political spending to the Federal Election Commission, much of it made possible by the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.
Some $8.4 million of this dark money has paid for independent expenditures--advertisements, phone banks, get out the vote operations and other spending aimed at electing or defeating a specific candidate. Non-profits organized under section 501(c) of the tax code spent the bulk of the money; under federal law, they are not required ...
Continue readingSupremes: Not backing down from Citizens United
The Supreme Court today summarily dismissed Montana's challenge to the Citizens United case, in a 5-4 vote that made it plain the justices who opened the door for massive corporate contributions are in no mood to revisit the issue, despite the fact that the transparency they predicted in their opinion has not materialized.
You can read the court's ruling and Justice Stephen Breyer's dissent here. Plain English translation: The court's majority threw out a Montana Supreme Court decision that upheld the state's long-standing prohibition against corporations donating to political campaigns.
We'll have more news ...
Continue readingRomney’s elite retreat: Who could be on the list?
All eyes this weekend are set on Mitt Romney’s weekend retreat in Utah, where his campaign has reportedly invited a group of donors with fat wallets to meet the candidate, some of his potential runningmates, and top GOP strategists. A number of media outlets have reported that the minimum price of admission is a $50,000 contribution to his campaign.
According to media sources, some 700 invitees are landing at Deer Valley Resort, which features 10 restaurants and an outdoor amphitheater. While it serves primarily as a ski resort in the winter months, summer activities include mountain biking, horseback ...
Continue readingImmigration shift: As Obama, Romney court Hispanics, are state lawmakers doing the same?
Immigration is in the headlines this week, with President Barack Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, aggressively courting the Hispanic vote in back-to-back addresses to a conference of Latino politicians and the Supreme Court expected to rule next week on a controversial Arizona law aimed at illegal immigrants.
Those developments reflect a volatile debate that permeates deep into the nation's political fabric.
Scout, Sunlight's new issue alert service that tracks legislation and issues across the Congressional Record, the Federal Register and all 50 state legislatures, shows that state lawmakers have introduced hundreds of bills relating to immigration ...
Continue reading
59063
