Today a House subcommittee voted to defund a Federal Communications Commission initiative announced in April that would provide online access to spending for political ads on some local television stations. In the current election cycle, outside spending has already reached record levels, more than doubling what was spent as of the same date in 2008.
The provision, inserted into the financial services appropriations bill, would add to the uncertainty around the FCC's political ad disclosure rule, which is in limbo. The National Association of Broadcasters, a group that represents the major broadcast media companies, sued the FCC to try ...
Continue readingZynga places bet on lobbyists, hires two D.C. firms
Following a familiar path for high tech companies, social networking game platform Zynga has hired its first Washington lobbyists, filings with the Senate Office of Public Records show. The company seeks to influence legislation "pertaining to regulation and taxation of Internet gambling" as well as online privacy policy.
Zynga, whose share price has fallen recently, develops games for online sites like Facebook and for mobile devices. The company's prospectus, filed with Securities and Exchange Commission on March 23, notes that some of their games, including Zynga Poker, "may become subject to gambling-related rules and regulations and expose us to ...
Continue readingRealtors take out big mortgage on California House race
Tuesday's contest in California's 31st Congressional District morphed into the biggest outside money spending spree of any House primary so far, thanks a massive influx of funds by the National Association of Realtors on behalf of Rep. Gary Miller.
Late unofficial returns from the California Secretary of State's office show that Miller, a seven-term Republican running in a new district, topped a six-person field with nearly 27 percent of the votes cast, winning a slot on November's ballot. Because of a new California primary system that sends the top two finishers in a free-for-all primary to ...
Continue readingSuper PACs loom large in today’s primaries in California, New Mexico, Montana
As voters go to the polls in six states today, super PACs and other outside groups are playing an outsize role in some of the high profile contests, as incumbent members of Congress square off against other incumbents due to redistricting, special interests duke it out in one district, and Democrats try to avoid being beaten out by an indepedent for the fall ballot. Here's a rundown of some of the spending:
Sherman v. Berman
Thanks to redistricting, one of the most high profile contests pits two House Democrats against each other in California's San Fernando Valley, where ...
Continue readingIn running for Congress, plumber showcases his company
Is congressional candidate Markwayne Mullin touting himself to voters or to customers? That was the question before the Federal Election Commission earlier this week, where the Oklahoma businessman is seeking permission to have TV ads for his plumbing company not treated like campaign communications. But some of Mullin's neighbors say his plumbing business figures so heavily in his campaign ads that it's impossible to distinguish the two.
In comments to the FEC, some have even questioned Mullin's motives for becoming a candidate in the June 26 Republican primary for the seat occupied by retiring Rep. Dan Boren ...
Continue readingBloomberg sugary drink ban has powerful opponents
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's announcement that the city will pursue a ban on large sugary drinks sold at restaurants, movie theatres, and other locations is just the latest attempt in his campaign against obesity--one that has so far met with little success in the face of a powerful food lobby, one sometimes joined by odd bedfellows.
In 2010, when his administration asked the federal government for permission to prohibit New York City food stamp recipients from purchasing sugary drinks with their benefits, the Food Industry Alliance of New York State, a trade group representing New York State grocers and other ...
Continue readingMore JPMorgan meetings with Treasury on Volcker rule
JPMorgan executives, including CEO Jamie Dimon, attended several meetings at the Treasury Department last month to discuss the controversial Volcker rule and other matters related to the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, according to new meeting logs released by the agency Thursday.
In the weeks leading up to the bank's disclosure that it had lost at least $2 billion in the sort of hedging strategy that could come under question as agencies implement the Volcker ban on proprietary trading, JPMorgan executives attended three meetings at the agency, the logs show.
Two of those meetings, both on April 26 with Deputy ...
Continue readingBig donors to Democratic super PACs visited White House
Though President Barack Obama called super PACs a "threat to democracy" before embracing them last February in his own reelection effort, he and members of his inner circle had no trouble meeting with the kind of people who contribute to them. At least 16 individuals who gave money to some of the major outside spending groups had meetings with White House officials--including Obama himself.
The group of 16 includes major Democratic donors, bundlers for Obama's campaign and a few individuals who have official roles in the administration. Some have frequent access to both the president and his inner circle ...
Continue readingDid Sunlight silence Jeff Miller’s tweets?
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., took his Twitter account private on Wednesday shortly after the Sunlight Foundation reported that he had deleted a tweet including a link to a poll about President Obama's birthplace.
Miller's last public tweet -- "Florida set to toughen ID theft" -- came at 1:33 p.m., less than an hour after Sunlight revealed his online erasure in a blog post. Slate writer Jeremy Stahl appears to have been the first to notice the sudden disappearance of the five-term Pensacola congressman's Twitter acount, @CongJeffMiller.
Sunlight phoned and emailed the congressman's communications director, Dan McFaul ...
Continue readingSuper PACs play big in Texas
A flood of tea party money reshaped the Texas political landscape Tuesday, ousting a seven-term Democratic congressman who had campaign help from former President Bill Clinton, and forcing a one-time favorite for the Republican Senate nomination into a runoff.
The Associated Press is calling the ouster of veteran Rep. Silvestre Reyes, seen at right, a "stunner" that almost guarantees the heavily Democratic south Texas district will be represented in Congress next year by Beto O'Rourke, an ex-El Paso city councilman who favors the legalization of marijuana. Reyes out-raised O'Rourke by nearly $700,000 but the tea-party-affiliated Campaign for ...
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