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Tag Archive: Investigations

Dark money groups spend $110 million in 168 races

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Outside groups that have not disclosed their donors have dumped more than $1 million into each of 14 Senate and 18 House races. As much as $110 million has been pumped into the elections so far by political groups that have yet to disclose their donors, reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission show, and this "dark money" from unknown contributors has impacted 168 congressional races across the country.

The Illinois Senate race between Democratic candidate Alexander Giannoulias and Republican Mark Kirk has attracted the most dark money so far in the mid-term elections, with $6.8 million coming from ...

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RightChange.com Inc. funded by pharmaceutical industry figure

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Fred Eshelman, CEO of North Carolina-based Pharmaceutical Product Development, has given $3.38 million to RightChange.com, an organization taking part in the onslaught of outside spending this election cycle, according to documents filed with the IRS. Almost all of the money going to RightChange comes from Eshelman; the organization is a vehicle for him to air his political views, which happen to align with the GOP's. 

The documents also show that, in addition to Eshelman's support, RightChange.com received $105,000 from a group sharing its name, RightChange II. The ultimate origins of that money was not ...

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Surprise! The National Education Association funds the National Education Association Advocacy Fund

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The National Education Association Advocacy Fund, a Super PAC which has spent $4.2 million to influence the 2010 election cycle so far, receives all of it's funding from the National Education Association, a labor union—or a 501c6—and also its parent organization. No individual donors are listed.

While one can probably safely assume the NEA's money comes from members dues, this is an example of the ability influential nonprofit groups have to completely hide who funds their political agendas. In cases like this, money is shifted from the parent group to its advocacy fund or action ...

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Did the dog eat American Action Network’s disclosure reports?

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Editor's note: As of today (10/27), American Action Network's buy in Colorado now shows up on Federal Election Commission disclosures, $725,000 dated October 12. The Denver Post reports today that channel 9 (ABC) pulled the ad posted below for false claims.

Soon after news surfaced that the American Action Network planned to drop $1.5 million into Colorado's seventh district, where Democratic incumbent Ed Perlmutter is facing off against Ryan Frazier in a race that has become competitive, TV advertisements started going up on the airwaves. The conservative group, however, has yet to report spending ...

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DCCC accuses McCain of flouting election laws he helped create

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Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is the only member of Congress that is using his campaign committee to make independent expenditures for other federal candidates which the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) claims is a violation of the McCain-Feingold Act because it exceeds the value of non-cash contributions.

The DCCC argues that either the ad was created in coordination with the candidates or, it was an independent expenditure. The complaint casts doubts that the ads were independent expenditures saying, “It is utterly implausible that the state's most senior Republican, who appeared at a Tea Party rally for these two candidates ...

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Super PAC discloses donors?

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Update: America's Families First Action Fund, an independent expenditure committee associated with a 501(c)4 organization that doesn't have to disclose its donors, discloses its donors. Their plan to avoid 1994 in 2010 is here. My sharp eyed colleague Aaron Bycoffe noticed this in the document the Times acquired: "The project team has established both a federal independent expenditure committee, America's Families First Action Fund (AFFAF) and a 501c4 advocacy organization, America's Families First. Gifts to the independent expentiture committee are disclosed but can be unlimited. Gifts to a 501c4 advocacy organization can be anonymous ...

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Dems narrow the outside spending margin

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Ten days before the mid-term elections, and left leaning outside groups still lag behind their conservative counterparts, and are being outspent by $43 million. But spending by the two Democratic party committees--the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee--have narrowed the gap, leaving them $23 million behind all Republican spending. Just five days ago, Democrats trailed overall by $37.6 million. 

In all, outside groups including party committees have spent more than $322 million, dwarfing independent spending in 2006 which totaled $68 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. A larger percentage of the spending is ...

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Republican leaning groups spend heavily on Nevada Senate race

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The Nevada Senate toss-up between Majority Leader Harry Reid and Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle is one of the races which has seen close to $10 milion spent by outside groups to influence voters. The stakes are high and the ads are scathing. So far, the spending is skewed in favor of Angle where Republican-leaning groups have spent over $7.8 million, according to data reported to the Federal Election Commission.

The groups that are weighing in on the Nevada battle are big spending conservative-leaning groups including American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS that are part of this "hydra of independent ...

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Outside groups are insiders on D.C.’s fundraising scene

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Last May Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., raised campaign cash at a reception at the offices of the National Association of Realtors and around the same time, the group's PAC sent his campaign a check for $4,000.

Four months later, in September, the PAC started spending big, but this time on independent expenditures. Three hundred thousand dollars for a campaign ad. Forty-six thousand dollars on Internet ads. By mid-October, the group had spent more than $576,000 in support of Reichert.

When groups make independent expenditures to support or oppose a candidacy, they are not supposed to coordinate in ...

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Dark money: Super PACs fueled by $97.5 million that can’t be traced to donors

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Of the $189 million spent so far by Super PACs, non-profits and labor unions to influence the 2010 mid-term elections, $97.5 million has come from groups that do not disclose any donors, an analysis of Federal Election Commission contribution records shows. That is, about 52 percent of the money spent so far on everything from political ads to phone banks to fliers promoting or opposing federal candidates has come from groups that don't disclose the sources of their funds.*   

Of the 218 non-party committees that have spent money on independent expenditures or electioneering communications, only 100 have disclosed ...

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CFC (Combined Federal Campaign) Today 59063

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