Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan is spending a fair amount of time alone these days. When he declared the beginning of his run for President of the United States in July of 2011, some wondered whether the announcement was a fake. Debate moderators forgot to invite him onstage. When he declared the end of his [...]

As the news comes in that David Weprin will be running on the Democratic ticket in a special election to replace Anthony Weiner as Representative for New York’s 9th District, the most common question seems to be, “Who is David Weprin?” The following are a few answers to that question: 1. Not a Novice. Although [...]

This morning we have received a message from an incipient Christie Vilsack for Congress campaign, asking us for money and support. A visit to the Christie Vilsack for Iowa website reveals little to nothing in the way of detail, save for a pretty photo of a silo and puffy white clouds. The question is whether [...]

Bill Kaplan considers the possibilities for a Russ Feingold Senate run in 2012 now that Wisconsin’s Herb Kohl has announced his retirement: Two potential front runners, former Wisconsin Democratic Senator Russell Feingold and current Wisconsin GOP Representative Paul Ryan, have completely opposite voting records: Feingold Issue Ryan NO Bush tax cuts YES NO Iraq War [...]

No Labels is a 501c4 corporation formed in 2009 with the stated aim of promoting bipartisan agreement and a consistent pattern of promoting business-friendly policy. It has not revealed the identity of the people and organizations that have funded it. When it publicly rolled out in 2010, No Labels indicated that it would create a [...]

Seven county officials of the New York State Republican Party got together in a closed room last week and chose Jane Corwin as the Republican Party selectee for a special election to replace disgraced Republican Christopher Lee in the 26th District seat of the United States Congress. Just who is Jane Corwin? One way to [...]

The Sunlight Foundation scored a major scoop this month with a report indicating that “Independent” candidate for Senate Lisa Murkowski signed documents for the “Independent” group Alaskans Standing Together to certify that the group wasn’t working “in cooperation, consultation, or concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, any candidate.” In other words, Lisa [...]

With movies like Speechless and TV shows like The West Wing out there, you might conclude that campaign work is glamorous and glossy. Reality can be a lot different. FEC records show that Cathy Bauman has been compensated just $579 for a month’s work as a canvasser on behalf of the campaign of Senator Michael [...]

With the advent of unlimited independent expenditures in the Spring of 2010, corporate political groups have been unleashed to influence congressional elections as they and their undisclosed individual contributors see fit. But although individual contributors to these corporate groups remain shrouded, the activity of the corporate groups themselves is tracked on a daily basis by [...]

Dan Coats, running for the U.S. Senate after selling his house in Virginia and his other house in North Carolina so he could buy a new house in Indiana, admits that he’s made lots of money as a corporate lobbyist in Washington, DC, where he worked to keep jobs away from America and in cheaper [...]