In the 111th Congress, Senator Russ Feingold introduced S. 482, a bill to require senators to file campaign finance reports electronically, and to be received promptly by the Federal Election Commission. That sounds technical and small, but it’s actually a pretty big deal because of the way things run now. A large number of Senators [...]

The pro-Republican American Action Network was legally required to report its independent expenditures in the 2010 congressional election within 48 hours, but it didn’t disclose the spending until over 300 days afterwards. The organization’s Board of Directors is filled with representatives of elite financial companies, corporate lawyers and representatives from lobbying firms.

The light may be on, but nobody’s home. As the Sunlight Foundation documented with its copy of an intercepted invitation, a fundraising dinner party was scheduled for January 18 2011 in the infamous 446 New Jersey Avenue townhome of anti-immigration and pay-day lender Tim Rupli. The beneficiary: a “3rd & Long” PAC run by Blue [...]

On the afternoon of May 26 2011, 234 members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted down an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. This amendment, sponsored by Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, would have removed Section 1034 of the NDAA, a new provision to issue a blanket authorization for the President to engage [...]

If there is one clear winner in the muddled war going on in Libya, it is the Raytheon Corporation. Raytheon sells the Tomahawk cruise missile to the United States government with a price tag of more than $1 million per missile. When the arsenal of American cruise missiles needs replacing, Raytheon will supply them at [...]

In his winning bid for the 15th District congressional seat in Ohio, Steve Stivers took $888,080 in Political Action Committee money from various corporate interests. On top of that, he raked in $735,153 from corporate executives and lobbyists. 3 out of 4 dollars contributed to Steve Stivers came from these sources. And now that he’s [...]

Read investigative reports on the US Chamber of Commerce to influence congressional campaigns and they’ll tell you that the group shelled out approximately $30 million in independent spending. But if you review Federal Election Commission records on independent expenditures, you won’t find any indication that a single penny spent by the Chamber of Commerce. How [...]

According to Federal Election Commission regulations, during the last 19 days before an election, independent expenditures to influence congressional elections must be reported to the FEC within 24 hours. This is true for any person or group shelling out more than $1000 for independent expenditures in an election cycle, a condition met by virtually all [...]

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 [...]

The congressional campaigns of 2010 are the first in modern American history in which political corporations have gained the power to make unlimited independent expenditures in favor or against candidates, with absolutely no requirement that they disclose their donors. The only activity of these groups still publicly documented by the Federal Election Commission is the [...]