Money & Politics

November 2, 2012

This Week in Dark Money: Nov. 2, 2012

by Gavin Aronsen, Mother Jones

We’re proud to collaborate with Mother Jones in sharing insightful journalism related to money and politics. We’ll be posting this weekly roundup every Friday. Share your thoughts about these must-read stories and always feel free to suggest your own in the comments section.

A quick look at the week that was in the world of political dark money…

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“My opinion, for what it’s worth, is that WTP was running a lot of these campaigns.”

— Julie Staeb, an investigator for the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices, referring to the possibility that nonprofit group Western Tradition Partnership illegally coordinated with Montana political candidates in 2008 and 2010. The investigation includes documents from the group that convicted felon Mark Siebel found in a meth house outside Denver in later 2010. Siebel claimed they were found by his friend in a stolen car; they were recently examined in a joint report by ProPublica and Frontline. WTP has since changed its name to American Tradition Partnership and is best known for its lawsuit that overturned Montana’s ban on corporate spending and definitively expanded Citizens United to apply to states’ campaign finance rules.

Money & Politics

October 26, 2012

This Week in Dark Money: Oct. 26, 2012

by Gavin Aronsen, Mother Jones

A quick look at the week that was in the world of political dark money…

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“What is especially striking is that the ads are concentrated on fewer markets than 2008, meaning that a smaller number of Americans have witnessed the onslaught of messages in the race for the White House.”

— Erika Franklin Fowler, codirector of the Wesleyan Media Project. Since June 1, 915,000 election ads have run, compared with 637,000 during the same period in 2008. The WMP has visualized its findings in a series of charts like the one below.

Money & Politics

October 19, 2012

This Week in Dark Money: Oct. 19, 2012

by Gavin Aronsen, Mother Jones

A quick look at the week that was in the world of political dark money…

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The ability to pool money into a super PAC turns out to be very significant.”
—Columbia Law School’s Richard Briffault, explaining to ProPublica why he believes megadonors like Sheldon Adelson never independently financed political ads with the amounts of money they’re now pouring into outside spending groups. Briffault is a campaign finance historian who has written extensively on super PACs. (Also see Andy Kroll’s must-read four-decade history of how super PACs came to be.)

Money & Politics

October 18, 2012

Montana’s Political Donation Limits Restored, For Now

by John Light

The Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Montana has a century-long history of strong campaign finance laws, so in the wake of Citizens United, conservative groups have made the state a front in their campaign to scale back regulations on campaign donations. But opponents of Citizens United won a small victory in Montana this week: The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals placed a hold on a lower court ruling that struck downMontana’s campaign donation limits. The hold will stay in place through election day. Without the hold, the lower court ruling would have opened the doors to unlimited spending in state and local races.

Money & Politics

October 12, 2012

This Week in Dark Money: Oct. 12, 2012

by Gavin Aronsen, Mother Jones

A quick look at the week that was in the world of political dark money…

THE MONEY SHOT

Money & Politics

October 10, 2012

Tracking Political Contributions from Oil and Coal

by John Light

Sunflower Electric Cooperative's coal-fired power plant rises behind a 30-day-supply of coal in Holcomb, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Many politicians get money from oil and coal companies – but some receive far more than others.

The website Dirty Energy Money has an interactive that allows users to look up which politicians receive money from oil companies and their affiliated political action committees. The site is a project of the advocacy group Oil Change International and pulls data from the Center for Responsive Politics and its website, OpenSecrets.org.

A few things are immediately clear from the site’s interactive: Republicans receive the most money from energy companies, but Democrats receive quite a bit as well. In the Senate, two thirds of the money the website tracks goes to Republicans, the other third to Democrats. In the House about 83 percent of contributions went to Republicans.
MORE

Money & Politics

October 9, 2012

Is the NRA Endorsing the Right Candidate?

by John Light

After a summer of lobbying the UN to apply the Second Amendment internationally, this week The National Rifle Association leaped into the U.S. presidential campaign with $1.3 million in anti-Obama ads.

The ads, which will be aired in Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin — all battleground states — say the president is “attacking our Second Amendment rights.” A vote against Obama, the NRA says, would help “defend freedom.” The ad does not mention Romney by name.

The NRA’s decision to endorse the Republican candidate may not be all that surprising, but may seem contradictory given the candidates’ records: Romney signed a ban on assault weapons as governor of Massachusetts, while the president has signed measures allowing people to carry concealed weapons in checked bags on trains and while visiting the national parks.

Gun control advocates say the President has not done enough to prevent gun violence. In 2010, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, one of the largest gun control lobbying groups, graded Obama’s record an “F.”

Money & Politics

October 5, 2012

This Week in Dark Money: Oct. 5, 2012

by Gavin Aronsen, Mother Jones

A quick look at the week that was in the world of political dark money…

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Throughout its existence, [our nonprofit] has regularly consulted with experienced tax counsel to ensure it is in full compliance with the federal tax laws.”

—A statement to ProPublica from the Government Integrity Fund, defending its 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status despite spending more than $1 million favoring Republican Josh Mandel in his challenge against Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). The Fund is a so-called “social welfare” group, which can’t make politics its primary purpose. What that means, exactly, has been an ongoing discussion this year. The IRS is investigating potential violators of the rule, but it hardly ever audits nonprofits. MORE

Money & Politics

October 4, 2012

What is the National Federation of Independent Business?

by John Light

Dan Danner, President and CEO, National Federation of Independent Business, addresses the media at a press conference announcing a new campaign targeting regulations. (William B. Plowman/AP Images for NFIB)

In last night’s presidential debate, Mitt Romney went after President Obama’s tax plan by citing a study from the innocuous-sounding National Federation of Independent Business, or NFIB.

“Your plan is to take the tax rate on successful small businesses from 35 percent to 40 percent. The National Federation of Independent Business has said that will cost 700,000 jobs,” Romney said.

In fact, NFIB isn’t all that innocuous — it’s actually a conservative lobbying organization. The group was the lead plaintiff in the unsuccessful lawsuit that brought the Affordable Care Act to the Supreme Court. NFIB’s entire advertising budget this year went to ads that either supported Republicans or opposed Democrats. The group is partially funded by millions of dollars from conservative groups like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS and the Koch brothers’ Donors Trust.

Money & Politics

September 28, 2012

This Week in Dark Money: Sept. 28, 2012

by Gavin Aronsen, Mother Jones

A quick look at the week that was in the world of political dark money…

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The scarcity of honest information about the misleading political ads invading our airwaves has knocked viewers and voters for a loss.”

—A new report from the media reform group Free Press, criticizing local TV stations in swing states for failing to report on the influence of outside-spending groups. According to Free Press’s research, more than 85 percent of ads from outside spending groups relay misleading information, yet swing-state stations “devoted little to no air time to fact-checking claims made in the ads, and the stations spent no time investigating the organizations that paid for the ads.”