Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

New Senate money man Michael Bennet has had fast rise to power

In appointing Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet as the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee the party will be getting a representative from a crucial western swing state whose 2010 election served as a model for President Barack Obama forging his winning campaign strategy.

Emerson was in formal talks with electric co-op days after reelection

On Nov. 19, nine business days after she won reelection with 72 percent of the vote, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., began final negotiations for a new job with the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, official documents show.

Mitt can't quit Marriott

The big buzz about the Marriott Hotel company's decision to reach out and hire the unemployed -- or one of them, at least -- underscores the hospitality giant's knack for gathering and exercising influence in Washington.

Revolving door: Jo Ann Emerson leaves Congress for rural electrification co-op

Less than four weeks after winning re-election to a ninth term in Congress with more than 70 percent of the vote, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson announced Monday that she'll be leaving in February to head the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. Emerging from a Depression-era effort to bring electricity to farm communities, the non-profit association has grown into a heavy Washington hitter: It's Influence Explorer profile shows more than $27 million in campaign contributions and $46 million in expenditures to lobby Congress, mainly on energy and tax issues.

Tech companies flex influence abroad at UN Internet conference

Does management of the Internet need an upgrade? That's the question before representatives of governments, corporations and civil society groups at a two-week conference that opened today in the Persian Gulf city of Dubai.

'Tis the season: Ads targeting 2014 Senate candidates already on air

The $2 billion lunch

Whatever will be on the menu when Mitt Romney and Barack Obama sit down for a mano-a-mano lunch today at the White House, we already know that those two diners have run up quite a tab.

Outside spenders' return on investment: Capitol Hill edition

Sunlight calculates outside spenders return on investment for congressional races and hosts a webinar on how to use the data

Pandora gets heard but many lawmakers change the channel

To the delight of the recording industry, a congressional hearing about a bill that would decrease the royalties that Pandora pays to record labels and artists turned into a larger discussion about how Congress regulates the music business.

Lame ducks: Flying free or still dancing with them that brung 'em?

There are more than 80 "lame duck" legislators who won't be back next year but whose votes could determine whether the nation runs off the fiscal cliff or stops short of it.

Battle brews between recording industry and Internet music providers

The fiscal cliff might be getting all the headlines, but another battle is brewing in Congress, pitting the recording industry, a traditional source of Washington power, against Internet firms using an upstart technology. But in a departure from last year's struggle over the Stop Online Piracy Act, better known as SOPA, which favored entrenched media firms like Walt Disney and Time Warner while drawing opposition from technology firms like Google and Reddit, this time the bill at the center of the controversy favors the upstarts. The Internet Radio Fairness Act would lower the royalty fees that sites like Pandora pay out to recording companies and artists.

Follow the money from big Dem donors to super PACs to races

Happy Thanksgiving! How much did your tax dollars underwrite the feast?

Nearly 400 years ago, at the very first Thanksgiving in the Plymouth Colony, Native Americans and pilgrims dined together on a meal of deer, corn, shellfish, and roasted meat. There was no such thing as crop insurance, sugar price supports, dairy subsidies, conservation easements, food stamps, or any other feature of the massive farm bill governing the nation's food policy, which expired on September 30.

After election, dozens of super PACs shut down

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