Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

Obama taps Romney donors for labor board

Whether it's a sign of post-partisanship or sheer exasperation is hard to say, but two of the three nominees that President Barack Obama today tapped for seats on the National Labor Relations Board donated to the Republican who wanted to take his place.

People's splurge: Outside spending in Bay State Senate race tops $1 million

Despite candidates' signatures on the so-called "People's Pledge" to keep outside big money groups out of a special Massachusetts Senate election, the Democratic primary has attracted nearly $1.3 million in outside spending so far.

Super PACs next for Sanford and Colbert Busch?

With the race for a special House election in South Carolina now set, and polls showing it could be close, the outcome may partly hinge on who has the most money.

Start your engines: GOP makes first 2014 ad buys against Democratic House members

As NRA pushes Congress, states consider bills to put guns in schools

Even as the National Rifle Association (NRA) announced a new push today to put armed guards in schools across the country, state lawmakers across the country are considering similar proposals. So far, legislation related to guns on school grounds has come up in at least three dozen states. The vast majority of these bills would make it easier for school personnel, guards, and volunteers to carry guns on campus, while a handful would toughen laws prohibiting firearms at schools.

Baseball's (political) heavy hitters

While MLB players will be taking the field for Sunday's and Monday's opening day games in hopes of winning a World Series title in October, team owners may have their sights set on winning a different sort of Fall Classic. According to data from Sunlight's Influence Explorer, MLB organizations pumped in over $24 million to politicians, PACs and independent expenditure groups throughout the 2012 election cycle. No wonder presidents like to toss out the season's first pitch; you can see President Barack Obama at right, practicing for a 2010 appearance on the mound.

As Congress weighs gun control, many states try Congress control

Updated on April 5 at 1:42 p.m. ET (see below)

Political heavy hitters lining up behind gay marriage

Updated: 1:20 p.m.

What's in a name? Republican- versus Democrat-speak on gay marriage

NHL champs LA Kings visit White House; owners wish someone else were in it

If Los Angeles Kings owners Ed Roski and Phil Anschutz had their way during last year's election, someone other than President Obama would be greeting the Stanley Cup champions Tuesday when they arrive in D.C. for the traditional White House fete. According to Sunlight's Influence Explorer, the Kings organization contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates throughout the 2012 election cycle -- almost all of which came from the pockets of Roski and Anschutz. 

Newt Gingrich forms joint fundraising PAC

Seems that 2012 is the (fundraising) campaign that just won't die. We already know that President Barack Obama, despite winning what he loudly advertised would be his last campaign, is still hot on the fundraising trail. And Politico is reporting that Obama's unsuccessful GOP rival, Mitt Romney, is going to be feting donors later this spring. 

Backed by Hatch, Klobuchar, medical device makers score victory

In the two weeks before the Senate passed a resolution to repeal a tax on medical devices that was part of President Obama's health care overhaul, medical device interests threw a pair of fundraisers benefiting the leadership PAC of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a longtime friend of the industry.

Contraceptives remain most controversial health care provision

Immigration: Give me your poor, your tired . . . your lobbyists?

Long before the last election put new political momentum behind the stalled efforts to enact a comprehensive update of the nation's immigration laws, Washington's influence industry was teed up to make it a titanic battle, an analysis of lobbying disclosures by the Sunlight Foundation shows.