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Santorum's not-so-populist side
By Lindsay Young Jan 4, 2012 4:30 p.m.With his penchant for sweater vests and stories about his coal miner grandfather, former Sen. Rick Santorum is setting himself up as the populist conservative alternative to Mitt Romney, the millionaire GOP presidential frontrunner who bested him by a mere eight votes in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses.
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Super PAC profile: Ron Paul Volunteers offers contributors' protection program?
By Nancy Watzman Jan 4, 2012 1:14 p.m.Lack of transparency can be a good thing, declares the treasurer of “Ron Paul Volunteers,” a Miami-based Super PAC he recently established in hopes of raising “in the low six figures” to help support Paul bid in Florida's Jan. 31 presidential primary.
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Super PAC profile: Restore Our Future helped Romney and infuriated Gingrich
By Kathy Kiely Jan 4, 2012 11:22 a.m.Arguably the most influential political advertisements so far of the 2012 cycle -- ads that helped topple Newt Gingrich from GOP presidential frontrunner to out-of-the-money finisher in Iowa on Tuesday -- were produced and purchased by a super PAC that purports to be making "independent expenditures" in the campaign but that has plenty of connections to Mitt Romney.
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Super PAC profile: Leaders for Families pushed Santorum's Iowa surge
By Bill Allison Jan 4, 2012 9:50 a.m.Rick Santorum's late surge in Iowa was aided by a lately formed Super PAC. Leaders for Families takes its name from the Family Leader, an umbrella name for a pair of nonprofit organizations that oppose Iowa's same sex marriage law. Chuck Hurley, the PAC's treasurer, is president of the Iowa Family Policy Center, the "education division" of Family Leader, and president of the Iowa Family PAC, a state-level committee affiliated with Family Leader.
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Pro-Gingrich group moves to delay revealing donors
By Keenan Steiner Dec 22, 2011 3:46 p.m.Another leading presidential super PAC signaled Thursday that it plans to keep its donors' identities under wraps until Jan. 31, meaning voters in four crucial early contests will go to the polls without knowing who is behind two well-funded efforts to influence their decisions.
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Presidential Super PAC disclosures may leave voters in the dark
By Keenan Steiner Dec 21, 2011 11:56 a.m.When voters cast their ballots in January’s presidential nominating contests, they may not know the moneyed interests behind the attack ads run by shadowy outside groups trying to influence their votes, despite a Federal Election Commission deadline requiring many of them to disclose information next week.
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Food and media companies donated generously to lawmakers opposing food marketing guidelines for kids
By Nancy Watzman Dec 20, 2011 4:50 p.m.Last summer, a bipartisan group of House members from Pennsylvania wrote federal agencies complaining that proposed guidelines restricting the marketing of unhealthy food to children marked “an alarming regulatory overreach.” They emphasized their sugary roots in “the leading confectionary producing state in the nation.”
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SOPA revolvers: Sixteen former Judiciary staffers lobby on online copyright issues
By Keenan Steiner Dec 14, 2011 12:22 p.m.As the House Judiciary Committee readies to consider a controversial bill that supporters say will crack down on websites pirating content, some interest groups may have a leg up on influencing the legislators.
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Congress members owning TransCanada stock push to approve Keystone XL
By Lindsay Young Dec 8, 2011 12:12 p.m.Four members of Congress who have disclosed owning shares in Transcanada, the company trying to build the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, have pressed for the $7 billion project's approval.
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Meetings missing from CFTC website
By Nancy Watzman Dec 7, 2011 1:32 p.m.A week before Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioners unanimously approved new rules restricting how brokerage firms may invest customer funds, executives from Newedge, which had pushed against the rules along with the now bankrupt firm MF Global, attended several meetings with high ranking CFTC officials.
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Who visited Jack Abramoff in Cumberland prison? We've FOIAed to find out
By Bill Allison Dec 6, 2011 4:50 p.m.In his book Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth about Washington Corruption from America's Most Notorious Lobbyist, Jack Abramoff notes that while serving his sentence for mail fraud and conspiracy in a federal prison in Cumberland, Md., he was fortunate that "some intrepid public officials [made] the trek to Cumberland, including Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, his wife Rhonda, and their adorable triplets..."
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Food and media companies lobby to weaken guidelines on marketing food to children
By Nancy Watzman Dec 5, 2011 11:38 a.m.A major lobbying push by a powerful group of food and media companies appears to be working, with a federal agency indicating it would back off on parts of proposed voluntary guidelines for marketing food to children. The guidelines are meant to combat childhood obesity.
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Legacy media bankrolling campaigns of SOPA cosponsors
By Tessa Muggeridge Dec 1, 2011 12:13 p.m.Traditional big media firms have contributed more than $5 million to the sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act, with California Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Adam Schiff as the top recipients.
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Another renewable energy loan recipient hires lobbyists, has fundraising ties to Obama
By Keenan Steiner Nov 30, 2011 3:26 p.m.Abound Solar, another participant in the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program, which is facing scrutiny, has hired Washington lobbyists because of that attention, a company spokesperson said.
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