Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

1. Super PAC profile: Twenty-something Ron Paul supporters found Liberty for All

   By Anupama Narayanswamy May 14, 2012 5:12 p.m.

   A new super PAC funded almost entirely by a 21-year-old Ron Paul supporter and run by a 24-year-old political consultant is putting big bucks behind a tea party candidate running in a Kentucky congressional race.

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2. Presidential campaign donors moving to super PACs

   By Anupama Narayanswamy Apr 26, 2012 12:01 p.m.

   A few weeks after some individual donors hit their campaign contribution limits to President Obama’s reelection campaign, they made donations to the super PAC supporting him, extending their financial support to the shadow campaign that's backing his bid for another four years in the White House.

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3. The X-factors? Lesser-known super PACs could have big impact in fall congressional races

   By Anupama Narayanswamy Apr 19, 2012 10:07 a.m.

   While the super PACs supporting presidential candidates have been in the spotlight in the early months of the campaign season, a number of lesser-known -- but potentially as influential -- super PACs are emerging. Filings that came in over the weekend at the Federal Election Commission featured a number of heretofore unsung super PACs, many formed for the purpose of influencing a specific House or Senate election.

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4. Super PACs, other groups, fuel four-fold spending increase in 2012 presidential race

   By Anupama Narayanswamy Mar 27, 2012 11:41 a.m.

   Outside groups, including super PACs and nonprofit organizations, have spent almost four times more on the 2012 presidential campaign than comparable organizations spent at the same point in the 2008 cycle, an analysis of Federal Election Commission filings show.

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5. Big Super PAC donors: Same old guns, just more money

   By Anupama Narayanswamy Mar 1, 2012 10:09 a.m.

   If there were any doubts about how much the political landscape has changed post-Citizens United, here's one leading indicator: An analysis by Sunlight's Reporting Group shows that the biggest donors to super PACs are giving more political donations earlier in the campaign than they have in the past.

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6. Super PACs have spent most on Florida ad buys, so far

   By Anupama Narayanswamy Jan 30, 2012 5:08 p.m.

   While the polls have constantly fluctuated in the last week before Tuesday's GOP presidential primary in Florida, one number has seen a steady rise: the campaign money being pumped into the Sunshine State. Helping to boost the total: The two super PACs supporting frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have spent more than $15 million in the state. That number makes 38 percent of all presidential super PAC spending that Sunlight is tracking.

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7. No restriction on how Pro-Perry super PAC can spend funds

   By Anupama Narayanswamy Jan 19, 2012 7:07 p.m.

   Texas Gov. Rick Perry's decision to drop his bid for the GOP presidential nomination Thursday raises a tantalizing question: What will happen to the big-spending super PAC that dropped close to $4 million backing his campaign?

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8. Super PAC profile: Pro-Perry Make Us Great Again has ties to former staff, major donor

   By Anupama Narayanswamy Jan 5, 2012 3:20 p.m.

   One of the highest spending super PACs so far, the pro-Rick Perry Make Us Great Again is headed by the Texas governor’s former chief of staff Mike Toomey.   A Texas lobbyist, Toomey is a longtime friend and confidant of Perry's who was behind Perry’s switch in party affiliation in 1985 after he was elected to the Texas legislature. He has a reputation of being Perry's “enforcer.”

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9. Bank executives plead case to administration officials over Volcker rule

   By Anupama Narayanswamy Oct 24, 2011 12:32 p.m.

   Top executives with major banks met regularly with federal agency officials who were writing a draft rule meant to curtail risky Wall Street trading — known popularly as the Volcker rule, named for the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker — federal agency meeting records show.

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10. Super committee related issues feature in hundreds of lobbying reports

    By Anupama Narayanswamy Oct 24, 2011 11:23 a.m.

    K Street firms got little respite this past quarter, between lobbying on the debt ceiling early in the summer and then quickly shifting their focus to the "super committee," recently released lobbying reports show.

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11. Super committee member Van Hollen doubles campaign cash intake over last quarter

    By Anupama Narayanswamy Oct 18, 2011 11:19 a.m.

    The campaign of super committee member Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., took in more than twice as much money in the third quarter of 2011 as it did in the second, newly released Federal Election Commission records show. Overall, two of the six House members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction--popularly known as the "super committee"--reported increased fundraising totals in the third quarter.

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12. Dodd Frank: How rating agencies contributed to the financial crisis

    By Anupama Narayanswamy Aug 18, 2011 9:56 a.m.

    The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed in response to the financial crisis of 2008, added new regulations and new regulators for some—but not all—of the institutions whose actions led to the crisis. Over the next several days, we’ll be taking a look at each of the major groups of contributors to the economic crisis, who the major players were, what political influence they brought to bear on Congress and regulators, how Dodd-Frank intends to regulate them, and, using our new Dodd-Frank Meeting Logs tool, what rules these groups are trying to influence as agencies implement the legislation.

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13. Becerra, Clyburn, Van Hollen are House Dem Picks for Super Committee

    By Nancy Watzman and Anupama Narayanswamy Aug 11, 2011 5:11 p.m.

    House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has tapped three close allies who are on powerful House committees to serve on the Joint Special Committee to find new ways of cutting the budget to roll back the national deficit. Her picks are: Reps, Chris Van Hollen from Maryland, James Clyburn from South Carolina, and Xavier Bacerra from California.

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14. Report: Reid names Murray, Baucus and Kerry to Super Committee

    By Nancy Watzman and Anupama Narayanswamy Aug 9, 2011 5:58 p.m.

    Politico is reporting that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to nominate Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., as the co-chair to the special joint committee convened to propose reductions in the debt, and Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and John Kerry, D-Mass., as his other picks. The announcement of picks to what has been dubbed the super committee will be formally announced on Wednesday.

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Investigations by Sunlight Foundation reporter Anupama Narayanswamy