Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

1. Super PAC profile: Group focused on healthcare repeal has shadowy sister

   By Bill Allison Apr 27, 2012 5:37 p.m.

   This week, Restore America's Voice PAC has disclosed its first political spending of the 2012 election cycle--more than $50,000 worth of phone call fundraising pitches that mention President Barack Obama--but a shadowy nonprofit tied to the group has spent millions more attacking Obama and congressional Democrats for the healthcare reform act.

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2. Stealthy Wealthy: Did Katzenberg's support for Obama fast-track movie deal with China?

   By Bill Allison Apr 18, 2012 10:38 a.m.

   It's not every businessman who has the vice president of China personally sign off on his latest venture, but then Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of Dreamworks Animation and a prolific Democratic donor, isn't every businessman.

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3. Stealthy wealthy: How Harold Simmons' political giving has benefited his business empire

   By Bill Allison Mar 13, 2012 11:21 a.m.

    

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4. Did lawsuit factor in Olympia Snowe's departure?

   By Bill Allison and Lindsay Young Feb 29, 2012 6:35 p.m.

   Last August, while Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, was in the midst of an intensive round of fundraising for her 2012 reelection bid, a four-year-old civil lawsuit alleging fraud by an education company in which she and her husband are heavily invested became public.

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5. Gingrich super PAC super donor Sheldon Adelson has businesses under scrutiny by IRS, Justice

   By Bill Allison Jan 26, 2012 3:36 p.m.

   Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who have reportedly given a combined $10 million to Winning Our Future, the super PAC that supports and is run by former staffers of Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, were drawn to him by a shared view of the importance of the U.S. relationship to Israel.

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6. Bain Capital tops list of Romney's career political supporters

   By Bill Allison Jan 13, 2012 6:25 p.m.

   Bain Capital, the private equity firm that Mitt Romney has touted as the source of his business acumen and one of his opponents for the Republican nomination has labeled "vultures" is the largest source of political money for the former Massachusetts governor over the course of his career.

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7. New Super PAC seeks expansion of role for corporate, connected PACs

   By Bill Allison Jan 10, 2012 6:17 p.m.

   Dan Backer, the attorney behind the hybrid super PAC rule that allows political action committees contributing to members of Congress and other candidates to also accept unlimited contributions to make independent expenditures, is trying to extend the favor to political action committees tied to corporate entities.

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8. 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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9. 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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10. Barack Obama's other billionaire: How George Kaiser turned Oklahoma into his personal tax haven

    By Bill Allison Oct 13, 2011 7:11 a.m.

    It's unlikely that President Barack Obama will be naming any tax proposals after George B. Kaiser. An investment by the Tulsa billionaire's family foundation in Solyndra, whose bankruptcy may leave taxpayers on the hook for $535 million in federal loans, has raised speculation that the administration acted in part to aid a financial supporter. But the impact on taxpayers of Kaiser's career goes far beyond the $535 million loss. Kaiser has built his fortune in part through shrewdly playing the Internal Revenue Code. In one six year period, during which he increased his net worth enough to land him on the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, Kaiser reported taxable income to the Internal Revenue Service just once, totaling $11,699--equivalent to a full-time hourly wage of $5.62.

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11. Big PACs contribute $83,000 to super committee members

    By Bill Allison Oct 6, 2011 9:30 a.m.

    The political action committees of Lockheed Martin, the National Association of Realtors, Pfizer and Chevron all reported making contributions to members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction--better known as the super committee--in the roughly 20 days of August after House and Senate leadership appointed them to the panel.

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12. Solyndra investor had three White House meetings on energy policy

    By Bill Allison Oct 3, 2011 noon

    George B. Kaiser, the Obama campaign bundler and Tulsa oilman whose foundation's investment in Solyndra has raised questions of whether political influence played a role in the now-bankrupt solar panel company's winning $535 million in federal loans, had three White House meetings to discuss energy policy from Dec. 2009 to April 2011.

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13. Top donors to Super Committee House Dems lobby for Defense and Medicare funding

    By Bill Allison Sep 12, 2011 2:16 p.m.

    A replacement for the Space Shuttle, tax breaks for personal injury attorneys, two nuclear powered submarines and bigger Medicare reimbursements for some specialists and drugs are among the lobbying wish lists of the top career donors to the three House Democrats on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, otherwise known as the super committee.

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14. Donors to Senate GOP super committee members seek tax cuts, tax breaks

    By Bill Allison Sep 6, 2011 12:42 p.m.

    The Club for Growth, which advocates making permanent some tax cuts and eliminating entirely others that, over just two years, would amount to more than $765 billion in lost revenues over two years, is a top donor to two of the three Republican Senators on the Joint Select Committee on Debt Reduction--the super committee. Other top donors include a hedge fund run by a top Republican donor that invests in, among other things, defaulted debt of sovereign nations, corporations trying to shield income earned overseas from U.S. taxes, and utility firms seeking to avoid regulation of greenhouse gases.

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Investigations by Sunlight Foundation reporter Bill Allison