Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

1. FEC considers whether company can solicit PAC contributions from its dealers

   By Keenan Steiner Dec 6, 2012 6:49 p.m.

   Can Slim Jim solicit employees of 7-11 for donations to its political action committee? 

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2. Who benefited most from dark money in the 2012 election?

   By Keenan Steiner Dec 5, 2012 3:42 p.m.

   Eighteen incoming members of Congress each got more than $1 million in dark money donations during their recent campaigns, but many more have reason to resent the stealthiest of campaign contributions, a Sunlight Foundation analysis has found. Dark money represents campaign contributions whose sources never have to be publicly reported. That's because the money is funneled through non-profit entities organized under a section of the tax code that protects them from having to name their donors. These kind of groups -- such as the pro-GOP Crossroads GPS and the pro-Democrat League of Conservation Voters -- have increased their electoral role in the wake of a series of court rulings that opened the door for unlimited corporate and union spending on campaigns. Nonprofit groups made more than $300 million of such donations during the course of the 2012 election cycle, the vast majority to influence the fall races.

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3. Pandora gets heard but many lawmakers change the channel

   By Keenan Steiner Nov 29, 2012 9:23 a.m.

   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.

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4. Battle brews between recording industry and Internet music providers

   By Keenan Steiner Nov 27, 2012 2:33 p.m.

   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.

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5. Election lawyers say super PACs should shift strategy

   By Keenan Steiner Nov 16, 2012 3:26 p.m.

   Given the underperformance of many outside spending groups in this year's election, some election lawyers suggested they shift strategies to focus more on mobilizing voters on the ground rather than TV ads in a panel discussion today.

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6. Four House races where outside money may have pushed the needle

   By Keenan Steiner Nov 7, 2012 3:12 p.m.

      Two standing congressmen, Joe Heck and Reid Ribble, who were helped by outside money

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7. More guns of October: FSA PAC drops $600,000 in final days of election

   By Keenan Steiner Nov 1, 2012 2:54 p.m.

   Another newly formed super PAC, FSA PAC, or Fair Share Action, is dropping late money, this time on the Democrats’ side. The group reported spending $497,000 to buy an ad supporting Obama on the last day of October and more than $119,000 to support Montana Senator Jon Tester.

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8. Conservative columnists' anti-Obama ads backed by unknown donors

   By Keenan Steiner Nov 1, 2012 10:20 a.m.

   The super PAC run by conservative columnists Michael Reagan and Dick Morris is dropping last-minute money on series of ads against President Barack Obama, and the vast majority of the donors are unknown.

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9. Controversial Arizona nonprofit drops $1 million against Obama

   By Keenan Steiner Oct 30, 2012 3:27 p.m.

   In the past week, a GOP-led dark money group from Arizona that had barely spent any money on federal races has dropped more than $1.2 million to oppose President Barack Obama, as well as $60,000 to oppose Utah’s only House Democrat, Jim Matheson.

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10. Unknown donors fund 11th hour ads against Democratic Senate candidates

    By Keenan Steiner Oct 30, 2012 9:05 a.m.

    A GOP-aligned super PAC that formed just three weeks before the election and whose donors remain unknown dropped about $1 million on two key Senate races on Friday, according to recent Federal Election Commission reports.

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11. FreedomWorks makes rare TV buy against Duckworth

    By Keenan Steiner Oct 26, 2012 5:25 p.m.

    Newly flush with more than $5 million in cash from a mystery donor, FreedomWorks, the libertarian super PAC that touts its grassroots focus, has just made a $1.5 million television ad buy in a competitive Illinois House race.

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12. Crossroads machine drops combined $78 million this month -- so far

    By Keenan Steiner Oct 25, 2012 2:31 p.m.

    Blowing away the competition, the GOP-aligned independent groups American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS have now dropped a combined $78 million in October alone to influence the 2012 election.

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13. Super PACs that stay off the air

    By Keenan Steiner Oct 25, 2012 12:40 p.m.

    With early voting starting Saturday in Florida, a Miami-based group of community organizers and union members will be undertaking a major push across five of the battleground state’s cities to get voters to the polls. 

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14. Man behind Allen West super PAC remains secretive

    By Keenan Steiner Oct 22, 2012 2:19 p.m.

    It remains unclear why Richard H. Roberts, a New Jersey physician, contributed $1 million to help one member of Congress in south Florida, freshman Republican Allen West, win reelection.

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Investigations by Sunlight Foundation reporter Keenan Steiner