Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

Anti-Hagel ad spending tops $200K

In floor speeches, lawmakers talk about their guns

During debate on the Senate floor over the Compromise of 1850, Henry Foote of MIssissippi pulled out a pistol and waved it around, threatening another senator, Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Lawmakers are no longer allowed to bring guns on the floor, but plenty own them, as a survey of Congress by USA Today shows. And they are of course allowed to talk about their guns. In fact, they talk about them in speeches on the floors of the House and Senate, according to a search of Capitol Words.

In S&P suit, Obama biting hand that fed him?

Maybe it's proof that money can't buy you love:  President Barack Obama's administration is widely reported to be about to take Standard & Poor's to court, despite the fact that employees of the credit rating agency and its corporate parent, McGraw-Hill, have disproportionately favored Democrats in recent election cycles.

At least $200K spent in DC on Super Bowl political ads

Sunday's Super Bowl was the country's top rated sporting spectacle--but viewers in Washington area got something extra: more political ads. Three groups spent a total of $200,000 to air political ads for DC-area super bowl viewers. For the first time this year, these ad contracts are available online, thanks to an FCC order that went into effect last summer.

Looking for coders, data-visualizers, 'someone who writes English'

More than 50 people braved the winter cold and dark to spend Friday night on the campus of Columbia University brainstorming for a bicoastal datafest that gets underway there and on the campus of Stanford University today.

Super Bowl blues: Safety concerns set off lobbying scrimmage

NRA PAC did not raise much post Sandy Hook

While the National Rifle Association (NRA) has claimed that membership surged in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in December, there did not appear to be any corresponding flood in contributions to the organization's political action committtee. 

Total 2012 election spending: $7 billion

A new estimate from the Federal Election Commission puts total spending for the 2012 election at more than $7 billion -- $1 billion more than previously thought. 

Among Hagel attackers: Shadowy group run by aide to Ron Lauder

As former Sen. Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama's pick for secretary of defense, faces a Senate confirmation hearing today, he's under online attack from a group that's previously been criticized for a "mostly false" TV ad and "laughably bogus" polling. Though the group, Secure America Now, doesn't disclose its donors, and has yet to file a full year's tax return for either of its non-profit arms, Sunlight has learned it is run by a longtime political aide to Ronald Lauder, a cosmetics heir who has become a patron of Jewish causes and Republican candidates.

Temporary Massachusetts senator an active political donor

William Cowan, a Massachusetts lawyer who will take John Kerry's place in the Senate until a special election can be held to replace the Bay State Democrat, about to become the next secretary of state, has donated more than $36,000 to candidates for state and federal office, according to data downloaded from Sunlight's Influence Explorer.

Gun lobby has some chits to collect on Judiciary Committee

Another delay in ethics probes of Reps. Schock, Owens

Thanks to a parliamentary quirk and a slow start getting organized, the House Ethics Committee will not be releasing information today about the ethics probes into two members of Congress.

New members of the 113th: What they own and whom they owe

Even before he was elected last November to represent Chicago's southern exurbs in the House, Illinois Democrat Bill Foster decided to sell his stake in Electronic Theatre Controls, a company he founded with his brother. Foster jettisoned the shares -- worth at least $5 million -- "to minimize potential conflicts of interest when voting on legislation that might impact his personal finances," according to his press secretary. 

Shadow lobbyists, ex-lobbyists, give to Obama inaugural committee

Lucky for longtime lobbyist Mickey Ibarra, the president of his own lobbying and strategy shop, he could buy that champagne flute with the presidential inaugural seal.