Sunlight Foundation

  1. New anti-Obama super PAC backed by pro-Israel Republican activists

    By Keenan Steiner Oct 12, 2012 2:44 p.m.

    A new Miami-based super PAC has surfaced with billboards opposing President Barack Obama in south Florida and plans to plant more in at least two other battleground states before Election Day. Backed by mostly Republican, pro-Israel activists, American Principles super PAC has spent about $220,000 so far and plans to spend $500,000 this election. 

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  2. Political Ad Sleuth debuts: Track the money behind the campaign ads

    By Kathy Kiely and Jake Harper Oct 10, 2012 6:33 a.m.

    Above Las Vegas last week, the air invisibly crackled with attacks and counter-attacks by candidates for a House and a Senate seat -- not to mention President Obama, his rival Mitt Romney and their backers. In Denver, there was a clash of political fronts:  Outside groups like Planned Parenthood and Crossroads GPS competed for airtime with each other, as well as the candidates they are supporting.

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  3. When is a political ad not a campaign ad? Federal judge decides for FEC

    By Keenan Steiner Oct 5, 2012 6:34 p.m.

    The murky rules around electioneering ads may have gotten slightly less unclear this week, but not thanks to the Federal Election Commission.

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  4. Outside spending tops $105 million--and counting--in just nine days

    By Keenan Steiner Oct 5, 2012 12:59 p.m.

    Outside spending groups--PACs, super PACs, nonprofits and party committees--have spent a staggering $105 million to influence federal elections over the past nine days. Overall, outside spending in the 2012 election is now just a few million short of $600 million, according to Sunlight’s Follow the Unlimited Money tracker.

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  5. September outside spending breaks record

    By Keenan Steiner Oct 3, 2012 3:14 p.m.

    In September, outside spending crushed all past months on record, at over $200 million, according to Sunlight’s Follow the Unlimited Money tracker, and prior years' independent expenditure filings with the Center for Responsive Politics.

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  6. Gross Political Product: Outside campaign spending tops 2010 total

    By Kathy Kiely Sep 23, 2012 9:09 p.m.

    In a campaign that's supposed to be about an ailing economy, there's just one financial indicator that remains consistently robust: Call it the Gross Political Product.

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  7. Sunlight Live to cover Senate hearing on Super PACs and Citizens United

    By Becca Heller Jul 24, 2012 11:58 a.m.

    Join us on Sunlight Live as we cover the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing examining the impact that Super PACs and the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision are having on elections. The hearing, called "Taking Back Our Democracy: Responding to Citizens United and the Rise of Super PACs," will be held by the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights and will be covered live today at 2:30p.m. today.

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  8. Montana decision puts campaign finance reform in Congress's court

    By Keenan Steiner Jun 25, 2012 3:40 p.m.

    With the Supreme Court's decision Monday not to revisit Citizens United, the high court appears to be a dead end for those seeking to address the problem of dark money in elections. Now, key congressmen and reformers say, Congress must act. But the prospects for lawmakers doing so appear slim.

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  9. Panel clashes on Citizens United, agrees on real-time disclosure

    By Keenan Steiner Mar 27, 2012 5:56 p.m.

    A discussion about whether to limit money in politics, and how to do so, led to little consensus Tuesday morning among a panel divided between politicians who favor limits on political contributions and election law practicioners who find ways to legally get around or challenge them. But the politicians and lawyers could more or less agree on one thing: more disclosure of campaign giving. 

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  10. FEC deadlocks on supersizing corporate and union PACs

    By Keenan Steiner Mar 1, 2012 4:08 p.m.

    A lawyer who has already successfully fought to loosen campaign finance regulations says he'll probably go back to court to continue his crusade after the Federal Election Commission today deadlocked over allowing corporations, unions and other organizations with political action committees to create super PACs within them. 

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  11. 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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  12. 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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  13. Law professors push for corporations to disclose political spending

    By Nancy Watzman Sep 21, 2011 1:54 p.m.

    With corporate political spending--some of it secret--expected to explode in the 2012 election cycle, a group of law professors is petitioning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to make a formal policy requiring corporations to disclose such expenditures to shareholders and the public.

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  14. Hybrid committee is both Super PAC, traditional PAC

    By Aaron Bycoffe Aug 5, 2011 10:44 a.m.

    A new type of Super PAC has filed registration papers with the Federal Election Commission, saying it plans both to accept unlimited contributions for independent expenditures and, using a separate bank account, to take in limited donations to be used for direct contributions to candidates.

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