Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group

11th Hour SC-1 Fundraising Plummets for Sanford

While the Republican establishment has deserted former Gov. Mark Sanford in his bid for South Carolina’s first district, a dedicated few are still giving thousands to his campaign at the 11th hour. Even with these last minute gifts, however, his Democratic opponent Elizabeth Colbert Busch is still raking in double the cash in the days leading up to the special election on May 7. According to FEC reports covering April 18 to April 23, Sanford's campaign has received $40,600 in contributions while Colbert Busch has raised $85,400. Per FEC rules, candidates only need to disclose donations of $1,000 or more in these reports. And while the campaigns have disclosed some donations made in the last five days, the public doesn't yet know who donated throughout early April. Each candidate is set to file pre-general election finance reports today, which will include all contributions from the last day of February through April 17.

In GOP leadership race, McMorris Rodgers has the dough behind her

It looks like the Republican establishment will win one and lose one as it heads into leadership elections today on Capitol Hill. As always, campaign fundraising is playing a major role in the contests.In the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., failed to convince two fundraising powerhouses, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio -- two men that may be eyeing a run at the White House in 2016 -- to take on the task of raising money for the 2014 crop of GOP Senate candidates. That means the job is likely to go to Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansan who has cultivated ties to the Tea Party. The Hill is reporting that some have questioned Moran's ability to raise the necessary stockpiles of cash.

What we learned: 10 lessons from the campaign brought to you by Citizens United

For the candidates, it's all over except for the voting, but for those of us who follow money in politics, it will take months to close the books on what will be the most expensive election in history. Meanwhile, here are a few lessons we learned in the brave new world of unlimited political money:

Obama September surge leaves Romney in a $360 million hole

Unless Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney persuaded donors to cough up $360 million in September, President Barack Obama will remain the all-time king of political fundraising.

King of fundraising: Obama leads Romney by $242 million

While the most recent Gallup poll shows registered voters equally split, at 47 percent a piece, in the money race President Barack Obama has an unassailable lead. 

Obama's fundraising machine leaves Romney in the dust

So can we finally stop hearing the erroneous claim that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is winning the fundraising battle against President Barack Obama, the all-time champion when it comes to vacuuming up campaign cash? In August, the GOP nominee had his best month of fundraising--and fell about $2 million short of Obama's haul.

Romney falls further behind Obama in race for campaign cabbage

Mitt Romney and President Obama have released their July campaign fundraising totals, and the Republican challenger continues to fall further behind the incumbent in the race to raise the most money.

Watergate + 40: What have we unlearned?

Van Hollen's alternate fundraising vehicle wakes up

After being dormant for all of 2011, Congressman Chris Van Hollen's joint fundraising committee woke up in the third quarter, with most of the over $180,000 in funds coming after he was tapped for Congress’s powerful deficit-cutting committee in early August.

Sunlight Live to cover first "Supercommittee" hearing

After a quick summer recess, Congress returned this week with the newly formed “Supercommittee” scheduled to hold its first debt reduction meeting this Thursday at 10:30 a.m. EST. Unlike the debt negotiations held earlier this summer, the Supercommittee meetings will be conducted openly and we’ll be there to provide live fact checking, context and analysis so you can better understand the tanlged web of money and politics and how it relates to these meetings.

Super committee member Upton creates joint fundraising committee

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., one of the members of the Joint Select Committee for Deficit Reduction, filed paperwork Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission to create a joint fundraising committee. Contributions collected by the committee will be split between Upton's campaign and leadership PAC.

OCE report on financial reform shows nexus between fundraising and legislating

On Nov. 24, 2009, Sara Conrad, the fundraising consultant for Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., sent an email to Michael Stein, head of government relations for financial services giant Morgan Stanley, inviting him to attend a Dec. 10 fundraising reception for Crowley’s campaign. The email was a follow-up to a prior conversation he had with Crowley’s chief of staff, Kate Winkler, about the Ways and Means Committee member's upcoming campaign events. 

Matching bundlers to fundraisers

Here at the Reporting Group, we’ve always wanted to tie the fundraising invitations in our Party Time database to actual donations reported to the Federal Election Commission by a politician or a political action committee--to be able to show a donor gave money to a politician at a certain event.

DCCC invokes Murtha to aid Critz

A friend and colleague passes along the following email the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is sending out, signed by the widow of the late Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., Joyce Murtha: DCCC email