The Sunlight Foundation, which does an amazing job of bringing more transparency to our political system and keeping track of the vast amounts of money that influence it, has released a new report on the dark money being spent in the campaign. Dark money is money from groups that do not have to disclose where …
Category Archive: Corporate Influence in Politics
Oct 09 2012
Coal Company Coerces Contributions
Remember the story about the coal company who forced their workers to attend a Romney rally in Ohio without pay so he could get a good photo op and tell them, “I tell ya, you’ve got a great boss”? Turns out that same company coerces their salaried employees to donate money to the company’s PAC, …
Oct 05 2012
Romney Starting to Lose Donations
A couple weeks ago I wrote about the risk for Mitt Romney that if he continues to look like a candidate that isn’t going to win, money might start to flow toward Obama. But it looks like donors are starting to shift money not to Obama but to Republican candidates for the House and Senate.
Sep 28 2012
Romney: Ban Teachers Unions From Giving Money to Campaigns
Mitt Romney, who is on record saying that people and corporations should be allowed to contribute any amount they want to a campaign, doesn’t seem to think that should apply to teachers unions. Because that would be a conflict of interest.
Sep 28 2012
Money Flowing Back to Akin Campaign?
As I predicted from the start, it looks like some of that PAC money that had initially been pulled away from Rep. Todd Akin’s campaign for the Senate may be flowing back in now that he’s refused, once and for all, to withdraw. ABC News reports:
Sep 16 2012
Rep. Wants Blackwater Punished for Misconduct
Rep. John Tierney, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations, is pushing the Pentagon and the State Department to make Academi, formerly known as Blackwater (and formerly known as Xe) ineligible for federal contracts due to their violation of American law on the …
Sep 14 2012
Will Wall Street Money Go Back to Obama?
In 2008, a full 20% of President Obama’s campaign contributions came from Wall Street banks, getting considerably more money from the big financial interests than John McCain did. Why? Because he was winning and corporate money will usually flow to the winner. So now that Obama has taken a clear lead over Romney, will that …
Aug 31 2012
RNC Chair: No Money for Akin
I’ve predicted that both the Republican party and the third party conservative groups will reverse themselves and pour money into the Missouri Senate race on behalf of Todd Akin, but Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus says he won’t get even a penny from the RNC, even if the race is a dead heat.
Aug 31 2012
Have the Super Rich Seceded?
Mike Lofgren, a former Republican congressional staffer, has a fascinating essay in The American Conservative about what he calls the psychological and financial secession of the super rich from America (and other nations, for that matter). With offshore bank accounts and armies of tax attorneys, he argues, they have effectively removed themselves from the polity …
Aug 22 2012
Akin Digs In, Refuses to Quit
Despite the pleadings of the Republican party leadership, many prominent conservatives and even some of the leading anti-abortion activists, Todd Akin has refused to pull out of the race in time to let the GOP to easily name a replacement.
Aug 17 2012
Conservative Third Party Groups Spending Big
ProPublica, a non-profit news organization that does incredibly good investigative journalism, has an article about two major conservative 501(c)(4) groups — Americans for Prosperity and Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS — spending more than all the Super PACs combined in the presidential race so far.
Aug 09 2012
Where the Super PAC Spending Really Matters
Many electrons and much ink has been spilled to examine the massive amounts of money being spent by third party groups like Super PACs in the presidential race, but where that money really has a huge impact is in the downticket races for the House and Senate. The battle for Sherrod Brown’s seat is a …
Jul 30 2012
I Was Wrong on Citizens United
When the Citizens United decision came down, I argued that its impact was being overblown because the central holding of the case, that corporations could spend money to directly influence an election, would not be used because companies wouldn’t want their name on the ads. Since they could already spend that money by laundering it …
Jul 27 2012
How Ex-Politicians Get Rich
When looking at the influence of corporate money in politics, we tend to focus on the billions of dollars spent on lobbying efforts and campaign contributions, but there’s another way that big business influences legislators — by promising them cushy positions on their boards of directors after they leave office. 24/7 Wall Street did a …
Jul 20 2012
Adelson Being Investigated for Foreign Bribes
ProPublica, a non-profit news organization, has been doing some of the best investigative journalism in the country, winning Pulitzer prizes each of the last two years. This article is a great example of that excellent work, showing that Republican financier Sheldon Adelson may well be guilty of bribing foreign officials to get rich in Macau.
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