Extra! Extra! » Campaign Finance

Loopshole in Hawaii’s pay-to-play law exploited by donors

Beth — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:24:15 +0000

An investigation by the Honolulu Advertiser found that donors linked to city and state contractors are giving money to candidates for Hawaii’s gubernatorial races. Experts say the donors are exploiting a loophole in Hawaii’s five year-old pay-to-play law. The study is based on a computer-assisted survey of more than 2,300 campaign contributions made to three top gubernatorial candidates during the second half of 2009.

NFL has ramped up campaign donations, lobbying efforts

Beth — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:55:39 +0000

An investigation by Scripps Howard News Service sports editor John Lindsay found the National Football League has ramped up its campaign contributions and lobbying efforts, mainly trying to affect legislation on broadcasting rights and trying to preempt any move by Congress to intervene in a potential player lockout in 2011. The $3.148 million in lobbying the league spent the last three years is $500,000 more than the league spent on lobbying in the previous six years (2001-2006) combined. This goes against the national trend that saw total lobbying expenditures fall 27 percent from $3.3 billion in 2008 to $2.51 billion in 2009, Lindsay reports.

Lobbyist investigated for ’straw donor’ scam

Beth — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:16:32 +0000

Chuck Neubauer of The Washington Times reports that “superlobbyist” Paul Magliocchetti “is now the focus of a federal investigation into whether he made illegal campaign contributions by reimbursing people, or ’straw donors,’ who made contributions in their names to his favored candidates – helping the lobbyist avoid federal limits on his personal donations.“

Local parties in California avoid campaign contribution limits

Mark Horvit — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:45:08 +0000

Politicians and their supporters in California have routinely funneled money through county-level political party committees around the state, avoiding strict limits on campaign giving and hiding the source of millions in donations, a California Watch analysis shows. By using county parties as middlemen, both Democrat and Republican donors can contribute far more money than the law typically allows to highly contested races in California where the extra cash could make the difference between winning and losing.

Democratic donors rewarded with White House access

Beth — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:20:40 +0000

“During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings,” reports Mathew Mosk of The Washington Times. Additionally, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents, access to top White House officials has been promised for generous pledges for the 2010 midterm elections.

A look at the influence of foreign lobbyists on Capitol Hill

Beth — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:33:46 +0000

Analysis of foreign lobbying disclosure records by ProPublica and the Sunlight Foundation provide insight into foreign influence on Capitol Hill. “More than 280 lobbying firms collected $87 million in fees for representing 340 foreign clients, including governments, government-controlled organizations, political parties, separatist groups and a handful of for-profit firms.” United Arab a, principally addressing interests in Dubai, spent the most — $10,914,002 — on their lobbying and public relations campaigns.

Propriety of campaign fund donations questioned

Beth — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:23:58 +0000

Companies that received multimillion-dollar deals with CalPERS, California’s giant public pension fund, pumped more than $300,000 into a union campaign fund overseen by Sean Harrigan while the long-time California labor leader was one of the giant pension fund’s board members from 2000-2004, The Sacramento Bee’s Andrew McIntosh reported in an examination of the deals.

Top campaign contributors given plum positions by Obama

Beth — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:13:43 +0000

President Obama has nominated several top campaign contributors for ambassadorships, according to a report by Jonathan D. Salant and Julianna Goldman of Bloomberg.com. “Even with his pledges to change government, Obama is following the tradition of his predecessors by offering some ambassadorships to top campaign backers, including four of the 12 nominations this week. The president acknowledged in a news conference in January that donors might get plum postings.”

Teachers supported Prop 8 while their union opposed the measure

Beth — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:10:46 +0000

A report by NPR’s Robert Benincasa shows that California’s teachers’ union was giving money to oppose Proposition 8 while members of the union were making donations to support the ban on gay marriage. “Teachers, aides and counselors in California public school systems gave about $2 to support the marriage ban for every $1 they gave to oppose it. The educators gave some $450,000 in individual contributions to advocates supporting the ban and about $210,000 to those opposing it, according to the NPR analysis.” The California secretary of state recently released the campaign contribution data for Proposition 8.

Illinois gala for Obama supported by lobbyists he banned from donating to campaign

admin — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:01:00 +0000

Supporters from Barack Obama’s home state held a celebration this week that was paid for, in part, by the same lobbying firms the president-elect banned from donating to his campaign and inaugural committee, Bloomberg’s Jonathan D. Salant and Kate Andersen report. Seven firms that earned a total of at least $30 million in lobbying fees last year gave as much as $50,000 apiece for the Illinois gala. At least 28 state societies — nonprofit groups that sponsor the balls — have held pre-inaugural balls and events in Washington. Many relied on money from corporations and lobbyists to help make up for a drop in donations from society members because of the weak economy.