A new NPR investigative series, Dollar Politics, opened with an introduction to the lobbyists positioning themselves in the national healthcare reform debate. The Web site for the stories asks NPR’s audience to help connect names to lobbyists shown in a panoramic photo from a recent senate committee meeting.

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A USA Today analysis shows lobbyists paid $35.8 million in 2008 to honor 534 current and former lawmakers, almost 250 other federal officials and more than 100 groups, many of which count lawmakers among their members. “Despite a ban on gifts to lawmakers and limits on campaign contributions, lobbyists and groups that employ them can spend unlimited money to honor members of Congress or donate to non-profits connected to them or their relatives,” Fredreka Schouten and Paul Overberg report. The top honoree: Sen. Edward Kennedy, with $5 million. The analysis examined more than 3,600 payments reported for 2008, the first year that lobbyists were required to disclose the contributions, known as honorary expenses.

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President Barack Obama’s former nominee to become commerce secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg, steered taxpayer money to his home state’s redevelopment of a former Air Force base even as he and his brother engaged in real estate deals there, an Associated Press investigation found. Gregg has collected at least $240,017 to $651,801 from his investments there, Senate records show, while helping arrange at least $66 million in federal aid for the former base.

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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.

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According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, lobbyists spent more than $12 million in the last four years wining and dining Texas lawmakers and other state workers, including trips to pricey resorts across the country. Using lobby disclosure data, reporter Matt Stiles found that state senators and representatives had accepted at least $3.5 million in meals, travel, gifts and entertainment. Lobbyists spent another $3.8 million on the members’ staffs. The story also reported that lawmakers have structured the rules so that most of their contacts with lobbyists are not reported.

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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.

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Oklahoma voters gave Republican Sen. John McCain one of his largest margins of victory over Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential election earlier this month. But an analysis of precinct results from across the state by The Oklahoman shows Obama claiming heavily populated urban areas and pockets of support in eastern Oklahoma. McCain outpolled Obama almost everywhere else.

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“Though they worked behind the scenes in Barack Obama’s campaign for president, bundlers who raised millions of dollars for his White House bid are starting to land significant posts on his transition team,” according to a report by Washington Post reporter Matthew Mosk. While critics claim fundraising skills have trumped qualifications for top advisory positions, Obama’s top aides have defended the qualifications of those acting as transition advisers.

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In October, Dutchess County went from having a Republican majority among registered voters to a Democratic one for the first time in the county’s history. On Nov. 2, the Poughkeepsie Journal published an analysis that not only showed which municipalities were responsible for that growth, but drilled down to see which individual districts had the biggest jump.

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The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind. found that 2,172 voters in Indiana’s Allen County had names and birthdates identical to those in Florida. The newspaper performed its analysis cross-referencing the voter registration databases in Allen County with the Florida secretary of state’s election division.  Duplicates were examined by hand.  Middle names or initials that did not match were automatically thrown out.  “Of the 2,172 matching names and birth dates, seven voted in both the Florida primary in January and the May primary in Indiana, according to voter history records.”

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