Politics
Lobbyists spent $12.8 million courting Texas lawmakers
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…
Read MoreIllinois gala for Obama supported by lobbyists he banned from donating to campaign
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…
Read MoreObama found support in Oklahoma’s urban precincts
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…
Read MoreBundlers land top spots in Obama’s transition
“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,…
Read MoreSurge in Democrats turns Dutchess County, N.Y. blue
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…
Read MoreOver 2,000 voters in Allen County, Ind. also registered in Florida
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…
Read MoreDeceased voters cast ballots in Harris County, Tex.
An analysis by TexasWatchdog.com matched information from Harris County, Tex. voter rolls to Social Security death data and found ballots had been cast in the names of dead people more than 40 times since 2004. They also found more than 4,000 people currently on the voter rolls who, according to the Social Security death data,…
Read MoreMistress paid off by Florida Congressman
West Palm Beach Congressman Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) has agreed to pay his mistress, Patricia Allen, $121,000 according to an investigative report by ABC News’ Emma Schwartz, Rhonda Schwartz and Vic Walter. In addition to the payment, Mahoney also offered Allen a job at the agency that handles his campaign advertising. Mahoney was elected following the…
Read MoreSix states under fire for blocking voters
Ian Urbina of The New York Times reports that elections officials removed or blocked tens of thousands of eligible voters from voter registration rolls in at least six swing states and that elections workers misused Social Security databases. The actions, revealed in a Times review of state and Social Security records, appear to violate federal…
Read MoreFine reductions greater for labor chief’s contributors
Ames Alexander and David Ingram of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported that North Carolina Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry has collected at least half of her campaign contributions from executives and managers of companies that have been inspected by her department. The newspaper’s analysis also found that while the Labor Department routinely reduces fines for workplace…
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