87% percent of Americans find, “reducing corruption in the federal government,” to be “extremely,” or, “very important” according to a new Gallup poll on American’s top priorities for the next president. This is the #2 issue, following only job creation.
Corruption in government usually ranks as an important issue when it is asked about specifically, though it is not as top-of-mind as jobs or the economy.
Particularly, corruption does less well in polls when respondents are asked to volunteer priorities. However, only 2% thought corruption was not an important issue. In addition, corruption, like job …
The Partnership for a Secure Financial Future is working on image rehab for the financial industry.
They released a lovely video that features a slew of financial services employees talking about how they help their community and why they like their jobs.The Partnership is supported by the Consumer Bankers Association, Mortgage Bankers Association, Financial Services Institute, and The Financial Services Roundtable.
Directly next in line to this video is a written report commending themselves for their “industry initiative” for “these dramatic improvements” in banking. It then calls for a re-examination of the Dodd-Frank, “provisions and combination of provisions that needlessly …
GOP lawmakers huddled with fossil fuel industry lobbyists on Monday to lay the “groundwork for the party’s official energy platform at August’s national convention.”
The Hill quotes Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) as explaining, “Everyone just kind of threw in a pitch. There were a lot of different people up there.” By everyone in this “small group discussion,” he meant lobbyists representing coal, oil, gas, wind, and electric utilities as well as GOP lawmakers and their aides.
Many of these same lobbyists will make a repeat appearance on committees this week to aid Republican attacks on Obama energy policies, claiming they are too limited and …
On March 19 at Finish Line Ford in Peoria, Illinois, Representative Aaron Schock (R-IL) hosted a big fundraiser with Mitt Romney. Tickets cost $250 or $500 per person, or $5,000 for a table of 10 and a guarantee of a photograph with Schock and Romney. At least 8 employees of Caterpillar inc., according to FEC filings, were in attendance. Four gave the minimum of $250 just before the event, another two gave $500 to the campaign, and two others gave $1,000 in March preceding the event. Just one month after the fundraiser, Schock proposed 10 tariff reductions that benefitted only …
Thanks to what is being called “Rhode Island’s DISCLOSE Bill,” Super-PACs and other political groups in Rhode Island are now required to report donors and expenditures. Governor Lincoln Chafee signed the bill, known as the Transparency in Political Spending Act (TIPS), to increase the information available to voters.
State Representative Chris Blazejewski, a co-sponsor of the bill, is quick to point out that the legislation does not limit expenditures or donations in any way:
“Without infringing on anyone’s right to express their views, this legislation provides the public with information about whose message it is that they’re hearing… This …
Freshman Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) received a great deal of help in his first election two years ago. Though he took on one of the most senior Democrats in office at the time, Budget Committee chair John Spratt (D-SC), Mulvaney had help from thousands of dollars from the Koch Industries political action committee, and hundreds of thousands in secret Koch money run through the 60 Plus Association and American Future Fund, two undisclosed attack ad groups.
Now, it appears, Mulvaney is returning the favor.
In May, the congressman introduced two bills to suspend certain tariffs on …
An OpenSecrets investigation revealed that non-profits, which don’t have to disclose their donors, have become the real heavyweights in the 2012 election cycle, outspending their Super-PAC counterparts 3 to 2 on political expenditures. Ninety percent of these shadowy groups never reveal their donors.
The Obama administration has made positive steps towards calling for disclosure of secretive nonprofits that are now spending incredible amounts on political ads. Of course, much more could be done. The Obama administration has allowed a significant executive order, which would clean up much of the mess, to languish without action.
An alphabet soup of regulators are …
Last week, Governor Dannel Malloy (D-Conn.) had an opportunity to enact significant statewide campaign finance reform. Instead, he vetoed legislation that promised to be one of the most powerful disclosure laws in any state. As Public Campaign’s Nick Nyhart put it: “Malloy had a chance to be a national leader on reform, but opted to side with wealthy special interests and secret money.”
This bill, HB 5556, was intended to be a multi-pronged attack on secret money and its corrupting influence. Supporters have deemed it “disclosure on steroids” and “a dream package” for transparency by its many proponents, including the Connecticut legislature that …
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