We’ve warned before that 2012 will be the greatest election bought and sold. Now, Politico is reporting that outside groups are preparing to spend upwards of $1 billion this year to defeat President Obama and elect more big business-friendly lawmakers to Congress. To put these numbers in perspective, the Koch network alone — the political
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The corporate front group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has come under increasing fire for secretly passing off corporate-written legislation to state legislatures. Yesterday, the medical device company Medtronic announced that it chose not to renew its membership in ALEC in 2010. Medtronic joins companies including Scantron, which announced earlier this week it was leaving ALEC, as well
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Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) is one of Congress’s most loyal allies of Big Money. Earlier this year, he championed the “anti-piracy” legislation that would give the government huge internet censorship powers on behalf powerful entertainment and media corporations. As a result, Smith faced a primary challenge from a former local Sherrif, Richard Mack. Mack is
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The $35 billion for-profit college industry gets most of its revenue –for many of the big schools, over 90 percent of its revenue — from federal financial aid, a.k.a. your tax dollars. The industry has lobbied hard in recent years to avoid accountability for high-priced, low-quality programs, even after multiple investigations have exposed waste, fraud,
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Stephen Colbert has a pair of fantastic segments called “Better Know a Lobby” and “Better Know a District.” Republic Report would like to bring you our own version: Better Know a Shadowy Front Group. In today’s edition, we’d like to call your attention to a secretive nonprofit, “New Models U.S.A.” The media has linked the
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Congressman Silvestre Reyes lost in the Democratic primary last night to challenger Beto O’Rourke. It’s a notable upset given that this is only the third time this year an incumbent has lost to an outside challenge. But it’s also indicative of a larger wave against corruption. Republic Report profiled the race before, noting that Reyes
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Congressman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) is locked in one of the most watched primary elections tonight. He faces Beto O’Rourke, a businessman and former member of the El Paso City Council. Observers have noted that the election has become a referendum on Reyes’ close ties to the defense contracting industry. Reyes is a proud Drug War
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Big Money corrupts our political system with its campaign contributions, public relations campaigns, insider access, and other means of drowning out the voices of ordinary people.The media is supposed to be our democracy’s guardian against this onslaught of money. But last week Fox Business abdicated its responsibility to cut through the lies of Big Money. It featured
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