Indiana lawyer Jim Bopp has done a lot to push the Republican National Committee (RNC) in a more conservative direction since he became a member in 2006. He proposed a “Republican litmus test” that would require candidates to meet at least eight of 10 core conservative principles (i.e. opposing amnesty for illegal immigration and same-sex
Continue Reading >>>

Governor Scott Walker (R) trounced his recall election challenger Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett by seven percentage points. Political pundits have tried to blame Barrett’s loss on a whole host of issues: unions are getting weaker, Obama should have intervened on Barrett’s side earlier, Walker is just a better candidate. However, the biggest thing we can
Continue Reading >>>

A California ballot measure to raise taxes on cigarettes by a dollar per pack failed yesterday. 50.8 percent of voters opposed the initiative compared to 49.2 percent who favored the tax, which would raise money for cancer research and anti-smoking projects for kids. Just a few months ago, about two-thirds of voters backed the measure. But
Continue Reading >>>

Citizens United, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped bring even more corporate money into politics, has already made history. Outside groups have spent record amounts influencing the 2012 election already propelling unlikely candidates like Newt Gingrich to remain in the race for far longer than actual voters seemed to want them around. People on the
Continue Reading >>>

Corporate front group the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has faced increasing scrutiny for secretly passing off corporate-written laws to state legislatures, including the controversial Stand Your Ground gun law. Late last night, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer and biggest seller of firearms in the country, announced it was suspending its membership in ALEC,
Continue Reading >>>

While much of the buzz around Facebook has been geographically centered on Wall Street, perhaps just as lucrative for the company are the ties it’s creating in Washington. The social media giant has upped its lobbying game, spending a record amount on federal lobbying in the first quarter of 2012. But everyone knows that the
Continue Reading >>>

Today, at Amazon.com’s shareholder meeting in Seattle, organizers from groups including Color of Change, CREDO, People for the American Way, and Working Washington delivered petition signatures from over half a million people calling on Amazon.com and other corporations to stop funding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporate front group responsible for pushing an
Continue Reading >>>

(No offense, Mississippi.) Last week, Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to let stand a decision by the Montana Supreme Court, American Tradition Partnership vs. Bullock, upholding the state’s ban on outside election spending by corporations. The anti-environmental group American Tradition Partnership contends that
Continue Reading >>>