Special interests don’t always get their way by just spending money on campaign contributions or lobbying. Sometimes these Big Money interests just directly have candidates for office on their payroll. Richard Carmona is a former U.S. Surgeon General and sheriff running for the Arizona Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate. In recent weeks, there have been a
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The jobs report released this morning by the federal government is discouraging, with unemployment hanging around 8.2 percent.  Americans expect their government to take action and work to fix the economy. Freshman congressman Tim Scott (R-SC) claimed to be doing that yesterday, when he hosted a “Revitalizing America” forum on Capitol Hill. My colleague Lee
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Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are leading an effort to keep more secret money in our election system. Two weeks ago, a Senate panel approved a bill that would prevent the public from learning about which taxpayer-funded companies are funneling money into political campaigns. As Mother Jones’ Gavin Aronsen notes, the legislation
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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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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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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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Standing before soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia, last month, President Obama signed an executive order to protect U.S. troops, veterans, and their families from predatory abuses by some for-profit colleges. Obama delivered powerful remarks, charging that such for-profit schools “aren’t interested in helping you…. They are interested in getting the money.” He called the schools’ conduct “disgraceful” and
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  The FBI raided campuses of Florida-based FastTrain College on Wednesday. The for-profit school has multiple ties to Representative Alcee Hastings (D-FL), who has been a fervent backer of for-profit education companies. This industry has lobbied Congress fiercely in recent years to avoid accountability for waste, fraud, and abuse at the expense of students and
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