Turn on the television in southwest Michigan this week, and you might see an ad from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce praising Congressman Fred Upton (R), who now locked in a contentious primary election with former State Representative Jack Hoogendyk (R). The narrator thanks Upton for “creating jobs” with lower taxes and less regulations. View
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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a lobbying federation that behaves like a super PAC in terms of how much it spends on ads and get out the vote efforts, recently launched a $10 millionelection ad blitz. The Chamber’s ad campaign includes a thirty second television spot that praises Congressman Sean Duffy (R-WI). Only one month
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While President Obama and his campaign allies have now embraced big money politics as their savior in the 2012 election, a surprising voice argues that the people-powered Occupy Wall Street has the most potential to disrupt the race. At a talk last month in Washington DC, veteran Republican campaign operative Steve Schmidt, who managed John
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Last night, Mitt Romney’s campaign raised an estimated $1 million from a “policy” fundraiser in Washington DC. Attendees paid at least $10,000 each to hobnob with the men and women helping to write Romney’s policy plans (view an invitation here). The behind closed doors event has been assailed by the press already for featuring a
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Yesterday, Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI) endorsed Mitt Romney for President, just ahead of the Michigan Republican primary. The announcement — which can be found here on the Romney website — omits an important, yet behind the scenes detail. The morning of the announcement, Ben Ginsberg, an attorney with the mega-lobbying firm Patton Boggs hosted a
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Mitt Romney, who has declared his admiration for for-profit colleges while receiving donations from for-profit education executives, boasts as a top education advisor a former George Bush official whose decisions in government helped unleash a decade of waste, fraud, and abuse by the for-profit college industry. Politico posted this invitation to a “POLICY ROUNDTABLE MEETING AND
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Many of the reactions to President Obama’s blessing of his affiliated super PAC, Priorities USA Action, have been predictable. Including, in a sort of Twilight Zone way, Bradley A. Smith, former Federal Elections Commission chairman and founder of the Center for Competitive Politics, a conservative organization that promotes the deregulation of campaign finance law and
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President Obama’s campaign announced late yesterday that it would be encouraging supporters to financially support the Priorities USA Action Super PAC, breaking with previous criticism of Super PACs. The co-founder and senior strategist of Priorities USA Action is former Obama White House aide Bill Burton. Burton has enthusiastically helped lead the organization since its founding
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