Former Missouri Senator Jim Talent has emerged as a key policy advisor and public surrogate for Mitt Romney, and he is “regarded by insiders as a contender for a Cabinet-rank position if Romney wins the election,” maybe even Secretary of Defense. Just this morning, Talent appeared 0n MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown” to preview Romney’s debate performance and criticize
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Huffington Post published this piece by me yesterday, as part of its Shadow Conventions series: To grasp the harms caused when money dominates politics, start with for-profit colleges. This industry tripled in size during the last decade, spurred by deceptive recruiting practices, after its lobbyists loosened federal rules aimed at protecting students and taxpayers from
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Last night, former congressman Pete Hoekstra won the Michigan GOP Senate primary, securing his spot as the party’s nominee. He will be competing the Senate seat this November. In between his stint as a congressman and this current race, Hoekstra raked in nearly half a million dollars as “a senior adviser with Dickstein Shapiro LLP,
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Industry analysts are predicting that upwards of $3 billion will be spent on political advertisements in the 2012 election. This is an increase of more than $500 million from 2008. But who will benefit the most from this cash infusion? Not President Obama. Not even Mitt Romney. Rather, the National Association of Broadcasters, a lobbying group
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We all know how the Founders wanted lawmaking to work — but lately, the democratic process has been upended by a flood of Big Money. From our friends at unPAC, here’s how a bill(ionaire) becomes a law(maker)…and what we can do to take back our democracy!

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
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On Sunday’s CNN “State of the Union,” Mitt Romney senior advisor Ed Gillespie explained how a second Obama Administration would reward its rich friends: “If you’re a political donor to Barack Obama, you’re going to do fine, because you’re going to get a payoff.” This statement was pure hypocrisy: “a feigning to be what one is
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There’s a populist revolt against Big Money, and one place where you can see this on full display is in Texas. Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst is running against former Solicitor General Ted Cruz for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, and each side has accused the other of being beholden to lobbyists. Dewhurst, who is widely
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