Associated Press: Democratic Convention Benefits From Corporate Cash Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Duke Energy have all sent checks to New American City Inc., a non-profit entity being run by top officials on the convention host committee. Corporate money is bankrolling operations in direct support of the convention, including paying the salaries of the
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Google prides itself as a company that goes out of its way to address climate change. An entire website is devoted to Google’s efforts to achieve a “zero” carbon footprint, from energy efficient servers to CO2-reducing investments. But Google’s green PR campaign doesn’t seem to be coordinating its message with Google’s DC advocacy and campaign
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As we’ve shown here at Republic Report time and time again, the U.S. political system’s rules for disclosure, well, suck. It’s very difficult to know who is actually lobbying the government — a lot of people do it without ever registering as lobbyists — or exactly how and when money changes hands. That’s a huge
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by freshman Congressman Tom Reed (R-NY), are pushing to violate the congressional earmark ban with a miscellaneous tariff bill that provides special tax treatment to targeted companies looking to import goods. The bill, which provides an uneven playing field for business, is widely viewed as a payback to campaign
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If Maine’s two senators, or even one of them, had stood by their long-held principles, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today where the majority of the outside spending groups are completely undisclosed, and even foreign corporations can spend in our elections without any transparency. Because of the Supreme Court, we can’t limit
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In 2002, Senator Paull Wellstone (D-MN) offered an amendment to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation to ban so-called “sham issue advocacy” groups from airing ads within 60 days of an election. His amendment targeted undisclosed campaign groups — from the NRA, to the Sierra Club, and the National Right to Life. If it weren’t
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High-priced lobbyists representing for-profit colleges, an industry largely created by K Street pressure over a decade, continue to do everything possible to avoid accountability for that industry’s waste, fraud, and abuse with $32 billion a year of your tax dollars. Many on Capitol Hill do the bidding of these wealthy companies and get campaign contributions in
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Corruption comes in many forms. Sometimes special interests attempt to buy influence through disclosed campaign donations, but too often, influence is purchased through unorthodox giveaways to our politicians, from discounted mortgages, to free yachts, and promises of future jobs. And in some cases, special interests gain a foothold by exploiting a lawmaker’s childhood fantasies. Senator Pat Leahy
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