Congressman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) has faced years upon years of scandal: FBI investigations over corrupt land deals, ties to the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal, pay-to-play earmarks, and even a small controversy over his attempt to solicit lobbyists to finance his official portrait. Later this month, American League of Lobbyists is hosting an event on “Effecitve
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Bloomberg BusinessWeek: Campaign Fundraisers: You’re Cordially Excluded There are many aspects of our money-soaked political culture to worry about. One that we seem to be getting awfully comfortable with is the off-the-record fundraiser, which consumes an increasing amount of presidential candidates’ time and energy. Raising money under a cloak of silence suggests that candidates have one
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Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent using undisclosed front groups to influence political campaigns and elections. This trend has been aggravated by the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, with many corporations preferring undisclosed nonprofits as the vehicle to deliver hard-hitting, and often deceptive, television advertisements against lawmakers. But a simple measure to allow
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We’ve been continually reporting on the tea party-progressive movement in Georgia to demand a lobbyist gift cap so that lobbyists can no longer give any gifts to lawmakers that cost more than $100 (Georgia is today one of three states where lobbyists can give unlimited gifts to legislators). At least 130 sitting state lawmakers or
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According to Crossroads GPS, politicians who supported President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the economic stimulus program, were “cheerleader[s] for massive spending.” Crossroads GPS, the anonymously funded Republican attack ad group, launched a new ad earlier this week accusing Democratic candidates of supporting a stimulus that “failed miserably.” The ad, which
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If you’ve ever been to a doctor’s office, chances are you’ve seen pharmaceutical advertisements or even samples of the latest wonder drug. In 2011, ProPublica published a landmark database that showed how widespread the practice is of major pharmaceutical companies paying doctors to promote their drugs; some estimates of these payments find that as many
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Washington Post: Money gap may not matter so much in November Obama probably will be similarly outspent in the end, but given the near-parity in bank accounts on both sides, it won’t make much difference. “Nobody’s going to win or lose this election on the basis of not having enough money,” said Bob Biersack, a
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The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) has just announced this afternoon that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has said that there will be a vote on the DISCLOSE (Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections) Act on Monday. The DISCLOSE Act helps make election spending more transparent, by requiring the disclosure of donors to
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