Corporations often seek to elect their own politicians and set policy, but are nervous about public backlash from engaging directly in politics. That’s why so many corporations hide behind layers of front groups and dummy nonprofits to run ads and other electioneering efforts. Aetna, the health insurance company, was recently exposed for secretly financing at
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Drones aren’t just for battlefields in the Middle East or South Asia anymore. In February, Congress authorized the use of thousands of surveillance drones domestically in the United States. At a conference of drone manufacturers that Republic Report attended in Washington, D.C., lobbyists praised Members of Congress for giving them exactly the sort of authorization
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Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Republican leader in the Senate, is one of the most dedicated opponents of campaign finance reform. Going beyond many of his colleagues on the right, McConnell opposes even the disclosure of many types of campaign spending and funding. McConnell spent much of his day Friday giving speeches on Fox News
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Last week, Republic Report was the first news outlet to report that Mercury Public Affairs, a powerful public relations and lobbying firm, sent a staffer posing as a “journalist” to spy on warehouse workers on behalf of its client Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart and Mercury acknowledged their relationship but claimed that the staffer, Stephanie Harnett, was working
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Last year, Arkansas Representative Mike Ross was the Democratic co-sponsor of an amendment to delay the US Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing the Cross-State Air Pollution rule, which would curb the amount of soot and other dangerous chemicals released by industry. Regulators estimate that the rule could prevent 520 premature deaths in Arkansas every year, particularly because the
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If you live in Florida, Ohio, Montana, or Missouri, you’ve probably seen attack ads from the 60 Plus Association, a group that touts itself a “non-partisan seniors’ advocacy group” and the “conservative alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).” Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) alone has faced $2.3 million in ads all financed by
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The for-profit college industry contains many schools that regularly scam students and taxpayers. Large for-profits like Kaplan, DeVry, Bridgepoint, and the University of Phoenix spend big lobbying the federal government and providing campaign contributions, and in return the government shovels about $32 billion a year into the for-profit college industry via student loans and grants. These schools
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Maverick, indeed. Despite being a prominent Mitt Romney surrogate, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) criticized one of the Republican presidential contender’s super PAC sugar daddies and questioned whether the millions of dollars Adelson is spending on the election is considered “foreign money.” Yesterday, he told PBS’s News Hour: “Much of Mr. Adelson’s casino profits that go
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