Last year, Steve Lebowitz and I published a story for ThinkProgress revealing that Steve Lonegan, a Republican candidate for New Jersey governor in 2009, made false statements in order to obtain millions in public funding for his election. Our report sparked a qui tam lawsuit by a citizen in New Jersey against Lonegan for defrauding the
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Last week, you learned about former banking committee staffer Scott Eckel, who should just be settling into his new job as head of lobbying for Charles Schwab. Eckel is now earning money based on his connections crafted during his time as a public policy-maker, which is a nice clear a case of Backdoor Bribery. Below
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Selling out pays. We looked at just a dozen Members of Congress who became lobbyists and other advocates for special interests after they left office and found that they received an average of a 1,452 percent raise. So we here at Republic Report sent a letter to all 36 retiring Members of Congress asking them
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Last week, the American Bankers Association (ABA) — a leading lobbying group for Big Banks —  held a large lobbying meeting in Washington, D.C. Thousands of bankers packed the halls of the Omni Shoreham Hotel to hear Members of Congress praise their industry and encourage them to back certain pieces of legislation. The only Democratic
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The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has gotten some much-deserved exposure for its secretive campaigns to push harmful laws in statehouses across the country this week after it was revealed that it helped push Stand Your Ground, the law keeping Trayvon Martin’s killer free in Florida. ALEC, funded by many major corporations we all know,
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An interesting idea has emerged from lawmakers from both sides of the political spectrum: why not ban members of Congress from becoming K Street lobbyists? In Canada, senior lawmakers and government officials face a five year lobbying ban. In America, the “cooling off” period is only one year for congressmen and two years for senators
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Republic Report has obtained financial audits showing that the billionaire Koch brothers supported at least $3.9 million in unreported election-related activity in 2010. The documents, reported here for the first time, provide a window into an otherwise secret campaign infrastructure that will likely be reactivated this year. David and Charles Koch, the billionaire brothers of
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In the wake of the terrible tragedy of 17-year-old Trayvon Marton’s death, journalists, activists, politicians, and other concerned citizens have focused on the “Stand Your Ground” law (also known as the “Castle Doctrine“), which Florida police have claimed they are following in declining to arrest George Zimmerman, Martin’s killer. This law was pushed by the
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