(Wall Street Journal) — Money talks, but not always loudly enough. In the most expensive midterm campaign in American history, a flood of cash from conservative organizations helped Republicans win control of the House. But the pro-Republican groups didn’t fare as well in the Senate. Unions spent millions to little avail. And a slew of […]
Tracking private dollars is trickier than ever.
(Washington Post) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was a fierce critic of the federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler last year, saying he could not “ask the American taxpayer to subsidize failure.” But GM doesn’t seem to hold a grudge. The political action committee formed by the company, which is now largely owned […]
(Washington Post) — The District’s campaign finance watchdogs are looking into irregularities in D.C. Council member Kwame R. Brown’s fundraising reports from two previous elections. The review by the Office of Campaign Finance, made public Tuesday, comes as former council member Vincent Orange — Brown’s rival in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary to succeed council Chairman […]
(NYT) — It seemed to be the defining narrative of the 2009 elections in New York City: a billionaire mayor pouring $108 million of his own money into a re-election bid and undermining the fairness of the city’s publicly funded campaign finance system. But the most detailed examination of that election to date tells a […]
(NYT) — Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, declaring his candidacy for governor of New York, could not have been clearer. “The influence of lobbyists and their special interests must be drastically reduced with new contribution limits,” Mr. Cuomo said last month. “We will be taking on very powerful special interests which have much to lose. We […]
(Washington Business Journal) — Mayor Adrian Fenty oversees some 25,000 District government employees. It was inevitable that at least a few of them would contribute to Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s mayoral campaign. But if the staffers thought their donations to the boss’s rival would remain anonymous, they were wrong. Read More…
(Washington Business Journal) — R. Donahue Peebles may not be a candidate for a mayor, yet or ever, but he’s at least playing a financial role in the race for D.C. Council chairman. Peebles, native Washingtonian and owner of The Peebles Corp., contributed $3,500 through three of his development arms to the coffers of At-large Councilman […]
(Washington Business Journal) — The two main players in the race for D.C. mayor waited until just before the midnight Thursday deadline to file their campaign finance reports, perhaps because they had so much money to count. Mayor Adrian Fenty is sitting on a $3.2 million war chest going into the critical summer months, having raised […]
(Atlanta Journal Constitution) — The lousy economy and a crowded field of candidates has made it tough for those running for governor in Georgia to raise money heading into the July 20 primary. The scarce cash could change how the race is run.