In 1999, the United States was booming. The economy was strong, and the Great Recession was still two presidential terms away. About 13,000 lobbyists spent $1.5 billion that year to try to nudge the government in their direction.Source: Where the billions spent on lobbying come from, in maps...
Gov. Chris Christie does not know what he is talking about when he accuses Hillary Clinton of condoning voter fraud because she wants to make it easier to register and vote. In response to Clinton's call for easing voting restrictions and endorsing universal voting registration, Gov.Source: On voter fraud, Christie keeps talking through his hat...
Jeb Bush announced his presidential run, the latest high-profile Republican to join an increasingly large field of conservatives looking to break the Democrats’ eight-year control of the White House.Source: Bush 3.0: Jeb’s Impending Battle With the Media -- And His Last Name...
Once again, a new kind of shadowy organization is threatening the integrity of our nation’s public and political engagement.Source: On Clarifying IRS Rules for Nonprofits, Senator Hatch Takes Bold Stand on Both Sides of Issue...
The Iowa Republican Party's central committee voted unanimously to kill the party's presidential straw poll on Friday, a move the state GOP chairman blamed on the lack of candidates participating this year.Source: Iowa GOP votes to kill its presidential straw poll...
The two-year prison sentence imposed on disgraced GOP operative Tyler Harber is the first step toward greater scrutiny of the consulting industry, federal prosecutors said Friday. The government credited Terry Wear, who runs the 11th district GOP in Virginia, with blowing the whistle on Harber.Source: Republican strategist sentenced to two years for illegal coordination...
Jonathan Zucker and Joshua Tauberer have developed a website where political donors can give money to the campaigns of sitting lawmakers or their future reelection challengers based solely on how those lawmakers vote on legislation. Just don’t confuse it with “bribery,” they say.Source: This Web site allows political donors to give money based on how lawmakers vote. Just don’t call...
[Image by Bahri Altay courtesy of nmhc] UC-Irvine's Rick Hasen has a new opinion piece in Slate in which he takes issue with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's new aggressive stance on election reform - not because of its content but because of its approach: Hillary Clinton spokeSource: Putting Out a Fire with Gasoline: Partisan Election Reform Push Likely Makes...
WASHINGTON — Two Democratic members of the Federal Election Commission, who say they are frustrated by the agency's failure to rein in campaign-finance abuses ahead of the 2016 presidential race, are making what amounts to a drastic move Monday in the staid world of federal election law.Source: Exclusive: Two FEC officials implore agency to curb 2016 election abuse...
