Tag: Campaign Finance
America’s True Democratic Process
Midterm elections are right around the corner, just less than five months away now, and the American people are going to head out to the polls and triumphantly elect new members of the US House of Representatives and a significant portion of the United States Senate. Voters will decide based on a wide range of issues which candidate best suits their needs and which candidate will best represent them in Congress. Overall, a large portion of the nation will vote, and we’ll get to see the miracle of democracy in action.
Ha, sike. Funny, isn’t it?
On election day 2014 about 62 million voters, or around 36% of the electorate, will decide who will make the nation’s laws for the next two years, or six for some senators (or 36 for some Kentucky Senators). Overall if the 2014 elections look anything like the 2010 elections (let’s truly hope they don’t), the youth vote will be several percent smaller, turnout will be significantly lower, and the average American won’t vote. Going into the full-swing election season opinion polls show 66% of Americans or more want new members of Congress, 68% see Republicans as out of touch, 73% are in favor of a minimum wage increase, 59% think money should be distributed more evenly, and Democrats lead on Health Care, Energy, the Environment, Minimum Wage, Immigration, and tie on the economy by most polls.
Yet, on November 4th, 2014, it’s increasingly likely that not only will we most certainly elect a Republican speaker of the House, but also a Republican senate majority leader. How exactly does this happen?
An Opportunity for Campaign Finance Reform
Yesterday’s NJ detailed how developers (with multiple companies) could legally contribute multiple times to a candidate:
The practice of companies tied to one developer each contributing the maximum contribution gives the developer greater influence in the election process than other donors who don’t have separate companies to funnel contributions through.
“It’s an outrageous loophole for developers. It makes a mockery of the limits,” said James Browning, regional director of state operations with Common Cause advocacy organization. “It’s a double standard for developers. How can you trust in a system where so few people can buy so much access?”
Campaign Finance Reports — 8 Day Primary Edition
The 8 Day Campaign Finance reports were due in to the Department of Elections on 5 September, covering the period from 8/13 through 9/3 for all candidates. Want to take a look? Following the money is always fun and sometimes instructive. We posted up a thread for folks taking a look at the 30 day reports, and here is your chance to post up what you find for candidates AND their PACs.
Campaign Finance Reports
30 day Campaign Finance reports for the 9/11 primary were due yesterday — 8/14/2012 — to the Department of Elections. Looking over finance reports is a good deal of fun and you can judge something about campaigns by the amount of money raised and *who* they raise it from. If you want to start perusing some reports, take a look
Campaign Finance Reports – KWS Edition
End of year campaign finance reports were due by January 20, 2012, and of course, KWS filed hers late. It makes for some interesting reading.
It seems that a number of individuals and law firms with an interest in the captive insurance industry like KWS enough to give her money. Now mind you, captive insurance does nothing for the consumer. It isn’t to benefit Delaware consumers; captive insurance is insurance for corporations. It isn’t to benefit our state, and, despite her claims to the contrary, the captive bureau does not fill the state’s coffers. So why does KWS push the captive bureau so hard? Because it makes her donors (lawyers and law firms who work in captive insurance) more money. And in turn, they kick-back money to her campaign.
DL Interviews Chris Coons – Money and Politics
Unstable Isotope and I got a chance to interview Chris Coons on Thursday afternoon. I will post these over the next day or so. The first episode is two questions, one about the impact that the huge budget of Christine O’Donnell has had on his campaign. The second question was about Mr. Coons’ thoughts on […]
Congressional Seating Charts — If They Were Seated By Their Funders
Mother Jones magazine has a fantastic special report that they’ve called Who Owns Congress? There are articles and great graphics showing the biggest 527s operating this cycle, the most generous individual donors, the top 75 corporate donors among other reports and analyses.
Lie Of the Year?
We have our first nominee, and it’ll be hard to beat. Ginger Gibson, in today’s News-Journal, reported on how Delaware Park maxed out on political contributions to well over half the members of the Delaware General Assembly. Many of those contributions came right around the time that the existing racinos “beat back proposals to increase […]
The Real Bush Legacy
Bush was a terrible president who left a mess for us to clean up. Record deficits, lying to lead us into war, torture and contempt for the Constitution, and the worst recession since the Great Depression. Potentially his biggest legacy will be the activist Roberts Supreme Court, which rolled back 100 years of law in […]
Breaking: Supreme Court Opens The Floodgates
Instead of fighting amongst ourselves, perhaps we might want to keep our eye on the ball. The long-awaited 5-4 ruling, in the Citizens United v. FEC case, presents advocates of regulation with a major challenge in limiting the flow of corporate money into campaigns, and potentially opens the door for unrestricted amounts of corporate money […]
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