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CFIC Story Archives
Back to CFIC Tips and Stories
Every week we choose a story to feature about campaign finance. Here are past selections
Campaing consultants
Sandy Bergo of the Center for Public Integrity decided to focus on the professionals hired by campaigns to run the show and examined spending for the 2003-2004 federal races . The story found that about half of all expenditures went to political consultants, principally to those who create and place television advertising. In the 2004 federal races, more than $1.78 billion flowed through a professional corps of consultants whose influence plays an important, though largely unexamined, role in the unrelenting escalation of campaign spending. The Center conducted a six-month review of thousands of Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service reports on spending during 2003 and 2004 in 471 races. The study involved more than 900 general election presidential, House and Senate candidates; the four other presidential primary candidates who spent $20 million or more; the six major party committees; and 90 nonprofit 527 groups.
Price tag politics
John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader examined Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's career, based on thousands of documents and scores of interviews, to show the nexus between his actions and his donors' agendas. "He pushes the government to help cigarette makers, Las Vegas casinos, the pharmaceutical industry, credit card lenders, coal mine owners and others." Corporate documents made public during litigation suggest a close working relationship between the senator and cigarette-maker lobbyists.
They instructed him on smoking-related legislation. He offered to amend bills on the Senate floor at their direction. During the 1990s, when he attacked the Food and Drug Administration for its anti-smoking efforts, he followed talking points they fed him. Their attorneys helped draft a bill he filed to protect their companies from lawsuits, as well as his correspondence to the White House to oppose federal smoking-prevention programs.
Desert Connections
Chuck Neubauer and Richard T. Cooper of the Los Angeles Times report on an epic development project in Nevada - a "67-square-mile tract of empty desert will blossom into one of the biggest cities in the fastest-growing state in the country and the projected home to more than 200,000 people." The project is on track largely due to close ties between Senator Harry Reid and developer Harvey Whittemore - a mutually beneficial relationship wherein Reid has used his influence to clear obstacles in the process and Whittemore has made significant campaign contributions to Reid and other Democrats.
Democrats use relationships to help with fund raising
Hank Shaw of The Record analysed state campaign finance records to show that Cathleen Galgiani, the chief of staff for termed-out Assemblywoman Barbara Matthews, has received $119,500
of the $260,500 she has raised from people, businesses or political action
committees that also had given to Matthews.Galgiani also has received $171,000 from political action committees such as the
California Farm Bureau Federation, which endorsed Galgiani and sent her a $1,250
check late last month.Galgiani also has received $171,000 from political action committees such as the California Farm Bureau Federation, which endorsed Galgiani and sent her a $1,250 check late last month. The Farm Bureau Federation rarely endorses Democrats, although it repeatedly
supported Matthews, who leads the Assembly Agriculture Committee.
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