political donations

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Dead People Have Donated $586K to Politicians

And some people want those donations to be unlimited

(Newser) - Last week, someone noticed that a super PAC loyal to Mitch McConnell had gotten a $100,000 contribution from GOP mega-donor Bob Perry on June 3, which seemed odd given that Perry died back on April 13. The PAC later said there had been a clerical error, and that it...

Think Small Donors Are Good for Politics? Think Again

Ezra Klein: They're making things worse by encouraging 'polarization' of parties

(Newser) - Quick, which makes for a healthier political system: big donors or small? Many would pick the latter, on the theory that ordinary citizens shelling out $25 apiece is far more noble than DC lobbyists writing fat checks. But at Bloomberg View , Ezra Klein makes the case that small donors might...

Walmart Heir Gives Surprise $300K to Obama PAC

The Waltons are famously conservative

(Newser) - Expect the next Walton family reunion to be awkward: Samuel Rawlings Walton, grandson and namesake of the late Walmart founder, recently gave a $300,000 donation to a pro-Obama super PAC, reports the Washington Post . His grandfather was a well-known conservative, and several other Waltons have given big bucks to...

'No-Limits' Giving: Missouri Has It, and US Could Too

Lawyers want to ax all political-donation caps

(Newser) - With Republicans trying to remove caps on all direct political donations, the New York Times looks at how it works in Missouri—where one retired investor has donated $20 million to PACs and candidates over the past four years. Rex Sinquefield, 68, has helped sustain a GOP campaign for secretary...

Team Romney Raised $170M Last Month

And kicks off $50K 'Republicanpalooza' this weekend

(Newser) - Riding high on his first debate performance , Mitt Romney has more good news: His campaign raised $170 million last month, nearly matching Obama's killer $181 million haul , the New York Times reports. What's more, Romney's campaign is hosting a 3-day donor retreat at the New York Waldorf-Astoria...

Whistle-Blower Lawyers Give Obama $3M

And why not? His policies are making them rich

(Newser) - Attorneys for whistle-blowers have donated millions of dollars to President Obama—which is hardly surprising, considering that his fight against corporate fraud has put millions in their pockets, the New York Times reports. With the Dodd-Frank Act empowering whistle-blowers, Obama's administration has paid them $1.6 billion so far,...

George Soros Gives $1M to Pro-Obama Super PAC

He adds another $500K for congressional Democrats

(Newser) - Need more proof that deep-pocketed Democrats are finally coming around to the notion of Super PACs? None other than George Soros announced this afternoon that he's giving $1 million to the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action and another $500,000 to a pair of Super PACs backing Democrats in Congress,...

Now You Can Text Your Donation to Obama

Campaign launching new method this week

(Newser) - The Obama and Romney campaigns are already basically spamming supporters via email, and now Obama 2012 is entering the brave new realm of text message donations and will begin accepting them for the first time this week. Donors can text "GIVE" to 62262 (corresponds with "Obama" on a...

Gay-Marriage Fight's Windfall: $2.5M From Amazon Boss

Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer give $100K each

(Newser) - When a former employee emailed Jeff Bezos to ask for some cash to support a gay-marriage referendum in Washington state, she asked him to consider ponying up between $100,000 and $200,000. Instead, she landed $2.5 million for the cause. "This is right for so many reasons,...

Morgan Freeman Gives Obama Huge Campaign Boost

Donates $1M to pro-Obama super PAC

(Newser) - Priorities USA Action, the super PAC supporting President Obama, has been struggling, raising just $6 million last month —and one-sixth of that came from a single source: Actor Morgan Freeman is putting his money where his mouth is, Politico reports, donating a cool million bucks to the super PAC....

Wall Street Defects to Romney en Masse

He's out-fundraised Obama in the financial sector by a ludicrous margin

(Newser) - Wall Street is behind Mitt Romney, and it's quite literally voting with its dollars. Romney is clobbering President Obama when it comes to financial-sector donations, raising $37.1 million to just $4.8 million, Politico reports. That might not sound surprising given Romney's financial roots, but many of...

Fashion Bigwigs Now Big Political Players

Designers used to support issues; now they're supporting Obama

(Newser) - Could Michelle Obama's taste in clothes help her husband win reelection? The Washington Post sees a fashion industry gaining political traction—and a pattern emerging between Mrs. Obama's outfits and her husband's donations. Almost half of the designers she wears have donated to the president's cause,...

Soros Giving $2M in Dem Donations

He donates $1M to super PAC despite opposing them

(Newser) - George Soros has put himself back in the big leagues of political donors with a pair of hefty donations to pro-Democratic groups. The billionaire—who donated $23 million to groups opposing George W. Bush's re-election in 2004—has given $1 million to the advocacy group America Votes, and $1...

Only 26% of Political Donations From Women

Figure has actually dipped in recent years: Survey

(Newser) - Less than a third of political donations come from women, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed the money given to candidates, political action committees, and party committees in 2010 and discovered that only 26% of federal contributions came from female donors, a dip from 31% in 2008, and 27%...

Meet the GOP&#39;s Biggest Donor
 Meet the GOP's Biggest Donor 

Meet the GOP's Biggest Donor

It's not Sheldon Adelson: Harold Clark Simmons has given $18.7M

(Newser) - Sheldon Adelson and Foster Friess have been in the spotlight as the billionaire backers of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, respectively, but one man has given more than either of them to the GOP's 2012 effort: Harold Clark Simmons. The difference is that Simmons, the 80-year-old Texas billionaire head...

Obama's Big-Money Donations Lagging

$2K gifts number less than half of what they did at this point in 2008

(Newser) - The Obama re-election campaign is out-earning the Republicans, and has collected donations from more than 1.4 million people. But one area where President Obama is badly lagging is with big-money donations—an issue that political observers say could presage problems to come, reports the Washington Post . At this point...

Stop the Billionaires: Amend the Constitution
Stop the Billionaires:
Amend the Constitution
OPINION

Stop the Billionaires: Amend the Constitution

Jonathan Alter: Citizens United, super PACs killing our democracy

(Newser) - To Jonathan Alter, it's already clear that the 2012 presidential election will be "one of the most corrupt in US history." It's all thanks to Citizens United, the court ruling that allows a "tiny group of billionaires"—the current crop includes Sheldon Adelson , the...

Obama Returns $200K Linked to Fugitive

Donations from family of Mexican casino boss Pepe Cardona

(Newser) - The Obama campaign has decided to return more than $200,000 worth of donations linked to Juan Jose Rojas Cardona, aka Pepe, a Mexican casino magnate who jumped bail in Iowa in 1994 to avoid drug and fraud charges, and has since come under suspicion of assassinating a business rival...

Special Interests Hold Sway in Judicial Elections: Adam Cohen
 Special Interests 
 Control Our Judges 
study says

Special Interests Control Our Judges

Campaign cash compromises their integrity: Adam Cohen

(Newser) - It’s not just legislative and executive elections that are unfairly influenced by big money. America needs to wake up to the power of special interests in judicial elections, writes Adam Cohen in Time . A new study sees “big business, corporate lobbyists, and trial lawyers” spending cash to get...

Donor Map Suggests Trouble for Obama in Ohio

If contributions are a guide, voters in the swing state aren't wild about him

(Newser) - Better keep an eye on Ohio, President Obama. So concludes the Daily Intel blog at New York after some serious number-crunching on a national map of political donors. The color-coded chart suggests that voters in the important swing state aren't that enthusiastic about having Obama win the state in...

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