Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:
FEC NO LONGER ENFORCING ELECTION LAW?: Following an August story on OpenSecrets Blog chronicling organizations skirting Federal Election Commission disclosure laws, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 sent a letter to the FEC begging one question: Who is enforcing FEC law if the FEC isn�t?
The letter focuses on contention over �reasonable interpretation� of what constitutes �express advocacy� in the context of a statement by the FEC that an advertisement urging the public �help� a candidate is not express advocacy, since it does not directly tell the public to �vote for� a candidate.
While the letter cites OpenSecrets.org data, the Center for Responsive Politics remains neutral on the issue.
The groups are seeking clarification and a legal explanation, given that advertisements not demonstrating express advocacy are not subject to laws requiring public disclosure of advertising funding.
Meanwhile, a new report by non-profit advocacy group Public Citizen delves deeper into campaign finance information disclosure in the wake of the January Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court ruling. The report contends that the identities of the people and organizations behind political advertisements are becoming less clear, particularly among �Republican-oriented� groups.
The report shows the percentage of groups reporting donors decreasing from 98 percent and 97 percent in 2004 and 2006, respectively, to 49 percent in 2008 and only 32 percent thus far in the 2010 election cycle.
�The Supreme Court has unleashed a flood of new corporate spending on election ads and the public can�t even tell who is behind a given ad,� explained David Arkush, director of Public Citizen�s Congress Watch division, in a Wall Street Journal article.
LADY GAGA AND HARRY REID TEAM UP: What do Lady Gaga and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have in common? Hint: not fashion sense. Still, the pair teamed up earlier this week via Twitter to voice support for the repeal of the military�s �Don�t Ask, Don�t Tell� policy for gay service members.
Reid began the correspondence with a tweet saying �@ladygaga There is a vote on #DADT next week. Anyone qualified to serve this country should be allowed to do so.� The pop star responded by writing �God Bless and Thank you @HarryReid, from all of us, like u, who believe in equality and the dream of this country. We were #BORNTHISWAY.�
While there is no record of Gaga herself making campaign contributions to Reid, the senator has done well fund-raising with her colleagues in the television, movies and music industry, who have donated $436,250 to Reid during the 2010 election cycle.
From 2009-2010, Reid is second to only U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in campaign contributions from people and political action committees associated with this industry.
BLOOMBERG�S PERSONAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION RECORD BROKEN: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg may be notable for massive contributions to his own campaigns, but this billionaire media mogul-turned-politico�s record for the largest personal campaign contribution in U.S. history has been shattered by California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, a Republican.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported another $15 million donation Tuesday, bringing Whitman�s total personal contributions for the 2010 governor�s race to $119 million. A recent Rasmussen poll shows Whitman, former chief executive officer of eBay, slightly ahead of Democratic challenger Jerry Brown, the state�s former governor and current attorney general.
Bloomberg set the former record of $108 million in personal contributions in his mayoral re-election bid last year, when he spent about $185 per vote, as OpenSecrets Blog previously reported.
Have a news tip or link to pass along? We want to hear from you! E-mail us at press@crp.org.
The company posted an article from Google Fellow and Engineer Amit Singhal on its public policy blog. It stemmed from “a debate” about fairness in search published by the Wall Street Journal. Singhal talks a bit more about Google's secrets and competition:
"Making our systems 100% transparent would not help users, but it would help the bad guys and spammers who try game the system. When you type "Nigeria" you probably want to learn about the country. You probably don't want to see a bunch of sites from folks offering to send you money . . . if you would only give them your bank account number!"
"We may be the world's most popular search engine, but at the end of the day our competition is literally just one click away. If we messed with results in a way that didn't serve our users' interests, they would and should simply go elsewhere—not just to other search engines like Bing, but to specialized sites like Amazon, eBay or Zillow. People are increasingly experiencing the Web through social networks like Facebook. And mobile and tablet apps are a newer alternative for accessing information."
Singhal also says that Google reveals more about its ranking factors than any other search engine, and offers more tools to webmasters to take advantage.
Sullivan appears to think the list should be published, without revealing how factors are actually measured, but Schmidt says even the list would reveal too much.
Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/4 - Arrowhead Pride
However, there aren't many real stories because of the bye. I'd expect the hype to start soon. We're just a few days from the undefeated Chiefs playing the "struggling" Colts. Here's your Kansas City Chiefs news.
CBS <b>News</b> Reporter Arrested for Growing Pot | PopEater.com
Police arrested CBS News correspondent Howard Arenstein and his wife, along with reporter Orly Azoulay, Saturday for drug possession with intent to di.
Record attendance for Eurogamer Expo | <b>News</b>
This year's Eurogamer Expo, which took place in London across October 1-3, has been hailed a.
eric seiger eric seiger
Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:
FEC NO LONGER ENFORCING ELECTION LAW?: Following an August story on OpenSecrets Blog chronicling organizations skirting Federal Election Commission disclosure laws, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 sent a letter to the FEC begging one question: Who is enforcing FEC law if the FEC isn�t?
The letter focuses on contention over �reasonable interpretation� of what constitutes �express advocacy� in the context of a statement by the FEC that an advertisement urging the public �help� a candidate is not express advocacy, since it does not directly tell the public to �vote for� a candidate.
While the letter cites OpenSecrets.org data, the Center for Responsive Politics remains neutral on the issue.
The groups are seeking clarification and a legal explanation, given that advertisements not demonstrating express advocacy are not subject to laws requiring public disclosure of advertising funding.
Meanwhile, a new report by non-profit advocacy group Public Citizen delves deeper into campaign finance information disclosure in the wake of the January Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court ruling. The report contends that the identities of the people and organizations behind political advertisements are becoming less clear, particularly among �Republican-oriented� groups.
The report shows the percentage of groups reporting donors decreasing from 98 percent and 97 percent in 2004 and 2006, respectively, to 49 percent in 2008 and only 32 percent thus far in the 2010 election cycle.
�The Supreme Court has unleashed a flood of new corporate spending on election ads and the public can�t even tell who is behind a given ad,� explained David Arkush, director of Public Citizen�s Congress Watch division, in a Wall Street Journal article.
LADY GAGA AND HARRY REID TEAM UP: What do Lady Gaga and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) have in common? Hint: not fashion sense. Still, the pair teamed up earlier this week via Twitter to voice support for the repeal of the military�s �Don�t Ask, Don�t Tell� policy for gay service members.
Reid began the correspondence with a tweet saying �@ladygaga There is a vote on #DADT next week. Anyone qualified to serve this country should be allowed to do so.� The pop star responded by writing �God Bless and Thank you @HarryReid, from all of us, like u, who believe in equality and the dream of this country. We were #BORNTHISWAY.�
While there is no record of Gaga herself making campaign contributions to Reid, the senator has done well fund-raising with her colleagues in the television, movies and music industry, who have donated $436,250 to Reid during the 2010 election cycle.
From 2009-2010, Reid is second to only U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in campaign contributions from people and political action committees associated with this industry.
BLOOMBERG�S PERSONAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION RECORD BROKEN: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg may be notable for massive contributions to his own campaigns, but this billionaire media mogul-turned-politico�s record for the largest personal campaign contribution in U.S. history has been shattered by California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, a Republican.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported another $15 million donation Tuesday, bringing Whitman�s total personal contributions for the 2010 governor�s race to $119 million. A recent Rasmussen poll shows Whitman, former chief executive officer of eBay, slightly ahead of Democratic challenger Jerry Brown, the state�s former governor and current attorney general.
Bloomberg set the former record of $108 million in personal contributions in his mayoral re-election bid last year, when he spent about $185 per vote, as OpenSecrets Blog previously reported.
Have a news tip or link to pass along? We want to hear from you! E-mail us at press@crp.org.
The company posted an article from Google Fellow and Engineer Amit Singhal on its public policy blog. It stemmed from “a debate” about fairness in search published by the Wall Street Journal. Singhal talks a bit more about Google's secrets and competition:
"Making our systems 100% transparent would not help users, but it would help the bad guys and spammers who try game the system. When you type "Nigeria" you probably want to learn about the country. You probably don't want to see a bunch of sites from folks offering to send you money . . . if you would only give them your bank account number!"
"We may be the world's most popular search engine, but at the end of the day our competition is literally just one click away. If we messed with results in a way that didn't serve our users' interests, they would and should simply go elsewhere—not just to other search engines like Bing, but to specialized sites like Amazon, eBay or Zillow. People are increasingly experiencing the Web through social networks like Facebook. And mobile and tablet apps are a newer alternative for accessing information."
Singhal also says that Google reveals more about its ranking factors than any other search engine, and offers more tools to webmasters to take advantage.
Sullivan appears to think the list should be published, without revealing how factors are actually measured, but Schmidt says even the list would reveal too much.
Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 10/4 - Arrowhead Pride
However, there aren't many real stories because of the bye. I'd expect the hype to start soon. We're just a few days from the undefeated Chiefs playing the "struggling" Colts. Here's your Kansas City Chiefs news.
CBS <b>News</b> Reporter Arrested for Growing Pot | PopEater.com
Police arrested CBS News correspondent Howard Arenstein and his wife, along with reporter Orly Azoulay, Saturday for drug possession with intent to di.
Record attendance for Eurogamer Expo | <b>News</b>
This year's Eurogamer Expo, which took place in London across October 1-3, has been hailed a.
eric seiger eric seiger
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