Politics

Daily disclosures

By Bill Allison

A round up of what we?re seeing in online disclosures:

New Super PACs: There are three new committees — Planned Parenthood Votes, Restore America’s Voice PAC (which may or may not promote throat lozenges) and the NEA Advocacy Fund that have filed with the FEC saying they’re going to take contributions from any source in unlimited amounts. There are now 47 such committees, but only 18 have spent reported spending money so far. (But see a few items down for an update)

Check out our Follow the Unlimited Money tool to get all the latest on spending by outside groups.

Follow the 501(c)4: That’s what my colleague Ryan Sibley does, unraveling who’s behind (as far as we can tell) a group called CSS Action Fund that’s run an ad supporting Sen. Patty Murray in Washington State. Amazingly enough, its very hard for a reporter to get hold of anyone to talk about this “grassroots” group.

Coming attractions: I’ll post a little editor’s note on how we did the story, complete with a handwritten page from my notes, a bit later on the Reporting Group site.

Recession: Incredibly, no lobbying firm reported new clients to the Senate Office of Public Records between Oct. 5 and Oct. 7, 2010. With Congress focused on election day (and mostly out of town), lobbyists will have to satisfy themselves with attending fundraisers.

That makes 48: Since I started writing this post, a new group called the Ending Spending Fund filed with the FEC, saying it will take unlimited contributions. That’s 48 Super PACs, if you’re keeping score (we are).

Politiwidget of the day: Rep. Michael McMahon, D-N.Y., is the top recipient of Goldman Sachs contributions in 2010 so far:

Full post as published by Sunlight Foundation on October 07, 2010 (boomark / email).