With the expiration of Republican Caroline Hunter’s term today, every member of the Federal Election Commission is serving under an expired term. Rather than replace any of the commissioners, who have been deadlocked along party lines for years trying to enforce election...
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Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) arrives at a news conference at the Capitol March 21, 2012 in Washington, DC. A group of Democratic senators held a news conference to announce new legislation "to blunt the worst effects" of the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision.
Obama and the FEC: Six Vacancies, No Nominations
Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) hold a news conference to propose new campaign finance legislation at the Capitol on April 23, 2013.
Murkowski, Wyden Team Up: Bipartisan Disclosure Bill
For the first time since Sens. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, teamed up to push through a 2002 law that banned corporate, union and unlimited individual donations to the political parties, a new campaign finance bill has...
Read more »Campaign Finance Reformers Cheer Court for What It Doesn’t Do
Advocates of stronger campaign finance regulations haven’t had much to cheer about when it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Republican-appointed majority voted, 5-4, to overturn decades worth of legislation and precedents in its Citizens United decision in 2010, and then...
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Photograph by Carlos T. Miranda/The Pantagraph/AP Photo
David Gill answers a questions during a debate with Rodney Davis for the 13th Congressional District in Normal, Ill.
Unsuccessful Democratic Candidate Sues IRS Over Regulating Non-Profits
An unsuccessful Democratic congressional candidate and a watchdog group have sued the Internal Revenue Service for failing to regulate nonprofit groups that spend millions on campaign ads without disclosing their donors. The lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court by...
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Photograph by Mario Tama/Getty Images
Americans for Prosperity Group activists attend a rally in Manhattan on Sept. 20, 2012 in New York City.
Anti-Obama Nonprofit Calls Out Pro-Obama Nonprofit: ‘Hypocrisy’
President Barack Obama has made it clear that he despises the tax-exempt nonprofit groups that play in politics. Yet now his own campaign is becoming one of them. The nonprofit Americans for Prosperity — a frequent target of Obama’s criticism...
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Photograph by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images
Participants in the Occupy Wall Street protest, masked as President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney, take part in a rally to mark the one year anniversary of the movement in New York, Sept. 17, 2012.
Romney’s Wall Street Romp — Obama’s Courthouse Stomp
Wall Street outdid the legal profession in raising money for Republican Mitt Romney, making him the first major-party presidential nominee in at least two decades who didn’t rely on lawyers as his biggest source of funding. The BGOV Barometer shows...
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Photograph by Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly via Getty Images
The Federal Election Commission chairwoman, Democrat Ellen Weintraub (L), and the vice chairman, Republican Donald McGahn (R), shown here in 2008 in different roles.
FEC `On the Roof:’ Balking Blocs
The Federal Election Commission chairwoman for 2013 will be Democrat Ellen Weintraub, and the vice chairman will be Donald McGahn, a Republican. These are the two leaders of the two FEC blocs that have prevented the commission from taking any...
Read more »Lawmakers Against Campaign Finance Reform May Have New Foe
A new coalition, including former Federal Election Commission Chairman Trevor Potter, Republican lobbyist-turned-convicted felon Jack Abramoff, Theodore Roosevelt IV, and representatives of both Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party have launched a campaign to push Congress to overhaul campaign...
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Photograph by Steve Kuchera/Duluth News Tribune/AP Photo
Rep. Chip Cravaack, left, R-North Branch, listens as Democratic challenger Rick Nolan makes a point during a candidates’ debate in the Duluth Playhouse on Oct. 9, 2012, in Duluth, Minn.
Outside Groups Rival Parties in Spending in Closest House Races
Outside groups are spending as much as the national party committees in the closest U.S. House races, and together they’ve outspent the candidates in almost half of those contests, according to a report released today. Super-PACs and non-profit groups spent...
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Photograph by Frank Polich/Getty Images
President Barack Obama's re-election headquarters in Chicago.
Obama’s Chicago HQ in Danger of Default
There’s someone out there who probably wishes election season would last forever: the Obama campaign’s landlord. BentleyForbes Group LLC, which owns a pair of office towers on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, is in danger of defaulting on its loan, Bloomberg’s Brian...
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Contributors
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Al Hunt
is a columnist for Bloomberg View and host of the weekly show "Political Capital with Al Hunt" on Bloomberg TV. -
Mark Silva
is deputy managing editor for government news in Washington and editor of Political Capital. He has covered the White House and national politics. -
Emma Fidel
is political editor for Bloomberg.com in Washington. She previously covered financial regulation as a Bloomberg intern. -
Don Frederick
edits political and government coverage for Bloomberg News. He previously worked for more than a decade at the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau. -
Gregory Giroux
analyzes elections, financing of congressional and presidential elections, political advertising and demographics in Bloomberg's Washington Bureau. -
Julie Bykowicz
covers the influence of money and lobbying in Washington, and covered the state legislature and city crime for the Baltimore Sun for 10 years. -
Jonathan Salant
covers campaign finance and lobbying in Washington. He was president of the National Press Club and started in Washington in 1987. -
Richard Rubin
covers federal tax policy. He worked at Congressional Quarterly and The Charlotte Observer before joining Bloomberg News in 2010. -
Julie Hirschfeld Davis
is a senior political reporter for the Washington Bureau. She covered the 2012 campaign for Bloomberg News and previously covered the White House for the Baltimore Sun. -
Lisa Lerer
covers the White House and covered the 2012 campaign for Bloomberg News. She covered Congress, lobbying and the 2008 campaign for Politico. -
John McCormick
is a national political reporter looking forward to the 2016 presidential campaign, which will be the fifth he's covered. He's also reported for The Des Moines Register and Chicago Tribune. -
Julianna Goldman
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Television. -
Hans Nichols
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Television. -
Margaret Talev
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and covered the White House for McClatchy Newspapers. She has covered California and Florida politics. -
Cary O'Reilly
is Editor at Large at Bloomberg First Word and is Washington Daybook columnist for Bloomberg Government and Bloomberg News.
