Photograph by Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images

Maryland politicians and community leaders held a rally in front of the Maryland State House to “fight secret spending in our democracy” by supporting the “DISCLOSE Act.” The act would increase disclosure and transparency of campaign donations.

Coming out of the most expensive campaign in history, more boom-town news:

Donors can now give more money to federal candidates and committees active in the 2014 elections.

Individuals may give $2,600 to a federal candidate for a primary election and another $2,600 for the general election, according to an updated chart from the Federal Election Commission. That’s up from $2,500 per election. The contribution limits are indexed for inflation at the beginning of odd-numbered years.

Individuals may now give $32,400 to a national party committee per calendar year, up from $30,800.

Individuals may give a total of $123,200 to federal candidates and federal political committees over the next two years. Of that total, $48,600 may go to candidates and $74,600 may go to political action committees and party committees. The previous biennial limit was $117,000.

There aren’t limits on donations to super-political action committees, which raise money for so-called independent expenditures that expressly advocate the election or defeat of candidates without coordinating operations with them.

Original post is Inflation Plays in the Price of Politics by Political Capital.

Photograph by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Former President Bill Clinton, left, chats with donors as he pays a visit to a fundraiser for state Democrats, while host Terry McAuliffe, right, strains to hear a request from another donor in McLean, Virginia.

The two major contenders for the Virginia governorship this November each raised more than $1 million in the second half of 2012,  their campaigns said in reports filed yesterday with state election officials.

Terry McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, took in $1.16 million during the six-month period, compared with $1.07 million for Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican state Attorney General.

McAuliffe’s donor list reflects his long career as a Democratic Party fundraiser and strategist with close ties to former President Bill Clinton. McAuliffe’s contributors included former Clinton White House aides Bruce Lindsey ($500) and Thomas “Mack” McLarty ($5,000), political strategist Paul Begala ($5,000) and former Reps. Tony Coelho of California ($500), Martin Frost of Texas ($100) and Dave McCurdy of Oklahoma ($250).

McAuliffe received $100,000 each from the International Association of Fire Fighters union and Sungate Real Estate. Ted Weschler, an investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway Inc., donated $25,000 to McAuliffe’s campaign. Boyd Tinsley, a member of the Dave Matthews Band, gave $10,000.

Cuccinelli’s donations included $165,000 from Liberty Now, a political committee he formed in 2010, and $50,000 each from Intrust Wealth Management of Wichita, Kansas, and Presidential Coalition LLC, an affiliate of the Washington-based advocacy group Citizens United.

Cuccinelli received $25,000 from a Virginia-based political committee of Verizon Communications Inc.

Cuccinelli began this year with $1.18 million in cash-on-hand, compared with $1.04 million for McAuliffe, the reports showed.

McAuliffe and Cuccinelli are vying to succeed Republican Hov. Bob McDonnell, who isn’t seeking re-election because of a Virginia law that bars governors from serving consecutive terms. The election is Nov. 5.

Original post is McAuliffe, Cuccinelli Top $1 Million in Late 2012 Donations for Va. Gov. by Political Capital.

Photograph by Danny Wilcox Frazier/Redux

An NRA supporter in Des Moines.

That’s the percentage of House members who received funding from the National Rifle Association’s political committee in their most recent race, according to the Sunlight Foundation.

The NRA, which has 4 million members, probably will oppose a package of proposals to curb gun violence that President Barack Obama is set to announce today.

One of the proposals is a ban on so-called assault weapons. While the proposal has public support — 58 percent back an assault weapons ban, according to a Washington Post-ABC poll conducted Jan. 10-13 — the Republican-controlled House is unlikely to approve it.

“Reinstating an expired 1994 assault-weapons ban, administration officials have indicated, will be among the most difficult to pass, given opposition from gun-rights groups and their allies on Capitol Hill,” Bloomberg’s Lisa Lerer and Heidi Przybyla wrote yesterday.

The NRA supports a plan to put armed guards in schools. About 55 percent of people back that proposal, according to the Washington Post-ABC poll.

The New York legislature this week advanced a bill that would “toughen gun controls and make it easier to keep firearms from the mentally ill,” Bloomberg’s Freeman Klopott and William Selway reported.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 47 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

The Morgan Stanley headquarters in New York.

With Republicans angry about the financial regulations pushed through by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, the securities and investment industry was the only major source of campaign contributions to switch sides in 2012 compared with 2008, giving a record amount of money to Republicans and allied outside groups, led by presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

“What they did was totally uncalled for and totally unbalanced,” said Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat.

In the final three weeks of the campaign, for example, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. employees were the top donors to Romney, a co-founder of the Boston-based private equity firm Bain Capital LLC. After giving Obama $16 million in 2008, Wall Street employees this time gave Romney more than $20 million.

They also backed Republican congressional candidates who challenged such crucial financial institutions as the Federal Reserve and International Monetary Fund, said Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat and former Financial Services Committee chairman.

“It’s really an example of Wall Street letting emotions get in the way of its judgment,” Frank said. “They put the narrowest definition of their own self-interest over things they knew were important.” The result? Reducing tax breaks cherished by the financial community such as capital gains and carried interest may become attractive to those looking to raise revenue from high-earners.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that carried interest is the low-hanging fruit,” said Daniel Crowley, a partner at K&L Gates LLP, which represents JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Wall Street is too important to the economy to be left on the sidelines, though.

“The White House is going to need some level of buy in from Wall Street and the business community to get legislation through Congress,” said Dan Bryant, chairman of the public policy group at Covington and Burling LLP.

For example, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief executive officer Lloyd Blankfein and president Gary D. Cohn joined other corporate leaders at the White House for meetings to discuss the combination of tax increases and spending cuts due to take effect beginning in January.

The invitations went out even as Goldman employees, Obama’s top industry source of campaign cash in 2008, became Romney’s biggest in 2012, giving more than $1 million.

Also working in Wall Street’s favor are “relationships that have been built up over a long period of time,” said Holly Fechner, a partner at Covington and Burling and a former Senate Democratic aide. “I do think a lot of those relationships are still intact.”

Lawmakers are differentiating between campaigning and governing. “If we stick to the issues, both sides will do well,” said Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who is chairman of the securities, insurance and investment subcommittee.

Former Rep. Ken Bentsen, a Texas Democrat who is now executive vice president of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, said he and his colleagues still visit the Capitol every week to meet with congressional staff members of both parties.

“You want to hear all sides of the argument,” Bentsen said. “That’s the view I’ve seen folks take before the election, and I assume they will take it after the election.”

Original post is Wall Street Hedged No Election Bets by Political Capital.

Photograph by Harry Hamburg/AP Photo

Sen.-elect Tim Kaine, center, arrives at a freshman Senators luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 13, 2012.

Senator-elect Tim Kaine  of Virginia is sponsoring a political action committee he’s calling ‘“Common Ground PAC.”

As in the common ground that the former Democratic governor said he would seek in a Congress divided over issues including the so-called fiscal cliff and reducing federal budget deficits.

It’s a phrase Kaine used during his winning campaign against Republican George Allen.

The Virginia Senate election “proved that Virginians are ready to keep moving forward with leaders commit to finding common ground to help strengthen the middle class and the entire nation,” Kaine said in his victory speech Nov. 6.

While Kaine has a partisan political background as President Barack Obama’s first chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he opposed the administration on a few issues and said he wants to work with Republicans in the Senate.

Kaine proposed during the campaign that the George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire for taxpayers with annual income exceeding $500,000, higher than the thresholds of $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for families that Obama is seeking. Republicans don’t want to increase tax rates on any taxpayers and are pushing Obama and Democrats to accept more cuts in spending.

Kaine’s Common Ground PAC is a so-called leadership PAC, which can raise campaign funds to donate to political candidates. Democratic senators and candidates running in 2014 probably will get money from the PAC.

Original post is Kaine Forms ‘Common Ground PAC’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Manny Crisostomo/Sacramento Bee/MCT via Getty Images

California state senator Gloria Negrete McLeod after a vote on pension reform at the State Capitol in Sacramento.

Written by Alison Fitzgerald

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg dished $2.7 million into a single California congressional race, buying television ads to help State Sen. Gloria Negrete McLeod unseat Democratic Congressman Joe Baca one week before the election.

The influx of cash swamps the amount of money either candidate has raised or spent so far in the race for the newly drawn San Bernardino-area district that has pit two Democrats against each other.

Baca, an eight-term incumbent, has raised $946,526 so far this year. McLeod has taken in only $298,802, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group that tracks money in politics.

“From her support of a bill requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to her strong pro-immigration, pro-environmental record, Rep. Negrete McLeod has shown herself to be a tireless advocate for common-sense reform,” said Stefan Friedman, a spokesman for Bloomberg’s super-PAC, Independence USA.

Bloomberg on Oct. 18 announced that he would spend as much as $15 million to help moderate candidates get elected to Congress and support state ballot measures to legalize same-sex marriage.

Bloomberg also spent $2 million in support of former Orlando, Florida, police chief Val Demings’ effort to unseat Republican Congressman Daniel Webster.

Webster responded on his Web site with a blog post that read, “NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to buy my seat in Congress.”

Bloomberg, majority owner of Bloomberg LP, parent company of Bloomberg News, also wrote an editorial endorsement of President Barack Obama’s re-election today.

Original post is Bloomberg Swamps Baca w/ $2.7 Mln — Already Flooded Florida’s Webster by Political Capital.

Photograph by Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images

Sen. Scott Brown speaks at a rally in Cumnock Hall at the University of Massachusetts Lowell campus.

The campaign arm of the Senate Republicans sent $2.4 million to the Massachusetts Republican Party to help Sen. Scott Brown fend off a serious from Democrat Elizabeth Warren on Nov. 6.

The transfer by the National Republican Senatorial Committee accounted for 60 percent of the $4.1 million it sent to state parties during that period, according to a Political Capital analysis of campaign finance documents on file with the Senate’s public records office.

The NRSC sent $370,000 to Montana, where Rep. Denny Rehberg is trying to unseat Sen. Jon Tester, and $360,000 to North Dakota to help Rep. Rick Berg in his race against Heidi Heitkamp, a former state attorney general.

The NRSC sent $325,000 to Wisconsin, $305,000 to Nevada, $180,680 to New Mexico and $102,500 to Indiana. Those four states also have Senate races.

Senate campaign committees and candidates file reports on paper because they’re exempt from the electronic filing requirements that have applied to other federal committees and candidates for more than a decade.

Following are some other noteworthy disclosures from Senate candidates in the past few days:

Montana, Wisconsin: Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chairman and chief executive officer of Blackstone Group LP, and his wife donated in the past week to Rehberg in Montana and to former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, who’s running against Representative Tammy Baldwin for an open Senate seat.

Nebraska: Chuck Hagel’s endorsement of Democrat Bob Kerrey today followed  a donation Oct. 30 to Kerrey’s campaign by Hagel’s wife Lilibet.

Actors Tom Hanks, his wife Rita Wilson and Annette Bening donated to Kerrey’s campaign on Oct. 29. Louis Freeh, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, gave $1,000 to Kerrey’s campaign on Oct. 25.

North Dakota: Like Kerrey, Heitkamp is getting from some Hollywood luminaries. Director Judd Apatow, actress Rita Wilson and Barry Meyer, Warner Bros. chairman and CEO, donated to her campaign in the past week.

Nevada: Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive officer of News Corp., donated $2,000 yesterday to the campaign of Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican running for a full term against Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley.

Original post is Senate Republicans Send $2.4 Million to Massachusetts in Aid of Brown by Political Capital.

Photograph by Danny Johnston/AP Photo

Republican Tom Cotton, left, participates in a debate at Arkansas Educational Television Network studios in Conway, Ark., on Oct. 25, 2012.

Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican lawyer strongly favored to win a House seat next week, is donating unneeded campaign funds to Republican candidates in tougher races.

Cotton has sent $137,000 in campaign funds to the National Republican Congressional Committee and 43 Republican candidates, according to a list his campaign provided to Political Capital.

Cotton said he wanted to “lead by example” and do his part to “help elect a conservative majority” on Nov. 6, when Republicans are favored to keep their House majority.

“I learned in the Army that you can’t accomplish any mission without being part of a team,” Cotton, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, said in a telephone interview.

Cotton said he learned about Republican candidates in competitive races after talking with National Republican Congressional Committee staff and House members including Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy of California. Cotton also said he’s been keeping track of the House elections and has an affinity for fellow military veterans seeking office, including Jonathan Paton, a former Arizona state senator in a close race.

Cotton had $399,000 left in his campaign account on Oct. 17, according to a Federal Election Commission report. He’s a shoo-in to win Arkansas’ 4^th District, which takes in most of southern and western Arkansas, including Pine Bluff and Hot Springs. Democratic Rep. Mike Ross isn’t seeking re-election.

Other Republicans likely to join Congress next January are sending campaign funds to candidates in need. They include Ann Wagner of Missouri, Matt Salmon of Arizona, Robert Pittenger and Richard Hudson of North Carolina, Luke Messer of Indiana, Doug LaMalfa of California and Tom Rice of South Carolina.

Original post is Likely Incoming Republican Freshmen Help Vulnerable Members by Political Capital.

Photograph by Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg

Semi-subermisible oil rigs and jackup shallow-water drilling units in the Gulf of Mexico.

Casino executive Sheldon Adelson, a $5 million contributor to Restore Our Future, the super-political action committee backing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and a $30,800 donor to the Republican National Committee, which also supports Romney, has found another table to place his bets.

Adelson contributed $798,385 for radio advertisements aired by the New American Energy Opportunity Foundation, a nonprofit group headed by oil and gas executives that has called for expanded oil drilling offshore and on federal lands, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska.

The group has criticized President Barack Obama’s energy policies, and claims the admnistration is blocking an increase in oil and gas production. The association’s chairman, Scott Noble, held a press conference last month with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to push for increased energy production.

“At the very moment when we have the potential to dramatically increase our oil and gas production, the federal government is throwing up more restrictions to development,” the group says on its Web site.

Actually, total oil production on federal lands and offshore has gone up 12 percent since Obama became president, overall oil production in the U.S. is at its highest level since December 1996, and the country met 83 percent of its energy needs during the first six months of the year, on track for the highest percentage since 1991.

Adelson is the 25th richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

He was 17th richest at the end of May, when Romney was paying a visit in Las Vegas to the casino magnate who had put $15 million into a super-PAC backing Romney-rival Gingrich’s campaign. Adelson also gave $7.5 million to the pro-Gingrich super-PAC Winning Our Future, as did his wife. Adelson and his wife combined have given $10 million to Restore Our Future.

Original post is Adelson Finds Another Avenue for Anti-Obama Campaign Spending by Political Capital.

Photograph by Kristoffer Tripplaar/Pool via Bloomberg

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, on Oct. 19, 2012.

Updated at 5 pm EDT

A super-political action committee backing President Barack Obama slightly outraised a super-PAC supporting Republican challenger Mitt Romney last month.

Priorities USA Action, run by former Obama aides, will report $15.2 million in September contributions when it files tomorrow with the U.S. Federal Election Commission, according to an aide with knowledge of the report. That would mark its best month yet.

Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney group, reported to the FEC today that it collected $14.8 million in September, making it the group’s second most lucrative month. Restore Our Future raised about $21 million in June.

Both super-PACs have been airing thousands of television advertisements in support of their preferred candidates. The presidential candidates and many of the major outside groups involved in the election are due to report their September campaign finance activity to the FEC tomorrow.

Familiar names appear in Restore Our Future’s September filing.

Houston home builder Bob Perry wrote a $2 million check, bringing his total investment in the group to $10 million since the beginning of 2011. Perry has given millions more to other Republican super-PACs.

Harold Simmons, chairman of Dallas-based Contran Corp.,  donated $500,000 for a total of $1.3 million so far. Simmons also has given $11 million since last year to American Crossroads, a Republican super-PAC linked to political strategist Karl Rove.

Oxbow Carbon LLC, a Florida-based energy company founded by billionaire William Koch, gave $1 million to match its 2011 contributions to the group.

Restore Our Future also got a $1 million boost from Robert McNair, the owner of the Houston Texans professional football team. Another $1 million came from Stanley Herzog, the chairman and chief executive officer of Herzog Contracting Corp. in St. Joseph, Missouri.

Restore has raised $111.5 million since the beginning of 2011, more than double the $50.9 million Priorities has collected.

Original post is Obama-Backing Super-PAC Outraises Romney-Backers with $15.2 Million by Political Capital.