The 2012 elections will be more expensive than originally thought, according to new Federal Election Commission Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub. Her estimate: $7 billion. That’s higher than the $6 billion estimate from the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group...
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Photograph by Piotr Powietrzynski/Getty Images
2012 Elections Cost Will Hit $7 Billion, FEC Chair Weintraub Says
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.
Inflation Plays in the Price of Politics
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...
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Photograph by Chris Keane/Bloomberg
Michelle Patry, left, and Bobbie Fallahee pose for photos in front former Alaska governor Sara Palin's bus during a signing for Palin's book "Going Rogue: An American Life," in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Sarah Palin: Looking Like $1.2 Million
Sarah Palin may be off Fox News, but she has a million bucks in the bank. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s political action committee finished 2012 with $1.2 million in the bank, newly released Federal Election Commission reports show. Palin’s...
Read more »Booker Books a 2014 Senate Race
Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey: Magnet for Wall Street money. Scooper-upper of imperiled neighbor in a burning apartment. Now, filer of Federal Election Commission Form 1, “Statement of Organization,” to run for U.S. Senate in 2014. Cory Booker, 44,...
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Photograph by Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., speaks at a rally for Elizabeth Warren (D), in Worcester, Mass. on Oct. 19, 2012.
Franken, Party Friends to Gain from Minnesota Democratic Super-PAC
A Democratic-aligned advocacy group in Minnesota is adding a super-political action committee to prepare for 2014 federal elections in the state. WIN Minnesota, a 501c4 nonprofit, is adding the super-PAC “to explore the option of doing work in federal races,”...
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Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Representatives from New York and New Jersey, including Peter King, right, speak to the media after a meeting regarding the Sandy aid bill with Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner on Jan. 2, 2013 on Capitol Hill.
New York Cash Key for Republicans
New York Rep. Peter King’s initial call for residents of his state to stop writing checks to the National Republican Congressional Committee because of Congress’s delay in Hurricane Sandy relief-funding would pinch in the pocketbook, according to Federal Election Commission...
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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...
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Photograph by Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg
Senator Tim Johnson, a Democrat from South Dakota and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, arrives to hear Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, deliver his semiannual monetary policy report to the Senate Banking Committee in Washington.
South Dakota’s Johnson: Super-PAC
A lobbyist and former aide to Sen. Tim Johnson, the South Dakota Democrat who leads the Banking Committee, has created a super-political action committee that could independently aid Johnson’s re-election campaign in 2014. Mike Chapman, co-founder and partner of D.C....
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Photograph by Paul Taggart/Bloomberg
A private jet in New York.
Have Super-PAC, Will Travel
There was that night at the Four Seasons in Seattle. And a couple of check-ins at the W Hotel in San Francisco. There were dozens of flights on United — even a chartered plane. Super-political action committees spent more than...
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Photograph by Will Kincaid/AP Photo
Democratic candidate for North Dakota's U.S. Senate seat, Heidi Heitkamp, holds up the Oct. 20, 2012, Fargo Forum, on Nov. 7, 2012, in Bismarck, N.D. The paper had Berg leading Heitkamp in the state by ten points.
Bank PAC Helps New Members of Congress Retire Campaign Debt
There wasn’t much of a post-election hiatus for the American Bankers Association. The Washington-based lobbying group sent $59,500 in campaign contributions to federal candidates between Nov. 7-19, most of it to help incoming members of Congress retire campaign debts they...
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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.
