Business fuels death of cyber bill
Politico
Over the last three years savvy business interests managed to water down a bill to beef up America's cybersecurity – and then Thursday it drowned.
Key industries played one chamber against the other and one party against the other, knowing precisely where to toss their monkey wrenches.
What they did not do: race to self-regulate to appease Congress the way industries in the crosshairs usually do — a sign that they believed they'd win in the end. READ MORE
Mitt Romney's Lobbyist Donations Boom In First Half Of 2012
Huffington Post
Mitt Romney opened up numerous lines of attacks in July on President Barack Obama for playing the inside Washington game by cutting deals on health care reform, giving government funds to campaign donors and meeting with lobbyists on various policies. While Romney has not yet laid out how he would play inside the Beltway politics, or whether he would play at all, campaign contribution records show that he is already deeply connected to Washington's permanent class of lobbyists, donors and influence seekers.
Seven-hundred forty-eight Washington lobbyists and dozens of corporate and lobbying firm PACs have already given $1.87 million to benefit Romney through his campaign or through the victory committee sending funds to the Republican National Committee and a host of state parties, according to records filed with the Secretary of the Senate. The majority of that -- $1.32 million -- was raised in the past six months and disclosed in the last few days of July. These lobbyists have also been central to his campaign's finance operation, raising $5.25 million from their friends, family and clients. READ MORE
Bill Clinton to make ask with donors for pro-Obama super PAC in NYC
Politico
Former President Bill Clinton is slated to meet with donors at a private residence in Manhattan to urge them to open their wallets to the pro-President Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action, two sources told POLITICO.
The event is a briefing, as opposed to solely a fundraiser, and a presentation will be given by former Clinton aides Harold Ickes and Sean Sweeney, both of whom are advisers to the super PAC, the sources said. READ MORE
House Democrats seek to overturn Supreme Court super PAC rule
The Detroit News
A group of House Democrats led by Rep. John Dingell introduced legislation Thursday seeking to overturn a Supreme Court decision that allows corporations and wealthy individuals to make unlimited donations to political action committees.
Dingell and others — including Reps. John Conyers of Detroit, Carolyn Maloney of New York, Robert Andrews of New Jersey, Diana DeGette of Colorado, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Barney Frank of Massachusetts — proposed prohibiting corporations and unions from making independent expenditures and electioneering communications.
They seek to subject super political action committees to the same restrictions as regular PACs, such as a $5,000 contribution limit. READ MORE
Helping Themselves: 2012 Candidates Have Spent Over $130 Million Funding Their Own Campaigns
OpenSecrets Blog
A professional wrestling executive, a former coal miner and an energy investor might appear to have little in common other than the fact that all three are running for U.S. Senate seats this year.
But they have another bond: All are financing big chunks of their campaigns with their own money. They're among the dozens of candidates who collectively have more than $130 million invested in their campaigns ahead of the November elections, in races ranging from the recent Texas primary runoff to a Hail Mary Senate bid in Arizona. READ MORE
Do YOU Know Who's Paying For The 2012 US Election?
International Business Times
Americans are, for the most part, completely unaware of just who -- or what -- is funding the 2012 presidential campaign.
Just 25 percent of likely voters say they have heard "a lot" about outside spending this election cycle, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, while a huge majority said they have either heard little or "nothing at all" about outside expenditures by groups not associated with the candidates or campaigns. READ MORE
Americans For Prosperity, Koch-Founded Group, Plans $25 Million Ad Campaign
Huffington Post
An independent group supporting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says it's launching a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign in several general election battleground states.
People familiar with the plans say Americans for Prosperity plans to spend about $25 million on the ads beginning next week and running into early September. The ads will run in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. READ MORE
New Republican Super-PAC Aids Swing-State Political Organizing
Bloomberg
A new Republican super-PAC will pay to deploy party activists and volunteers from states that aren’t politically competitive in the Nov. 6 election to states that are.
Republican Union PAC, which filed organizing paperwork with the Federal Election Commission this week, will pay hotel and travel expenses to move people who want to contact voters in states with close presidential and congressional races, spokesman Bo Harmon said in an interview. READ MORE
Editorial: Sinking - Judicial super PACs take court races to a new low
Fay Observer
If you like what "super PAC" spending is doing to the presidential and congressional contests, you're going to love what's about to happen to the race for seats on this state's highest court.
A super PAC is a political action committee that can lawfully raise as much money as it wants and spend it, independently of a candidate's personal campaign, to promote that candidate or damn his opponent, or both. Experience to date indicates a strong preference for both. READ MORE