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92 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 42]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Nov 29, 2011 How to Free Congress’s Mind (Op-Ed)

QUOTE: Institutional reforms themselves require a change in the mind-sets of our political leaders, and they will not happen without compromise. Either legislators adopt a compromising attitude, in which case the reforms are not essential, or they do not adopt it, in which case they will not be able to agree on the reforms. There is no deus ex machina that will save Congress from itself.

 New York Times
Oct 22, 2011 Financing Questions Shadow Tunisian Vote, First of Arab Spring

QUOTE: [Tunisian] Liberals, facing an expected defeat by the moderate Islamist party Ennahda, charge that it has leapt ahead with financial support from Persian Gulf allies. Some Islamists and residents of the impoverished interior, meanwhile, fault the liberals, saying they relied on money from the former dictator’s business elite. And all sides gawk at the singular spectacle of an expatriate businessman who made a fortune in Libyan oil and returned home after the revolution to spend much of it building a major political party.

 New York Times
Jun 27, 2011 Justices Strike Down Arizona Campaign Finance Law

QUOTE: the Supreme Court on Monday struck down an Arizona law that provided escalating matching funds to candidates who accept public financing...The majority said the law violated the First Amendment rights of candidates who raise private money.

 New York Times
May 12, 2011 I.R.S. Moves to Tax Gifts to Groups Active in Politics

QUOTE: Big donors like David H. Koch and George Soros could owe taxes on their millions of dollars in contributions to nonprofit advocacy groups that are playing an increasing role in American politics. Invoking a provision that had rarely, if ever, been enforced, the Internal Revenue Service said it had sent letters to five donors, who were not identified, informing them that their contributions may be subject to gift taxes depending on whether the donations exceeded limits under the tax laws.

 New York Times
Jun 24, 2010 House Approves Legislation That Mandates the Disclosure of Political Spending

QUOTE: The House on Thursday approved legislation to curtail the ability of corporations and other special interest groups to influence elections by requiring greater disclosure of their role in paying for campaign advertising. The bill is intended to counter a Supreme Court ruling in January that the federal government may not ban political spending by corporations and other advocacy groups, like labor unions.

 New York Times
Jun 09, 2010 Rise of the Richies

QUOTE: For career politicians, the worst nightmare would be a businessperson from the real world with a billion dollars and an open checkbook. Freddy Krueger is Michael Bloomberg.

 New York Times
Oct 23, 2008 Commentary: For women in public eye, looks matter

QUOTE: here is an incredible double-standard here....There has been plenty of talk and plenty written about Sarah Palin's jackets, her hair and her looks...Compare that with the attention given to Sen. Barack Obama's $1,500 suits or Sen. John McCain's $520 Ferragamo shoes.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Jul 22, 2008 Democrats Deny Inquiry Into Gregoire's Gambling Pacts: Republicans say tribal campaign contributions may be linked to deal

QUOTE: Democratic leaders in the [Washington State] House and Senate have rejected Republicans' request for an inquiry into the connection between political contributions and tribal gambling compacts negotiated by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Jun 19, 2008 McCain attacks Obama for opting out of public financing

QUOTE: Obama told supporters in an e-mail message Thursday that he would not accept about $85 million in public funds when he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee...McCain said that Obama's move to drop out of the system "should be disturbing to all Americans" and that he may decide to opt out, too.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Apr 21, 2008 Self-funded candidate rule brings campaign finance to court: A part of the McCain-Feingold reform law is being contested on behalf of wealthy candidates running for Congress.

QUOTE: The US Supreme Court is set to consider the constitutionality of a provision of the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law designed to "level the playing field" between candidates spending their own money to win political office and candidates relying primarily on contributions from others.

 Christian Science Monitor
Jan 29, 2008 Looking Anew at Campaign Cash and Elected Judges

QUOTE: Vernon Valentine Palmer, a law professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, could not understand how justices of the Louisiana Supreme Court could routinely hear cases involving people who had given them campaign contributions. It seemed to him a raw and simple conflict of interest.

 New York Times
Jan 09, 2008 Watchdog FEC sidelined as elections roll: The Federal Election Commission has vacancies in four of six seats and it hasn't acted on a new ethics law.

QUOTE: In an election where spending is already on track to exceed $5 billion, even small ambiguities in the law can shift vast sums of money...without FEC action, a new federal ethics law requiring the disclosure of so-called "bundled" contributions, may not take effect in time to influence the 2008 election cycle.

 Christian Science Monitor
Dec 20, 2007 In Charity and Politics, Clinton Donors Overlap

QUOTE: The New York Times has compiled the first comprehensive list of 97 donors who gave or pledged a total of $69 million for the Clinton presidential library in the final years of the Clinton administration. The examination found that while some $1 million contributors were longtime Clinton friends, others were seeking policy changes from the administration. Two pledged $1 million each while they or their companies were under investigation by the Justice Department.

 New York Times
Nov 05, 2007 Thompson Defends Fundraiser With Criminal Record: Candidate Says He Wishes Adviser Had Told Him of Old Arrests Earlier

QUOTE: Republican presidential candidate Fred D. Thompson said yesterday that he wishes one of his key fundraisers had told him earlier about past drug trafficking and bookmaking arrests because, even though they occurred more than two decades ago, "nothing is ever over and done with and forgotten about in this business."

 Washington Post
Oct 24, 2007 As Campaigns Chafe at Limits, Donors Might Be in Diapers

QUOTE: Congress tried to outlaw political contributions from those under age 18 as part of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002, but the Supreme Court struck down that provision as an infringement on the constitutional rights of minors. With that ruling in mind, the Federal Election Commission wrote new regulations two years ago that tried to balance what it considered a legitimate desire among some children to make political contributions against the possibility that parents would seek to pad their donations by funneling money through children.

 Washington Post
Sep 03, 2007 When Controversy Follows Cash: Some Fundraisers With Legal Issues Slip Through Campaigns' Vetting

QUOTE: Sant S. Chatwal, an Indian American businessman, has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaigns, even as he battled governments on two continents to escape bankruptcy and millions of dollars in tax liens.

 Washington Post
Aug 31, 2007 Democratic Donor Turns Himself In

QUOTE: Investigators believe that after Mr. Hsu skipped his court appearance in 1992, he went to his native Hong Kong and then continued working in the garment trade. At some point, Mr. Hsu, a naturalized American citizen, returned to New York and in 2003 made the first of what became hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to Democratic campaigns around the nation.

 New York Times
Jul 23, 2007 Loophole Lets Candidates Skirt Donation Limit

QUOTE: Jack Rosen has given Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton… nearly double the amount individuals can donate to any single presidential candidate this election. He is able to do so because of a loophole in political fundraising laws -- one that is allowing several presidential candidates to simultaneously collect donations for their presidential bid and other political entities connected to them.

 Washington Post
Jul 17, 2007 He backs Clinton; her backers help him: Ex-Iowa Gov. Vilsack endorses senator, then receives $87,000 from her supporters to help pay off his own presidential campaign debt.

QUOTE: Shortly after endorsing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack received nearly $90,000 in donations to his defunct presidential campaign from some of Clinton's major backers, campaign finance reports show.

 Los Angeles Times
Jul 16, 2007 Campaign Contributions Change Priorities, Not Beliefs

QUOTE: there are always going to be sleazy politicians who think of donations as bribes. But these are the exception, not the rule. By looking at the issue of money in politics in moralistic terms, [Richard] Hall says, both politicians and the public fail to recognize what is truly insidious about these donations.

 Washington Post
Jul 06, 2007 Unfree Speech: One of America's greatest achievements, the First Amendment, is being undermined by campaign-finance 'reform.'

QUOTE: The Fourth of July holiday makes this an apt week to reflect on one of the great underreported stories of our time: the rise of speech regulation…

 Newsweek
Jun 23, 2007 HuffPost Exclusive: More Lobbyists On McCain Staff Than Any Other 08 Candidate

QUOTE: John McCain, who made his name attacking special interests, has more lobbyists working on his staff or as advisers than any of his competitors, Republican or Democrat ... All the campaigns pale in comparison to McCain's, whose rhetoric stands in sharp contrast to his conduct.

 Huffington Post
Apr 26, 2007 Are political consultants getting rich off your money?: The 2008 presidential contenders have raised an unprecedented amount of campaign cash -- and strategists, pollsters and media consultants will r

QUOTE: political givers end up knowing far less about how wisely their money was spent than if they had donated the cash to a charity.

 Salon
Apr 25, 2007 US Supreme Court reviews limits on political ads: Campaign-finance and free-speech issues are involved, and the case could reveal dynamics at the high court.

QUOTE: At issue in the campaign-finance cases, set for oral argument on Wednesday, is whether the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002 violated the free-speech rights of a Wisconsin-based advocacy group. The group, Wisconsin Right to Life, was barred from running three broadcast advertisements critical of US Senate incumbent Russ Feingold (D) of Wisconsin in the days leading up to the 2004 election.

 Christian Science Monitor
Apr 01, 2007 Reform That Has Really Paid Off

QUOTE: Comments by presidential aspirants ... reflect a widespread view that BCRA [Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, also known as McCain-Feingold] did not work, that campaign reform has been a failure. But that's wrong. McCain-Feingold has worked -- even better and faster than its architects imagined.

 Washington Post
Jan 20, 2007 High Court To Revisit Campaign Finance Law: New Lineup on Bench Will Consider Ad Limits

QUOTE: The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to revisit the landmark 2002 legislation overhauling the nation's campaign finance laws, moving to settle the role of campaign spending by corporations, unions and special interest groups in time for the 2008 presidential primaries. It would be the first time the court has reviewed the McCain-Feingold law of 2002

 Washington Post
Jan 19, 2007 Identity of Edwards Home's Buyers Veiled: Assisted-Living Magnates in SEC Probe Paid Candidate $5.2 Million

QUOTE: ...John Edwards finally succeeded last month in selling his imposing Georgetown mansion for $5.2 million....the buyers were Paul and Terry Klaassen, according to several sources...The wealthy founders of the nation's largest assisted-living housing chain for seniors, the Klaassens are currently cooperating with a government inquiry in connection with accounting practices and stock options exercised by them and other company insiders. They are also the focus of legal complaints by some of the same labor unions whose support Edwards has been assiduously courting for his presidential bid.

 Washington Post
Jan 11, 2007 Justices Hear Case on Right of Unions to Use Nonmembers' Dues

QUOTE: The Washington Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, said its freedoms would be endangered by a state law that would increase restrictions on the union's ability to use workers' money for political causes. On the other side are workers who do not join the union but under state law must pay dues anyway. They say their money should not be used for the union's election causes without their explicit approval.

 Washington Post
Dec 14, 2006 FEC Fines 3 '527' Groups for Use of Large Donations in '04

QUOTE: The Federal Election Commission yesterday slapped heavy fines on three independent fundraising groups it said had illegally injected tens of millions of dollars into the 2004 presidential campaign, concluding unanimously that the funds were drawn from large donors and corporations in violation of election laws.

 Washington Post
Oct 01, 2006 Campaign Cash Mirrors a High Court’s Rulings

QUOTE: Thirty-nine states elect judges, and 30 states are holding elections for seats on their highest courts this year. Spending in these races is skyrocketing, with some judges raising $2 million or more for a single campaign. As the amounts rise, questions about whether money is polluting the independence of the judiciary are being fiercely debated across the nation. And nowhere is the battle for judicial seats more ferocious than in Ohio.

 New York Times
Sep 06, 2006 Entertainment Industry Donates to Allen's Bid

QUOTE: U.S. Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) is a leading recipient of entertainment-related campaign contributions to members of Congress, a nonpartisan analysis released yesterday shows, even as the senator has been criticizing his Democratic opponent's ties to Hollywood.

 Washington Post
Aug 26, 2006 Greening Up the Grass Roots

QUOTE: The Federal Election Commission, that great enabler of campaign loopholes, is now creating loopholes for itself...a proposal that would allow a flood of special-interest money into the fall campaign, in the guise of protecting “grass-roots” ads that are supposedly devoted to issues, not candidates.

 New York Times
Jul 28, 2006 Campaigns Slinging Oil Money Allegations: Role of Donations And Stocks Probed

QUOTE: After Exxon Mobil Corp. reported a record 36 percent increase in profits over this time last year, Webb called on Allen to return $800,000 in campaign contributions from oil and energy companies since 2000...Webb said Allen has accepted the money, including $15,000 from Exxon Mobil's political action committee, while voting to approve tax breaks for oil companies.

 Washington Post
May 12, 2006 'Nothing Happened,' Part II

QUOTE: Housing and Urban Development chief Alphonso Jackson now says he made up that elaborately detailed story he told a business group about how he denied a federal contract to a bidder because the man admitted he didn't like President Bush .

 Washington Post
Feb 02, 2006 A Tribal Loophole For Campaign Gifts: Limits on Other Groups Don't Apply

QUOTE: Thanks to a regulatory decision six years ago, tribes are allowed to donate much larger sums to lawmakers than almost any other type of organization. The basis for this treatment is that Indian tribes cast themselves as sovereign governments.

 Washington Post
Jan 26, 2006 For Would-Be Lobbying Reformers, Money Habit Is Hard to Kick

QUOTE: While most everybody agreed that Congress was being subverted by lawmakers' reliance on lobbyists for campaign cash, the proposals getting the most serious consideration yesterday were relatively minor: whether to ban lobbyist-paid lunches or a few million dollars' worth of privately funded congressional trips.

 Washington Post
Jan 24, 2006 Campaign Finance Law May Have A Loophole: Some Issue Ads Could Be Exempt, Justices Say

QUOTE: The Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion yesterday that suggests some political advertisers may eventually be entitled to an exemption from regulations imposed by the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.

 Washington Post
Jan 22, 2006 U.S. Funds Enter Fray In Palestinian Elections: Bush Administration Uses USAID as Invisible Conduit

QUOTE: The Bush administration is spending foreign aid money to increase the popularity of the Palestinian Authority on the eve of crucial elections in which the governing party faces a serious challenge from the radical Islamic group Hamas. The approximately $2 million program is being led by a division of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

 Washington Post
Jan 09, 2006 Change Is Coming: The Question Is Just How Much

QUOTE: Skeptics consider the American system of funding elections a form of legalized bribery. It's legal because the law allows donations up to certain limits. It's "bribery" because the money is given to elect people who will do or have done essentially what the giver wants...Lobbyists are worried that perfectly legal contributions will sometimes be construed as prosecutable bribes and that their time-honored and (to them) highly valuable role as fundraisers might soon be thrown into question.

 Washington Post
Jan 05, 2006 A Free-Speech Case Creates Unusual Allies

QUOTE: ...the support of liberal groups will show the Supreme Court that the case against the campaign finance law provision is not conservative or liberal, Republican or Democratic.

 Washington Post
Nov 29, 2005 A Growing Wariness About Money in Politics

QUOTE: After years in which big-dollar dealings have come to dominate the interaction between lobbyists and lawmakers, both sides are now facing what could be a wave of prosecutions in the courts and an uprising at the ballot box. Extreme examples of the new business-as-usual are no longer tolerated.

 Washington Post
Nov 18, 2005 Gramm Denies Paying for Support

QUOTE: Former senator Phil Gramm of Texas said Thursday that he never would have approved thousands of dollars in consulting fees to win an endorsement from fellow Republican George Ryan, a former Illinois governor charged with skimming money from state business.

 Washington Post
Nov 18, 2005 Texas Republicans Agree to Limit Use of Corporate Funds

QUOTE: The Republican Party of Texas agreed yesterday to stop using corporate donations for political purposes, settling a case involving the 2002 state elections that has parallels to a long-running investigation that led to the indictment of former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).

 Washington Post
Nov 18, 2005 Labor Web Site Keeps Tabs on Business: Workers Can Check Executive Salaries, Company Violations

QUOTE: An AFL-CIO affiliate yesterday launched an online database of more than 60,000 companies, listing information about their executive compensation, overseas job outsourcing, and violations of labor, safety and health standards. The Web site is operated by Working America...

 Washington Post
Oct 20, 2005 Proposal on Affordable Housing Under Fire

QUOTE: ... the bill's sponsors agreed to add a provision that would ban funds from going to groups that in the past year had engaged in voter-registration or get-out-the-vote efforts or that affiliated with groups that did.

 Washington Post
Oct 20, 2005 DeLay is Booked on Charges in Houston

QUOTE: ...DeLay's eventual trial on felony criminal charges of money-laundering and conspiracy related to the allegedly illegal use of corporate funds in the 2002 state election.

 Washington Post
Jun 05, 2005 Groups Weigh In on Web Politicking: FEC Urged to Exempt Most Activists From New Regulations

QUOTE: "A raft of lawmakers, campaign finance watchdog groups, election lawyers and bloggers urged the Federal Election Commission on Friday to exempt the vast majority of -- if not all -- individual political activists on the Internet from new regulations."

 Washington Post
May 12, 2005 Prosecutor Blames Fundraiser: Jury Told Cost of Clinton Event Spiraled Out of Control

QUOTE: David F. Rosen deliberately and illegally underreported the costs of a star-studded Hollywood fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign, federal prosecutors said...

 Washington Post
Feb 05, 2005 A Quiet Revolution In Business Lobbying: Chamber of Commerce Helps Bush Agenda

QUOTE: Corporate groups now raise big money to advance broad issues, largely to help the Republican president enact his fiscal agenda. That's a long step away from what trade associations traditionally did: concentrate on narrow concerns while shunning partisan spats.

 Washington Post
Feb 01, 2005 Balancing Nevada, National Interests: Reid Protects Gaming and Mining Industries While Advancing Democratic Agenda

QUOTE: Like former Democratic leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.), Reid at times has had to balance his party's national political agenda against his state's more parochial economic interests.

 Washington Post

92 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 42]