March 9th, 2010
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The Shawmut Group, led by aides to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is helping GOP congressional candidate John Loughlin, whos campaigning to replace retiring Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I.
The handiwork of two Shawmut Group principals, Eric Fehrnstrom and Peter Flaherty, was evident in Loughlins campaign announcement speech, staged shortly after Browns win on Jan. 19. Loughlin, [...]
February 24th, 2010
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Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao, the unlikely congressman from New Orleans, is facing the perils of bipartisanship unlike any other lawmaker in Washington - trying to please a heavily Democratic constituency while relying on core conservatives for money to fuel his campaign.
Although Republican leaders have continued supporting Cao with money from their campaign committees despite his [...]
October 21st, 2009
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President Barack Obama pledged to close the jail by January, but logistical woes and Republican roadblocks on Capitol Hill have made fulfilling that promise less likely. Much of resistance has been whipped up by former Vice President Dick Cheney, who warns that closing the prison would endanger national security.
The campaign, Close Gitmo Now, includes a [...]
September 4th, 2009
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“This faux judicial restraint,” Scalia wrote in his opinion, “is judicial obfuscation.”
Two years later, Roberts and Alito may be preparing to heed that criticism and directly overturn precedents allowing restrictions on corporate political spending. The justices next week will hold an [...]
September 2nd, 2009
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Coakley, 56, a former prosecutor elected attorney general in 2006, didnt wait for Kennedy to decide. “Why should she?” said Alex Zaroulis, a Coakley spokeswoman.
“Shes not waiting for a signal,” said Jeffrey Berry, a political scientist at Tufts University in Medford, [...]
August 18th, 2009
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The agency that enforces the laws governing political money is gridlocked by ideological differences. Courts have eaten away parts of the law, ruling them at odds with constitutional guarantees of free speech. And President Barack Obama, who made campaign promises to step up the Federal Election Commissions enforcement, is in no position to deliver on [...]
July 16th, 2009
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Clintons campaign raised $541,276 in donations between April 1 and June 30, including $5,000 from the political action committee of New York-based New York Life Insurance Co., FEC records show. She had $2.5 million in the bank at the end of June, more than enough to pay off the remaining debt to Penns firm, Penn, [...]
June 29th, 2009
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The high court was expected to release a decision on the Citizens United movie as part of its end-of-the-term wrap up, but in an unusual move the justices said they will hear arguments in the case again in a special session Sept. 9.
In advance of the rare session, the court told the lawyers in the [...]
May 14th, 2009
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From staging fundraisers in Las Vegas to financing ski trips, current and former lawmakers have spent PAC money on a broad range of seemingly personal activities over the years, all the while maintaining they are doing so for strictly political purposes.
In the wake of the disclosure of Edwards affair with videographer Rielle Hunter, Edwards has [...]
April 17th, 2009
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Newer members, Republican and Democratic, are finding it is easier to take in campaign money from finance, real-estate and insurance political action committees now that they are incumbents. Those industries donated at least $483,203 to the 14 freshmen members of the House Financial Services Committee in the first quarter, according to reports filed this week. [...]