The Sunlight Foundation provides a valuable overview of President Obama's draft executive order that would require federal contractors to disclose their direct and indirect political spending. Indirect means donations made to other groups (like 527 committees, trade groups or c-4 organizations) with “the intention or reasonable expectation” that the money would be used for independent [...]
The Center for Public Integrity has just released an in-depth investigative report on the sprawling, worldwide business operations of the Koch family, patrons of far-right groups descending from the John Birch Society. Ironically, brothers David and Charles Koch are happy to take government subsidies and spend millions to lobby for special tax breaks and protection [...]
A significant number of legislators in Raleigh seem determined to help big political donors gut regulations and overturn state laws that protect consumers, public health and the environment. The poor state of accessible campaign finance data makes it difficult to track the pay-to-play culture, but Democracy North Carolina has highlighted the undue influence in several [...]
Here’s a weekend adventure: Explore how the State of North Carolina spends your tax dollars, who gets the big contracts or grants for doing what, and what tax revenues are lost because of loopholes or special breaks (these are called “tax expenditures”). The NC Open Book website is rated among the best in the nation [...]
Robert Lee Caldwell of Morganton was indicted on Tuesday in connection with Bev Perdue’s 2008 gubernatorial campaign . The prosecutor, Colon Willoughby, said there’s no evidence suggesting that Perdue or her staff knew that Caldwell used an illegal contribution to pay for a campaign air flight. However, he also said, “I would not be surprised [...]
The final campaign disclosure reports for North Carolina’s 2010 election cycle are rolling into the State Board of Elections this week (postmark deadline: Jan. 11), so hopefully we’ll see some detailed analysis by the media and others of who raised how much, from what special interests, etc. The Charlotte Observer is first out of the [...]
The News & Observer ran a short piece today about the fundraising advantage of Congressional incumbents from the Triangle in the 2010 election. You can see more details about the fundraising of Congressional candidates around the nation by using a handy map prepared by the Center for Responsive Politics. Just put your cursor over the [...]
For better or worse, a gaggle of “firsts” this year will have a lasting impact on North Carolina politics. Here’s the Top 10 list from Democracy North Carolina. Happy New Year!!
This is a level of corruption that we don’t often see: The new government in Nigeria wants to charge Dick Cheney, the former vice president and chairman of Halliburton, in connection with $180 million in bribes paid to Nigerian lawmakers. The lawmakers awarded a $6 billion construction contract for a natural gas pipeline to Halliburton [...]
Fred Hobbs of Pinehurst, a former state senator and co-owner of a civil engineering firm that boasts of its connections to high-level state officials, today paid the largest civil fine ever levied by the State Board of Elections - $150,000. After being exposed, Hobbs readily admitted he used a money laundering scheme to funnel $148,000 [...]