Stan Greenberg, the veteran strategist for Democratic candidates, has an important op-ed in the New York Times that says people are disgusted with government because it “operates by the wrong values and rules, for the wrong people and purposes. . . . Wall Street lobbyists govern, not Main Street voters.” This is the prevailing view [...]
For the first half of 2011, the single largest political donor to the presidential campaigns of Barak Obama and Mitt Romney is the same: the executives of Goldman Sachs! While the two campaigns split $360,000 given by the execs, Goldman Sachs was investing seven time that much, $2.4 million, to lobby Congress for its agenda: [...]
This week has definitely been one for the books!!!! We’ve been tabling, phone banking, writing letters to the editor, researching, base building, and even some picketing. Our week began on Saturday. We tabled at an event in Ayden, North Carolina to try to get residents up-to-date with the Voter Photo ID bill and also to [...]
While the NC General Assembly is on a 24-day recess, House Republicans are taking quick advantage of a loophole in state law to sponsor a major fundraising event this Wednesday and solicit contributions of up to $5,000 from PACs that are barred from giving while the General Assembly is in session. The event looks like [...]
Pay-to-play politics can be petty – or deadly serious. The Wilmington Star-News reports that state Sen. Thom Goolsby received a $4,000 donation from the head of the city’s home builders association and shortly thereafter introduced a bill in the General Assembly that the association’s lobbyist had prepared. The bill overrides a city policy about how [...]
A hodgepodge of anti-voter bills resurfaced this afternoon in the House Committee on Elections as a single 44-page proposal, without warning or even a summary of its complex contents for committee members. Republican chair David Lewis wanted the bill voted on that afternoon. Rep. Deborah Ross (D-Wake County) called the process “legislative malfeasance,” and others [...]
Big Tobacco has dropped from its ranking at the top of big contributors to federal candidates, but the industry is still spending millions to advance its political agenda in less visible ways. A new report from the Center for Responsive Politics tracks millions going into 527 committees and leadership PACs and notes that the Citizens [...]
Another report, this one by Citizens for Tax Justice, spotlights mega-corporations that rake in massive profits and pay nothing in federal income taxes – in fact, they get a credit, which means money from you. This is what happens when corporations rig the tax code to their advantage, a product of their investment in bad [...]
Consumers will likely see the cost of small loans go up in North Carolina, thanks to a bill in the NC General Assembly that will hike interest rates and add new fees. According to a detailed report by Democracy North Carolina, the bill is the reward for finance company owners suddenly shifting allegiance and pumping [...]